Tech Section

[Tiger]

Yes you will. Especially if sections are locked off until it's paid.

Btw, just on a sidenote, is that your official business website in your sig? The one that you actually use to extol the virtues of your business to prospective customers?

Sorry do not quite understand the question, Betterhomes is my company and it's my website, yes it's advertising

[MattF]

Sorry do not quite understand the question, Betterhomes is my company and it's my website, yes it's advertising

You'd better hope your prospective customers use I.E then. Seriously, you've got some work needs doing on that to get it sorted. Try viewing it from a Moz browser. Your code is riddled with errors.

Edit: Plus it takes a coons age to load. There's a good chance they'll just click cancel or back before it completes loading.

[Tiger]

You'd better hope your prospective customers use I.E then. Seriously, you've got some work needs doing on that to get it sorted. Try viewing it from a Moz browser. Your code is riddled with errors.

Mate that woz over my head at a nuclear missile sort of height

[Tiger]

Edit: Plus it takes a coons age to load. There's a good chance they'll just click cancel or back before it completes loading.[/QUOTE]

Lucky most of our works word of mouth

[MattF]

Mate that woz over my head at a nuclear missile sort of height

Install one of these and try viewing your webpage:

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

[MattF]

Lucky most of our works word of mouth

If you're going to have it there though, nowt looks as bad as a poorly functioning page. It'd be better to either get it sorted or remove it completely. It all reflects back on you.

[nero279]

I have to disagree,

I don't think you are ever gona loose anybody for £10

really? I would not have joined if i had to pay £10 before i got in the forum

they would still get plenty for free and £10 is cheap for all the goodies that would be in the members section / wright to ask questions

what would non-paid newbies actually get of benefit to them in their predicaments?

It's already been suggested that the search function may already be disabled for unsubscribed members, although i got no way of checking this without creating another account, could someone clarify? at what point do you see the search button? can you see it as a guest, ie) before creating a free account, or can you see it once you've created an account but before paying subs?

Most newbies come in - either for buying advice, or because they have a tech problem.

The current general response for buying advice is to point them to codlords site, so the majority read that, go buy then don't visit again til they got a problem. Only a few (if indeed any) become regular visitors from day 1 at the moment, i suggest even less would if cash changing hands had to happen at that point. Even more so if they can't see just how active this forum is.

The remainder, ie) the people coming in for tech issues are unlikely to pay a tenner until they are confident that it's going to be worth that £10, ie) their question is going to be answered - If they were unable to search the tech section, and unable to post a question in it they have no way of knowing a) if their issue is a common one, so b) whether they can be confident of an answer?, and c) the extent and depth of knowledge members are willing to share on here. Therefore why would they part with £10 to join an unknown and ask a question on here that they have no way of knowing if they are going to get any more reliable an answer than they would by spending 5 minutes at the local garage that they may well already be paying to look after their surf anyway.

People come in through the tech sections, then get involved in the banter and chit-chat in the other sections, not the other way round.

[Woodzie]

Was just thinking something along the same lines, i'd be more than happy to collect in say £2 each for a days laning, or say £5 if i were to organise a weekend trip, that goes back to the forum. The only issue would be that if it was enforced then you would probably need PLI insurance as a minimum, as i'm pretty sure it would fall under MSA jurisdiction if you were to charge for a motorsport event on public roads / byways. Even if we could get around that somehow i'm still not sure this alone would cover a £30-£40 a month shortfall.

I find the idea of charging for events ludicrous .......It costs me money to organise, recce and plan food etc. I do this for the fun of it and expect the people attending just to turn up and enjoy themselves. The plain is free to all users , i do not think that this idea is an appropriate way to raise funds

If an event was organised purely to raise funds for the forum then that is a totally different kettle of fish altogether.

[Tiger]

Back to an optional donation for a silver billy big balls star then

[darkdezigns]

Back to an optional donation for a silver billy big balls star then

i want a chrome one lol

[Tiger]

i want a chrome one lol

Tart

[darkdezigns]

Tart

u know it!

[nero279]

I find the idea of charging for events ludicrous ....... It costs me money to organise, recce and plan food etc. I do this for the fun of it and expect the people attending just to turn up and enjoy themselves. The plain is free to all users , i do not think that this idea is an appropriate way to raise funds

That's a fair comment, i've been involved in several clubs where a minimal charge is made for what are effectively free activities (i.e. an individual or group of individuals with the right kit could go do the activity on their own at the same time on the same day and not pay a penny), and i've never had an issue, but thinking about it, without exception the clubs have all been affiliated to a National Governing Body or umbrella organisation of some sort, therefore they would be in a slightly different situation unless the forum was to seek affiliation to whoever is the appropriate organisation (MSA?) by doing this there would be some sort of protection for both the club and individuals - it would also move the forum from an owners forum to an offroad or enthusiasts club thereby changing the very nature of the forum which is exactly what i think we are all trying to avoid.

If an event was organised purely to raise funds for the forum then that is a totally different kettle of fish altogether.

That could perhaps work as a feasible short term solution, but it wouldn't be long before we were back in the same boat, unless we were to put on a big event as an annual thing with the sole aim being to raise a high percentage (perhaps even 100%) of the predicted upkeep costs for the following year, the practicalities of organising an event this size may well prevent it from happening anyway.

[MattF]

At the end of the day, however, as (Lucky|Jotto)? pointed out earlier, they are the only ones who know their running costs, so at the end of the day, organisation of outings such as those should be their job to see to, no-one elses. Plus, the onus would be on the organiser in the event of problems, so that is something again of which the admins should be in charge of.

Besides, they still haven't decided which road they are going to travel yet. (I sincerely hope Andy makes the right decision, might I add).

[RodLeach]

Back to an optional donation for a silver billy big balls star then

AT LAST!! someone paid attention to my idea!

I think an optional higher donation for a 'premium' membership is really the only option!

£10 gets blue star an the star sticker - £15/£20 gets silver + the star sticker plus the other "get dirty" etc etc.

Im competely with Nero that charging people before they walk in the door is a bad idea!! Theres loads of people here at the moment that a few months ago were 'newbies' - if the new newbies walked away now the site could get less traffic = slower responses = cr*p site!

Optional premium membership is the only way that it can apply to EVERYONE

setting up shops etc is fine but how many of us have stuff to sell? A family package will only apply to handful of members. Asking roughtrax etc to put money towards the site is a good idea - but how much money will it put into the kittie?

If all thats happening is were falling short £30-£40 then just a handful of us going over to a premium membership could cover that easily! If you can afford/wont pay extra - not a problem!! Have a blue star an be content that your still contributing rather then the freebie ones.

I dont wanna blow my own trumpet but so far its the only idea that will apply to EVERYONE who visits.