BANS Forum & Website Almost Back Online

Just got the official email that BANS is about to go back live. Below is the text of the email from Adam and Kelvin!


We are in the process of pulling together the last few changes and
BANS will re-open sometime later today as planned.

Before opening we wanted to go over what we've been doing and why.

There have been many things that have been right about BANS but
also many things that have been wrong and this last few months have
involved a sorting process where we have stepped back,
re-structured and re-defined what BANS means to us, the place it
has on the internet, the value it has as a product, the
possibilities it holds as an income producing concept and the
purpose the community forum should serve.

What we have implemented now is the first stage of the future of
BANS.

Despite the growth of the "niche store" concept and the popularity
of BANS as a product, the truth is that BANS as a whole remains in
its infancy - both in terms of the potential capabilities of the
software and the combined knowledge of all users with regards to
the successful implementation of the niche store concept as a model.

As our understanding of the internet continues to evolve the more
possibilities we see and over the coming months we will be
exploring these possibilities further with the aim of improving
BANS as a platform for succeeding as an eBay affiliate.

The re-presentation of the product on the front of the site and the
structural changes we have made are all part of this puzzle and we
recommend that you take the time to read through the new site once
we're open as it will give you a better understanding of what you
are a part of and the purpose (in our eyes) that the product and
platform serves.

In terms of direct relevancy for you as an existing BANS user we
appreciate that the community forum is the most important part of
this puzzle and it is something that has had a lot of thought in
recent months.

The fact is that it is very easy to control a forum - you simply
handle it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and constantly delete
both posts and users.

However, if this is the only future the forum has then it will be
removed as it adds nothing to BANS as a platform for succeeding as
an eBay affiliate.

The opposite ideal of this is that it evolves into an invaluable
learning ground for successfully using BANS and the changes we have
made have been introduced to provide this framework for future
growth.

Whether this ideal is achieved is now as much about the collective
will of the BANS user base as it is about structural changes we
make as a community spirit and will to learn and make progress
cannot be artificially created by us.

All we can do is provide the framework - the growth of the
community forum as a positive platform for success is down to you.

The forum will continue to evolve over the coming weeks as we sort
through the archives and move posts to new relevant sections,
remove some of the posts which hold little value and evaluate the
effectiveness of the new structure and forum sections.

We have not used vBulletin (the new forum software) before and are
still in the process of familiarizing ourselves with its features
and as such changes to the features available may also occur.

The link below leads to a little pdf we have put together that
walks through the new rules and the new forum sections and their
purpose.

Please read it before "diving in" and making posts later today.

http://www.buildanichestore.com/The-New-Community-Forum.pdf

Like we said - BANS is in many ways at its beginning. Whether it
evolves into what it can be rests with the collective user base as
much as it does with us.

We will take BANS as far as it can be taken IF it remains a
supported product amongst its users.

If that dies or doesn't evolve BANS as a project and platform is
over. It either becomes what it can be or it sinks into oblivion.

With a project like BANS there is no middle ground.

Food for thought...

Kelvin and Adam

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