Happy New Year! The future of SatelliteGuys

[John2021]

Never gonna happen; that ship has sailed. The government is hell bent on selling off what's left of C-band and providers are moving to fiber. Dish Network is hanging on by a thread and losing customers rapidly. I love this hobby as much as all of us here, but the writing is on the wall. KU will hang on for awhile, maybe even a long while, but overall I think the party is over.

Interesting topic i did an AI search one night for the heck of it the results came back it will be around for another 8-13 years... i do expect another merger between direct and dish!!! it will be interesting to see what charlie will do with his new sat that he takes delivery in 2028 since he's thinking of rual folks... the same can be said with OTA as well i bet they will start charging for that to..

 

[harshness]

Thus the humor.

Humor for some, sadness for others.

 

[Hyper Casey]

TVGUYS sounds good to me. Has a great ring to it. So long as this forum stays around, any name works i say. A big Thank You to Scott for your never ending work on this place, and also to the members who donated to keep it going! And i would say keep MoneyBox going. That is income coming in to help pay the bills. Happy New Year.

 

[savarese04]

If you are a "Lifetime Supporter" you shouldn't see ANY advertising or popups. Or, buy a Pub membership, and they'll go away for sure this time!

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/account/upgrades

how does one become a lifetime supporter anyway?

 

[spiderman865]

TVGUYS, takes me back and reminds of Two Guys. Two Guys - Wikipedia

 

[primestar31]

how does one become a lifetime supporter anyway?

You can't, unless Scott opens that choice up again. It's happened at least twice, so you never know. Last time was January 2020 for about a week or so.

 

[navychop]

TVGUYS, takes me back and reminds of Two Guys. Two Guys - Wikipedia

SMALL WORLD! I did business with Vornado in the general DC area. We provided boiler service at their properties.

 

[odbrv]

You went from how the media was distributed , satellite ,to the device you view it on, TV. Many of us don't use satellite for delivery . We use streaming or cable , .likewise many of us don't use TV to view the media. We use desktop monitors, laptop screens, cell phone screens, tablets, or all of them. I cast my. Cell view to a smart tv for more to see. A 10 year old in the household never refers to delivery or where viewed but to shows(static) or games(interactive). I think all of this is what media is. Maybe Media Guys would be more inclusive.

 

[meStevo]

A good start, will be up to the existing members to try and changing posting habits or nothing will change. I made my case and followed my own recommendations - but stopped, because it was clear that the interest wasn't there. Remains to be seen how much life there can be beyond the Pub, because for so many that's all Satguys is.

I do worry that creating a handful of other forums will just spread out the minor amount of activity that currently exists, rather than foster more participation. Like I said, it will be up to existing members to want it, and if the Pub remains the catch all and topics aren't pushed towards these new areas, then they will be as active some of these other dead sections with just a handful of active threads over the course of a year.

 

[navychop]

Maybe Media Guys would be more inclusive.

 

[long_time_DNC]

You went from how the media was distributed , satellite ,to the device you view it on, TV. Many of us don't use satellite for delivery . We use streaming or cable , .likewise many of us don't use TV to view the media. We use desktop monitors, laptop screens, cell phone screens, tablets, or all of them. I cast my. Cell view to a smart tv for more to see. A 10 year old in the household never refers to delivery or where viewed but to shows(static) or games(interactive). I think all of this is what media is. Maybe Media Guys would be more inclusive.

I use a mix; mostly satellite and some streaming. I realize that SatTV is shifting to streaming and/or cable, but out here in the boonies, where the power in a big storm can be out for days (have a whole home generator, so not an issue), but when the line power goes out, so does the cable and internet, and the nearest cell tower is too far away to get reliable service (hence the need for wifi and internet, which, as I said, goes out when the line power goes out). So, satellite has been great TV service out here. As long as my gen is working fine, I have TV too...

 

[meStevo]

I don't think most new users will remember the name once they see this and close the browser window. Personally I've never seen an ad like this and then signed up or continued to use a site anyways. I hope this is the most lucrative ad on the whole site, because I'd expect it to be the biggest problem when it comes to organically growing.

I also wonder how many things like this have impacted ad revenue:

It actually looks like it's loading multiple ads in that slot simultaneously, and then displaying certain ones based on the size of the browser window, and some won't render because of the resources it's requesting. Did a hard refresh and couldn't get it to show the error again, but I wonder how often that happens - could be just a certain combination of pre-loaded interactive / animated ads.

Kinda feels like it's to a point where one should be decided on over the other - if members are going to support this site and both their content and their funds are relied on to do so - then get rid of the ads, or at least the most intrusive ones. The site then lives or dies based on the members' desire for it to continue.

The ads as they are currently implemented feel like a bandaid on a broken leg. They're helping keeping the site going to a degree but the underlying problems remain - and they also have a hand in preventing those problems from being fixed by (IMO) preventing some organic growth.