I posted in the Mod forum that I was planning to shut down the Forums August 1st, because of a couple reasons. Mainly, since I am semi-retired, and no longer a Dillon dealer, I cannot afford any cost associated with hosting them.
I’ve kept exacting track of hosting cost vs. income - including Dealer Forum, Forum and Classified donations - and last year and definitely for this year, I’m in the hole. (Actually I’ve been in the hole with them for 20 years, but when I was a dealer for Dillon Precision, I didn’t care.)
The Forum Dealer’s renewal date is August 1st. Last August, only half of my Dealers renewed for this year. That hurt. And I would not be surprised if half of them do not renew this August.
And the Donations… when we started it, it worked well, but as is always the case with “donations” - they fizzle out after a while.
Okay, back to a possible solution. The Mods overwhelmingly objected to shutting down the Forums, and offered a variety of ideas to bring some $ in to cover the hosting costs and keep them up and running.
So I am considering, at this point, in changing the Classifieds Forum from being n/c to members with 50+ posts, to charging a reasonable monthly fee to sell stuff in the Classifieds. Say for maybe $15/month, you could sell any amount or dollar value of items.
I’d also open up the Paid Classifieds to any member (regardless of post count).
NOTE: All paid Classified subscribers must have their Name and Location in their Profile.
Updates to follow as our discussion ensues.
And comments are welcome.