Membership Fee?

[blackcat4866]

I know that this will generate some controversy, but I think it's worth discussing.

Have we ever considered having an annual membership fee?

I'd be willing to pay $100 annually to repel spammers and cheapskates looking for free service.
For those of you that feel the need to cater to endusers, that forum could be left open for that sort of trash. =^..^=

[zaza]

very good idea but 100$ it not very much ....

[MadCityCopy]

very good idea but 100$ it not very much ....

WAAAAAA??!?!?!?!!?

All the other forums I am on usually have a spot where you can buy a premium membership which lets you access things that most regular members cant access. Also allows more PM's, icons, and custom crap. Id be open to the idea just to get the spammers out but 100$ a year is kinda a lot for me.

[Ducttape n Glue]

I thought that the idea of a free content site that has the ads cover costs is the most viable for volume of traffic, also the more traffic the more advantage you get in searches, hence more members, etc. The most expensive premium site I am a member of costs me $20.00 per year. Membership has benefits, but historically it kills forums. I am sure many members here have left some other tech forum that started to charge and limit what was available to the free membership. If it is an elite club of strictly technicians, I am sure that can be added to the site, and money, $100 worth, would be the determining factor as to what makes you a technician. Spammers, some yea, but one learns real soon and easily to ignore that and then it becomes invisible. As for endusers being trash.........well, they do pay my bills in the long run and online, they can be totally ignored.

[nmfaxman]

I ignore cheapskates and spammers.
Charging $100.00 is awful high considering a copier techs pay.
Most are looking for easy fixes that someone else has run into.
Charging for the site would chase them off.

[peterepeat]

I do like the idea of filtering out the spammers, hit&runners & others without conscience. But we also know that some are far more helpful than others around here & charging them money to give out their free advice on their own time may not be the best solution either. Maybe a solution could be found in the middle whereby you are discounted proportionately to your contribution or pay-per-thread if you are asking questions.

That being said i definitely would pay $100 to be a member here...worth every penny!

[vincent64]

I ignore cheapskates and spammers.
Charging $100.00 is awful high considering a copier techs pay.
Most are looking for easy fixes that someone else has run into.
Charging for the site would chase them off.

I have to agree, I dont have the extra money for it, I have been in the business for 11 years now, and its not the best pay, also have a 18 month old at home as well...there aint no free time or extra money to join a forum membership.

[charm5496]

idea is good, but I wouldn't pay it. I jump on here to help out those who have questions or problems and have only asked 2 questions since joining. Have many other things I can do for free

[Jules Winfield]

Horrible idea. No matter how much you paid you would still have to deal with at least one spammer...

If you want your own little club you should just create your own site, then you could ban whoever you want whenever you feel like it.

[MadCityCopy]

Or maybe we can get the ban hammer going on the next person who asks "How can I reset the copy count on myrefurbished machine that I sold to a customer as new?"

[TheOwl]

There are pros and cons to both paid and free sites. Sure, you are going to weed an absolute heap of people out of the forum if we start going paid, but in the same breath, I reckon that we would lose some valuable members.

I'll have to agree with nmfaxman that ignorance can be bliss. Like just today I got a notification that someone had replied to a thread I was subsribed to. What they did was copy and paste my answer and posted it. While it is annoying, there is no point in getting worked up about.

This also comes back to the age old debate of possible forum tests to find out if a user is a real tech or not, but a the end of the day, end users coming on here and trying to fix their own equipment only ends up generating us an income. Further to that, we don't have to reply to threads which comes back to ignorance is bliss.

[blackcat4866]

Other ideas? =^..^=

[MadCityCopy]

Maybe set a minium of posts before you can post in the general forum. All my car forums MAKE you post a intro and 5 posts before the rest of the site is open. Then based off the intro and comments following the rest will open up. I dont mean completely lock out the forum but just make it so you cant post new topics or replys. Just a thought from a noob.

[mrwho]

Although I agree with the general idea, the fact that I'm here freelancing means that if I had to pay I'd have to do it from my own pocket - and $100 is way too high for me.

[mrwho]

Maybe set a minium of posts before you can post in the general forum. All my car forums MAKE you post a intro and 5 posts before the rest of the site is open. Then based off the intro and comments following the rest will open up. I dont mean completely lock out the forum but just make it so you cant post new topics or replys. Just a thought from a noob.

I've seen this on other forums and it seems to work - at least those coming to ask for stuff on their first post either participate in order to reach the requirements (rules would have to be set so posts like "me too" and "lol" and other meaningless posts wouldn't count - maybe a voting system?) or go away at once.