Should new members to this forum pay to join????

[zealander]

Could I just ask Zealander............... have you been a poster on this forum before and come back on under a different persona??? Your style seems familiar.

Just been reading too many threads on here, something's, words or phrases may have worn off on me mate.

[Ktee]

As admin, I can say that we would not charge members to come on here looking for advice. What if they paid and didn't get the advice they wanted, what if they paid and were given wrong advice. It just opens up a can of worms. Someone earlier mentioned about newspaper subscriptions, I've stopped going on certain sites because I refuse to pay.

Business owners are a totally different kettle of fish, I wouldn't go to the newspaper and expect free advertising, yes I'd love it as would all of us but lets face it this wouldn't happen.

Someone else mentioned about us getting income from google banners, yes we do if people click on them, but it won't make us millionaires I think we get $300 a month from it, this doesn't even pay our hosting bill.

 

Now Tyke if you wish to donate to the forum don't let me stop you and it was kind of you to consider ways of keeping the forum running but we won't be charging ordinary members to post or read the forum.

[Guest Guest75]

As admin, I can say that we would not charge members to come on here looking for advice. What if they paid and didn't get the advice they wanted, what if they paid and were given wrong advice. It just opens up a can of worms. Someone earlier mentioned about newspaper subscriptions, I've stopped going on certain sites because I refuse to pay.

Business owners are a totally different kettle of fish, I wouldn't go to the newspaper and expect free advertising, yes I'd love it as would all of us but lets face it this wouldn't happen.

Someone else mentioned about us getting income from google banners, yes we do if people click on them, but it won't make us millionaires I think we get $300 a month from it, this doesn't even pay our hosting bill.

 

Now Tyke if you wish to donate to the forum don't let me stop you and it was kind of you to consider ways of keeping the forum running but we won't be charging ordinary members to post or read the forum.

 

 

It was more in a bit of fun really , unfortunately some deemed to take it all a little too serious...........

[Guest BurgessFamily]

I agree that charging a fee would not work. People would simply go elsewhere (unless you could really corner the market).

 

As for the hosting bill costing more than $300, there I see room for maneuver, but that comes down to who you are happy to provide hosting and what services you need or prefer.

 

Like many sites (and I'm not saying this occurs here), value is often taken from the user details. Selling these in batches to 3rd parties for financial benefit. It can work well for a site with a high turn-over of users, but is it ethical?

[Ktee]

It was more in a bit of fun really , unfortunately some deemed to take it all a little too serious...........

I don't think anyone thought you could make me start charging them Hun. It all looked a grown up debate to me, unless I've missed something (which given I had pms stuck in my inbox since January that I had missed, it may be the case)

I think its lovely how you have the forums best interests at heart

[Ktee]

I agree that charging a fee would not work. People would simply go elsewhere (unless you could really corner the market).

 

As for the hosting bill costing more than $300, there I see room for maneuver, but that comes down to who you are happy to provide hosting and what services you need or prefer.

 

Like many sites (and I'm not saying this occurs here), value is often taken from the user details. Selling these in batches to 3rd parties for financial benefit. It can work well for a site with a high turn-over of users, but is it ethical?

Honestly there is no chance to manoeuvre based on the amount of traffic we receive which is over 8 million visits a year. We need a powerful dedicated server to cope with the number of concurrent users across all the forums at any one time. The previous owner was paying $250 (I think) and it wasn't stable enough and the forums kept crashing and the response time was horrendous. We have a gentleman who works for VB who maintains and does system checks every now and again and he feels we need to upgrade yet again to cope with the increasing traffic.

[Ktee]

 

Like many sites (and I'm not saying this occurs here), value is often taken from the user details. Selling these in batches to 3rd parties for financial benefit. It can work well for a site with a high turn-over of users, but is it ethical?

In my eyes no it isn't ethical and again it is not something we would ever consider.

[Ktee]

Honestly there is no chance to manoeuvre based on the amount of traffic we receive which is over 8 million visits a year. We need a powerful dedicated server to cope with the number of concurrent users across all the forums at any one time. The previous owner was paying $250 (I think) and it wasn't stable enough and the forums kept crashing and the response time was horrendous. We have a gentleman who works for VB who maintains and does system checks every now and again and he feels we need to upgrade yet again to cope with the increasing traffic.

Oops I've just been informed the previous owner was paying $1,000 a month

[sshelby-mae]

I have been here 4 years in May and always check this site looking for new people my age who need advise because I remember, like it was yesterday, how hard it was!

Needless to say, I don't think it would be a good idea to charge people as someone mentioned in a previous comment, what if people don't get the advice they're looking for.. More than once I have posted something on here asking for help, loads of people viewed it but no one bothered to reply, (not in the slightest having a dig at people not for replying, because I just presumed no one could be of help to me).. but I would be disapointed if I paid and no one replied.

[Guest Guest75]

I have been here 4 years in May and always check this site looking for new people my age who need advise because I remember, like it was yesterday, how hard it was!

Needless to say, I don't think it would be a good idea to charge people as someone mentioned in a previous comment, what if people don't get the advice they're looking for.. More than once I have posted something on here asking for help, loads of people viewed it but no one bothered to reply, (not in the slightest having a dig at people not for replying, because I just presumed no one could be of help to me).. but I would be disapointed if I paid and no one replied.

 

 

This was a "tongue in cheek " post - BUT please take note of the first few lines of my original post...............:wink::wink:

[Young Flinny]

You should pay me to teach you English.