Goodbye to the sellers forum.....

WinDancer

WinDancer

Feedback: +16 / =0 / -0
Joined
May 15, 1999
Messages
720
I sure wish folks had taken the time to ask for input before the drastic change.

Less than two dozen ads should say something.

I would be perfectly willing to pay an annual 'membership' fee, but the straight pay-per-ad just sucks.

There certainly doesn't appear to be much bandwidth problem now
smile.gif


Dave Evans
 
Originally posted by WinDancer:
I sure wish folks had taken the time to ask for input before the drastic change.
Click to expand...

Um ... if you've been in Area 51 for the last six months with no net access ... you haven't really missed anything ... all the posts are still here, and there's a search function....


There certainly doesn't appear to be much bandwidth problem now
smile.gif
Click to expand...

Huh???

-Cougar :{)
 
Sure, why not. We didn't bother to ask.

We didn't ask for any input.

We're just in it for the money.

THere's no bandwidth problems at all, we're only using 50% of a dedicated T1 line.

And you guys wonder why I get frustrated explaining the same stuff over and over again.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Sorry Spark,It is hard to explain how I feel.
Did not get involved in any of the discussions.Kind of agree with WinDancer on the annual fee.$5.00 or $10.00 would not break any one and that times 6000+ members might just be viable.Just another opinion.Again I am sorry.No explaination needed.


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have a"knife"day
 
Um ... it doesn't work that way. If you have a free website with 5-6,000 members and you start charging a $5 or $10 annual fee ... you don't get to multiply that by 5-6,000 members. I don't have any figures (maybe somebody else does?) but at a guess ... I think you'd be doing very well indeed to retain 500 members ... that's probably wildly optimistic. 100 would probably be a more realistic expectation. Even worse, you have a problem attracting new members ... it's not so easy to give new people enough free access to find out it's worth paying for without giving them so much free access they don't need to pay.

A lot of websites have gone that route before and very likely someone can come in here and post some figures.

We've been discussing how to make this site self-sustaining for a long time, but more discussion is very welcome ... maybe somebody can come up with a new idea ... and there's no harm in rehashing the old ones; even that might lead to something. If the current plan fails to bring in enough money, too, then we'll be back to the drawing board again.... I'm afraid charging a membership fee is a completely unworkable idea, though; this website would die like a stuck pig. <------obligatory knife content.
smile.gif


-Cougar :{)
 
I have been a member of BF for a little over a year. I really like the way things worked. The knives for sale was usually busy and active with a good mix of knives. I bought, sold and traded there from my own eclectic collection.

I am still willing to pay an annual fee [maybe for my password?]. $25.00 seems reasonable to me. New folks might be able to view everything but could not post without signing up and paying the annual fee. If the fee is done monthly you get into an accounting nightmare that would create a whole new problem. Maybe set up an auto-email that lets the members know, one time, that the fee is due. The expiration would trigger a password killer until the fee is paid.

Since I am a Buck knife collector I also use the Buck Forum. I am also getting into making a few knives, and use the makers forum. I usually also check the dealers forum for bargains. I joined the AKTI due to my exposure to their forum on BF.

I think there are more of us than you think that would pay the annual fee. I am also willing to put my money where my mouth is, and pay the fee for the past year I have already enjoyed at BF.

If you tell me whick email to use I will paypal $25.00 today. If you post a snail mail address I will mail a check today. If you decide to try my idea I will pay for the new year now also.

I feel that this is the least intrusive way to help fund the site. Once a year and business as usual.

Dave Evans

 
When you say you'd be willing to pay an annual membership fee I believe you -- I know you would -- a number of people would. Not enough people.

Ironically, if we got the membership down to 100 or even 500 members the expense of running this site would be insignificant, and the membership fees would be almost pure profit....

-Cougar :{)
 
Dave, the idea isn't to "Let's find a solution that works for a segment of the forums" but to find a solution that will work for the forums as a whole.

I know that there is a hard core group of members who wouldn't mind paying $25 - $50 for a yearly membership fee. There's no doubt about that.

The problem, however, is how you handle it - do you make the site for paying members only? You do that, and the site dies overnight. No doubt about it. And that's not an experiment I'm willing to try - because it's something we quite literally might not recover from.

So, Do you allow everyone in, and hope that enough members pay that the costs are covered? How many members have to pay $25 per month to cover just the $1500 in hosting fees? 60, right? Considering the amount of flak people are giving us on charging a measley $1.50 for a classified ad, how many do you think will be willing to pay that amount, or more? And remember, that doesn't even begin to cover the labor costs in running the site.

It makes more sense to pay as you go - if you want to sell something, you pay a dirt cheap fee.

Customizing the UBB software is a no go - every time there's an upgrade, you have to recustomize it. We've already discussed this.

I'm open for suggestions guys. But charging to post isn't going to cut it.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Originally posted by Spark:
Considering the amount of flak people are giving us on charging a measley $1.50 for a classified ad, how many do you think will be willing to pay that amount, or more?
Click to expand...

I think I'm gonna puke if I see one more misrepresentation about the real reason most forumites have reservations with the new classifieds. Spark, anyone who's read all of the debates knows that the problems are with the format, not the "measley $1.50 for a classified ad."

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Kelly
SenatorsPlace.com
AKTI Member #A000289

Deo Vindice
 
Kelly, if that is indeed the *real* reason, then how about some concrete reasons and specific points on just why it's so wrong?

I keep hearing a lot of "community" and "meeting people" and the like, but I've been looking and haven't seen any specifics to help illustrate just where this sense of community is coming from. I don't see a lot of For Sale threads where people are remembering all the great experiences they had with the knife, or how it was a gift from grandpa. They sure aren't the majority.

What I *have* seen is a bunch of posts offering something for sale, and a bunch of "you have mail" responses or BTTT. That's it. If there was any "community" being built through the For Sale threads it was happening via email.

So, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. If I can't see it, I can't see it. If there really is a community there that I was missing, it was there - but do me a favor and show me just *where* I'm wrong.

You don't like the format? Show me what you don't like about it. BTW, I've already talked to the software people about the small type and they agree that it'd be a good idea to have larger type for the description and just make it a teaser - hopefully that will show up in the next version.

But until someone starts showing me examples otherwise, I just can't put much stock into the "Community" and "Great way this used to be" arguments. But until then I find it a lot easier to believe that the majority of the problem is that people don't want to have to pay to sell something.

So, do us both a favor and lay it out for me - I've only been asking for someone to for a few weeks now and I'm not getting any sort of response on it - other than attacks on my charecter and insinuations that we're in it "for the money".

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here


[This message has been edited by Spark (edited 06-10-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Spark (edited 06-10-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Spark (edited 06-10-2000).]
 
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