The Century Club -- Acknowledging Special Site Contributors

[hogpatrol]

I'd like to see a charge PER AD. It gripes the hell out of me that some guys on here, all they do is SELL and are NOT Site Contributors or sponsors. One in particular has over 200 ads and is not a contributor. That, to me, is something that needs to be fixed.

 

[bheadboy]

HogPatrol, you are right, and that fixin takes labor, minds, skills, which the Boss is faced with needing to help him beyond what he already does-- you can not add personnel then fix, then charge, you got to charge, then add personnel, then fix - let the Boss direct and do that which he can without additional health damage.

Guys, I always believed and was taught by my dad outdoorsmen, hunters, shooters, understood responsibility, 30,000 benefit from this sight, and one man is the basis for its function -- are we as a group so personally blind as to our responsibility to support this effort -a $10 per year is less than $1 per month if you can not accept that then you need to sell you guns as you don't understand responsibility, and I don't want to be around you and a gun.

Bob

 

[CJ6]

A $2.00-$5.00 classified fee would be minimal for selling an item and it's not going to break a sellers/buyers bank. Rimfire Central has special content for contributors (options free classifieds maybe ?). BTW Thanks Forum Boss for recognizing those in the CENTURY CLUB...Great job

 

[TheSnake]

We can also play a small part by asking the seller to donate some small amount of the proceeds to this site. You can put it in a PM as not to call them out. There is no guarantee they will do it, but they may be motivated if you ask. If they say no, you can then decide of you really want the item.

Something like:
I see you are not a contributor; I’ll take it if you donate a small amount of the proceeds to this site for hosting your advertisement. Your contribution will help keep the site going so we can all benefit in the future.

 

[rvn1968]

We can also play a small part by asking the seller to donate some small amount of the proceeds to this site. You can put it in a PM as not to call them out. There is no guarantee they will do it, but they may be motivated if you ask. If they say no, you can then decide of you really want the item.

Something like:
I see you are not a contributor; I’ll take it if you donate a small amount of the proceeds to this site for hosting your advertisement. Your contribution will help keep the site going so we can all benefit in the future.

I have been slacking lately,I'll be a century member on Monday.The BOSS can use it as he sees fit. Tom

 

[1newmexkid]

I belong to various shooting and metal detecting forums. This forum is the ONLY shooting forum I would contribute to for complete access. I would have a home page open to everybody. If you want to have complete access...You pay. I feel that auctions and proceeds from sales just opens a whole new can o worms. Start Feb. 29th and make it retroactive to Jan. 1st. Then next year every ones access fee is due in Jan. If you pay in Jan. it's $10, (just throwing that figure out there) if you pay any other month it's still $10. I honestly can't see why you wouldn't generate enough revenue to address all monetary needs.

 

[hoz53]

I have been slacking lately,I'll be a century member on Monday.The BOSS can use it as he sees fit. Tom

I have donated some so I guess I am one of the 1500, but I haven't donated enough considering what I get out of this site. I will step it up. I know the site generates ad revenue, but I don't know how much income the boss makes from it. I would hope it's a decent amount considering the time and effort he puts in but it's probably not. I have always thought there should be a subscription fee to access this site. Other shooting sites do that. It's unfortunate to say but many people will take advantage of things unless they are forced to pay. Alot of times it's just the time it takes to pay it more that the money. I say put the fee in place and see what happens. If the boss runs himself down so far he can't continue the site, which sounds like a likely scenario at this point, the site will be lost anyway. I also agree with charging for adds. If you lose 75% of the membership and end up with 7500 paying members and less work- what's not to like about that. Mabie just charge for the forum and have free sections. Lots of ways to do it I just don't think you can depend on donations you have to make everyone who uses it share a little of the load instead of a few sharing a lot of the load

 

[drumcorpschamp]

Wow....so many ideas and opinions.

Here's mine. I usually donate $25 each time I do. This time it was $50. Simple, effective, done!!

Jerry

 

[LarryDScott]

I see lots of contributor banners, but apparently for some that was
just a one time deal, to earn the banner, according to the $% numbers.
This is a business thats selling a product. You can call it entertainment,
information, or just a place to hang out, chat, and occasionally buy
or sell something. A business requires income to survive
You can compare this business to a wagon pulled by a horse, thats
struggling to get over the hill. Are you going to ride until the horse
stumbles, or are you going to get off NOW, and push?? LDS

 

[bheadboy]

many good thought, triggered my thinking

MISS -- Boss in business those that succeed make it simple stupid!!!

1- open home page
2- all other pages open some limited # then blocked 5-6 my thought
3- all open with $10 fee paid for the year as noted above
4- ads
5 free for members - paid annual fee
$5 per ad with value less than $500 -unlimited # items
$10 per ad with value over $500 - limit 4 items/ad

Boss this is not a difficult software management problem.

give it a try you have done a great job building this sight don't let it destroy you in the process, numbers of users for the sake of numbers is a bad idea. 30,000 so what - the number that remains is the key, and I am sure the $10 figure is not magic if more is needed when things are cleaned up.
You take care of yourself.


Bob

 

[savagedasher]

I see lots of contributor banners, but apparently for some that was
just a one time deal, to earn the banner, according to the $% numbers.
This is a business thats selling a product. You can call it entertainment,
information, or just a place to hang out, chat, and occasionally buy
or sell something. A business requires income to survive
You can compare this business to a wagon pulled by a horse, thats
struggling to get over the hill. Are you going to ride until the horse
stumbles, or are you going to get off NOW, and push?? LDS

I must of missed something . What I got out of it he said he was 60 . And was working in excess of 60 hours. He was wanting to hire help. I have a few thing I don't use . I would be willing to give to him and and with his help they could post and sell on the site . Every bit of the money would be his . All I ask for was to list the credits to both of us . Larry

 

[hogpatrol]

I subscribe to this website, eight bucks a year, pocket change compared to what we spend on this sport.

http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/logout.cgi?sn=BEPOWFFSBU&fr=aiviewfavs&xxlost=

You can view as a guest but the good stuff requires a sub. The boss has built and maintained an incredibly valuable site, easily worth that much a year.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

Boss, count me in.

I've been dropping $20 to the site far too infrequently. I'm going to put up a $5 per month recurring.

This is a challenge to everyone else that uses this site: Do a recurring monthly payment instead of a little here and there. $1 per month would exceed the requested $10 per year by a 20% margin!

 

[bobinpa]

The Boss doesn't need anything more to do, like selling stuff or additional admin changes to the structure of the forum.......... he just needs money. Then he can hire help...... so people (including myself) need to get off their a#* and pony up. Simple..... My check for a membership to the "century club" will be in the mail in the morning. I'm embarrassed that I needed to see this post as a reminder.

 

[whatwind?]

Donation made

 

[falconpilot]

Lots of good suggestions here...that being said..we spend thousands of dollars on guns and gear..I know a lot of us also sell and buy a lot of gear through the forums on this site. If we'd all just donate a little(of our own free will, not because it's required) when we sell that $2000+ plus item, or small item, it would go long way in helping the site out..without having to impose a bunch of restrictions or extra work on the boss. I didn't donate to the century club to be named for it...I did it because I've sold lots of items in these forums, and I appreciate the site and all the hard work that keeps it going. It's a very small price to pay to be a part of the very best site on the net, and I hope in 20 years, it'll still be here, just the way it is.

 

[hoz53]

Lots of good suggestions here...that being said..we spend thousands of dollars on guns and gear..I know a lot of us also sell and buy a lot of gear through the forums on this site. If we'd all just donate a little(of our own free will, not because it's required) when we sell that $2000+ plus item, or small item, it would go long way in helping the site out..without having to impose a bunch of restrictions or extra work on the boss. I didn't donate to the century club to be named for it...I did it because I've sold lots of items in these forums, and I appreciate the site and all the hard work that keeps it going. It's a very small price to pay to be a part of the very best site on the net, and I hope in 20 years, it'll still be here, just the way it is.

I signed up for $5.00 per month recurring. This is a better way for me as I dont sell much here and I wont forget ect. I know I'll be contributing a little each month. I to hope this site is here as long as I can pull a trigger, hopefully longer.

 

[Forum Boss]

I want to thank you guys for the many interesting suggestions. I particularly want to thank those guys who have made donations in recent days. We have a half-dozen new members of the Century Club since this thread was started.

For those guys who've pledged a regular monthly contribution -- that's much appreciated. If sending in a few bucks each month makes sense for some members, Paypal can handle that, no problem.

Hopefully we can ramp up donations to the point where a Forum Director can be hired. That person would be able to provide direct support to Forum members. That will benefit all our membership. Currently I spend 5-6 hours a day, 7 days a week, just doing the Daily Bulletin. That's nearly a full-time job by itself, and running the Forum is, likewise, nearly a full-time job by itself.

 

[Cold Bore]

Hopefully we can ramp up donations to the point where a Forum Director can be hired.

Out of curiosity....

What will the job description/duties be for the proposed position, do you have somebody in mind, and what will their compensation package be?

 

[Forum Boss]

Unfortunately I can't come up with a list of duties yet, because we are still learning the capabilities of the new Forum software, and the kinds of actions that can/should be done at the admin level. For example, one duty might be to "prune old classifieds". However, if that can be done automatically by software, that the Director would not be charged with that task. There are many other things like that...