How many Gold members?

J

JH225

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 7, 1999
Messages
1,145
I am very curious to see some current numbers on the amount of members who have "purchased" Gold membership on the forums.

It is very obvious that the "For Sale" forums are all but dead, but the question of was it the right thing to do in charging members after several years remains. Does the new policy bring in any "real" income to the site? Remember that this was the reason that the pay to post was instituted. So, is it generating revenue? The "For Sale" forums generated a lot of traffic to the other forums, was the change worth it?

I am not saying that Kevin should or should not charge to post in the for sale section, but except for a very small number of abusers that now sell elsewhere, was it worth it in the long run? And before anyone asks why I have not purchased a Gold membership, I will say that it is due to personal reasons which have to do with respect and is not a money issue.

Also, it seem to me that the entire forums have slowed down. Whether this is due to the Summer or not is a reasonable thought, but I personally don't think so. There used to be tons of new topics every day, now there are very few, and definitely very few of any interest.

One other question I have is this. The member count is somewhere around 12,000 members. This is a running count since day one. How many members actually still post here? It's nice to see the high numbers, but what are the "Real" numbers?

Thoughts, Opinions, Let's hear them.
 
I did go for the Premium membership. I am not sure why I didn't go gold. The price is fine, even though I don't sell real often. (mostly trade. I have learned more about knives here than any other source. I just look at it like another magazine subscription. I certainly hope Spark is doing very well with the new set up.
 
In a recent thread there was a person wondering what had happened to the links section. Kevin mentioned that the new software was expensive and that he had to wait for more people to up their memberships before he could bring it back. That sounds to me like he needs more financial help.

It sure would be nice if all the people complaining about things around here would buck up with some cash. Personally, I don't think that anyone that doesn't financially support these forums has the right to complain about what they get for free.

This may not be a good topic to bring up. It seems that every time this comes up the discussion gets quite heated. It would be nice to know how we are doing for upgraded memberships though.
 
Originally posted by Jailhack
...And before anyone asks why I have not purchased a Gold membership, I will say that it is due to personal reasons which have to do with respect and is not a money issue...
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:
 
Jailhack, what kind of topics do you find interesting? I do not see that the type of topics have changed since the new system came into effect.

I also do not see that the for sale forums added much of interest to the rest of the forums. The people that took part there that no longer do were only interested in selling or buying knives. If they were interested in the rest of the forums, they would still be here.

What is it that you don't respect about Bladeforums that you do not want to support it, and if that is the case, why are you still here?

Do you have any constuctive criticism, or do you just want to criticize? If you have a solution as to how Kevin can cover the costs of running this forum without our support, bring them on.
 
Moving to the Service & Support forum....

We've recently decided discussion of policy for the website as a whole belongs in that forum where Spark will see it; even if it isn't addressed to him he needs to know what the members think, and he can't keep up with all the forums (nobody can).
 
I don't know how many gold members we have yet. I've noticed posts from a number of people who are waiting for the next time they have a knife to sell....

Traffic on all the other forums (other than the for-sale forums, I mean) continues to increase at about the same rate it always has. August is always slower than other times of year, of course.

Although there must be some members who no longer come here and are still counted in the membership total, like every forum on the net they are vastly outnumbered by the lurkers who read but never post. The ratio is usually between 10 and 20 to 1 for newsgroups, but I think web-based forums have more lurkers than that.

It would be hard to call the new system a "failure" by any standard.... We're getting some money coming in from it, however little it might be. The only down-side is members can no longer post for-sale ads without paying -- here. They still can in other parts of the net....
 
First off, I asked some simple and straightforward questions. This was not intended to be a start to a bitching match. It was intended to be an intelligent topic with intelligent answers amongst adults, obviously some others have other intentions, so......

KWM,
"It sure would be nice if all the people complaining about things around here would buck up with some cash. Personally, I don't think that anyone that doesn't financially support these forums has the right to complain about what they get for free."

I don't remember myself saying I was complaining other than the fact that some obvious younger members are either trolling or are just plain idiots. As for other members, I could care less if they complain or not. It's none of my business. And BTW, I was one of the first members to subscribe to the VERY short lived E-magazine. When it went down, I told the owners of this site to keep my money as a token of my gratitude. I didn't even receive a thank you :(

KWM,
"This may not be a good topic to bring up. It seems that every time this comes up the discussion gets quite heated."

Are we not adults who can discuss things in a civil manner? Or maybe this is Mr.Rogers neighborhood where everything is perfect?

RGRAY,
:rolleyes:

You don't even have a clue:rolleyes:

KWM,
"I also do not see that the for sale forums added much of interest to the rest of the forums."

Besides the obvious abusers of the for sale forums, a lot of other members don't post here anymore either. The more traffic generated in the FS forums, the more traffic will flow into other forums, real simple.

KWM,
"What is it that you don't respect about Bladeforums that you do not want to support it, and if that is the case, why are you still here?"

Like I said, PERSONAL reasons dealing with respect. Why am I still here? I will not let the immaturity and uncourteous manners of some spoil the forums for me. There are still some good subjects now and then.

KWM,
"Do you have any constuctive criticism, or do you just want to criticize? If you have a solution as to how Kevin can cover the costs of running this forum without our support, bring them on"

Constructive criticism? Myself and tons of others have thrown tons of ideas out there, mostly onto deaf ears:(

Cougar,
"We've recently decided discussion of policy for the website as a whole belongs in that forum where Spark will see it; even if it isn't addressed to him he needs to know what the members think, and he can't keep up with all the forums (nobody can)."

I posted the question in General figuring that Kevin and many others would see it and maybe shed some light. I think the vast majority of members don't even know this particular forum exists. Period.

Cougar,
"It would be hard to call the new system a "failure" by any standard...."

Never said it was a failure, I was just inquiring as to the status of the current system.

Tombstone,
"There goes the Neighborhood!!!"

;)

Now how's about getting back to the original questions without all of the rude comments? Or did we leave our courtesy at the door when we came in?
 
Originally posted by Jailhack
First off, I asked some simple and straightforward questions. This was not intended to be a start to a bitching match. It was intended to be an intelligent topic with intelligent answers amongst adults, obviously some others have other intentions, so......
Click to expand...

SURE!:rolleyes:

I don't think it is any of your business how many gold members there are since you aren't one.

Why would you be so curious?

I think the question is in bad taste.
 
It seems an amazing number of members don't know this forum exists, in spite of all the announcements and posts stuck to the top of the most popular forums explaining this is the place to post bug reports etc. They'll see the redirect to this thread I left in General and read this thread, but whether it will dawn on everybody who reads this thread (including this post) that there's a Service & Support forum here ... I am not optimistic. I still keep seeing bug reports scattered all over the forums ... and complaints that nobody ever answers them or listens to their problems....

Posting this question in General was not at all dumb; it's only very recently we decided Service & Support is the place for general policy discussions (used to be either General or TGB&U, usually). But posting bug reports all over everywhere in spite of all the announcements about this forum is stupid! :(

Fortunately the new vBulletin software makes it very easy to move threads and leave a redirect in the original forum (so essentially the thread is in both forums) and now we have three super moderators to run around moving threads etc., so things should start to get better organized around here -- at least bug reports are getting moved to the Support forum and Spark is seeing them and fixing the bugs -- that alone is a great improvement.

Besides some matters of opinion, some factual questions have been raised. First, most members will never sign up for any of the premium memberships, no one in his right mind would ever expect that, and no one in his right mind would try to tell them they are somehow morally obligated to. That is not the attitude of the Bladeforums administration -- Spark and some of the rest of us have made that very clear -- and if some dork tries to tell you otherwise, tries to tell you you're not a "real" member and especially if he tries to tell you you have no right to participate in policy discussions -- well, he's a dork; that's all I can tell you. Don't pay any attention to him....

Message to the dorks: Most members have not paid for premium memberships and most members never will. Live with it.

Other factual questions: has traffic gone down? No, it hasn't. Spark posted some statistics for about five or six forums in one of these threads; I don't recall which one -- but surely you can see for yourself; you can see how fast threads slip off the front pages of the various forums -- sheesh, it wasn't long ago you could visit the general forum just once a day and never have to look at the second page....

Often people complain nothing much interesting has been posted lately. I feel that way myself sometimes; there are times when there seems to be nothing much of interest to me posted for a week or more -- but I've noticed when other people make that complaint I am never in agreement; seems they're interested in different things than I am....

Anyway the solution to that is to write some interesting posts.

Did Bladeforums get most of its members (or a substantial minority, even) from the for-sale forums -- people who came here for the for-sale forums and got lured into the rest of Bladeforums from there? No. The great majority of members have never posted in the for-sale forums. (I certainly don't mean to imply the for-sale forums are unimportant; every forum here is important to the denizens of that forum, and they have just as much right to consider their forum important as the denizens of any other forum, whether their numbers are large or small.)

We're such a big community now that no one person can keep up with all the traffic, and we're so split up.... Many members only go to one forum. Many of them are only vaguely aware that other forums exist here....

I can't answer the question of how many have signed up for gold membership, or the other premium memberships, either. I expect Spark will answer that when he sees this thread ... I think he must have suddenly acquired a life or something; I haven't seen a post from him all day. Of course, he could have posted in one of the many forums I don't read, but I doubt it -- he keeps up with this forum religiously. He must be away from his computer today.
 
Cougar,

Thank you for an intelligent and informative answer to the questions I put forth. I still wonder about the numbers, but I suspect that Kevin will add to this discussion at some point in the future.

RGAY,
1. Grow up. Who the F**k made you the Goderator of these forums?
2. Why am I so curious? Why not? I am sure lots of others are too.
3. Bad taste? The only thing that is in bad taste is your assinine replies. So, do us all a favor and STFU.
 
Cougar,I appreciate your comments regarding certain premium and gold members.I have never said anything about this,but every time I see a post by one of these self proclaimed elitist P&G members,saying that only they should be allowed to post here,it really pisses me off.At one point I had considered not posting at BFC because of it.Thankfully,they are in the minority.
 
Some of the Gold members have to get off this, if your not a Gold member your opinions don't matter crap.If anything it is not going to attract membership but turn people off from it.IF you want to disagree or argue with someone than thats you business,but whether someone is a basic or gold member don't mean SH**!!
 
You people are correct. Whether you have paid for a membership or not, you have the right to voice your opinions about this forum. If that right were taken away it would be the same as making you a second class member and that is not something that I advocate at all. My apologies to those I have offended.

I still feel that bitching without having anything constructive to add is useless and serves no purpose. Jailhack I obviously missed your posts where you had ideas that might show different ways that this forum could find the revenues it needs to survive. I would be interested in reading these.
 
I don't understand why people keep saying that there are hardly any new posts. Seems like if I don't check General in the morning and at night I end up scrolling through 2 pages of posts. It's like that in other forums too. Community seems to do well, political is a bit slow lately but I'm sure that will change with the season. W&C has picked up, maybe not for the better, but traffic has increased. There are still a decent amount of posts in the Exchange, enough to allow me to find a knife that interests me.

You may not like the quality of the posts, but the quantity is still there. I see at least one new member join every day and many times I don't see them post. That tells me they are lurking.

Personally I don't care if someone buy a membership or not, everyone has their reasons. I felt this site was of great benefit to me, so I helped to support it. I've bought products and even a CD copy of the website from other sites that I feel have benefitted me in some way.

Back in the days of the dial-up BBS, years before the internet became mainstream, we had BBSs that were growing very large. Some of these began making restrictions on non-paying members, such as 10 minutes of usage a day or no access to the doors. They quickly failed to exist since many people wouldn't pay and the NEED for the money would disappear with the users. I never pay a "required" membership fee because it feels too much like the IRS.

Kevin on the other hand, didn't take anything from non-paying members other than an opportunity to make money. They still have the option to participate in the forums and even buy from the for-sale forum. No one is forced to pay and I think most people did to help support the forums. Many of us spend HOURS a day on the forums, reading and posting. I spend more time on the forum than I do watching TV, Talking with friends, etc. $30 a year seemed like a very small price to pay to help keep this place here.

This isn't just a place about knives, its a place to meet friends that have common interests. I have met many great people here and most of them are more trust worthy than anyone I've met in public.
 
Sorry for the delay in responding, I had to drive to Georgia and back yesterday, and I'm wiped out.

Currently we have 270 paying members, including a few dealers, or roughly 2% of the membership - which is what I expected. While not covering all bills, this does help a bit, and hopefully this will continue on in the future.

Guys, please don't pressure people into buying memberships. I'd rather have 1000 members who want to be here, instead of 10000 who were guilted into it.

Kevin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top