when are we going to start membership dues?

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by iammatt

Yes, but on the other hand, how many mooseknuckles make up a lifetime supply.

 

[teddieriley]

I disagree with this business of membership dues. Despite what has been said, it is contrary to the spirit of the forum. People join because they are willing to share their knowledge for free. If you want to undertake additional services, that should be done on a donation basis, and by no means obligatory. I'm not whining about the actual amount, nor am I a DB because I don't agree. Just because something is worth money, it doesn't mean you should start charging for it. Unless there comes a time when the ultimatum is fork over some cash or the site will be shut down because it is too costly to maintain, then I would agree some type of structure should be implemented. Other than that, you're going to tell me I have to pay to ask a question or get responses to a particular question, or even just read about what people were willing to post for free in the first place? You'll see a lot more defectors here if you try to extract money. There are other alternatives on the web (albeit not that great, but that can soon change if you start treating this place like 24 hour fitness).

 

[drizzt3117]

Originally Posted by teddieriley

I disagree with this business of membership dues. Despite what has been said, it is contrary to the spirit of the forum. People join because they are willing to share their knowledge for free. If you want to undertake additional services, that should be done on a donation basis, and by no means obligatory. I'm not whining about the actual amount, nor am I a DB because I don't agree. Just because something is worth money, it doesn't mean you should start charging for it. Unless there comes a time when the ultimatum is fork over some cash or the site will be shut down because it is too costly to maintain, then I would agree some type of structure should be implemented. Other than that, you're going to tell me I have to pay to ask a question or get responses to a particular question, or even just read about what people were willing to post for free in the first place? You'll see a lot more defectors here if you try to extract money. There are other alternatives on the web (albeit not that great, but that can soon change if you start treating this place like 24 hour fitness).

+1

 

[Styk33]

Other forums I have/had participated in accept donations and some have sub-forums that are only availible to paid members (~$5/year). If you make the whole forum a members only thing, you would eliminate a lot of new members from joining. If you allowed a trial period, the trolls would still be around and you would not rid them. I know I can make thousands of email addresses with the domain name I own, so others could do the same if they wanted.

Accepting donations and/or having a raffle, that sounds like a good idea. I do like the raffle idea. I enjoy raffles when they are for items I truly want/need.

 

[Quirk]

They could implement a practice common to shareware: every 10 logins or so, you get a obnoxiously friendly reminder PM which reads something like: "Styleforum seems to be quite useful to you! Won't you think about making a contribution via PayPal this year?"

 

[von Rothbart]

I am all for voluntary donation. J can tell us how much he needs annually to maintain and run this site and we'd do our best to raise at least that much and there'd be a community chest to inform us how much had been raised so far. Any additional revenue from advertisements would be counted as gravy to J as job well done.

I remember there's a "contributing member" title bestowed to members who made donations before the crash. Well, J can create a different donation reward level, first level you can have a "contributing member" title, a custom title for next level, access to "secret squirrel" further next and so on.... Or certain features of the site is limited to contributing members, for example, non-contributing members can only send 10 PMs a month. Or certain "premier" threads are limited to 10 viewings per month to n-c members.

 

[visionology]

If you feel inclined to pay for Styleforum's website then why not just send a donation?

Mandatory payment for a web forum never works, it just sends people to the closest free alternative.

 

[DocHolliday]

Originally Posted by visionology

Mandatory payment for a web forum never works, it just sends people to the closest free alternative.

Yeah, it's like when newspapers try to force people to pay for online content. That's been pretty unsuccessful, such that the industry has largely abandoned the effort, save for archives and the like.

 

[AlanC]

Originally Posted by chorse123

Aportnoy and edmorel, for example, have been here for less than a year.

Well, with those two is sure feels like a lot longer...

 

[vaclava krishna]

I hope by 1000 posts, my book will be released, and I can make a large, donation.

 

[gorgekko]

Originally Posted by Quirk

They could implement a practice common to shareware: every 10 logins or so, you get a obnoxiously friendly reminder PM which reads something like: "Styleforum seems to be quite useful to you! Won't you think about making a contribution via PayPal this year?"
Absolutely, and everyone loves all the pledge breaks that infest public television! I won't even mention that keygens can be found for practically every popular piece of shareware, proving the worth of nagware. Honestly though, while some of us would pay the $12 or $25 or whatever to access SF, the exodus would be such that there would only be a few of us left. And the point about new members is entirely correct. SF would inevitably die for a lack of new blood.

 

[Philip1978]

Originally Posted by Tomasso

You really need to peruse the Members List and take note of the post counts. The SF pool doesn't run anywhere near that deep.


This is true #500 has 132 posts.

 

[LabelKing]

We'd turn into Men's Image Consultants.

 

[LA Guy]

There are no plans to start charging people for membership. I'd like to ask you guys what type of value-added content you'd like to see on the forum. The mod team has been batting around different ideas, and this seems as good a place as any to open things up for an informal discussion.

If anyone wants to make a contribution to the Styleforum warchest, they are very welcome to contact me, j., or Steve B. Also, if you guys have a favorite online retailer that is not already an affiliate, contact either Steve or me, and if the retailer and SF would be a good match, we'll see if we can work something out. Or ask the retailer to contact us.

Cheers,

Fok.

 

[The_Foxx]

yeah, I guess you guys are right. We should really keep taking advantage of steve's great idea, without compensating him for it-- better we should all freeload for as long as possible, just like many people do with online Appreciation. I mean, why pay when we can get it for free? **** him--let him maintain the site for me, dispense advise from time to time, make sure members post photos of their trips for me (at their own expense), etc. even twelve dollars a year is just too much for me! I would bolt from the forum if anyone tried to make me pay to join a club!!! that would be tyranny! injustice!

the membership doesn't run that deep? maybe-- the board shows 2500 active members out of 9000, but online at most times of the day is between 300-600.

That's my final post on the subject-- I guess I'm just disappointed that this cannot become a private club with an open membership policy, and that the dues could benefit both its founder and the members. I thought having forum members make mention of the community in magazine spots, mentioning it to the guy that beat you on a great item on ebay, talking about the forum at trunk shows, and other opportunities to increase membership were out there.

at any rate-- no harm, no foul. I guess the forum will just keep trudging along!