PLEASE READ Happy New Year and Request for Member Upgrades

[M-61]

If all 81,000 members were paid silver members , the boss could afford new shoes.

81,000 x 30 = 2,430,000

Your math is good.
Is 81,000 members mean active members?

Forum Boss: The 81,000 members were verified and registered as of the time of sign-up. Those member names/emails are in the forum "memory". The number of users who visit monthly is less. But there are also many Forum visitors (from the web) who are not yet registered members.

 

[M-61]

The 81,000 members were verified and registered as of the time of sign-up

Certainly.
I guess what I was trying to say say was I see many people posting. Some have been members for 20 years. Never contributed financially.
Of course everyone is in a different financial situation. So maybe the gentleman’s post about a bronze membership bears looking into. Some money coming in is better than zero. Does this require a crazy amount of work figuring out what a ‘bronze’ member is entitled to? Sure does. (Meaning posting, selling etc)
This is the only site I belong to so my knowledge is really limited….isn’t there some sites where you just pay and get nothing other than the rite to belong?
I just don’t understand with the wealth of knowledge here that one can expect it to be free. I sent a nephew to Brown. I thought it was a fortune then Now when I looked I could puke. Fortunately he also became a lawyer.

 

[dellet]

Information freely shared is what will in the long run keep shooting sports alive.

The classifieds, buying and selling on the forum is different. My bet would be that most of the cost in time and money for the forum is generated by the classifieds. When you look at the number of people who have 500 posts and 450 of those are in the classifieds, it’s pretty clear why they are here. Admittedly many of those are members, but the majority probably not. It’s probably time to charge for access to buy and sell. Get it through a regular membership or a dedicated buy/sell membership.
Maybe offer a dedicated buy/sell membership of some type?
My guess would be that given a choice between paying $10 for limited classified access and $30 for unlimited and a full
Membership, might just generate more income.

 

[Cnsane]

This Forum is modeled after the United Nations. I would do a Trump upon them and let them either pay up or self deport. An announcement that all non Contributor log-ins more than a year old will be cancelled by their IP address would be my solution. That allows people to visit this site to glean information and decide whether it's worth their support or to stop taking bandwith from the serious people here by creating multiple log-ins. You WILL lose members, but won't lose Contributors.
Or, someone else may put forth a better solution

 

[hogpatrol]

Tik Tok shop with drop shipments of merchandise. Have a bud who's selling clothing on there and he carries no inventory. IIRC, it's a just in time vending sales operation.

 

[muddy72]

I always wondered out of the 81,000, how many are using the site in some capacity and how many haven't gave it a look in years. Is it worth narrowing it down to see what the real numbers are and look at what options there may be with that number? There's strength in numbers so tread lightly! Ask ourselves this: how many of us pay for a "subscription" to whatever in life? Amazon has been mentioned, most likely there's a lot of Prime members here!

Would any of our Sponsors or those who advertise be willing to donate items for a friendly site raffle or auction? I see plenty, could be a regular activity. I know it may take a license of some kind but creates another avenue for engagement with members.

I admit, I took time away to raise kids, work a career and help elderly parents. Life's changing again, I'm able to get back into shooting and more hunting. I'm not one to post technical data, I'm a private person and know my place. I'm glad to pay for a Gold membership to have access to everything offered here. Endless information, Classifieds and the people. The members here are what makes this site what it is. We're a community of members formed around a common interest and a community supports itself!

 

[JEFFPPC]

Allow 5 free visits then blocked unless a 5.00 yearly fee is paid. No selling unless at least a Silver member. Make all memberships require a credit card automatically charged once a year unless membership deleted 10 days before that date. Thats what several club belong to now do.

 

[bobinpa]

Boss - I suggested it years ago and I still think it would generate income if you started a third tier above Gold. It appears that we will always have over 95% freeloaders but I also know that some Gold members are willing to pay more (myself included) - but they should get credit for it...

 

[pikespeakgoat]

I gladly make my yearly gold contribution, and do to this post by @Forum Boss , sent an additional $amount the other day.......

$9.17 a month over a year, IMO a very cheap amount for the knowledge and experiences that this site has provided me over many years.

These monies contributed by me are my choice, and my choice alone.

As there is no mandatory contribution requirement at this time, people can either choose to contribute, or choose not to contribute, and that is their right under the current rules. IMHO.

 

[rwj]

I gladly make my yearly gold contribution, and do to this post by @Forum Boss , sent an additional $amount the other day.......

$9.17 a month over a year, IMO a very cheap amount for the knowledge and experiences that this site has provided me over many years.

These monies contributed by me are my choice, and my choice alone.

As there is no mandatory contribution requirement at this time, people can either choose to contribute, or choose not to contribute, and that is their right under the current rules. IMHO.

One would think that with other forums recently shutting down, that people claim to have liked and now miss, that more would become financially contributing members on this one to avoid a similar fate… that is my hope for 2026!

 

[Bob in WI]

Information freely shared is what will in the long run keep shooting sports alive.

The classifieds, buying and selling on the forum is different. My bet would be that most of the cost in time and money for the forum is generated by the classifieds. When you look at the number of people who have 500 posts and 450 of those are in the classifieds, it’s pretty clear why they are here. Admittedly many of those are members, but the majority probably not. It’s probably time to charge for access to buy and sell. Get it through a regular membership or a dedicated buy/sell membership.
Maybe offer a dedicated buy/sell membership of some type?
My guess would be that given a choice between paying $10 for limited classified access and $30 for unlimited and a full
Membership, might just generate more income.

That or just straight up...If you want to buy and sell in the classifieds you need to be at least Silver Member.

 

[323]

No dought the math is staggering!

I went and did a quick look, looking through 24 pages of members for a total 478 members 10 were still active by active logged in, in the last 6 months. I verified this by clicking on the ones with post counts of more than 10. Works out to 2% being active. Again this is me nothing scientific about it. But if you took that 2% applied it to 81k works out to 1600 plus active members. Again this is just my fuzzy math and quick peek into active members. I’m sure others have a better way of pulling data.

 

[323]

back in the early days of hunting forums some tried to go to paying members only and those forums unfortunately failed. I think the worse thing you can do is force someone from the get go to become a member. Only reason I upgraded to silver from nothing I want to buy items from the classifieds that took me a few months to do. I was still seeing if this forum would be something I would use a lot. I do like the no politics for the most part. If I want that I can go to another forum and get that in spoonfulls

 

[M-61]

That or just straight up...If you want to buy and sell in the classifieds you need to be at least Silver Member.

It’s lost on me what advantage to the site is with having free classified for non- contributing members.
I know at one point (maybe still) non-contributing members were limited.
But, I still see this as me paying so someone can sell their ‘stuff’ but I’m supporting that ability.

Forum Boss: The non-paying members are currently limited to two (2) ad listings in a 12-month period. We are considering reducing that to one (1).

 

[Bob in WI]

It’s lost on me what advantage to the site is with having free classified for non- contributing members.
I know at one point (maybe still) non-contributing members were limited.
But, I still see this as me paying so someone can sell their ‘stuff’ but I’m supporting that ability.

Forum Boss: The non-paying members are currently limited to two (2) ad listings in a 12-month period. We are considering reducing that to one (1).

"But, I still see this as me paying so someone can sell their ‘stuff’ but I’m supporting that ability." <------ What he said.

 

[Fast14riot]

Is it possible to buy Accurate Shooter merchandise such as shirts, hats, etc.? Might no generate a lot of profit, but every bit helps.

Happy New Year!

Alex

-------------
Alex -- that's not a bad idea if we can find a reputable 3rd party service to both do the production and deliveries. I did design an AccurateShooter.com T-Shirt some years ago. Forum Boss.

To Forum boss, my other half is a grafic designer and marketing person, I can ask her if she would like to put together some designs and some of the businesses she uses for merch.

 

[Fast14riot]

Boss - I suggested it years ago and I still think it would generate income if you started a third tier above Gold. It appears that we will always have over 95% freeloaders but I also know that some Gold members are willing to pay more (myself included) - but they should get credit for it...

Another forum I used to belong to had a forum with minimal rules specifically for premium paid memberships. Self policed, but things like politics and adult humor were allowed. It wasn't even visible to lower level paid members. Site vendors even got their own sub forum to moderate, sell from and maintain.

It was a larger forum of 200K members, but the perks of premium paid were nice.

 

[4xforfun]

Any time I sell on the want adds and the buyer wants to haggle, i tell them the first thing they need to do is buy a GOLD membership......then we can talk!!!

 

[Bob in WI]

Any time I sell on the want adds and the buyer wants to haggle, i tell them the first thing they need to do is buy a GOLD membership......then we can talk!!!

That's actually a great idea. I might start dealing with only Silver and Gold nembers in the Classifieds. Still think a minimum of a Silver membership would be a great idea to be able to access the classifieds or interact in any of the forum post.
Just my 2 pennies.

 

[JEFFPPC]

Boss - I suggested it years ago and I still think it would generate income if you started a third tier above Gold. It appears that we will always have over 95% freeloaders but I also know that some Gold members are willing to pay more (myself included) - but they should get credit for it...

Your free to donate any additional about you like. Write the check.