POLL: Adding for-pay membership options

Before i shoot my high horse.... one of the reasons you see people wanting to learn about straights is to save money... then they discover that they are going to spend $100+ getting only slightly more than the minimum (without all the "%AD"s) and then we tease them about super secret pay as you go content that they might think they need to have.

So to reiterate... take a collection sell a subscription whatever you need to do just do not make things exclusive....

now where do i send the deed to my farm?:)

I probably wouldn't be interested in paying for any exclusive features.. I really love how this forum is an open and generous place (not saying that would change at all), so I will continue to make the contributions I can. When I can, I will be putting razors in for the giveaways and helping people out with re-scales and brushes, and if things keep going well... some money will head to whoever it needs to go to. But honestly, I'd rather not have any "giving badges" and I really don't see myself blogging etc. But I do value what it takes to keep this place running, so I will do what I can regardless.

Dave

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Originally Posted by Bart

If SRP would need money to keep in existence as is, I would be more than happy to become a donating member, preferably without any extra titles or rights than the non-donating members. I understand this is not the issue right now.

As far as extra payable functionality to be add to the site, I'm not interested.

Best regards,
Bart.

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Ditto.
I kinda like the staus quo.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I don't like this special badge identifying who gave what and special areas and perks for contributers because that just makes second class citizens out of the others.

I also think if any site starts accepting funds from members that essentially changes things and the site has a responsibility to let the contributers know how those funds are being spent.
Just my 2 cents.

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I agree on not making a difference in what people can access. Fwiw they have this over at martialtalk, but it's pretty much dead or dormant.
And we would keep an open ledger. This is not going to be a Lynn and Don vacation plan. Unless they cut me in of course :D ;) Not.

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

What I would really like to see is that backups are performed religiously.
A great deal of information/knowledge has been accumulated here and it would be a shame to lose it simply because of a lack of funds.

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David assures me they are. The entire database is backed up daily.
This is one lesson we learned after the 2008 server crash.

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Originally Posted by loueedacat

I would contribute just because this site is great. I think it would be ok if contributors got more photo space etc, but I don't like the idea of their being certain content that only contributors can see. So as long as we keep the whole site open to everyone, I think a lot of us would be happy to contribute [and I second JimmyHADs point about not ranking contributions].

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Everything will be visible. The money would go to other stuff. For example, people could start a blog. Everybody will be able to view those blogs and post comments and stuff. But only paying members can start their own blog. Things like that.

The forum itself will still be the place of equals, the same way it is now.

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Originally Posted by syslight

I voted yes as i have no problem suppurating the site. Issues i would have is with "special forums and content for paying subscribers"
?

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Not going to happen as long as I am a mod.

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Originally Posted by syslight

so the next thing is what do you plan on doing when you need to ban a paying member?

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Now that is a good question, and one worth spending some time on.
It helps that we don't exactly ban people easily.
In the last couple of years, only a handful (as in: 5 I think) 'real' people have been banned permanently.
Of those 5, only perhaps 1 or 2 would have been part of this initiative.

So on one hand I don't think we have to refund the money if they violate the site rules, but otoh we can't sometimes say why we banned them, for a variety of reasons (legal issues being pretty a important one). So I can also see the point in refunding the money and telling them to get lost.
At least that way they have no argument to give us legal problems. And since we ban so few people, it's not like that 20$ will make a difference in the long run.
It is somethign we need to discuss amonst ourselves of course.

WRT bans: As a former offender, who got banned for what seemed an eternity but was only a month or so, I will testify that in order to get banned permanently, you have to violate the forum rules in a way that losing your subscription payment should be the last of your worries.

On a totally unrelated note, has anyone tought about a paypal donate button yet?

Why not give a partial, proportionate refund if you ban someone? If you put that in a contract they have to agree on before they join the pay scheme that should be fine, shouldn't it?

sounds like a plan to me, like otheras have said this place brings us so much. The least I can do is give a little back!

As far as the "extra features" go I also have no interest in them and that is not why I support the voluntary contribution policy. OTOH, I am open minded on the issue. Since it is an unknown quantity it is very possible that one or more of the extra features once introduced would be something that I would appreciate and enjoy.

IMO there should be no exclusivity to the proposed features. No "contributors corner" forum or contributors only features. If any are instituted make them available to all. There should be no reward or perk for the contribution beyond the good feeling the giver experiences.

I am not sure that I would use the extra features but I think it would be great to have funding awareness weeks like NPR/PBS. A paypal donate button would be a great idea too so that folks could give back in a less structured way. I am thankful for the opportunity, as a mod, to give back in the form of time and talent (?!). Thus far, I have tried to give back in the treasure department by making purchases from the vendors that advertise here.


-Rob