Membership Fee

[Art]

LeoAU,

I never wanted to have a fee which was required by all to pay. That's why I asked for donations first. If the donation system doesn't work, then most likely you will see some sort of a small general membership fee imposed on a yearly basis. The few members that have contributed so far have really helped. I paid for this years server bill in September, and the money donated will pay for the next. It would be great if the money was plentiful enough so I could research getting the site onto a faster server, but I'm not going to invest the time and energy unless the money is there to back me up.

Regarding banning..there are no special rights granted to those who donate. If you went to the movies and yelled "FIRE" in the theatre..I don't think you'd get your ticket purchase price refunded. I am working on a Forum Fund FAQ which addresses this.

Regarding promotion for myself, the profits I used to make selling items went to paying the bills for the forum. I'm slowly getting out of the selling business. There are no profits. No one wants to pay the new prices coming out of Russia.

Regarding costs, approximately USD $250 per year. This has been donated already. What I take in between now and next September will let me look for a faster home for the forum. Faster=more expensive. A dedicated server (which ideally is what this forum should be running off of) can run $900-$1000 per year. However, I would be happy with the current bills being paid. I don't want to stretch donation money to thin so that I can't cover the bills.

Art

Originally posted by LeoAU
Hi all,
just a couple of thoughts...
20 dollars as a fee is not much. This will however, limit the number of new users. Solution - give 1,3 or 6 months trial period and it is up to that person to join after this.
The other side of this non free membership - can someone ban a member who subscribed to this forum? He payed to be a member, so he is entitled to a 1 year membership and the owner of this forum has to provide the services he received money for.
Another thought - for the owner of this forum - isn't this place some kind of promotion of his services as well? And if we all buy something from him once a year - would the profit cover the running costs of this web site?
Can I also ask a question - what kind of running costs are we talking about - 100/1000 a year?
Don't get me wrong, if existance of this place will be under question, I'll be one of the first ones in the long (hopefully) queue to pay my 20$.