I completely understand that without a ☑️ or a 🌠 on my avatar some folks may pass this post over so I feel it is necessary, albeit possibly pretentious, for me to put my BBS ‘credentials’ up front.  These are just facts… I have used BBS everyday since I joined in May of 2021. I was one of the first whitelisted publishers and was made a board moderator back in December when the rest of the BBS boards were just starting life. The owner of the board has never been involved, it’s has always been run by the moderators (now the Admins) and we have always maintained “active” Engagement Mining status since it was implemented. As the very first board, I’d like to think we are THE model BBS board though our community has endured much and struggles to stay engaged currently. 

    All that being said, I would humbly say that I’ve got a better than average understanding of all the phases of BBS and how users reacted to those changes. I’m also a mechanic, I have decades of experience continually learning complex systems, their component parts, and how they work in conjunction to a degree of competency that facilitates being able to diagnose and repair them. A good mechanic can simplify a complex system so that even a layman can understand it….

Let’s examine the component parts of the system and what they need to provide for BBS to be successful.

As I see it, BBS is a system that is made of 3 integral parts:the Platform, the advertisers, and the users. In order for BBS to work properly, all 3 parts must function as intended and work in conjunction. 

The Platform needs…

…. Advertisers that are willing to compete with other advertisers for the limited ad space available. ‼️How can the Platform attract advertisers?  In order to attract advertisers the Platform needs a large group of users.

……Users to both create quality posts, which provide the needed content and the advertising space it contains, and those who will only view, and engage with others in, them.  In its current iteration, the Platform is unable to bring in, and keep, the necessary amount of users needed to attract advertisers. ‼️How can the Platform attract, and keep, new and current users? If the basic offerings of the platform are not enough to bring in users, it needs to provide other motivation. 

The Advertisers need…

…… A large, diverse group of users to see their advertisements and create the ad space for them. ‼️ How can advertisers help foster a large, diverse group of users? By providing cashable bonuses to publishers.

……. A Platform that brings in, and keeps, those users. And one that accurately, and fairly, calculates impressions and how bonuses are paid out based on them. ‼️How can Advertisers help the Platform accurately calculate payouts based on impressions? Being an entirely new type of Platform, it’s BBS’ responsibility to perfect this system. Which is why there have been so many changes to the earnings system.

The Users need…

    If the Platform does not fill an existing need for what it offers users must want to use the platform. 

  ‼️  What do the users need? Again, if the basic features of the platform aren’t enough to bring In new users, and keep existing ones, there must be motivation to use the Platform. 

Diagnosis

The EM program is the current Advertiser, which is providing publishing revenue for the Platform. The Advertising is operating as it should.

The Users should have no obligation to use the Platform if it is not filling a need, and if the basic features don’t make them want to use it, it’s the Platform’s responsibility to motivate the users if it wants to survive.

 The Platform is responsible for attracting new users by sufficiently motivating publishers financially to produce such quality content that it alone will bring in other users like newspapers and periodicals have for generations, or by motivating all users equally by rewarding some aspect of engagement.

Solution

  1.  Base cashable ad bonuses for publishers on comments. Motivate and attract users by rewarding comments with cashable bonuses. If BBS is focused on engagement and discussion, and advertisers want an accurate count of unique impressions, publisher bonuses should be based on the number of unique commenters a post attracts. For example, a publisher bonus would be awarded for every “X” number of unique users that comment and the commenters would receive a small portion (5%) of the bonus they helped award the publisher. The publisher gets a few cents less than they currently do, and “X” number of users get a cashable bonus for their engagement.  One comment per post, per user.

2. Get rid of post Promotion for EM approved boards and bring back post buying but with cashable earnings. Users had the most fun using the boards when they could show support and generate cashable revenue by buying posts. It gave non-publishers a reason to frequent the boards and was huge motivation for users.

  If my first suggestion of rewarding comments was implemented all users, Partnered or not, could earn cashable bonuses and use it on the board to purchase posts and tip publishers and commenters. Even if posts only change hands for very small amounts, it would still be real earnings and would provide much more motivation for users than the Promotion system. Boards not approved for EM can continue to use the Reputation and Promotion systems.

     Non-Partnered users can also earn cashable bonuses for engagement and use them on the board for post buying and tips but can not remove earnings from the site until Partnered. This way all users on EM approved boards can engage with real money which will motivate users and increase engagement. This would certainly motivate users to engage and to make strides to becoming Partnered by publishing, so they can eventually withdraw the cashable earnings they have accrued. In this sytem the earnings from engagement will motivate them to use the system more as it did in the early days of BBS. 

3. Tiered advertising

This suggestion is putting the cart in front of the horse but I think it’s a solid one so I’ll include it.      As it stands the highest CPM bid from advertisers gets awarded the banner space on ALL posts of a board. I don’t know what is planned for the future of the Ad system but I suggest a tier system for advertising.

    Instead of one advertiser with the highest CPM set occupying all the banner space, allow multiple advertisers to occupy the banner space and pay out publisher bonuses simultaneously. Do this by creating a tier system… newly published posts will start at a low CPM and as they accumulate impressions will rise through a tier system where a different CPMs (and advertisers)  occupy each level. Instead of being outbid  for the top spot, advertisers can set the CPM they feel comfortable with and be sorted into the tier system based on it. This way many advertisers can be seen and pay out publisher bonuses on the same board simultaneously. More advertisers = more revenue for publishers which = more motivation for users to publish.

4. Hide all posts’ engagement stats until the post has been opened and the view timer satisfied.     With the focus of BBS being engagement and publishing, the system should rely on the merits of the curated posts to entice users to open them out of sheer interest not because of the number of likes, comments, and promotions they see. This is why I feel engagement features (likes, comments, promotions) should all be hidden until the user chooses to open the post and stay long enough to satisfy the view timer. At which time, the engagement features will appear and stay open for that user, on that post, so they can engage. Once the engagement features are opened from inside a post, the stats will then be visible to that particular user on the main page (like they are displayed now).         I don’t know how difficult it would be to implement this, or if it’s even possible, but I think it would go a long way in helping cut down on disingenuous engagement (at least engagement from the main page) and help BBS to stand apart (at least visually) from other similar sites. 
    This brings me to BBS’ identity issue…. Correct me if I’m wrong but BBS is having an identity crisis. It doesn’t know how to market itself or who to market itself to. I view this platform as one that relies completely on the quality of the curated content to set itself apart from other sites. For without those quality standards the boards become simply copy/pasted content, which we have seen happen, so it’s imperative that content quality remains an utmost priority. That being said, newspapers and periodicals have relied solely on the quality of their curated content to keep and attract readers. BBS should be no different and should appear and be marketed as such, but with the added benefit of engagement, in my opinion.

I sincerely hope this makes sense and comes off like I intended… I only have a desire to see this platform succeed and I hope there’s something in here that can be of some use. Thanks for taking the time to read this. 🙏