A Forum Membership Fee

[Earl K]

Hi All,

- I'd like to see this forum charge an annual membership fee .

- I haven't included a "poll" on this question / since / this forum isn't run as a democracy & changes like this will only occur at the pleasure of the proprieters .

Membership would include ;

(A) The ability to post into all public threads .
(B) The ability to read ( "see" ) all the attachments within the threads ( excluding the Lansing Library information ) .


Reasons ?

(i) Right now, any casual internet traveller has the capacity to view & download attachments . IMO, this knowledge ought to be restricted to paying members .

(ii) Restricting membership to those willing to pay will begin to exclude the onslought of spammers that are hitting this site, more frequently than ever..

(iii) Attaching an annual fee to the site will buffer the regulars from 1 shot ( "driveby" ) price appraisals . This will begin to disengage this site from directly feeding the eBay valuation frenzy ... ( Driving up the prices of used wornout transducers till they are on par with JBLs new transducers , is just plain wrong ( IMHO ) ) .


FWIW ;
- I'm not very hardcore about these changes / but understand that I always used to appreciate the older forums regular "capsizing" and then sinking ( usually due to the stress of growth ).
- This had a very profound "cleansing" action for each new forum that emerged from it's predecessor.
- The system crashes of old had a built in "natural ecology", that is now sadly lacking .



- Another thought is to just take this forum offline for a month at a time ( chosen at random by the proprieters ) with no notice given to the unwary ...
- This would be akin to a "controlled burn" in " forestry parlance ".

[4313B]

Good points!

[grumpy]

Opinion -> I have no problem with there being a fee for membership.
As a resource, it has the potential to pay for itself.

It might still be useful to have a moderated -isolated- area for non-members
for the one-shot "I've got a question..." folks. Perhaps a searchable FAQ
could be the result.

-grumpy

Added: If imposed, I would think the fee should not be such that it's a limiting factor for real participants...
even a one-time donation might work.

[sourceoneaudio]

I think it would be a good thing to induce a fee. A fair fee price $25.00 a year, remember members it is tax deductible. One reason the forum is getting hit so bad with value questions on vintage gear, and the end result driving up the price on everything. If you do a Google search on a specific item or driver array, the search results automatically bring up threads from the forum. This is over exposing the site.

Yes, Google is great for doing research on all topics, but if the moderators of the site could incorporate a filter on the threads, a lot of the unwanted on lookers would fade away.

J/S-S1A

[BMWCCA]

If the point is to thwart spammers and discourage treasure hunters, I think a fee of $10 is sufficient to work that magic. Of course if the powers-that-be think a mandatory $25 is what they need, I'll just have to give it some consideration.

Tax deductible only works if your deductions are itemized and exceed the standard deduction. Like when your medical expenses exceed 40% of income or some other IRS standard of fairness.

What's driving up prices is what people are willing to pay on Ebay. Easy to search completed auctions and see what stuff brings. You don't need this site for that. What the market will bear is a reflection on the value the buyer places on his dollar. Just like you probably think a $25 fee is nothing, where for me that's the one dinner out a week I treat my family to (Local small restaurant with reasonable prices and we often share an entrée and skip dessert.), or half a tank of gas. Paying two college tuitions makes you think twice about stuff like cable fees, local phone charges, and Internet-group surcharges!

[SEAWOLF97]

, remember members it is tax deductible.

and why would that be ? Do you think Don has filed the "not for profit" paperwork ?

there are other ways to filter out the spammers, who , while annoying , have not really impacted anything, as the mods stay on top of it pretty well.

[sourceoneaudio]

and why would that be ? Do you think Don has filed the "not for profit" paperwork ?

there are other ways to filter out the spammers, who , while annoying , have not really impacted anything, as the mods stay on top of it pretty well.

The site is driven by charitable contributions correct?

It will go in the pile of contributions at the end of the year just like the receipt for the Eargle.


J/S-S1A

[Mr. Widget]

there are other ways to filter out the spammers, who , while annoying , have not really impacted anything, as the mods stay on top of it pretty well.

They've impacted me plenty... I personally have been banning new members and deleting a minimum of a couple of threads a day... and so have the other moderators. That may seem like a minor annoyance to some, but it is a pain that I'd rather not be faced with.

The idea of charging admission has been bounced around before. There are several reasons that it is best left as a free site with donations encouraged. Don may decide to charge a small fee at some point in the future, but I would kind of doubt it.

We will certainly have to figure out a reasonable method for restricting access to reduce the spam. A few methods are being discussed. As for easy access to our posts? I personally don't care who sees the stuff. If Don decides he'd like to restrict attachments to members as it was in years past we may go back to that format, but it really doesn't make much of a difference since anyone can become a member... as long as they don't abuse the privilege once they are here.


Widget

[hjames]

The site is driven by charitable contributions correct?

It will go in the pile of contributions at the end of the year just like the receipt for the Eargle.


J/S-S1A

Ah - so because you claim it, it must be a charity!

Brilliant!! Brilliant!!

he he he

[scott fitlin]

I've suggested this before, and I feel we should charge a nominal membership fee.

I have been knocking out spammers left and right. I see new members, I can tell by the ip address, and some other things that they are spammers, I knock em out. It does get tiring after a while though, I would like to see something that stops spammers from even entering our front door.

Membership dues could be a small fee, doesnt have to be expensive.

[sourceoneaudio]

Ah - so because you claim it, it must be a charity!

Brilliant!! Brilliant!!

he he he

If we want to see less crap on the site, keep the key word is DONATION, and the people who DONATE have more access to more information. We could call it the DONATION FILTER. If the site charges a membership fee that would not be deductible because we would be considered members of a club paying a annual dues. I made a mistake in my above post. So the key word is DONATION not dues.

J/S-S1A

[scott fitlin]

But, lets say membership dues were $10.00/yr, that is a nominal fee, one that wouldnt break anyones bank?

It would be enough to keep the spammers out, and cheap enough for our members to not have to feel the pinch!

[sourceoneaudio]

$10.00 is fair.

J/S-S1A

[hjames]

If we want to see less crap on the site, keep the key word is DONATION, and the people who DONATE have more access to more information. We could call it the DONATION FILTER. If the site charges a membership fee that would not be deductible because we would be considered members of a club paying a annual dues. I made a mistake in my above post. So the key word is DONATION not dues.

J/S-S1A

'twas meant to be playful - not mean spirited ...

I do agree - I mark as much spam as I can see and I KNOW its got to be a pain for all the mods to keep up.

Personally, I donate a couple times over the year as this is a very helpful site and I've been on a real speaker kick for the last few years - I mean, I just sold my '76 first-set-of JBLs to help fund the next set (coming soon) ... but I rely on this site for all kinds of information and resources.

$10 a year would be cheap enough to not lose those on a budget, but frankly, ANY price should be enough to keep out SPAMMERS - they rely on free access to make it worth their while.

And if we want to send extra money, that option is always available, right??

[JBLRaiser]

If the point is to thwart spammers and discourage treasure hunters, I think a fee of $10 is sufficient to work that magic. Of course if the powers-that-be think a mandatory $25 is what they need, I'll just have to give it some consideration.

Tax deductible only works if your deductions are itemized and exceed the standard deduction. Like when your medical expenses exceed 40% of income or some other IRS standard of fairness.

What's driving up prices is what people are willing to pay on Ebay. Easy to search completed auctions and see what stuff brings. You don't need this site for that. What the market will bear is a reflection on the value the buyer places on his dollar. Just like you probably think a $25 fee is nothing, where for me that's the one dinner out a week I treat my family to (Local small restaurant with reasonable prices and we often share an entrée and skip dessert.), or half a tank of gas. Paying two college tuitions makes you think twice about stuff like cable fees, local phone charges, and Internet-group surcharges!

This is just a joke, right? Aren't you the Beamer collector? Now you claim you are poor? Maybe we can take up a collection for you.