WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

It just makes ya wonder why? The companies that buy forums..

RiverDave

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So I get hit up about 3-4 times a year to purchase RDP from these big conglomerates. The offers aren't horrible, but they don't make financial sense to me.. By the time you get the money / pay the taxes / etc.. It isn't enough to retire on, and I'm not entirely sure what I'd do next anyways. RDP has been good to myself and my family since we moved to Havasu and the needle is consistently going "up" so I don't see any reason to sell it..

I also get e-mails from what used to be competing sites... I look at these e-mails and I can't help but think.. What in the actual fuck? You guys purchased a bad ass boating forum, that at the time was one of the best ones going, and you turned it into this shit? (Literally shit).. Who makes these decisions?

What was the point of buying the website just to run it into the ground and do things like this?

Screen Shot 2020-08-11 at 3.27.01 PM.png
 

LargeOrangeFont

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So I get hit up about 3-4 times a year to purchase RDP from these big conglomerates. The offers aren't horrible, but they don't make financial sense to me.. By the time you get the money / pay the taxes / etc.. It isn't enough to retire on, and I'm not entirely sure what I'd do next anyways. RDP has been good to myself and my family since we moved to Havasu and the needle is consistently going "up" so I don't see any reason to sell it..

I also get e-mails from what used to be competing sites... I look at these e-mails and I can't help but think.. What in the actual fuck? You guys purchased a bad ass boating forum, that at the time was one of the best ones going, and you turned it into this shit? (Literally shit).. Who makes these decisions?

What was the point of buying the website just to run it into the ground and do things like this?

View attachment 909744

The forum has little value aside from the mailing list. That is why they are bought.
 

DarkHorseRacing

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God no. Any forum that gets sold goes down the tubes. I used to be a moderator for a computer forum that was massive in its heyday and that is now a ghost town after some company bought it, everyone fled to the new one the magazine setup and ran.

Its never the same after the owner sells. Even websites/blogs, etc started by diehard owners. Great up until they leave, then the leftover staff lose the focus of the intent of the forum and the drive to keep it going and start making changes, pay less attention to the content, etc.
 

mbrown2

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RD...I was just thinking the same thing the other day... WTF are they thinking over there. I go there barely now and just see classifieds. It is a joke.

I think you have done well to keep the small community feel even though it is a massive community. I loved the small forums but when its too small content suffers.
 

RiverDave

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what the number they throw around for you to sale? asking for a friend...

Last offer I had was 400k.

the amount of money it would take for me to sell rdp would be so large I don’t think anybody would pay it... unless it was some sort of conglomerate with a real estate interest in so cal and AZ.. lol.

weirdly while all the other forums have tanked rdp keepa growing in traffic and members every month. If you look at the advertising packet it lists 106k unique ip’s per month. Thst was created last season.. we are over 156k, this year.. growing our audience by half again.

The current number it would take for me to sell is 3.5 million in case you are wondering. I would also have to stay on board for a year to oversee content / manage forum and insure a smooth transition.

I don’t think these guys will pay that kinda dough
 

Riverryder

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400k would be the toon you want with the 500s?! You can do like I saw someone posted Lake Dave’s place...
 

boatdoc55

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Last offer I had was 400k.

the amount of money it would take for me to sell rdp would be so large I don’t think anybody would pay it... unless it was some sort of conglomerate with a real estate interest in so cal and AZ.. lol.

weirdly while all the other forums have tanked rdp keepa growing in traffic and members every month. If you look at the advertising packet it lists 106k unique ip’s per month. Thst was created last season.. we are over 156k, this year.. growing our audience by half again.

The current number it would take for me to sell is 3.5 million in case you are wondering. I would also have to stay on board for a year to oversee content / manage forum and insure a smooth transition.

I don’t think these guys will pay that kinda dough
Will you take a personal check???? :D
 

Sleek-Jet

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I thought that guy from Australia was going to buy this place and put a stop the hate speech?
 
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brgrcru

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Last offer I had was 400k.

the amount of money it would take for me to sell rdp would be so large I don’t think anybody would pay it... unless it was some sort of conglomerate with a real estate interest in so cal and AZ.. lol.

weirdly while all the other forums have tanked rdp keepa growing in traffic and members every month. If you look at the advertising packet it lists 106k unique ip’s per month. Thst was created last season.. we are over 156k, this year.. growing our audience by half again.

The current number it would take for me to sell is 3.5 million in case you are wondering. I would also have to stay on board for a year to oversee content / manage forum and insure a smooth transition.

I don’t think these guys will pay that kinda dough

Any intetest in a trade for a bowling alley in califorina . Lol
 

RiverDave

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I thought that guy from Australia was going to buy this place and put a stop the hate speech?

lol. He was supposedly gonna sue me for it.. I was quite looking forward to buryinghim in legal fees and taking whatever possessions he owns.. or rather his parents possessions because he probably lives in his parents basement.
 

Sherpa

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Vertical Scope bought Performanceboats.com.
And fucked that one up pretty good.

around the same timeframe they bought Pirate4x4.com... and it’s been sorta left alone for quite awhile. Until about 2-3 months ago and the
Genius’s wanted to “upgrade” everything..

So they’ve pretty much fucked up that one now too...

for hardcore 4x4 stuff another dude started
“Irate4x4.com”...

I’d say if you enjoy your creation, keep it.
Because the next corporate fubar idiots don’t give
A ratsass to what happens to it once it’s theirs.

-Sherpa
 

bowtiejunkie

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I think Vertical Scope bought nearly every enthusiast forum. The spirit of the forum is lost when the original owner(s) is no longer involved. Then, it becomes hammered in advertising, which kills the overall viewing pleasure. Didn’t help that FB came to popularity as a forum replacement right at the time of Vertical Scope’s buying spree 10 plus years ago. Mass exodus from forums to FB. I don’t blame the forum owners for selling. What sucks is there is seemingly zero effort put into the forums they’ve purchased. A ton of purchased forum are void of any real activity.

I agree with post #18. Has to be an excellent write-off. Maybe the ad serving is worth a fortune. Something must be working business-wise for Vertical Scope with all these now largely junk forums on the books.
 

farmo83

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I flew out to Desert Storm last year basically on a whim. RD was very welcoming, let me ride around on the house boat and actually see the lake with booze, food, etc, and I met some awesome fellow inmates. You don't get that with a big conglomerate forum and that's why RDP keeps on trucking(at least IMO).
 

redone76

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that psycho still calls and texts every now and again..
Man...I still wish you'd tell us how that unfolded. With the whole buildup of his threads the ending was such a cliffhanger!
 

angiebaby

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The friends of mine who owned Pirate4x4 did very well with their sale. They both essentially retired. One sails around the world, the other got into real estate, chases his kids around the country doing BMX in a giant motorhome, and was paid 6 figures to continue to run the site for several years. I don't know if he's still doing it or not, we haven't discussed it in years. Just saw him when we were in Ketchum last month. They were on a mountain biking road trip vacation through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Pirate was a huge site, though. Over 250K members when they sold it.
 

coolchange

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Explain gd.com.
Started by a high school teacher or principal or something like that.
 

TexasJet

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If you did sell it I'm sure there would be a non compete clause for a time.
 

Mandelon

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I wondered why Pirate had become so lame. Now I understand.
 

Tank

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Last offer I had was 400k.

the amount of money it would take for me to sell rdp would be so large I don’t think anybody would pay it... unless it was some sort of conglomerate with a real estate interest in so cal and AZ.. lol.

weirdly while all the other forums have tanked rdp keepa growing in traffic and members every month. If you look at the advertising packet it lists 106k unique ip’s per month. Thst was created last season.. we are over 156k, this year.. growing our audience by half again.

The current number it would take for me to sell is 3.5 million in case you are wondering. I would also have to stay on board for a year to oversee content / manage forum and insure a smooth transition.

I don’t think these guys will pay that kinda dough

400k for this site is nearly an insult frankly.

Offshoreonly was an innovator in the forum field and was created by Cheng at the right moment in history (late 90s). I don't even think Hotboat and S&F even had forums at that time. But hen Steve Schuble bought OSO (for a few hundred grand as I recall), it grew exponentially and Steve continued to grow the brand traveling to poker runs across the country with the OSO Top Gun and OSO Gladiator. He threw parties and really grew the brand to next level status of a nationwide and even world-wide brand name. Then, the economy started to turn around 2007 and Facefuck came online and started to catch on as the new thing. Perfect storm for Steve to get out. Shrewd move. I do believe Steve sold for 2 mil. Maybe it was 1 mil. Can't remember the exact number now. But Internet Brands, the company that purchased it, ran it directly into the ground! That and a douchebag called Chris Sunkin conned half the members to strike a revolt and join his new website serious offshore basically destroyed OSO. When Sunkin was found to be a fraud, 99% of the members there bailed as well. OSO was once a mecca for everyday boaters to BS and talk direct with offshore racers, industry leaders, and general people that just loved the lifestyle is now a ghost town. It would be no big deal to see names like fred Kiekhaefer (Mercury Racing), Scotty Begovich / Marc Granet (Miss Geico Racing), Phil Lipshutz (Lipship Performance), Craig Barrie (previous owner of Cigarette), Mike Fiorra (Outerlimits), editors from all major boating magazines, nearly any and all dealers across the nation, boaters in Europe, etc. It's a shame what big companies do to the forums. IB is notorious for doing this and if / when you sell Dave, it'll happen here too. Unless you sold it to an individual with as much drive and passion as you. But large company bye outs are death.
 

havasuhusker

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I hope you don't sell it. I would understand if you got what you are looking for though. I do like the "small town" feeling of this board. I have yet to meet any of you, but am hoping to next boating season.
 

eand28

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Vertical Scope bought Performanceboats.com.
And fucked that one up pretty good.

around the same timeframe they bought Pirate4x4.com... and it’s been sorta left alone for quite awhile. Until about 2-3 months ago and the
Genius’s wanted to “upgrade” everything..

So they’ve pretty much fucked up that one now too...

for hardcore 4x4 stuff another dude started
“Irate4x4.com”...

I’d say if you enjoy your creation, keep it.
Because the next corporate fubar idiots don’t give
A ratsass to what happens to it once it’s theirs.

-Sherpa

Gmfullsize was sold a little while ago and then the new owners updated the forum software and now traffic is like 1/4 it was 3 years ago and it was pretty dead then
 

LargeOrangeFont

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Last offer I had was 400k.

the amount of money it would take for me to sell rdp would be so large I don’t think anybody would pay it... unless it was some sort of conglomerate with a real estate interest in so cal and AZ.. lol.

weirdly while all the other forums have tanked rdp keepa growing in traffic and members every month. If you look at the advertising packet it lists 106k unique ip’s per month. Thst was created last season.. we are over 156k, this year.. growing our audience by half again.

The current number it would take for me to sell is 3.5 million in case you are wondering. I would also have to stay on board for a year to oversee content / manage forum and insure a smooth transition.

I don’t think these guys will pay that kinda dough

I don't know that anyone will pay that much for it. That is not to say it is not worth it to you, but like you said, this is tied to your livelyhood and as such you would need a "golden parachute" to give it up.
 

LargeOrangeFont

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400k for this site is nearly an insult frankly.

Offshoreonly was an innovator in the forum field and was created by Cheng at the right moment in history (late 90s). I don't even think Hotboat and S&F even had forums at that time. But hen Steve Schuble bought OSO (for a few hundred grand as I recall), it grew exponentially and Steve continued to grow the brand traveling to poker runs across the country with the OSO Top Gun and OSO Gladiator. He threw parties and really grew the brand to next level status of a nationwide and even world-wide brand name. Then, the economy started to turn around 2007 and Facefuck came online and started to catch on as the new thing. Perfect storm for Steve to get out. Shrewd move. I do believe Steve sold for 2 mil. Maybe it was 1 mil. Can't remember the exact number now. But Internet Brands, the company that purchased it, ran it directly into the ground! That and a douchebag called Chris Sunkin conned half the members to strike a revolt and join his new website serious offshore basically destroyed OSO. When Sunkin was found to be a fraud, 99% of the members there bailed as well. OSO was once a mecca for everyday boaters to BS and talk direct with offshore racers, industry leaders, and general people that just loved the lifestyle is now a ghost town. It would be no big deal to see names like fred Kiekhaefer (Mercury Racing), Scotty Begovich / Marc Granet (Miss Geico Racing), Phil Lipshutz (Lipship Performance), Craig Barrie (previous owner of Cigarette), Mike Fiorra (Outerlimits), editors from all major boating magazines, nearly any and all dealers across the nation, boaters in Europe, etc. It's a shame what big companies do to the forums. IB is notorious for doing this and if / when you sell Dave, it'll happen here too. Unless you sold it to an individual with as much drive and passion as you. But large company bye outs are death.

This pretty much has happened to every for profit forum on the internet 10-15 years ago. It is all the same story, just change the subject and the names involved.

The bummer with forums going away is that the knowledge goes away with it. It is really hard to search for answers to questions on a Facebook feed.
 

RiverDave

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I don't know that anyone will pay that much for it. That is not to say it is not worth it to you, but like you said, this is tied to your livelyhood and as such you would need a "golden parachute" to give it up.

Well rdp is my livelihood.. When we moved to Havasu 10 years ago it’s basically all I had and we turned it into a biz.

There are still pros and cons of that to this day. It’s an interesting conversation that wildly affects the popularity of the website ca the income potential.. but rdp does quite well for itself. The overhead is variable depending upon how many subs we use etc.. but overall fixed expenses are extremely low

No they would just sue RD out of existence for half the cost.

Actually this conversation comes up about three times a month.. Forum owners are pretty insulated from lawsuits because of a couple high court rulings.

Casale (v drives) threatened a couple times to sue me two weeks ago). It would take more than half too widdle me out of the equation... that’s pre looking to the network for help if needed. The behind the scenes network of this place is a lot more than ya could ever imagine.. He’ll I’ve run the place since 07 and it still surprises me quite often.
 

RiverDave

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I hope you don't sell it. I would understand if you got what you are looking for though. I do like the "small town" feeling of this board. I have yet to meet any of you, but am hoping to next boating season.

Oh I’m not selling it.. I just started the thread because I received that email and I was a huge fan of OSO back in the day.. it’s just shocking to me that they have turned it into that.
 

Tank

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This pretty much has happened to every for profit forum on the internet 10-15 years ago. It is all the same story, just change the subject and the names involved.

The bummer with forums going away is that the knowledge goes away with it. It is really hard to search for answers to questions on a Facebook feed.

That's the common complaint I hear when the topic inevitably comes up over there every year or so about "things just aren't the same since it sold" thread gets started. People will complain Facebook doesn't have the depth and knowledge base and is horrible to research answers where on OSO you can go back 20 years plus. Pro facebookers argue that the info and feeds and pics, etc are instant and that can't be beat. I don't use facebook or twitter or any of the others. I prefer the forum style, it's a bit more personable I think. I've met many people over the years from all over the planet that have become great friends after BS'n on boating forums. Just got an email from a buddy in Italy yesterday that I met on OSO 15 years ago. He and his wife and kids have come out to stay with us and my daughter and her fiance have gone out there over the years. Mutual love for powerboats is all it takes lol. I don't think you get that kind of connection on social media (I know these types of forums are considered technically social media but I really don't think it's the same thing).
 

RiverDave

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400k for this site is nearly an insult frankly.

Offshoreonly was an innovator in the forum field and was created by Cheng at the right moment in history (late 90s). I don't even think Hotboat and S&F even had forums at that time. But hen Steve Schuble bought OSO (for a few hundred grand as I recall), it grew exponentially and Steve continued to grow the brand traveling to poker runs across the country with the OSO Top Gun and OSO Gladiator. He threw parties and really grew the brand to next level status of a nationwide and even world-wide brand name. Then, the economy started to turn around 2007 and Facefuck came online and started to catch on as the new thing. Perfect storm for Steve to get out. Shrewd move. I do believe Steve sold for 2 mil. Maybe it was 1 mil. Can't remember the exact number now. But Internet Brands, the company that purchased it, ran it directly into the ground! That and a douchebag called Chris Sunkin conned half the members to strike a revolt and join his new website serious offshore basically destroyed OSO. When Sunkin was found to be a fraud, 99% of the members there bailed as well. OSO was once a mecca for everyday boaters to BS and talk direct with offshore racers, industry leaders, and general people that just loved the lifestyle is now a ghost town. It would be no big deal to see names like fred Kiekhaefer (Mercury Racing), Scotty Begovich / Marc Granet (Miss Geico Racing), Phil Lipshutz (Lipship Performance), Craig Barrie (previous owner of Cigarette), Mike Fiorra (Outerlimits), editors from all major boating magazines, nearly any and all dealers across the nation, boaters in Europe, etc. It's a shame what big companies do to the forums. IB is notorious for doing this and if / when you sell Dave, it'll happen here too. Unless you sold it to an individual with as much drive and passion as you. But large company bye outs are death.

Chris started serious offshore andhe took members for a ton of $$$.. One of the members was talking to me one day and introducing me to another and the guy proudly exclaimed he had given Chris 40/50k for software etc and others had done the same..

I told them I didn’t understand why he would need that kinda money for what basically amounts to a couple hundred bucks for stock software and a license that is a hundred bucks a year.. lol
between that conversation and someone marking a 100.00 bill at a charity event and watching him spend it at a bar was his undoing.. and of course discovering the Apache BS..

Blows me away though that people are so quick to give guys like him and OCM Tim huge dollars without so much as even looking into what they are giving it for..

I have pumped about 15k into software upgrades and custom softwares (most of which that have not been realized yet). That classifieds system we have now was all custom written for rdponly and I’m still working on it.
 

boatnam2

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I know zero about what a forum or Fb page is worth, how would the 2 compare in what they are worth like say a RW'S Fb page versus and RDP forum?
 

RiverDave

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The bummer with forums going away is that the knowledge goes away with it. It is really hard to search for answers to questions on a Facebook feed.

I still can’t figure out why most forums went away? RDP has grown exponentially since social media came on the scene. We have our social media pages as well but they don’t have the vibe rdp has.. and I don’t put the effort into them that I do here because frankly other than branding I can’t see the value of them.
 

LargeOrangeFont

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Well rdp is my livelihood.. When we moved to Havasu 10 years ago it’s basically all I had and we turned it into a biz.

There are still pros and cons of that to this day. It’s an interesting conversation that wildly affects the popularity of the website ca the income potential.. but rdp does quite well for itself. The overhead is variable depending upon how many subs we use etc.. but overall fixed expenses are extremely low



Actually this conversation comes up about three times a month.. Forum owners are pretty insulated from lawsuits because of a couple high court rulings.

Casale (v drives) threatened a couple times to sue me two weeks ago). It would take more than half too widdle me out of the equation... that’s pre looking to the network for help if needed. The behind the scenes network of this place is a lot more than ya could ever imagine.. He’ll I’ve run the place since 07 and it still surprises me quite often.

The suing you out of existence was related to Soros, or a corporation with unlimited money. Who the fuck cares about Casale. :)
 

RiverDave

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I know zero about what a forum or Fb page is worth, how would the 2 compare in what they are worth like say a RW'S Fb page versus and RDP forum?

You would think a place that has user names will be a lot more volatile than a place where people use their real names and you can click on profile and see everything about them. Strangely it’s backwards Facebook and the like are generally filled with assholes
 

RiverDave

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The suing you out of existence was related to Soros, or a corporation with unlimited money. Who the fuck cares about Casale. :)

That was just the latest example I get threatened to get sued probably three times a month. That’s sad because of all the big court rulings that usually doesn’t go anywhere. However we are prepared for it if it happens
 
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