Supporting Members

[Question]

Just an idea I would like to throw up, kind of stealing the concept from another board. Kinda..

Now listen, heres the concept. I am sure that bandwidth is very expensive, and I don't want to speak for everyone but I am more then willing to donate a few bucks to try and help out a little. I am sure a few others might be willing to also. Now, here comes the idea of "Supporting Members". On another board that I lurk on, they have a system called "Supporting Members", and its pretty much this. If you donate a few dollars, or how ever much you get a little .gif under your name which is animated. Not much, right? Well, how about if we further add to it to motivate people in to donating better. Say you donate 1 dollar, you get a sig. Say you donate 3 dollars, you get a custom avatar. Say you donate 5 dollars, you get custom user text. You guys following me here? Of course the rewards and prices are up for the Big Man's choosing, but I just wanted to throw this out here. Here is what the "Supporting Members" image looks like on the other board.

Feel free to throw up your own ideas, and feed back is appreciated. I'm tired, so I am SURE I left something out.





By the way, that persons name and user text is blue because she is a Moderator. I THINK the only thing you get is the .gif. Also, on this particular board signatures, avatars, and custom user text are available to everone. So I guess they don't have the "Reward" system.

EDIT: If this plan was to go through, and enough people were interested, how about a forum section only available to supporting members, mods, etc.
Just another idea.

-Justin

[nikon]

Re: Supporting Members

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/payments.php

another example of supporting members....and its exactly as you said you get a sig, you get like 2mb of storage for attachment photos/files an avatar, and yes you can change the little title under your name. Another thing they do though is get rid of the "edited by" in your post if you or someone edits it.....I'm happy to pay the 25$ for 6 months that they offer, now the only controversy that has come up sometimes is why should the members be paying when it is the vendors that want the board running so we can buy their products, as in were getting double teamed, we have to be "cool" on the board then after all the advertising we buy the vendors products. see what Im sayin, It's a good idea and I for one would be more than happy to support the board.

[Question]

Re: Supporting Members

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/payments.php

another example of supporting members....and its exactly as you said you get a sig, you get like 2mb of storage for attachment photos/files an avatar, and yes you can change the little title under your name. Another thing they do though is get rid of the "edited by" in your post if you or someone edits it.....I'm happy to pay the 25$ for 6 months that they offer, now the only controversy that has come up sometimes is why should the members be paying when it is the vendors that want the board running so we can buy their products, as in were getting double teamed, we have to be "cool" on the board then after all the advertising we buy the vendors products. see what I'm saying, It's a good idea and I for one would be more than happy to support the board.

Glad to have a supporter. :)

So I guess you could say at that forum you get a "subscription" of 6 months, for 25 dollars? That sounds like a good idea also, but I think in order for this to work it should definitely go in small increments. I know most people here are young and broke, and may not be able to afford the $25. I for one could, and am more then willing to, but others I don't know. The Big Cheese hasn't replied yet, but I think this is definitely possible guys. Think about it, we have 8000+ members, if we all donated $3...do the math. We all enjoy this board, theres no reason we can't help out a little bit.

[3.4 slow to go]

Re: Supporting Members

subscriptions huh?........................ hee hee
standby

[shenanigans]

Re: Supporting Members

I hate the idea of a subscription... I woudl never join this board if a subscription was required and I woudl even be less likely to stay. Its like using I-tunes when GOOD Napster was still around. There woudl be a lack of new members if any. And people might say this is a good board with good info, well if you had to pay, I could see a majority of the members just taking off.


but I like the idea of more money for options...

Sigs shoudl be free, but no sig pics...
PMs free but like a small amount 5-10?(PM system is pretty worthless if you cannot PM everyone, and 5-10 PMs woudl get annoying so more incentive to upgrade ) I think its very valueable in the forsale and local sections.

if you become a supporting member $3 or $5
you get access to an Avatar,
More PMs 25 to 50?
Guess a custom User text
Allowed use of sig pics but very small.
Not sure if its feasible to give out a few mb for people to host pics.



www.Camaroz28.com has followed some of these seems to have worked pretty decent, they still do not allow sig pics but they upgraded alot of things, even started up a video section very similar to Streetfire

[nikon]

Re: Supporting Members

it is broken down, 6 months is just what I chose, 1 month is 5 bucks, but you save money the higher you go, like 10-20$, I think you can purchase up to 1 year. at a time....and the same works with vendors, but much mroe expensive...a supporting vendor who gets to advertise and do group buys pays 100$ for 6 months, 200$ a year.....and from 3.4's comment Im guessing its already in the works.

oh and mustang, you dont HAVE to be a supporter you can post all the same, but if you learn enough or get help from a board, most people feel obligated to do it.

[TealV6]

Re: Supporting Members

Ok.. I'll :stp: some...

Let's look at the stats as they are now. We have almost 300 active members, 8200 registered members. Online at most we have had 66 people, this includes the guests. So... I'm all for killing banners and NOT having vendors if the membership can support the boards. I too, frequent other boards and support them.. even driven hundreds of miles for a M&G and meet the admin. We all take care of that admin! (mind you, median age of that board is 30+)

That being said, we all know our "big brother" site, CZ28 also has Premium Membership. But they are also a V8 site. More vendors to work with for selling there wares. The V6 market is all but dead to vendors, or until the General gets the 5th gen out the door.

So what is everyones take on this subject? I'm open to suggestions/discussions... skip the flame wars.

Steve

[Question]

Re: Supporting Members

Okay, so maybe the subscription isn't such a great idea. At least not if it is mandatory. The last thing I want to do is run people off. The other stuff though, you guys think that is possible? The little .gif image, the avatar, etc?

[HokieBird]

Re: Supporting Members

I like the idea of opening up a way to support the board and giving people a little supporting member tag or something. I don't think a subscription would go over well. The community isn't large enough and there are multiple other options out there for free V6 boards. I'm kind of neutral as far as paying to enable avatars, sigs, and PMs.

Can we look into selling some stickers, shirts, and hats? It would be good advertising for the board and if we set it up through cafepress it wouldn't be more work for the admins. Another board I frequent has small business cards printed out and members use them to tag cars and invite them to the forum. I think that would be a nice idea since I see modified V6s in parking lots and know they either don't belong here or atleast aren't active. Sorry that was a little off topic.

[Question]

Re: Supporting Members

That sounds like a good idea also Hokie, maybe a small sticker for the back glass. If everything else is enabled, I think it would be nice to have a little .gif to let other people know that you contributed.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Supporting Members

I like the idea of a hat, shirt or window sticker. Have the shirts made for a small price than add a mark-up for the board maintenance. Those of us wishing to support the board can buy stuff AND advertise. It's win-win for the board.

Subscriptions undermine the general idea of boards. Plus, when forced to pay, people get upset. When they volunteer to pay, they feel good about themselves. It's in the marketing.

[camaro_speedemon]

Re: Supporting Members

No sir, I don't like that idea one bit. I visit several other boards who offer all that stuff for free.

What's the median age here? 18-19, broke college students. I think half the site would leave if a system like that is implimented.

[TealV6]

Re: Supporting Members

Sounds like you guys want banners to pay for the site.. is this correct?? you will be looking at them... remember the lesser of the 2 evils.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Supporting Members

Personally, I hate banners and I redirect all requests to advertisements to /dev/null (it's a neat trick. Haven't seen a banner in years). Given the choice, most people would prefer to have ads than to pay money. I am a rare exception. I hate ads.

[Question]

Re: Supporting Members

Guys just because this becomes an option does not mean it is MANDATORY. Its not like "Pay me or eat my ban stick!" ya know?