Introduction of a new Moderator/Administrator

Status
Not open for further replies.
MisterB

MisterB

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 30, 2022
Messages
66
Hi all,

Firstly, I have some sad news to bring to you in case you don't already know. Colin, (dvds2000 ) your host and site owner/webmaster of Talkinghorses.co.uk passed away suddenly in March. It was a shock to us - especially to his family. His funeral was last month.

I have volunteered to get this site up and running to its full potential. Some of you might know me - Bryan Bailey from Casinomeister.com - I have been running that site since 1998. ColinSunderland (dvds2000) was one of our esteemed members there. He contributed a hell of a lot to our forum, and was a very active member with our community.

For those who don't know me, I have run the Casinomeister forum for about 24 years - since its inception (1998), I am well versed with this forum's software (vBulletin) as well as the software we are using at CM (Xenforo). The only changes you will be seeing here in the near future is the forum layout and design. I will be ridding the site of the generic default design, and give it some pizazz. I will be bringing in some volunteers to assist as well, and I hope in the next month or so we will be seeing the forum become a lot more active (SEO, getting ranked better in the SERPs, etc.).

I don't know much about horse racing - so I might be recruiting volunteers to assist with content :)

The bottom line is that I am doing this for Colin's family. I intend to get the advertising going on this site as well so that they can still have a supplemental income.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what's up.

Thanks!
 
Welcome Bryan, and the best of luck in your new role.

This is, and has been, a Forum that is a significant part of many of the contributors' lives over the years and has been superbly run by Colin. We all will continue to miss him and and his light touch but really helpful approach. A hard act to follow!

It strikes me that now might be the time to consult members as to how the Forum might be improved, updated expanded, or indeed continue as is. This can be either on an individual basis or elected Consultative Committee. I doubt that many will seek to change what works but we should be open to ideas.
 
Tout Seul said:
Welcome Bryan, and the best of luck in your new role.

This is, and has been, a Forum that is a significant part of many of the contributors' lives over the years and has been superbly run by Colin. We all will continue to miss him and and his light touch but really helpful approach. A hard act to follow!

It strikes me that now might be the time to consult members as to how the Forum might be improved, updated expanded, or indeed continue as is. This can be either on an individual basis or elected Consultative Committee. I doubt that many will seek to change what works but we should be open to ideas.
Click to expand...

Hiya Tout Seul,

You are spot on. I will definitely confer with the membership here. I consider this your forum - your community. I am here to ensure all is functioning properly and to improve the user experience to include SEO generating viral traffic. :)

Cheers!

Bryan
 
Welcome Bryan -here's a question for you -I'd never heard of your website until now -would you say there is soft money to be made from opening casino accounts taking advantage of special offers and leaving before you get addicted.Just asking for a friend.
 
LUKE said:
Welcome Bryan -here's a question for you -I'd never heard of your website until now -would you say there is soft money to be made from opening casino accounts taking advantage of special offers and leaving before you get addicted.Just asking for a friend.
Click to expand...

I'll attempt to answer for Bryan, I hope he won't mind. Then Bryan can correct anything I got wrong or did not explain well enough......

The answer is no (specifically regarding 'is there soft money?', and assuming you're talking about welcome bonuses as the 'offers'.

Why?

Casinos are money making machines. Hugely profitable businesses (unless very poorly run). They know exactly what they are doing.

So, there are requirements in place around bonuses often referred to as wagering requirements or rollovers - specifically designed to prevent withdrawals till you've played through the value of the bonus a specified number of times (this varies in different online casinos). It's essentially the same as you see in (most) free bets offers (or bonus offers) from bookies/sportsbooks.

But could you still win?

Yes. and theoretically (and no doubt in practice in a few cases) you could win enough to carry on playing through the requirements and leave with a profit.

But...casino games are designed to 'work' in favour of the house. Excepting via large jackpot-type wins where the player has enough self-control to withdraw (if able to), the vast majority of players will lose (whether they're playing with an accompanying 'offer/incentive' or not).

In theory, you could reduce the odds of losing by playing games where a correct strategic approach can increase your winning chances. But the overall edge is still in the casino's favour. And (I'm fairly sure, but maybe there are some casinos where this is not true) these types of games don't normally contribute to any rollover/wagering requirement that's in place. So...you could have a lucky run (and it would still be overriding luck that determines the outcome, even though you have some influence) ...but still, ultimately, you'll be forced into playing the 'true' pure luck games where the odds are (even more) heavily in favour of the casino.


******

Well, hopefully, that's kind of what Bryan would say!


******

PS apologies if I just misinterpreted the question and you knew all this anyway.
 
Last edited:
To bring the thread back on track...and in case others reading have not heard of Casinomeister.....I'd say Bryan was erring on the side of being modestly understated in the intro. Everyone that has anything to do with online casinos (the casinos themselves, affiliates, webmasters, the whole industry) will know the name.

If you went out to pick someone to continue the legacy of Colin (and probably enhance upon it to the levels that Colin would ultimately have desired), it would be highly unlikely you'd ever find anyone better positioned (even, perhaps, with a lesser underlying horse racing knowledge).
 
Last edited:
chaumi said:
To bring the thread back on track...and in case others reading have not heard of Casinomeister.....I'd say Bryan was erring on the side of being modestly understated in the intro. Everyone that has anything to do with online casinos (the casinos themselves, affiliates, webmasters, the whole industry) will know the name.

If you went out to pick someone to continue the legacy of Colin (and probably enhance upon it to the levels that Colin would ultimately have desired), it would be highly unlikely you'd ever find anyone better positioned (even, perhaps, with a lesser underlying horse racing knowledge).
Click to expand...

Thank you for your comments - that was very kind of you. Yes, I have been around for a while :)

As for this forum - I am still waiting for server access - once I have that, I will be able to update this forum software (right now it's an older unsupported version). Once that is done, we can roll our sleeves up and begin.

As for making money as a player at a casino.... forget about bonuses, they are there to lock you into wagering requirements that are usually unachievable. When I play (used to be quite a bit for testing purposes :p) I RARELY ever took a bonus - bonus free play allows you to pick and choose whatever game you want to play, and the AML requirement is usually 3x - maybe 5x. That's doable. Cash out when you are ahead, and don't look back.
 
granger said:
Bryan, you'll find the forum tends to go quiet in the summer bar a few flat diehards

Come October, it should be busier again
Click to expand...


And to illustrate, this is (one of) the reasons why....

"it's a 3-way photo in the Whitbread"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TVtO-zVfIk

There are plenty of other examples!

Although some would say this competes......

"he's 15 lengths clear"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg--FSBJ_hQ



I'd be making an assumption, but many members here won't be able to watch either (or dozens, if not hundreds of others) without dry eyes. And, on another level, it would be worth noting that, for some, even an old class 4 at Hexham might elicit a similar response. That's the level of passion/emotion/engagement that horse racing invokes.
 
Last edited:
granger said:
Bryan, you'll find the forum tends to go quiet in the summer bar a few flat diehards

Come October, it should be busier again
Click to expand...

One plan is to upgrade the forum software to enable this forum to be mobile friendly. At the moment this forum is pretty much at the whim of Google and won't be properly indexed until this performs well on mobiles and hand held devices. Once this upgrade happens, we should start seeing better traffic results - and perhaps more members here during the summer months :)
 
Welcome Bryan, and may all your geese turn to swans. Don't often read the stickies, so I'd be grateful to learn of updates another way - if that's at all possible?
 
R.I.P. Colin.

Forgive me if I'm being a cynic, but once this site has more pizazz, I can see me being here even less than I am now.
 
Monkey said:
I've seen plenty of sites ruined by pizazz. Too many webmasters think that how a site looks is more important than what it says.
Click to expand...

Well, I've got to say I expected the answer to reveal some ill-informed views that displayed a (perhaps understandable) lack of understanding of the intent for the forum (I'm guessing the intent, of course, but there is significant evidence that you can safely expect that intent to be applied in a considerate and intelligent way).

And then we could have taken those views, analysed them, and probably explained - in a gentle and educationally positive manner - why they might be mistaken.

But it would appear you have judged the term 'pizazz' by the standards that you might judge it, and not by the standards that would (clearly) be the target of the new 'webmaster'.

This is a forum. Not a 'website'. (Yes, I know we can play with the semantics, but you should know what I mean). You can't take the 'what it says' away from a forum unless you stop it from being a forum....and it's a no brainer that no one is going to do that on a forum about horse racing where clearly a significant part of the membership would fall comfortably into a list of the most knowledgeable people about the subject you're ever going to have sharing their views in one online location (and - in case of any misinterpretation - I'm not talking about me here but the long-running members with many thousands of posts. And no doubt there will be some that don't post as often that would also fall into the list).

Now, I'm sure Bryan would put you straight on this with an outline of what's intended (if there was any value in doing so or a need to do so, which - at this point - there isn't). And I could probably make a good fist of explaining it, too (with some reasonably educated guesses). But maybe that's not what you want to hear anyway.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. I'm open-minded. I'm also not here often enough to shove my views down anyone's throat, so ...here's to the future <cheers>
 
I can see where Monkey is coming from.

Too many sites, including forums, are more interested in appearance than substance. You only need to watch ITV Racing for 10 minutes to get the idea, or visit the RP site.

I'm all for anything that improves the site.
 
I don't believe changes will be made just for the sake of making appearance changes.

Bryan has already stated the high-level aim - to develop (or enhance existing) income streams for Colin's family. That's to say, to increase the revenue (profit) that comes from the site/forum.

That means the advertising (I believe, I'm not aware of anything else that might be generating income, or able to generate income. Actually, there are one or two other/additional options but I don't think they will be on the agenda).

So here's the rub.......(or the rub as I see it, I could be wrong)

You cannot (or at best you will heavily struggle to) market bookies/sportsbooks to punters that already know all of them....and most likely already have multiple active accounts or perhaps have done in the past but they're now banned at a number of them. Equally, those punters already know pretty much all there is to know about the myriad aspects of horse race betting. So, you can't teach them much, either. Certainly not on anything at high level.

So, the existing membership is here for the info gained from posts, to share their knowledge or thoughts, and to enjoy the community aspect. All they (we) need is the forum as it is now to deliver on those aspects. And it could do that exactly as it is now.

But that won't deliver the stated aim.

So, appearance changes would have to be made.

Why?

Because the only way to build revenue will be to get extra eyeballs on the forum. New eyeballs. Ideally, new eyeballs that would contribute (and some will, probably) but even 'fleeting' eyeballs can increase revenue. Those new visitors may be the next generation of posters, and - with appropriate forum management and control - it's likely that some will offer valuable contributions to the benefit of all.

There are multiple ways to attract new forum visitors - but the most likely to be successful (in numbers/volume of visitors) is through SEO (search engine optimization, in case anyone didn't know). SEO is a vast subject with many (sometimes complex) aspects (it would take a month of Sunday's to even get close to explaining fully, though the basics are easy to understand), but one of those aspects is site structure and how a website is all put together.

So, to improve the search engine appearance of the forum, to raise its visibility and hence allow more people to know about it, some structural changes would be needed (alongside some other stuff which I won't go into right now) . And you can't (I don't think) achieve that with the current standard forum layout. Although the forum itself has authority and age (both of which 'help' with SEO), it will need more than that to grow further.


**************

None of that I see as a problem. The way I see it is the forum will be here whatever, the posts will be. I may get to the posts a slightly different way, there may be other stuff to look at and read (some of which I will find interesting/valuable). But if I don't want to look at or read other stuff, I don't have to.

**************

Hopefully, I haven't misrepresented anything here. This is all just a personal perspective...and there have been plenty of occasions in my life where I've been wrong!
 
Last edited:
A little more illustration in case anyone is interested........

If you take TalkingHorses and consider its main 'reason to be', it's obviously (at top level) a horse racing forum.

So, in search engine search results, you ideally want the home page (the top level URL talkinghorses.co.uk) to be high up on the page for the top-level terms 'horse racing forum/forums'

And then, 'secondary' (often known as long tail) terms like 'horse racing forum UK', 'forum for UK horse racing' ' horse racing discussions' etc etc etc

And - as a horse racing forum - the people searching those terms are valuable to attract. They have made a (reasonably) clear statement of their intent by searching those terms - they want a UK horse racing forum (note - that could be to join, as part of research, or a number of other reasons, but probably the majority do actually want to know what forums are available to them). If you give them what they are looking for, they will read, they will interact, and some may become members.

Now, that's all well and good if you can get ranked highly on the search results pages for those terms (see interesting note in a minute). But it's not just those 'forum' terms you could be found for. With the appropriate structure and content, individual internal pages/posts/threads can appear high up in the results for the terms that are specific to those pages/posts/threads ( example, someone searching 'best horse racing accumulator tips' might see the obvious thread appearing - step forward Giggsy!!)

And you can create new pages that also will be able to rank highly. For example - Bet365 review, is Ladbrokes better that Betvictor?, what does each way betting mean? best longshot bets for horse racing today etc etc etc etc etc etc. The list is endless.

Combined, those will all bring in traffic/visitors. Which increases the forum's value in multiple ways. The positive effects are cumulative, and in multiple ways.


Interesting note - over the last month the search engine (Google) position for TalkingHorses for the top-level term 'horse racing forums' appears to have risen over 200 places to currently sit at number 4. I say 'appears' because sometimes those types of results can be flawed, but there's good enough reason to believe it's accurate. This term is surpassed only by the singular 'horse racing forum' as the highest searched directly relevant term in the UK (currently at position 5).

A 200+ position increase for a top-level term is pretty heavy going.

Now, I don't know if the position for those terms is a 'regained' one (ie they were highly ranked in the past and dropped for whatever reason). Or there could be other 'organic' reasons for that change. But the timing might suggest that something changed recently to cause it (it's possible to be better able to be sure of this with some deeper investigative work but lack of time precludes this, well, right now anyway ).

If something was changed, then obviously it wasn't a visible one. Nothing has changed visibly on the forum (to members/visitors). So, either it was a core structural one (and actually that could have been something very simple)...or it was something off the site/forum (and here we do get into time-consuming explanations, so will have to save that for another day). Suffice to say that Bryan and his team would know what to do to elicit that change, and would definitely have the tools to do so, or at least make the attempt with a high degree of successful expectation (actually, it doesn't look too hard to rank highly for those terms, so probably a minor change either on the site - or more likely, off it - is responsible. Whatever, it's a good achievement).

That current ranking for a top-level term can now be seen as a good indicator. It will probably already be bringing more visitors to the forum (although clearly needs to go number 1 or maybe 2 for maximum benefits). But what it indicates is that the search engines 'see' the forum as having a membership (and content ) that can be considered as expert level, that the forum has authority in its field, and that a visitor could trust what they read on it to be accurate/worthwhile/valuable.

All good stuff, and a real pointer to the overriding potential (irrelevant over whether it was an intended internal change or an external one activated by 'uncontrolled' changes elsewhere).



PS Bryan Feel free to delete this if you think appropriate. Maybe this is too much detail.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top