PLEASE READ Happy New Year and Request for Member Upgrades

[Forum Boss]

I want to wish all our readers a happy and productive 2023.

Let us hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, and inflation can lessen in the months ahead. And let's hope that legal challenges to unconstitutional laws (such as Oregon Ballot Measure 114) will be successful.

REQUEST for Membership UPGRADE
This Forum now has over 66,600+ registered members and is growing quickly.

However, only about 3.3% of members have upgraded to Silver or Gold Status.

We really need to push that number upwards.

The reason is pretty simple -- as the Forum grows the workload increases. Over the last three years, running background checks and dealing with security issues has gone from a few hours a month to 1-2 hours PER DAY.

All members will benefit if we can boost revenues to cover more advanced server and security protection services.

Consider this -- a Silver membership is $25 for 12 months. That works out to $0.48 cents per week. Or $2.08 per month -- less than the price of a cup of coffee.

If we could get even 10% of Forum members to upgrade, that would make a HUGE difference in our ability to test products, produce videos, and fight the scammers.

Silver and Gold members get Unlimited Classifieds Listings for 12 months.
Think about that folks...

If you were to sell ONE SINGLE $1500 firearm on Gunbroker, you would have to pay $66.50 in FEES.
That's right -- $66.50 in fees for a single sale. SEE: Gunbroker FEE Calculator

Buy a $50 Gold membership and you can sell 100 guns (or scopes etc.) and still pay less.

Final note: Please help us keep the Forum alive and thriving. We need to hire more personnel. The best way to do that is through member support.

If you are not a Gold or Silver member yet, click that yellow "Upgrade Membership" button. PayPal processes the upgrades, but you do NOT need a PayPal account -- you can pay with a credit card (no PayPal account required).

Thanks again folks -- AccurateShooter.com will celebrate 20 years online in 2024. With your help, we can sustain the Forum in the months ahead. There are so many very knowledgeable persons who frequent this Forum and help their fellow shooters. Let's make sure all of us will continue to have a great Forum in the years to come.



Forum Boss

 

[20PPC]

As long as 96.7% of people can do business on here without paying up they will continue to do so. Reasoning will gain few.

I can only imagine the amount in total transactions that are facilitated by this forum in a 12-month period. IMO, you should make that work for the advantage of the site.

In total agreement !
There are so many listings and transactions being made in the classifieds its hard to keep up.
I've seen it too many times you post an add and by the end of the day it's down on page 3.
If you're not contributing by upgrading your status to use the classifieds you should be paying for your listing or if you purchase from a listing.
It should be $5.00 - 10.00 which is minimal but would put the sight financially where it needs to be.

 

[itchyTF]

Growing the forum sounds great but more member means more work. If after 18 years in existence you are getting only 3.3% fiscal participation, looks like no amount of begging is going to change that number very much. There has been hesitation to increase revenue by charging a membership fee or some kind of a fee to sell at the risk of losing members. But less members means less work. Only @Forum Boss can decide when it becomes too much for him.

 

[rijndael]

As long as 96.7% of people can do business

Well .... Registered <> Active

I had a multi-year hiatus myself.

 

[Jester560]

I became a silver contributer the day I joined and will upgrade to gold asap.

 

[Bill Norris]

As long as 96.7% of people can do business on here without paying up they will continue to do so. Reasoning will gain few.

I can only imagine the amount in total transactions that are facilitated by this forum in a 12-month period. IMO, you should make that work for the advantage of the site.

Agree 100%. It is hard to believe that any member here could not afford at least the Silver membership.

 

[rijndael]

I'm sure if during that time you were interested in doing enough business on the forum that a $25 membership wouldn't have been prohibitive.

Sure.

I guess my point was just that total registered members isn't the best metric here. Inactive people aren't going to pay. IMO, the goal should be for active members to upgrade.

How many active members are there and what is their upgrade percentage? I suspect it's much better than 3'ish %.

 

[Forum Boss]

We do allow non-upgraded members to use the Classifieds. But the limit is three listings in 12 months.

The idea is to give people a chance to see the value of our listing service. But I'm contemplating allowing just one free listing.

 

[Sandstorm]

The world is changing ..like it or not. I say do what you need to stay afloat Boss.
I have no issue being a paid participant in the best Forum I know.

 

[J.d. Popkes]

I was a gold and silver member, back when I had PayPal that’s what I used to pay my membership.

Why then, when you select pay with credit cards does PayPal come up. It took an act of congress to get rid of my PayPal account and the thought of accidentally somehow getting that account back is more than I can bear. PayPal anything is a hard stop. PayPal is against everything I hold dear. Give me an option that doesn’t mention PayPal and I’ll go gold again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Forum Boss: You can simply mail a check

How to Donate by Check
If you don’t want to use PayPal, you can make a check payable to “Jeff Williams”. Jeff handles donations by check to the site. Please include a note with your Name and Address. If you are a Forum member, please include your Forum Log-In Name and email address.

Please mail your check to:

Jeff Williams
PO Box 240
Solon Springs, WI 54873​

 

[Sandstorm]

You can send a check...its what i did.

 

[joshb]

We do allow non-upgraded members to use the Classifieds. But the limit is three listings in 12 months.

The idea is to give people a chance to see the value of our listing service. But I'm contemplating allowing just one free listing.

Boss: I’ve watched this issue repeat for as long as I’ve been a member. I’ve been in business my whole life. If I couldn’t cover my costs and make a small profit, I was out of business. I think you need to stop asking and make a change. Silver or Gold membership only to sell in the classifieds. I’ve been seeing a LOT of adds placed by “members” that have 0 posts in the conversation forums. They’re using you to make money and escape the other sites that charge.

 

[Forum Boss]

PayPal processes credit card payments for us because it is the ONLY software system on the planet that is configured to "talk" to the Xenforo Forum database to effectuate the upgrade with no manual processing. EVERY other option would require manual account editing to activate the upgrade. That would add about 800 hours of labor per year.

If you don't like PayPal you can mail a check. Simple as that.

 

[Ranger188]

My membership just came up for renewal.
Upgraded to the "Gold" from Silver.

 

[rijndael]

I’ve been seeing a LOT of adds placed by “members” that have 0 posts in the conversation forums. They’re using you to make money and escape the other sites that charge.

As a former admin of another forum (w/ 10K members), it's been my experience that requiring a post count minimum and an upgrade will just contribute to junk posting.

You end up with people posting stuff like "great post" and other fluff just to get the minimum post count to get access to the classifieds.

 

[rijndael]

A plus side is that members benefit from their ads. A thriving classified section is a draw.

I do way more browsing of Snipers Hide because of the classifieds section. Reasonable prices sells gear really fast over there. I end up browsing other topics.

 

[jelenko]

I think this is what others are suggesting - how about a % transaction fee for items sold? If that's not easily doable with this software, just charge for being able to post a buy/sell ad?

 

[J.d. Popkes]

You can send a check...its what i did.

What do you include with the check? Something to explain who you are and which account you’re upgrading? Email? How long did it take? I don’t know….

Forum Boss: This info is posted via the link on the right column of the page:

How to Donate by Check
If you don’t want to use PayPal, you can make a check payable to “Jeff Williams”. Jeff handles donations by check to the site. If you are a Forum member, please include your Forum Log-In Name and email address.

Please mail your check to:

Jeff Williams
PO Box 240
Solon Springs, WI 54873​

 

[joshb]

Not to speak for Josh but I don't think he is advocating for post count minimums. I read it as people simply coming here to buy/sell simply because it is free. They probably pay fees elsewhere while listing/buying the same items.

Exactly the point I was trying to make. I propose that a member contribute to benefit from selling on this great forum. The Boss has been “asking” for years and it’s not working.

 

[JumboSammich]

I think that for the amount of information on this site it's damn well worth the price of the Gold Membership. My $.02