Run n Gun Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Okay Brian, it’s time. I know you’re not going to be completely comfortable talking about this but it IS time to do SOMETHING more about soliciting forum donations! I was going to PM this to you but, I think, there’s a lot of “forum folk” that feel the same way I do and if we get together and beat you up we all can make it happen. There is several ways to initiate this, here's a couple-three. Over at AR15.com they have a “star” system, bronze, silver, gold and now (I think) Platinum. Each is a yearly “membership” and each rank cost more, benefits are tiered accordingly and at any level you’re a “Team Member”. The appropriate colored star appears by your avatar. At M1911.org there is a special additional avatar that says “Forum Supporter”. At Oregonconcealedcarry.com there’s a prominent “Make Donation” button that’s goes to a fast and efficient “Pay Pal” link. They use the same “board” that we use and forum supporters become “VIP Members” that’s displayed were it says “Classifieders” on ours, also our names appear in blue the same way yours and Flex’s appear in red on this board. What made me think of this is that my Team Membership was up for renewal today. It got me thinking, as great a resource as AR15.com is; I still only go there once every day or two for ½ hour or so. At Oregonconcealedcarry.com I usually send in $5 or so a month (when I remember) so that’s $50-$60 a year for that same “every day or two for a ½ hour or so”. When I was new and buying a lot of gear through your store, I would add $5-$10 through the “make a forum donation” button. But now my gear is bought and I don’t frequent your store anymore so there’s no easy way for me to make a donation and I spend an HOUR or two EVERY DAY here! So figure something out, make it easy and I’ll be first in line of, what I suspect, will be a very long line! Respectfully, Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Hear, Hear! This is a worthy project if I ever saw one. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinUSA Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I agree, we need a donation or membership payment scheme, but please stay away from PayPal.... Credit Card is better. Payment could be made through Brian's Store... Come on Brian, get with the program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeFoley Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Glocktalk is having a fundraiser to raise forum money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew_Mink Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Hmm, a good idea. But I second the notion, absolutely no paypal since they are antigun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airedale Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I support the idea for donations. This is a great forum and a wealth of information. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 YEA! Brian? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezer-lock Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Sign me up for a gold star. Cheap at twice the price. This is the best resource on the Internet for the competition shooter. geezer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
standles Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Another idea that could be used in conjunction with or in place of the donation scheme is to have a reaffle of sorts. Say reloading equipment, training session with "SOMEONE" , firearms etc etc etc... I tend to "donate" more if it is a chance at something rather than a pure donation. I know it shouldn't matter but my psyche is warped anyway As for that training session that is assuming Brian knows Rob Leatham and can set it up Later, Steven < Edited > for the Humor Impaired.... The above was a half hearted attmept at humor with an idea thrown in for good measure. Not sure wheather tightloop was taking me to seriously (always hard over typed response) but I was not. I would gladly donate to this site as it has rapidly become one of the only sites I visits and the only one I visit more than twice a day. <end edit> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Standles... Your ability to GET something from this forum...is incumbent on on your ability to listen, observe and learn from the others here... If you could get the number of M and GM shooters together that utilize this forum ( and you could not do that) and you paid each one of them .50 cents an hour for their verbal responses and shared knowledge...it would be vastly more expensive than 50 or 75 bucks a year.... Just my opinion, but I don't need the chance to have a personal lesson from TGO to encourage me to donate money to this forum....I did get those personal lessons when I had the opportunity to shoot against him a few times...same with Brian and guys like Fowler, Seyfried, and others...but the guys on this forum like Flex, Jake, Steve, Paul W, Smitty, Ankeny, Sweeney, and a host of others toss off gems that are there for the picking if you just pay attention... Just my opinion... Tightloop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Some of the moderators have suggested a similar thing in the past. Brian has been somewhat opposed to the "gold star" thing...I believe he didn't really like the idea making it look like he might be putting the squeeze on members. And, he didn't wnat to make anybody feel uncomfortable if they didn't donate enough to be a platinum star member... (So, we might have to work him pretty hard on the idea.) The raffle idea...I'm jsut not sure about that one. Another shooting forum tried that, and I think money was gonig to a widow of a gunsmith. Seems like they ended up giving all the money back because of some glitch in the law. I know they do a raffle at GlockTalk, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I got in on the front end of oregonconcealedcarry.com because I'm local to it and my timing just happened to be good... but I also have an interest in the topical matter. We also have far fewer members there than THIS forum, but (interestingly) the flocking momentum of new members at OCC just lately has been outstanding--many of whom have "lurked" for several months before joining. The major sponsor of OCC is one of my major graphics clients and is represented in a big way on this particular forum because of the type of training his academy offers. We just upgraded the OCC board software recently and came up a little short in the cash department, so a plea went up for supplemental funds and the membership flew out of the woodwork en masse with an incredible show of $upport. Yes, I'm a V.I.P. member at OCC. But now so are a lot of others. OCC does happen to use PayPal but I have no objection to sending things like CHECKS in the mail. No fees and only $0.37 for the stamp. So, there may be an occasional time and place for membership support, but exactly how you handle it and to what extent is entirely up to Brian. I just re-designed our banner heading (BE.com) with the software upgrade, but there are times I'd like to do more... yet Brian always declines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtr Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I've always felt that buying stuff from Brian was a good way to support the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Do what I like to do occasionally, sell gear in the classified on the condition that the seller sends the check to Brian. I think Brian has recieved 3, no make that 4 dollars from me that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I've always felt that buying stuff from Brian was a good way to support the forum. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> that's a good idea. brian could also do like midway and brownells and round to the next dollar for the nra. but we'd round to the next dollar amout for the forums. lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ankeny Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 [guilt mode on] I am long over due. I'll get a check off tonight. [/guilt mode off] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Dillon does the 'rounding off' thing, too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Hasn't this already been setup: http://www.brianenos.com/store/donate.html Maybe we just need to put more info on the forum directing to this link. It would also be better if there was a "View Cart" button here too since once you hit the Donate button it's not obvious that anything has happened. As the page says you can always do it the old fashioned way with a letter and check. -Vincent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinUSA Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Dang you beat me to it !!! It seems we don't need Brian to setup anything, lets just post an entry to the forum and ask the forum members if they'd like to donate. Sort of a fund-raiser. Get everyone willing to donate to put it all in at the same time and run it once every quarter or 6 months. Shall we ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I'll start. I just donated $20 to the cause. It's not much but I'm sure every bit helps. -Vincent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Ha! Did mine yesterday morning... I look at it as a magazine subscription. Better content here, and I can ask questions... It's definetly worth more than Guns N' Ammo (to me). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 That's a really good way to look at it. These forums are way better than any gun magazine subscription that I've had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezer-lock Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 No gold star needed. The bits are in the pipe. Gotta love the Internet! Thanks Brian, geezer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinUSA Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 Just donated.... Thanks for the forums, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 Ahhh, I was wondering what's been going on for the last two days, as I received four donations! - David Cross, David Hayden, Nelson Colon, and Vincent Zontini. A super-huge thank you! I seldom get donations at all anymore (over the past 1+ year), unless someone starts some sort of thread or "signature line campaign," like a few good folks have done in the past. Recently I added my store's links to my signature, today I added the Donate store link as well. (I don't know what I was thinking when I didn't include it initially.) I've noticed a PayPal donate button tastefully placed at the bottom of a few other forum's pages. With a little research, I could probably figure out how to add my own store's donate link there, so I'll work on that soon. (Its' tax time.) A few more thoughts... I'm definitely not a fan of the "silver, gold, platinum membership thing"; I'd much rather have folks just comfortably hanging around. And as rtr said - it's more than enough to buy from me. And it's not just individual purchases, this kind of community generates a camaraderie that's impossible to put a dollar value on. I appreciate every bit of that. Thanks again everyone! be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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