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I've really wrestled with this as the LAST thing I want to do is turn this place into a vpf. But it would be nice to cover the hosting costs. I'm really not sure what direction to go with this, so I need input. The first thing I though of is a straight $5 a year for downloads. Kind of a "pay as you go" mentality. There's no need for tiered memberships as I don't cut the speed for anyone.I'd like to hear some input on this please.
The best advice I ever heard was never give advice.I have mixed feelings about the idea... maybe should be more like an annual PBS pledge drive.
I don't want to make it prohibitive or piss people off either. Nor am I trying to restrict downloads. All I really want to do is make this place run in the black. I figure at 5$ a year that's as much as they'd send to someone at VPU for the "Beer Me". I don't think it's too much- provided I can keep some good tables going. At 5$ I won't get rich quick, it'll have to be a cumulative effort to be effective for sure. I think I have 218 members, but how many of those are even active? So you can't make the argument 218x5$=1090$ because it's not what'll happen. I'm sure the cabinet people will not mind as they have enough to build a cab, so what's another 5$ to be able to say you have "everything"?Vpf has over 60,000 members, but only about 2500+ are silver (10$). So it's all about percentages. Still 2500x10$= 25,000$, and that doesn't take into account that there's 25$ and 50$ members too. I don't see the need for tiered memberships as I don't really have anything to offer that makes that idea worthwhile. It's strictly- if you want to download please support us is all. You'll always get all the speed the site has to offer no matter what. Uploading and forum participation would still be free though I have to figure out how to do that. This is still a concept at this point.
Thanks Will. I think the reason vpf gets the revenue is it's designed to be that way. He has everything (except for what we have ) and he restricts things to entice you to upgrade your membership. Since I'm semi-banned (can't post) it takes me almost a minute to download a wheel. At VPU and here, it's almost instantaneous. If I search for something twice quickly, I get a "flood control" message. I can control speed here, I saw that option somewhere. But I wouldn't do that if I WAS vpf. I've always maintained that to give him 10$ for unlimited downloads- probably a good investment. Anything over that is unnecessary. But he has all the tables. I've heard it said that he had a rip of vpf.com before it went down. This would not surprise me.Initially I was going to do a tablemakers site, but I quickly realized I'd have like 10 people. So I decided to do a full site. This place isn't real expensive to operate. Say 80-100$ a year. I'd like to upgrade the downloads area, which is about 70$ (one time thing). Rogue is in no danger of going away anything soon but I'd like to not have to dig out of my own pocket as I live check to check. Mind you, no one member should fund this either. It should be a group effort as this is a group site.I asked Shiva's opinion on this as he was a part of the old vpf. He thought a "Pledge Drive" may be the way to go. This is all in flux at the moment. I haven't made a final decision, and I'm in no hurry to. And thanks Will for the compliment. There's no need to scrape every penny here. I know your situation, but this shouldn't be on any one member.