What would you do if the forum had a subscription fee (to post classifieds, etc)?

Not really talking about the IT stuff...........

What if the forum takes more than 6k a year?

Velocio donates money to good causes but if he makes money why is that a bad thing? Know what a really good site/server admin costs per year? I do. Know how much time and effort it takes to run a site this size? I have a good idea. I also know what he does for a living and have a very good idea at what an hour of his time would cost a customer.

If he can take home an extra couple of quid for his time and efforts then why not?

Does Vb have to keep records of who paid?

Software would track that

Does VB have to be transparent about how he spends the money?

Hell no...that's my opinion.

Edd13, why when £3 donation is suggested, would you jump to at least a £5 annual fee?

I don't have a problem donating money to the forum. As other people have said, i have benefited from it, gained knowlege, and generally had a good experience with it. However, i'm not sure that having a joining/annual fee is such a good idea.
IMO it would completey change the dynamics of the forum, and not neccessarily for the better.
I have entered this debate with little in the way of alternatives which probably belittles my oppinion. Maybe collecting money every once in a while from drinks/rides would be a good idea. People would be a lot more willing to hand over some cash whilst under the influence.
I just think it might seriously stop people from wanting to use the forum, and discourage new members, which in my oppinion isn't a positive thing. But, having said that, i'm sure there are members who think that diluting the membership would be a good thing, and on this page at least there seems to be a lot of support for an annual fee. I would pay the fee for as long as i enjoyed using the forum. But i don't think it's a good idea.

No problem. No question.
£3 isn't really a pint is it? I'd pay more.....

I was just wondering who is paying for this forum.

£3 for year looks very honest, why not!

Also it may prevents to many accounts not really used.

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Does VB have to be transparent about how he spends the money?

.

No. He is providing a service and if he charges for it and makes a tiny profit it is no more than he deserves. Is your newsagent transparent about what he does with his earnings? Of course not. If the site made VB into a Google-style billionaire, I am sure we would all be happy and keen to be his friend. Sadly it is unlikely to to make anything approximating that. We can all strive to be his friend anyway.

Would more than happily pay £3 per annum, I've donated a couple of times and it's a tiny price to pay for all the good stuff that comes with being a member, the beers, the friends, the stuff for sale, and all the funny cunts slinging abuse at each other all day, priceless! :)

Velocio donates money to good causes but if he makes money why is that a bad thing? Know what a really good site/server admin costs per year? I do. Know how much time and effort it takes to run a site this size? I have a good idea. I also know what he does for a living and have a very good idea at what an hour of his time would cost a customer.

If he can take home an extra couple of quid for his time and efforts then why not?

Software would track that

Hell no...that's my opinion.

I have not said anywhere it's a bad thing for VB to make a bit of money......

will software fill in the tax returns and all the associated admin stuff that will grow and grow?

Go for it marcom, while it's still free ;o)

I have entered this debate with little in the way of alternatives which probably belittles my oppinion.

I don't think that detracts from your opinion in any way.

Maybe collecting money every once in a while from drinks/rides would be a good idea. People would be a lot more willing to hand over some cash whilst under the influence.

The one issue with this approach is that it remains the same smallish groups of people who give on a regular basis. Not everyone can attend the drinks sessions or all the rides for various reasons.

Ive only just joined, but would be happy to pay 3quid.
I think Velocio is being pretty honest bout the situation and defo deserves not to lose moneys.

I have not said anywhere it's a bad thing for VB to make a bit of money......

will software fill in the tax returns and all the associated admin stuff that will grow and grow?

DaveH, do you work for HMRC? :P

I would assume that if it got to that stage, then Velocio would have another decision to make.

I couldn't care less how much VB made off of it, good for him if he made loads.

I hardly know the guy, yet the work he's put in helping this forum grow has changed my life this last year. In fact I might as well say it now: thanks to this forum I'm pregnant with greasy's child.

DaveH, do you work for HMRC? :P

I would assume that if it got to that stage, then Velocio would have another decision to make.

Busted...........only jokin.

In my opinion i think it will not take that long to get to that stage. This forum is growing very fast.

I think a Sponser would be better if VB didn't want to turn this into a full time job.............but if he did then he should!

Yours!

Where do we send the dough then?

£3 is fine.

You could also sell T-Shirts or something. I'd buy one.

Yeah I'd have to do tax returns for it. Keep it above board, and there's probably extra stuff I haven't thought about (like having to have a registered company for it or something daft).

But if the burden of doing tax stuff is the downside to having a revenue model that funds the servers and prevents me from desperately running around cap in hand every now and then (which I do hate doing) then I think it's worth it.

Software can track everything, and I'm scarily good at software.

What else? No-one was really getting a free ride off of me. I do subsidise the difference between income and outgoings, but the google adverts for guests have pretty much saved our arse by providing a steady £60 > £70 per month, and the T-Shirts last year paid for months and months of time, and on top of that there have been donations and fund-raisers.

So I haven't been the sole person paying, the community has more than stepped up and has in fact carried the weight of the monthly hosting costs. But I seldom included in the costs things like domains, software, support (optimisation help), etc... because I didn't want to unfairly burden the finances and it tended to be a little here and there. My concern for the future is simply the extra server costs doesn't translate to an increase in revenue each month, and whereas before the monthly negative would be absorbed by the fund raising and merchandising, it's harder to do that when the costs are higher.

The proposal is good because it does a few things:
1) It reduces the risk to the income by spreading it thinly over a great many people... a few people leaving or not donating wouldn't hurt.
2) It more fairly spreads the burden by making each person pay a little rather than a few people keep donating the most... though perhaps this could be seen as unfair as we don't know what this means in terms of proportion of disposable income, but then... we're only talking the price of a beer each year.
3) It helps solve the classifieds problem by creating a low artificial barrier for spam, and by helping the forum be funded by those who profit from it.

Happy to pay £3! Suppose i should just make a donation really!

Also think non donors seeing adds would be a good solution depending on the revenue you could get from minimal adverts.

I would pay as well. One thing though, I haven't been a member long but I've been here long enough to see a few exciting situations and I wonder if by providing a service that people are paying for you'd have a harder time banning people?

I'm sure you can think of situations where you've temporarily stopped someone's account, but if they'd paid would you have as much freedom to control?

Am I way off? Maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

I have learnt loads on this forum, and even though I am no longer London based I would be happy to contribute. If that is allowed of course, I know some people are a bit funny about it.

+1 Serk. Was just thinking that....

Three quid is about ninety pound cheaper than my therapist and I get better advice around here

Re: banning. We so seldom do, there's only been a few cases in the 2+ years the forum has existed.

But what to do about it? Hmmm... how about, buy 1 day for £3, get 365 free! That way after that first day I can boot your arse for no cost to either of us ;)

It's all in the wording.

I voted other. I think that optional donations works well, with no restrictions for those that don't. In my experience those that want to will donate a lot more than you would ask for as an 'enforced' donation.

Three quid is about ninety pound cheaper than my therapist and I get better advice around here

Aint that the truth! :)

Would the subscription fee warn off spammers and trolls?