Membership Fee?

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Membership fee

This idea of the membership fee seem to have generated a lot of controversy in this forum. why can't we now sample it all up and subject it to" REFERENDUM VOTE " to decide its fate? I am a junior member member of this forum, but I have noticed that some of the quality of the posts leaves a lot to be desired, especially from from some members whom I have some doubt about their technical background. The quality of a useful forum like this can indeed be greatly improved by introducing a user fee, but this should be minimal. People generally have low opinion about free things. I SUPPORT the Idea of a special SUB-FORUM in which TECHNICALLY QUALIFIED / ELITIST members can subscribe to, but this as others have already suggested must be a REAL RESOURCE CENTER, where the members can have access to technical bulletins, service manuals, SSTs, share detailed ideas and the like. The site owners/ADMIN. on their part should make it an absolute responsibility on their part to link up with the manufacture's reps to ensure that the resource library is well stocked for its members.

[prntrfxr]

I believe in the reverse situation.
The Newer members might have to enroll for $50 and the veterans give their advise to the newbies for a fee.
The veterans get on the forum free as they are passing their knowledge onto the uninitiated for a $50 yearly fee.

Or the forum could be run like the military with ranks. As you progress up the rep-ranks you get more privileges ?

Anyway I'm not sure the above would allow for the best forum practices in any case............

New members who have never posted before, will not see the need to post until he/she gets to see some of the responses to their questions. Having a general free forum also lets us weed out the endusers from techs who at least have a clue. The general forum doesn't have access to manuals or step-by-step instructions. Unless they are helping each other. Military ranks will create resentment between members, especially if some people are elevated by their friends.

I would pay a one time fee of $50 if I got to share manuals and technical information. To me that would be a tech that is serious about what they are doing. There should be a minimum post limit or time limit added to the fee as requirements. Seeing their posts before they get the elite membership will enable the forum to weed out problem people and/or spammers. If they get kicked out of the elite membership and decide to create a new persona they have to pay the $50 again and go through the rookie post/waiting period. That would reduce the "crazy" here without penalizing the members who are truly serious.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Very good ideas, i hope the debate continuous until such a time when a consensus can be reached on the issue.

[Stirton.M]

Alright this is something to keep idle hands busy for the weekend,.

Speaking of spammers......

[Stirton.M]

[Lower rep points]
Hahaha I did that... I happend to "hiss-off" the forum sys-op on my very first post. I believe that earned me -10 rep points or there abouts ? Hey I was just doing the sys-op a favour. He didn't really see the positive aspects of negative customer feedback being able to improve the overall forum experience. Basically if the customer is unhappy they go somewhere else. Only negative feedback can give you those results. Which should "never be viewed as a negative" but as a positive step towards better business improvements.

I really didn't mind the negative rep points though, hahaha...

Oooh aah oooh ahh whip me, beat me ooh aahh....

I don't advocate ganging up on someone. And I as I said, there should be a forum for those with such grievance to air that...here as an example. If they have a valid argument about abuse against them, that is fine, they should get their status restored. But if they abuse the forum, such as spamming, or for that matter trolling, negative reaction from the community should curb that activity in a hurry, in other words, you cannot post in the regular forum until you come here to plead your case. I don't mean just one or two negative tags, I mean several in a row from several people. The spammers, most of us (I hope), myself included, tag those via the report triangle. If enough of us tag the guy, they cannot post any further until they plead their case here.

Truth be told, I do not know if that is even possible to do with the current programming of this site. I could be wrong, but ideas such as this do not come out of thin air, they come out of clear identifiable problems.

[Jules Winfield]

It's going to be sad to see this site go down the tubes if you guys get your way. I guess we'll have to be on the lookout for a new one.

[blackcat4866]

IMHO it will only go down the tubes if it becomes another Smarka. Just a bunch of scavengers looking for free stuff. =^..^=

[OMD-227]

Most ridiculous idea I've ever heard! This ain't a porn site, or am I looking in the wrong area??

Nice one Dave..... geeez mate, way to cause some chaos!!

[blackcat4866]

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

Just discussion, that's it. It's been a great conversation. No hate mail. No threats. Everything's cool. By the way, thanks everyone for your opinions. =^..^=

[pjdbm]

Interesting reading this thread, I personally dont like when endusers are in an area for techs, they should be in a separate area and if any of the techs here want to answer them they can at their will.

As far as paid site or not I wont get into, however just to let you know that there are advertisements here and they work on clicks. More clicking being done by "whoever" the more money is generated for the site and also bolsters the sites google ratings which is very important unless your site is private.

[Aneurysm]

This site if free to use and will more then likely stay that way for a long time. Private forums are difficult to grow and maintain activity on and less activity means less revenue. Less revenue means the bills don't get paid.

I have thought about having a subscribers area with some premium content but I'm not sure what that content would be. I don't want to get into the service manual business but any other suggestions would be welcome.

Would anyone be willing to pay a few bucks a year to block ads from showing when they are logged into the site? If so, how much seems reasonable?

Again, THIS SITE IS FREE TO USE and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for participating,

Aneurysm
Copytechnet.com (the 337th most popular website in Trinidad & Tobago)

[Stirton.M]

As far as paid site or not I wont get into, however just to let you know that there are advertisements here and they work on clicks. More clicking being done by "whoever" the more money is generated for the site and also bolsters the sites google ratings which is very important unless your site is private.

SPAMMER!!!!

[mrwho]

Would anyone be willing to pay a few bucks a year to block ads from showing when they are logged into the site? If so, how much seems reasonable?

Ads don't bother me. You could, however, create a "Donate" option - there are times when I have a few bucks left on my paypal accoun t, and it isn't the first time I used those leftovers to donate to a site or charity.

You should consider more moderators, though - the post right after yours clearly shows that!

[pjdbm]

Bravo to you Aneurysm for a good attitude with this. Your are 100% right, private forums do not grow they are what they are.

Clicks are everything with ads and ads pays the bill.

I may want to add a complement to this forum you have here, I been around since mid 90's and this is the most active and productive forum I have seen.

You have some great talent here as well and they all should be well applauded! Blackcat,screwtape and Teckat have helped me out over and over.

Thanks for the site and thanks for the help

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Thanks a lot Aneurysm, you have educated me. I had not thought that far.