I miss my "supporter" badge...

[RockHopper]

It made me feel kind of .....speshul! I got it by donating when I first joined up, because I thought, yeah... I'm gonna join this community, I'd better support it! Didn't even realize I was buying membership perks. (Which I've not used) I've purchased like 2 items since joining, donated a few, and sold absolutely nothing. I don't sell stuff on gun boards. I think I've used less than 50 PM's.

So this weekend I got pm'd by what I assumed was a bot, telling me that my membership was about to expire, and I needed to fork over mulah right away. That rubbed me the wrong way, cause my "membership" to me, simply means I'm on the rolls, and I contribute to conversation, and perhaps throw some money towards other members who need to make some. I volunteer my time and effort to members on here who ask for help, and I've in turn been supported by others here when I needed "help". (Read that as emotional support, when I recently stopped drinking)

Somebody please explain the deal to me. Am I off base? In my mind there is a big difference between a "supporter", and a "paying customer". What did I not take advantage of as a buying customer? Is it just sales ads?

 

[retrieverman]

I got nothing…

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

Well, there are very few ads on the forum. And it isn't cheap to maintain something like this, I'm guessing. The $10 or $20 I pay yearly towards a "Supporter" membership is well worth it to me.

I understand what you're saying but it does cost money to run, host and maintain a site like this.

Besides...it pays the outrageous salaries of the mods.

 

[Catt57]

It made me feel kind of .....speshul! I got it by donating when I first joined up, because I thought, yeah... I'm gonna join this community, I'd better support it! Didn't even realize I was buying membership perks. (Which I've not used) I've purchased like 2 items since joining, donated a few, and sold absolutely nothing. I don't sell stuff on gun boards. I think I've used less than 50 PM's.

So this weekend I got pm'd by what I assumed was a bot, telling me that my membership was about to expire, and I needed to fork over mulah right away. That rubbed me the wrong way, cause my "membership" to me, simply means I'm on the rolls, and I contribute to conversation, and perhaps throw some money towards other members who need to make some. I volunteer my time and effort to members on here who ask for help, and I've in turn been supported by others here when I needed "help". (Read that as emotional support, when I recently stopped drinking)

Somebody please explain the deal to me. Am I off base? In my mind there is a big difference between a "supporter", and a "paying customer". What did I not take advantage of as a buying customer? Is it just sales ads?

I can see your point of view. But consider that it is the supporters that also help to contribute to financially maintaining the site as a whole. Does the owner make a profit? Probably (hopefully). But those $$ also go towards the monthly internet fees, site maintenance, upgrades when needed, etc... The perks are there as a kind of 'Thank you' for the support.

One of the nice things is that it's not a requirement unless you want to post a bunch of items for sale and use it as your personal Armslist. But even then, you are allowed a small number of classified ads even without having to pay.

My thought on it is this:
If you enjoy the site, and want to help it to continue to exist, then be a Supporter and donate if you can, and if you can't afford it, that's understandable and no one here (well, very few anyway) will hold that against you.

Don't let the renewal notice upset you. I personally appreciate that it lets me know when my 'subscription' is about to expire. And sometimes I can't afford to renew right away. But once I can, I feel the annual donation is a small cost for the huge value I get from this site and it's members.

Full disclosure; I am not affiliated with the site or the owner in any way. I just enjoy the people here and having this active firearms forum in a world where so many of them are getting canceled or dying from inactivity.

 

[Aries]

I'm not really sure that was an official message... it might have been. But mine expired a few months ago, and I didn't get any kind of reminder. Just noticed the supporter badge was gone one day. Some questions:

Was it actually about time for your membership to expire? (you can check under Settings/Account Upgrades)
Was there a link in the message?
Did you hover over it to see where it pointed?

It seems like in the fuzzy recesses of my memory that someone else mentioned an attempted scam like that. But maybe they are sending reminders now.

 

[HoLeChit]

Well, there are very few ads on the forum. And it isn't cheap to maintain something like this, I'm guessing. The $10 or $20 I pay yearly towards a "Supporter" membership is well worth it to me.

I understand what you're saying but it does cost money to run, host and maintain a site like this.

Besides...it pays the outrageous salaries of the mods.

I heard @dlbleak nets some $70k a year modding on here.

On a serious note…

I had a supporter deal, hence why I still have the special title under my name. But near the time that expired, I reached out about advertising on here and the cost to become a advertiser/forum sponsor went from $700 a year to 2-300/month, with nothing to justify the increase. Kinda put a bad taste in my mouth. Around the same time, they removed the option to become a life member, which was what I was planning on doing. Now, you can only pay a yearly fee. When I was a supporting member I didn’t notice any fewer ads (there’s not many to begin with, thankfully) and the only added perk really was being able to change your title, have a little badge, and post more stuff in the classifieds. Not really worth it to me at the moment.

 

[ttown]

We’ll unfortunately web hosting, maintenance , and the software contracts cost quit a bit of money. Desktop software is usually fairly straightforward, sever software no so much if you want vendor support.

Unlike many selling guns on here regularly, a real brick an mortar business or a web based business cost money.


I understand, quite frankly,I think the Buy, Sell, trade should require a yearly due like MANY sites, some you can’t even view in many cases. Everything else can be free where most activities occur.

JMO, you wouldn’t believe the cost of a product like Websphere, most used products like Jboss and a support agreement.

I see both sides, if this site has enough traffic and advertising it will be a good business model, you lose them like Twitter you shutdown or charge

 

[HoLeChit]

We’ll unfortunately web hosting, maintenance , and the software contracts cost quit a bit of money. Desktop software is usually fairly straightforward, sever software no so much if you want vendor support.

Unlike many selling guns on here regularly, a real brick an mortar business or a web based business cost money.


I understand, quite frankly,I think the Buy, Sell, trade should require a yearly due like MANY sites, some you can’t even view in many cases. Everything else can be free where most activities occur.

JMO, you wouldn’t believe the cost of a product like Websphere, most used products like Jboss and a support agreement.

I see both sides, if this site has enough traffic and advertising it will be a good business model, you lose them like Twitter you shutdown or charge

Xenforo, the host/software provider for our forum, is surprisingly affordable. $100/mo for cloud based hosting and software, or $160 lifetime license if you self host.

But, it can be pretty expensive overall.

 

[dlbleak]

@RockHopper, I understand your dilemma. If if doesn’t provide perks that you use, I’d question it too. But, like @Catt57 said,it does take money to maintain the site and the upgrades. Every little change we ask for that gets approved costs money.
@HoLeChit, I’m working on 6 figures now. Stick figure,figure 8’s,go figure,figuratively speaking,um…working on three more figures.
Seriously, I have no monetary ties to the site. I like the place, it’s a fantastic group of people. The outpouring help in desperate times for people makes me enjoy my time here.
Without getting mushy, thank you all. Let’s keep it going as long as we can.

 

[MilitantBEEMER]

IMO Best $20 investment one can make on an annual basis.
I love this website and will do what I can to monetarily support it.