Tech Section

[logey79]

Does the new user title look good then?

being a bit inhibri...inibr..innebria...pi shed, i can't remember...was that your user title before? or have you just accepted it?!?!?

i'm not a whore btw...

[MattF]

per post.

You'd be continually skint.

[MattF]

old grumpy boll0cks has convinced me...

Does the new user title look good then?

[logey79]

per post.

[logey79]

10p...

[logey79]

at...

[logey79]

old grumpy boll0cks has convinced me...give me back my subs now Nigel!!!!

btw, i think unneccersary post whoring should be charged..

[nero279]

How about any major trips arranged on here a small charge is made to the attendees, maybe a fiver towards the up keep of the club forums type of thing ??

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.

Would keeping the subscription method as is, i.e.) voluntary but putting it up a few quid (thinking £12.50 or £15.00 a year rather than the current £10) cover the shortfall? OK it would be the same in that the regulars would still be subsidising the newbies

Enforced subscriptions and / or limited access doesn't sit well with me at all - Let's face it newbies are the lifeblood of the forum and as soon as we begin to lose new members the forum will begin to wind down, and as that happens even the hard and fast regulars that visit every day will begin to visit less, the forum will slow down even more... and so on.


... One thing that has also come up a few times in this thread now is relative newbies not knowing about the subscriptions, push it a bit more without enforcing it, if people don't know about the subscription they ain't going to do it! - Again i appreciate that this may well still not amount to £30 or £40 a month on it's own.

[chrisinflight]

I think there shouldn`t a forced subscription. After all the tech. info is freely available elsewhere on the internet. If the site remains reliable, interesting and friendly then people will gladly part with cash "donations". I say donations because I for one do not like being hounded for money. Those who do not donate should not be allowed to post in the tech. section or a tech. question in the General section but may research info. themselves.
A point to bear in mind. The time we devote to our trucks and hobbies fluctuates with work and family commitments so not everybody logs on regularly.

[24Seven]

I don't even have a Surf, but this site is well worth my small contribution just for the great trips I have out with the members.

I also like the fact that no one be it Members, Mods or Admins force their opinion on others, which so many forums are like IMO.

EDIT

How about any major trips arranged on here a small charge is made to the attendees, maybe a fiver towards the up keep of the club forums type of thing ??

[Doc B]

Membership Subscription

As a newboy to this site I didn't realise that there was a membership subscription. However, having searched the site I now know the score. As soon as I find my cheque book I'll post you a cheque. This is a fantastic site and it's given me a lot of help and the confidence to but a Surf. There's a '94 SSR-G 3.0 Auto with my name on it waiting to be collected (oh yes, and paid for of course!)

[MattF]

Isn't that how google ad sense works? I was under the impression that every time you used the link to a site then spent money on a purchase the site hosting the original ad got a percentage as it's fee or am I looking at this all backwards...

With those forms of advertising, however, they really are lowest on the lists of preference and returns.

[MattF]

Just to add a bit of clarity here to anyone who thinks that this is a cheap site to run and that anyone make money on it.

I'll just add first. Never thought or suggested that. I'll just add by the way that what yourself, Nigel and the others have done is an achievement and has led to a good tech archive being achieved.

Some sites ask considerably more than the £10 annual subscription and make it mandantory to pay to post. They are then able to generate enough income to mean that they can run this as their job and take a salary from it. This is not what Nigel is proposing.

Never thought it was inferred in that vein.

They have paid subscriptions as well, plus they have lots of advertisers. Remember that Yotatech is based in the States, Off roading is very big business and they have made the decision to allow limited advertising - the difference is that due to the size of the market their limits allow them more scope than we do.

But, they do use subscriptions in the same fashion as has been used here upto just. They are a choice, and not a requirement. There are multiple avenues to at least explore before automatically going in for the subscription kill point, as, in all honesty, it sounds is going to be the case regardless.

I'll rephrase my previous 'observations', slightly more subtly. It is not good to limit peoples access to the forum in a detrimental way. You may as well just start gradually winding down. It's not that the forum is not worth subscribing to, (as shown by the fact that I and many others do subscribe), but it should remain a choice, not a requirement. Also, my apologies if I have an overly pessimistic opinion of what you're final decision will be, but you'll honestly be an exception in this area if you do decide to go with other alternatives than enforced subscription or limiting facilities to non-subscribers. Much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I'll be the first to admit that I'll be damned surprised if you even attempt another alternative first. One hopes that you do, however.

[Osborne]

Would it be possible for there to be portals to places like Milners, Roughtrax, LAS etc on here, which automatically billed the referred to site a nominal amount for every hit? Lets face it, those guys ARE getting business from referrals from here, and I'm sure they'd all think it to be a fair proposal if the technicalities could be worked out.

Isn't that how google ad sense works? I was under the impression that every time you used the link to a site then spent money on a purchase the site hosting the original ad got a percentage as it's fee or am I looking at this all backwards...

[Apache]

How about some kind of shop facility that linked back to Roughtrax, LAS and Milners so that rather than people saying 'where do I buy this' they search for it on here and it tells them where they can get it and how much for. Each of the shops could pay, say, 5% of each sale to the forum towards running costs.

Would it be possible for there to be portals to places like Milners, Roughtrax, LAS etc on here, which automatically billed the referred to site a nominal amount for every hit? Lets face it, those guys ARE getting business from referrals from here, and I'm sure they'd all think it to be a fair proposal if the technicalities could be worked out.