I know it takes money to keep this forum running and I read posts where people have sold items on the forum and afterwards made a contribution to the funds 

I have contributed myself a few times since becoming a member 

Rather than relying on the occasional contribution in my mind it would be more logical to have a yearly membership fee?

This would give the people who run the forum unpaid a better idea of cash available to plan improvements to the forum that will benefit us the members.

It is up to the members to support NGF so how about making life that bit easier for those who run it for us? 

You seem to be missing an option for leave it like it is ie non paid membership and full access.

Cheers, Mike

Quote from: red_death on April 04, 2012, 01:43:32 PM
You seem to be missing an option for leave it like it is ie non paid membership and full access.

Cheers, Mike

Hi Mike,

I left that option off deliberately.

This is not an official poll by the moderators and I am not a moderator, nor would I want to be.

I am a member of many forums, mostly concerning radio control aircraft, which are run by very large companies, who moderate them, and have found when criticism is posted members dissappear.

All we are asked to do is moderate our language because there are younger members, apart from that we can write fairly much what we want.

I can only imagine that NGF is running on a shoestring and any shortfall is being met by one or more people.

No doubt things like the raffle at Christmas help, but the generosity of the companies and people who donated prizes cannot be relied upon.

The options I have listed are not going to break anyones budget, even a young person who only gets pocket money.

This poll may even be removed by the moderators I don't know, I only set it up out of curiosity.

You are entitled to voice your opinion and I hope my reply has made my reasoning clear.

Hi John

My point was more that you may be missing an option for a significant number of potential respondees, rather than a criticism of the idea that people may be happy to pay for NGF.

If you miss off a valid or desired option then you inadvertently skew the result.

Cheers, Mike

I see your point Mike but it is Johns' poll and he can put up whatever options he likes as long as they do not breach the CoC 

Lawrence

Of course he can - I was only trying to help make it more useful / informative! 

I am genuinely interested in the results, but as it stands we could have for example 100 people saying that they would be prepared to pay, but 300 people not voting as there is no relevant option for them ie a completely skewed result.

I'll butt out now.

Cheers, Mike

Fair point Mike, I'll see if I can edit the options with Johns blessing of course

if we start paying a membership (to which i would for the record) going to start costing us new members????will it open up a new can of worms as when folk start paying for something they might start wanting more for there money???

To be honest I would not be in favour of a 'membership fee'.

I have (on numerous occasions) and will continue to give donations to the Forum, because, I find it to be a great resourse and a very well run on-line community that I get a lot more out of than I am able to put back.

I would pay a 'fee' if I had to but it is like anything in life, once you change the dynamic, you also change everything associated with it - would we get less members? or a different type of member? etc

Paul

Making it charged for changes the whole thing. All of a sudden its taking free contributions from one person and charging someone else for the privilege of reading them.

Equally though if there isn't enough money to run it them something has to be done. I've no idea how much its currently costing given it appears to be hosted and using some kind of proprietary payware board software.

Hopefully the economy will pick up in the next year or two and I'll be able to push Tank some advertising fees but right now its all very dead, and the great budget pension burglary is going to hurt the model railway world as is massive postage rise.

Alan

Quote from: galway on April 04, 2012, 07:17:05 PM
To be honest I would not be in favour of a 'membership fee'.

I have (on numerous occasions) and will continue to give donations to the Forum, because, I find it to be a great resourse and a very well run on-line community that I get a lot more out of than I am able to put back.

I would pay a 'fee' if I had to but it is like anything in life, once you change the dynamic, you also change everything associated with it - would we get less members? or a different type of member? etc

Paul

I was about to reply with similar sentiments as you Paul. I think, in general, grateful forum members will make donations where they are able. It's hard to say who donates what with the way things are at the moment, only Tank and the Mods really know.

Its been my experience in similar situations that an equalising can take place when things are voluntary. Our hobby can be expensive as it is, do we really want to "exclude" those that perhaps are, at the moment, unable to donate, from a friendly forum?

Having said that, I don't really know what sort of costs are involved in running a forum, maybe with the current financial way of things, perhaps the status may have to change to preserve the forum.

Thank you for all you comments and just in case any have not read from the start, I set up this poll.

It has nothing to do with any of the moderators nor am I aware of any plan to introduce any sort of fee, I started this out of curiosity and there is no other motive than that.

I'm a member of another forum where there are 2 levels of membership. Basic membership is free and allows the usual posting and reading of all the topics and sub-forums except one.

The second level costs approx £10 per year but for that you are allowed to store your photos within the web site (up to a limit) and there is sub-forum where you can go 'off piste', so to speak, and discuss issues which you don't wish to be open for general discussion or to be viewed by non-paying members or guest browsers.

This seems to provide adequate finance for running the site without penalising those who either can't afford to or simply don't wish to pay.

On a few other forums I'm a member of there is an option for members to donate and for their donation they get a private forum that only they and other contributing members can access.

Not knowing the costs of running this forum I would say £5 is a reasonable fee to pay.

Hi Scotsoft.  This is an interesting poll.   I will be watching how it goes. :computersmile:

I liked Chinahand's idea that you could get nearly everything for free but a few things would be a benefit of full (paid) membership.   But sadly that isn't one of the voting options either!!!

But what would the extras be on here?  Selling items maybe?  The media gallery perhaps (I know that is an expensive feature).  Anything else?

Hmm, now to decide which button to push...