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@illy
I probably wouldn't want to pay because internet = free innit.
However, I think you are marketing this all wrong. As you know, the proposed subscription fee isn't just to use the forum, it is to sell things in the classified sections. What you should have said is:
Would you pay to post classified ads in the classified section?
And of course the answer is obvious. No change in demographic, no elitism, it doesn't put off new users, there is simply a fee charged in order to post classified adverts; which I think is pretty reasonable.
The more tricky part is how you break down that charge.
An annual subscription to post as many classified threads as you like? £3-£5 a year since that is what you've already hit on.
A fee per thread? You could easily set up a credits system, with a credit docked for each new thread in the classified section. A 25p fee per thread might be reasonable here.
Of course people will say that someone selling a £800 bike shouldn't pay the same as someone selling an £8 seatpost, but then it becomes a nightmare to manage and you might as well have invented eBay. Then others will claim that posting more than one item in a thread is unfair for the same fee, blah blah blah. I don't care.
I think the idea is reasonable, but I think you need to move your focus away from "a fee to use the forum" to "charging for classified ads".