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

I would happily pay £3. I would probably pay a lot more within reason. I am on here a lot so it'd be worth it. Also, I have at times sold things (especially recently) through the forum which I am very grateful for. I like to think that as a regular contributor it was not unreasonable for me to do so. I would gladly pay a sellers fee for this if there was one. When donations came up a few weeks ago, I immediately gave some money, partly in recognition of my benefitting from the forum. It's a great place to be and I feel like I've made some great friends here. So, based on those points and others made already, it's a yes from me.

BUT

If I wasn't already on here I might think differently. I am fully aware that £3 isn't much at all but I do believe that it would act as a barrier to new people. Some people don't have paypal and it'd be a bit of a faff anyway. If I wasn't sure whether or not to sign i might not bother if I had to pay. There are certain other kinds of websites that lots of us use that we specifically don't pay for.

Someone stated upthread that a fee would keep the rif-raf out and I agree with this to a certain extent, not because "people with more money are more interesting/entertaining" as Platini so sarcastically put it, but because we only really want people here who want to be here. However, I think it's good that there is a good turnover of people. If you think back there have always been core people (i won't mention names), people who stick around for a fair while, those who pop up now and again and some that barely stay at all. After that there are probably hundreds of people lurking silently in the shadows. I think it keeps things fresh. perhaps a fee would make it psychologically exclusive. There are enough in-jokes as it is and I think to make it any more of a club would be problematic. Whilst perhaps expensive in the long term to fund a popular forum as Velocio has, it's cheap/free to do in the first instance and it'd be a shame if there was a rival!

Velocio/David does an absolutely awesome job with this place, to the point that he is sometimes taken for granted. I think that that's OK as it allows the place to be a real community with no 'leaders'. Those who spend enough time here however get to understand the setup and I'm sure really appreciate his efforts. Could fees be related to how much you use the forum, i.e. free to join with a fee for those wanting to sell things or start threads (a one-off fee I mean, not each time).

One thing that differentiates between this forum and others that I know of is that this one seems more real. People here meet up all the time in the real world and we've (not me personally I should add) organised dozens and dozens of great events of all descriptions, some only tenuously linked to bicycles. We are good at this and in the past we have raised money to pay for overheads and expensives. would that not be a more friendly and diplomat way of generating funds? could some of us who feel inclined to use our initiative to make some moolah? Or has that not proven effective in the past?

Like I said before, I'd be very happy to pay myself, I'm just trying to think of how it might change things.

Thanks.