Idea's for paid membership

[blip]

I was just thinkign that i have been coming on The Corroboree for a little while now and i cannot recall a time i have actually purchased from the store Its not somethign i am proud to say but due to the generosity of the members, alot of things are traded and given away.

I was thinking because of this maybe we can have some sort of paid membership on the forums. Nothing crazy.. like $10 or so for people who would like to show their support and thanks to Torsten and teh moderators for providing us with entertainment during work hours and lonely nights Not to mention the people i have met and support i have received from members,which, i would never have met if it wasnt for SAB

I am not sure what to suggest people get for their money.. maybe a little banner saying GOLD MEMBER and no longer have to wait to send another PM after just sending one. I dunno i havent really thought about it hahah jsut that i woudl hate for something to happen to the forums/store and have only myself to blame for not supporting it when i could have.

Edit: Possibly have members only raffles and giveaways to promote the idea of membership?

Edited July 18, 2009 by lsdreamz

[B. Loco]

Oh so to create an exclusive club ? If the person who fronts up for this forum is scratching for cash, perhaps a paypal (or similar) donation button should be there for ANONYMOUS contributions. Or you could just transfer funds to his account now. It wont get you into any `VIP' area but if you're concerned about it, that donation of yours might help you sleep at night.

Your suggestion isn't really in the spirit of this collective, in my eyes anyway. Not that I'm even really a part of it.

[ballzac]

Actually, I've thought about this too. Many forums have paid memberships, and I think most of the regular contributors like having the "premium member" banner under their name. Perhaps the money could go to a related cause (perhaps supporting ega or something) so that Torsten doesn't cop any flack for implementing it.

[Auxin]

Torsten has previously stated that he intentionally wants the forums and store to be separate entities, thats why one is .com and the other is .com.au and there are no store ads on the forums (or at least I assume there still arent.. I use firefox so I wouldnt know )

If you dont buy from the store but want to help in some way making quality posts on the forums does attract people to the forums and from there to the store, even if they arent very directly connected.

[blip]

Oh so to create an exclusive club ? If the person who fronts up for this forum is scratching for cash, perhaps a paypal (or similar) donation button should be there for ANONYMOUS contributions. Or you could just transfer funds to his account now. It wont get you into any `VIP' area but if you're concerned about it, that donation of yours might help you sleep at night.

Your suggestion isn't really in the spirit of this collective, in my eyes anyway. Not that I'm even really a part of it.

Haha gosh an exclusive club? Thats completey stupid haha Its $10! In no way is the person looking for handouts or wanting to make money form the forum guy. I am thankfull for what he and everyone else has done and have no intentions of buying myself into a VIP area :S

I am happy with who i know and what i know and would like to show apreciation for that. If i gave a shit about what cranky ****s like u think i would post daily get a 2000 post count in a few months and sleep better at night.... which is what u should be doing by the sounds of it. Chillax dude.

Torsten has previously stated that he intentionally wants the forums and store to be separate entities, thats why one is .com and the other is .com.au and there are no store ads on the forums (or at least I assume there still arent.. I use firefox so I wouldnt know )

If you dont buy from the store but want to help in some way making quality posts on the forums does attract people to the forums and from there to the store, even if they arent very directly connected.

Ahh fair enough. I never realised that to be honest. I just felt a little bad thinking i am getting something for free while he is having to pay for maintence and running costs. With so many greatfull users who would also like to show appreciationg we could make it easier by all banding together and giving something back to Torsten for once. If we made it easier (and rewarding) that more people will be interested and in the end we will all be better off

Ill be totally honest and admit that i would rather pay money and get recognition for it then by payign anonymous donations. YES i do sound like a total ****head by saying that but i am just being honest. Which is why forums with paid memberships do have banners as an incentive to low self esteemed people like myself hahaha

Edited July 18, 2009 by lsdreamz

[Torsten]

Bloco, your post is more a reflection of your attitudes than of lsdreamz'. At no point did lsdreamz mention anything about an 'exclusive club' or 'VIP areas'. In fact, very much in the spirit of this place these ideas were completely omitted in his proposal.

I am actually quite impressed with lsdreamz' proposal. It is the first time anyone has suggested that all they get for their financial support is a badge or maybe a little bit of extra internet trust and convenience. Little things like removing the PM time limit, being able to store more PMs, and simply getting a little badge would be a fair way of thanking such special members for their support without adding a layer of elitism or exclusion.

I like it. However, whether I want to implement it or not is a different matter. It would need to be easy and quick so that the process itself doesn't take up more resources than the donation saves.

I had never considered any such ideas before as previous suggestions have always focussed on exclusion [eg private subforum] rather than on improved resources [more storage space, more trusted operations]. It might even be one way to improve the forum as a whole for the benefit of everyone else - I am thinking along the lines of allowing such 'gold members' access to flash [and other format] uploads, html coding, etc which are all currently not permitted for security reasons. I think, donations coupled with a reasonable post count could really improve the forum as a whole. Definitely something to think about.

Running the forums currently costs about AU$2200 per year [the forums are on a completely separate server to the shop and other sites]. This will go up to about AU$2700 by the end of the year, although this is always dependant on exchange rates. While there is little promotion of the shop on this forum, it is an invaluable resource for my customers as the cultivation information they can source here is much more relevant to their specific climate situation than any plant blurb could ever hope to cover. I definitely regard the cost of the forums a good investment for my customers from that perspective alone. There will be some major changes to the shop site soon which will make the forums less of an essential customer service tool but rather more of an additional information resource, so these kinds of business dynamics are constantly changing and who knows whether the forums is still such an essential part of the business in a year or two [note: I am not saying that the forums will change in their own significance, I am just saying that they will play less of an essential role to my average customer]. So yeah, looking at additional contribution models for the forums is not out of the question.

[incognito]

wow that is pricey torsten!

id be more than happy to contribute financially to the running of the forums.

thats a fair bit out of your pocket.

[Evil Genius]

yeah me too. I´d love to donate 50 Bucks per year. bye Eg

[gerbil]

yeah that's huge, i'd be more than happy to chip in too.

[B. Loco]

edit

Edited July 19, 2009 by B. Loco

[Evil Genius]

edited

Edited July 19, 2009 by Evil Genius

[ThunderIdeal]

Perhaps the money could go to a related cause (perhaps supporting ega or something) so that Torsten doesn't cop any flack for implementing it.

personally i'd want my donation going to torsten, it's a show of appreciation. while your idea of funding EGA or similar is a good idea, it's unfair to ask torsten to administrate the whole affair.

however i'd probably just show my appreciation by spending more at the store.

[watertrade]

I would be happy to chip in to assist - especially if I didn't have the 3 minute rule. ;)

[toby]

I would be happy to chip in to assist - especially if I didn't have the 3 minute rule. ;)

the forum is a priceless resource! i'd be happy to pay a little..

[Alice]

I'd be more than happy to contribute.

[Evil Genius]

B Loco, Nobody talks abbout creating diffrent classes of members. Nobody will be judging you on what you gave or what not. Trust me. I dont care about funky badges or special treatment. You cant buy respect. I already donated at a time when nobody even talked about it! At a time when i was even too broke to buy food and i never expected anything in return. Because this place is a part of my life.

I want to ensure that the forum lives on because i wasnt aware of the fact thats its this expensive to host the site. And im sure that this is also the intention of the other guys here who showed some very god will. And i highly appreciate this. bye Eg

Edited July 19, 2009 by Evil Genius

[mu!]

doesnt the money you make off the shop balance out the server costs?

[Arieon]

Oh so to create an exclusive club ? If the person who fronts up for this forum is scratching for cash, perhaps a paypal (or similar) donation button should be there for ANONYMOUS contributions. Or you could just transfer funds to his account now. It wont get you into any `VIP' area but if you're concerned about it, that donation of yours might help you sleep at night.

Your suggestion isn't really in the spirit of this collective, in my eyes anyway. Not that I'm even really a part of it.

Is it just me or do you seem to have something negative or belittling to say in a lot of your posts.. Be or find a solution not a problem. No one likes more problems instead create solutions or help steer in the right direction, you will find your presence here will be smiled upon there after.

On a side note i to would like to help out within the running of the forums because i to have been subject to a lot of help from a lot of people, and with the constant charging of the forums, i am more than happy to put 10 dollars across even if it is one every couple of months / half year. Especially if i can PM all these happy chappies more without the time limit and more storage space !

Kind Regards,

Ariel

[Torsten]

doesnt the money you make off the shop balance out the server costs?

I thought I already made the situation abundantly clear. But in a nutshell: The forums don't do much for the business. A few years ago this might have been different as there was a much closer link between the two, but not so now. So essentially if I take business money to pay for the forums then that means I am the only person donating to the existence of this community. And so far I have done exactly that without complaining.

However, other than providing cultivation information this forum no longer serves any commercial purpose [if it ever did], so if others want to contribute then I should not stand in the way of that [mind you, there is a big difference between talking about this in theoretical terms and actually implementing it, so let's not assume too much too soon].

Asking me to foot the full bill for this service is no different than asking you to foot the full bill, yet I suspect you would not be too keen on that idea. So I wonder why you think I SHOULD. Like I said, I am not complaining and I did not raise this topic, but on the other hand I find it quite offensive that some people would think it is my sole duty to maintain this service.

[shruman]

"So I wonder why you think I SHOULD"

Maybe because you have complete ownership of the content & can do with it as you please.

Maybe donations should entitle people to a share of the content.

I aint complaining, I like it how it is.

[Uncle. S]

I dont know about the forum and shop not being connected. I've pretty much only bought things from the shop after reading about them on here, either browsing through old threads or someone posting a pic of their flowering such-and-such plant that they bought from sab 3 years ago.

[Yeti101]

I'd never thought about it that way T, but I agree that you have a point.

I'd be happy to kick in up to $50 a year, but would not expect everyone to do so.

I think a donation mechanism would be a very good thing. And while I like the idea of quicker PM's or something like that, I'm not sure that any outward indication of being a financial contributor is something I'd support. If I throw in some cash I don't think that makes me better than anyone who can't afford to do so and I'm not sure I would want a gold VIP badge or anything like that - Respect can't be bought, it has to be earned, usually over a long time.

Bottom line is that if this is costing T money and he isn't getting much out of it business-wise then it is wrong for us to expect him to foot the bill and not contribute anything ourselves. Sure, SAB has made money off of some of us, but T has given so much to the community I think it wrong to treat him like he owes us something.

Nothing is truly for free, so the money has to come from somewhere. And if it isn't coming from our pockets directly, then advertising is the only alternative, and that it is not a move I'd support. If we are going to pay for ourselves as a community, (and I think we are actually capable of that), then the trick will be to figure out how we are going to do that without the financial considerations causing trouble. The pissing contests here can get bad enough now. Can you imagine if the amount of money we had contributed was in the mix as well? - "I donated $100 and you donated nothing, so you're wrong and can suck my balls". You get the idea.

What financial arrangements does edot have? That must cost a bit to run.

In the meantime before anything is set up, what's a good way for us to help out?

Edit: Spelling (as usual).

Edited July 19, 2009 by Yeti101

[mac]

Good idea.

I don't have alot to contribute information wise, so a donation would be one way for the lurkers & people who visit here to learn from more experienced members to contribute & show our appreciation

Edited July 19, 2009 by mac

[Torsten]

I dont know about the forum and shop not being connected. I've pretty much only bought things from the shop after reading about them on here, either browsing through old threads or someone posting a pic of their flowering such-and-such plant that they bought from sab 3 years ago.

but people also post about plants they got elsewhere, including other vendors and in particular private trades. This forum probably produces more total revenue for small trades and swaps than it does for any of the major vendors including SAB. I don't even mention when we get new things in the shop anymore - just if it is something really special - and it is easy enough for people to ignore the 'site' forum.

These days people read about a plant and immediately plug it into google. If SAB pops up near the top then we may get the hit, but if not then not. I can see the absolutely minimal traffic the shop search engines get so I know that that is certainly not how people buy.

shruman - interesting concept but a bit impractical in reality. I mean, I don't actually OWN any of the content on this forum other than my own posts. And just how do you think I actually own this? and what value does it have other than as a community resource? It's not like I could sell it. So, while I think the forums are incredibly valuable, they really have little actual value. I can't release the content as a book, or really do anything else with it. And if I'd intended on making money by running advertising, then don't you think I would have done so years ago? The mind really boggles about how some of you perceive this situation. Dose of reality?

Something else that seems to be ignored is the actual liability this forum poses. Who do you think is going to get in the shit for content here? Who do you think will have to face the media? This place has become so dangerous due to it's older content that I had to shift it onto a dedicated server so as not to endanger all the other sites I am hosting [including my shop].

Like I said before, I never ask for contributions, never even ask for thanks [unless I've just spent several days recovering data or fixing the software], but to see that some people have these outlandish expectations and perceptions speaks volumes about them .

[Torsten]

yeti - edot is owned by Nate who took the site on when that fuckstick of a previous owner threatened to sell the domain name off for profit. Edot costs over US$1000/year and even though Nate is ultimately responsible for the bills, he gets donations from both members and vendors. Given the high degree of protectionism a handful of vendor members enjoy there it's not hard to guess who the donors are. In fact, there are always rumours around that one or two vendors actually foot the full bill, although it is just rumours and we should definitely give Nate the benefit of the doubt as his heart is definitely in the right place.