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!

[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.

[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

[kingjames]

I think the info on this site should only be available to it's members (paid members).I have changed my views on this subject for the following reasons.

1. The info obtained here through our discussions have driven the prices through the roof on ebay and I think we are somewhat the cause of people parting out complete system's. I am guilty of this as I have parted a few pairs recently on the bay. I felt the cabinets were beyond repair but I am no woodworker and maybe this should be left to the experts in wood working.

2.This is an apprasial house whether you like it or not.People come here to see what their stuff is worth then realize through our discussions that it is easy to part stuff out on the bay and make huge sums. They are not interested in discussions and their only involvement is to learn what they can get for something.This would be eliminated by a fee.

3.Spammers like it here because they know there is a good number of people here at any given time. This would be eliminated by a fee.

4.All you have to do is look on ebay and see how many system's are being parted out,quite a few lately and it's going up every week. Where do you think they get their info from? You don't even have to be a member here and you get free apprasial's just by reading.This has to stop or there ain't gonna be no JBL'S to buy (complete systems anyway).

5.This site is the best in the business where JBl is concerned,it even has more info then JBL's site.We are now in a world where the word Free has consequences.If you want to stop the upward prices of JBL parts, if you want to keep the remaining sytems together for future generations,if you want to restrict this info to a handful of people,then you must charge a fee to eliminate the people who's only interest in JBl ,is monetary.