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

I've been using to forum for a month or so, but I would be more than willing to pay £3 or €4.

I don't see what the problem is, if you are posting an ad you are going to be making money and it's fair to say it would be very easy to make your £3 back in a year

maybe make it £10 quid to start a thread !!
Do this. Dicki speaks sense.

i don't mind the idea of a subscription if it is workable for you david. don't mind at all. maybe we all just need to remember to donate more often. i really don't think you should be out of pocket or have to come cap in hand.

i really don't think a subscription fee should be linked to the classifieds though. they are just a part of the forum. i wouldn't single them out because they have numbers in.

i also echo what skully and tynan say.

Things can sold outside of classifieds as well. People could simply advertise stuff for sale on a general thread...

...which can be stopped quickly and simply by reporting/removing

...which can be stopped quickly and simply by reporting/removing

Which will be lots of fun and very friendly and fit right in with the ethos the forum has had to date.

I vote for selling merchandise, selected advertising ideally in the form of competitions/raffles etc for which people pay a few quid to enter.

not wanting to piss on your chips DFP but who's going to create the merchandise, get it produced, distribute it etc? that kind of stuff takes bloody ages to do and the idea is to make less work for Velocio

Horatio, I was just explaining a fairly simple solution to that 'problem'. Whether or not such actions change the way the forum is perceived (and/or acts) is a different question for me.

Personally, if there were a subscription for this forum I'd want it to be for more than just the classifieds section as I hardly ever buy/sell anything and as you've said, it's a good thing to get as many people as possible selling their wares on here.

As for the origin of the suggestion I think giving back to the forum shouldn't just be down to those who sell stuff and get £££ out of it. A lot of us get something from this forum that's worth more than money and should contribute to it's survival. If a subscription system works better than the way it is now then I'm all for it.

If your intention is only to make ends meet re: running costs, what about a '£ made, £ needed' for the month, like they have on some torrent websites? I think fostering an environment where donations are more prevalent might be a better idea for the moment. Maybe there could be some kind of league table of donators, or donations are made more public, to make it more of an incentive?

I like this idea alot. As lpg and others say I think a payed membership would alter dynamics.

A graphical village fete style bar / thermometer, reset every month (showing negative balance if deficit from previous month exists) showing how far off of the monthly cost we at all times. Watch it rise through out the month, may be something to automatically raise the profile/ "notice-ability" of the bar if the required amount has not been raise 3, 4 , 5 whatever days before deadline. Any surplus money can be put aside as a buffer for any repeated negative moths or into profit.

Keep extra money raised via other methods as a buffer or as profit or whatever you want.

not wanting to piss on your chips DFP but who's going to create the merchandise, get it produced, distribute it etc? that kind of stuff takes bloody ages to do and the idea is to make less work for Velocio

I've got fuck all to do this summer, after late june.
didn't get my dream job in NZ so at a bit of a loss.
if anyone works in a hospital/hospice/ aspergers unit/ dementia center and needs a porter/ assistant/ carer/ etc. please let me know, or if you know of anyone looking for that, also let me know.

Also on the note of the forum and selling and paying for the use:

Either:
I think 5% of anything sold through the forum should go to the forum.

or:
£5 per year full capabilities - selling, unlimited PMs, unlimited thread starting potential, no adverts
Free: Adverts, limited PMs, limited threads, no sales.
Adverts should be non text invasive, banner on the side or top or something.
I'm sure I could find some companies who'd want to reach this site's viewers.

or the ideal situation where both occurs.
I'd be happy with that.

Or we should go on dragons den.
all of us.
that's be fun

and for that reason, I'm out…

£3 donation a year is nothing. I'd be down with that. I'd agree with everyone who's been saying that there might various boring legal/administrative hurdles that you were heading for further down the line.

Personally, if VB makes an annual plea for donations, non-subscription related, I would probably donate more than £3 depending on how skint I was at the time.

Either way works for me, I just figure community 'donations' won't have the related monotonous administration, arguments and legal requirements that a subscription 'fee' would have.

But I don't really have any objection to the original proposal anyway. If it keeps the forum running I'm in to it.

Psychotherapy is insurmountably more expensive than £3 and it doesn't come with beer and polo. I say yeah yeah!

i'd pay without hesitation.

I'd be willing to pay for the polo section and the classifieds section, way more than £3. In fact I'll be making a donation this payday.

How about this too, cache the forum every 10 mins (or less often), only subscribers get to see the live forum, would cut server load and with the classifieds section would give subscribers an advantage over non-subscribers.

An idea here then.

Make the doughnuts button bigger

+yeah

I'd pay £5 to touch Ray's face…

press the touch button

I'd be willing to pay for the polo section and the classifieds section, way more than £3. In fact I'll be making a donation this payday.

How about this too, cache the forum every 10 mins (or less often), only subscribers get to see the live forum, would cut server load and with the classifieds section would give subscribers an advantage over non-subscribers.

There wouldn't be a fee for the polo, rides or any other section that directly promotes getting on a bike. You wouldn't have to subscribe to buy stuff either... just to sell stuff.

I don't want to create barriers at all. In fact, most of my concern over the idea is about that, about scaring people off or being pushy, or making the forum less welcoming. There are a couple of reasons why donations have been anonymous to date, and part of this is very much that I didn't want someone who is broke to feel that they can't participate because they hadn't donated.

It's really important to me that the basic function of the forum, to be open and welcoming and to promote, support and encourage use of cycles (specifically fixed and SS)... continue regardless of whether a subscription model is adopted.

So the subscription would only cover premium services or things that you can profit from... such as creating your own areas, or selling stuff, etc. All of the core functionality will be offered without requiring a subscription.

I still fundamentally prefer registered users who aren't donors to not see adverts too. I think that there should be a compelling reason to register (no adverts, participation) as well as a compelling reason to subscribe (sell stuff, premium features).

I don't think that the whole site should only be accessible by subscribers, and I hope that no-one interpreted the idea that way. It's not exclusive, I wouldn't want to be running something like that.

As for company and liability stuff, all that would happen is that I would formalise the notion that the company created provides a communication service and merchandise... I would still fight against becoming a publisher, and I wouldn't want ownership of content at all, etc. A user agreement would cover the usage policy, and just like you can get kicked from your ISP without refund, abuse of policy would carry the same risk. It's pretty standard stuff if you come from a communication service perspective rather than a magazine/publisher perspective.

Just out of interest, are there any costs that can be pared down without affecting the general functionality of the board. I know we have a bunch of cool functions and stuff here, but are we using them all enough to justify them and if not, can you save money by doing away with them?

I'm not sure about anyone else but most of my experience here is read thread, laugh, post new comment. A lower tech version of the board need not nessecarily be a bad thing.

Good call.
More than happy to pay...
Amazed you haven't had to do it til now.

Not really. Concurrent users are the real problem. If you could all agree to ration your usage and spread it evenly around the clock then we could reduce the concurrent usage and we could probably spare the need for the other server.

We could start a list and allocate an hour each of posting:
9am-10am: Velocio

tsk, I think we moved from a lower tech version of the board, because of the take up in members, it wouldn't have survived with the numbers that were using it, and vBulletin allows our illustrious leader more space and time to turn off and on functionality when required. I'm willing to be corrected on this if I'm wrong.
Not sure turning off functions would make the forum cheaper to run though..