This post is for both the development team of BBS and admin/moderators of BBS boards.

A new user of BBS made a post that it is easy to earn in BBS. He had worked about 3 hours a day for about 1.5 years on YouTube to earn $1 from 3,000 views. He has earned $3 tips in BBS so far.

Compared to the big social media platforms, it is still easier for ordinary people to earn in BBS. However the days when it was super easy to earn in BBS is over.

In the early days of BBS, the way to earn money was to earn cashables which can be cashed out after you have been whitelisted. Cashables could be earned by both making posts or buying posts. Advertising revenue was shared equally between the maker of the post and the current owner who bought the post. The payout to makers of the post and the current owners was very generous with a CPM of 150 x the number of impressions the post get. The overly generous payout drew in people who abused the system to earn large amounts of money. The system was gradually tightened, culminating with the great reset.All whitelisting was revoked and users had to work at being made a partner of boards before they could get a share of the revenue earned by the board. After the great reset users tried hard to get partnered. Boards had to make rules to prevent people from making posts or DM's asking for partnership. There was discontent amongst users that they cannot earn until they become partners.

The step of introducing tipping posts and comments was an excellent move. This allows non partners to be able to earn from making posts and comments. However the problem still remains that only boards that are EM approved have the funds to tip. This gives rise to the catch 22 or chicken/egg first situation for non EM boards. Without funds to tip it is very difficult for them to sustain the level of activity needed to get EM. New users will be drawn to the EM boards that have funds to tip. So after the initial spurt of activity by the founding members dwindle, new boards dry up and there is hardly any activity on such boards.

BBS need to support the growth of new boards. We have been told that the team is trying to get in those who already have substantial social media presence into BBS. From the point of view of those who already have a substantial social media presence, it is not worth spending so much effort to earn tens of dollars in BBS when they can earn thousands from their existing platforms. 🤔

Coming back to changes in the earning model for BBS. The CPM rate for BBS went down from 150 to 5. The current average CPM has gone up to 7 (quite a big percentage increase from 5)  but is a long way off from the 150 that it once was. 

We should NOT go back to anything near the 150 level. Not only is that level UNSUSTAINABLE but it will draw undesirable people to come in just to make money. 

Suggestion 1:

Slowly (like how it was done from 5  to 7) increasing CPM to 10 for EM boards will help to revive those boards and encourage them to carry on fighting. 

Suggestion 2:

To help non EM boards, they should be given a CPM of say 25% or 30% of the CPM of EM boards. This will enable the moderators of non EM boards to tip those  who make good posts or comments. 

The low CPM for such boards will ensure that moderators are selective in their tipping and so avoid encouraging low quality posts/comments for the sake of making money. 

The above suggestions recognize that money is an important motivation.

However there are also other important motivations that the development team and admins of boards should be aware of:

The low amount of traffic (and thus the average number of impressions per post - even good  posts)  together with low CPM (compared to old days) has decimated the cashables that can be earned from making posts. 

Because of this, BBS users are no longer clamoring to be made partners anymore. Many boards have not reviewed their partnership lists for a long time. 

The small amount of cashables that can be earned by partners does NOT make partnership irrelevant. 

Being made a partner satisfies some of the higher needs in Maslow's Heirachy Of Needs. Being made a partner makes users feel appreciated and recognized. 

So those boards that have not reviewed their partnership list for a long time should do so 🦋

After their basic needs have been met, people seek other things such as entertainment or friendship/relationship, ego and self actualization. 

This why some of us are still in BBS. We enjoy what we can take part in and the discussions or friendships and affirmation we can get here. 

Examples are movie lovers in FCB, football fans in SPORTS, and gamers in GAMTECH. 

So let us keep BBS a place where we can enjoy discussions and friendships. BBS is not a place for personal attacks  and quarrels. 

Even when we disagree, we should remain civil  🦋