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@pajamas
er... I feel like a small child who's just come downstairs to find everyone in the house dead from some weird virus..
..but I just wanted to say after reading the last coupla pages that I think the people who want this to continue without subscriptions or are arguing about how much profit VB is allowed to make are lame. The forum's massive now and the work involved to keep it running let alone administrate it must be considerable. I also know that a small number of people (I'm not among them) have been very generous in helping out when money was needed, and I'd like to see those people not have to continue bailing the forum out. I think people are taking the forum's existence for granted.
As far as paying contributors for copy - please, the reason people spend a lot of time on here and contribute (myself included) is to enjoy having a laugh and comparing knowledge and keeping in touch. You can post anything you want on here within reason and let's face it most of it's bollocks. The idea that contributors should be singled out as worthy of payment for helping grow the forum is daft - as far as I know no-one's precious about the stuff they post here. If you're precious about your copy then link to it from your own website and charge people to read it. See how many people will pay you for the privilege.
If VB made so much profit out of the subscriptions that he could buy himself a nice bike, or even a yacht - as long as he fulfilled his obligations to the subscribers to keep the forum running efficiently and in the way we have become accustomed to seeing it (ie no big brands breathing down our necks) I really would only have props for him. The forum he's furnished London with is superb and has given active members an incredible return - for nothing. If he charged £15 a year and 4000 people subscribed, as far as I'm concerned he could do whatever he wanted with the money left over after running costs were met.
He's put in the work for two years and you haven't. It's his forum and he can choose to do what he likes with it. He's sliding this in democratically because he doesn't want a load of people getting indignant at what's suddenly implemented without their consent, but for it to have evolved suggests a solution has to be found which generates a steady cashflow. It's about the forum having grown beyond a point where it can still be called a labour of love.