To keep the Forums alive - change coming to Classifieds - Poll added, please vote!

[m700]

I like this forum a lot.

Banner adds would be a good start.

Maybe throw a tip jar up and if you make a sale in the classifieds throw something in it(honor system) 

 

And see where things go from there.

[usmc1974]

I voted. Banner ads, because $15 a month that's $180 a year. And that's more than I pay for my yearly membership at City Gun Club. Just a thought

Edited March 20, 2020 by usmc1974

[ezra650]

I voted banner ads, but I believe a hybrid of that and annual membership fee would be the best option. At the very least I hope that the info here is accessible indefinitely. Even if it is archived with no members or new posts. I myself have learned from posts that are 10yr old+ and would enjoy those being around long term. A tiered annual membership system would be great. I am a member on a GA resident forum for people selling guns/ammo/etc and general discussion. They have recently went to a paid system for classifieds and it seems to be doing well. That forum is https://www.theoutdoorstrader.com/

 

 

 

 

 

[titandriver]

Wondering what the monetary threshold amount is before "screw you" becomes the norm? According to the survey so far, $15 per month/$180 per year is "screw you" territory for nearly 92% of those answering the poll. Kinda curious to see what the upper limit is before "screw you" is the predominate answer.  

[Ming the Merciless]

I would like to keep the Classifieds because this is a small enough community that many of the persons selling are known to the community.   That gives a certain level of trust that other Classifieds don't have.

 

I voted for Banner Ads.  I would also like to see tiered memberships, mostly I would like to see this forum continue and would really like to see Brian profit from his decades of service to this community.  What I've learned on this forum has saved me thousands of dollars in lost time and parts on various gun projects.......oh wait, it's also cost me thousands of dollars in guns and parts for the new hotness!  I guess that part is a wash.

[Sdlrodeo]

I’d be willing to pay an annual fee for the forum. What would the numbers look like if everyone paid $5/yr?

[Sarge]

14 minutes ago, Sdlrodeo said:

I’d be willing to pay an annual fee for the forum. What would the numbers look like if everyone paid $5/yr?

Not that everyone would stay but there are well over 30k members. I think somebody said like 20k are active? So even if half that is the case that’s 10k. So $50,000?

  This is why I said $1 would be plenty. It can’t be anywhere near $10,000 a year to host a forum can it?

[theautobahn]

Banner ads would be my first choice. An annual membership fee would be second. This is a GREAT resource and I'd hate to see it disappear.

[Sdlrodeo]

2 hours ago, Sarge said:

Not that everyone would stay but there are well over 30k members. I think somebody said like 20k are active? So even if half that is the case that’s 10k. So $50,000?

  This is why I said $1 would be plenty. It can’t be anywhere near $10,000 a year to host a forum can it?

that’s about what I thought. Seems like it would be worth it for $5/year. I don’t think we’d lose that many. 

[benos]

I have zero interest, in my life right now, in putting in the work it would take to recruit dealers for banner ads.

[TrackCage]

1 minute ago, benos said:

I have zero interest, in my life right now, in putting in the work it would take to recruit dealers for banner ads.

That's not how banner ads work. You don't recruit, an ad server delivers ads based on in-market segments, who pays the post, and many other factors.

[benos]

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

[benos]

Just now, TrackCage said:

That's not how banner ads work. You don't recruit, an ad server delivers ads based on in-market segments, who pays the post, and many other factors.

No clue on that. Can you send me some info on that.
forum@brianenos.com 
I'm out till Monday.

[B_Seehawer]

7 minutes ago, benos said:

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

$5

[LMS]

13 minutes ago, benos said:

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

 

$25

[caspian guy]

22 minutes ago, benos said:

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

 I figure banner ads and 25 bucks a year premium membership to not have to see them.

Edited March 20, 2020 by caspian guy

[Sarge]

19 minutes ago, benos said:

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

$5. Seems the lower you keep it the more who will stick around therefore making more

[BritinUSA]

If the forum moves to an annual membership, what happens if there is not enough revenue to cover a full year?

 

The other option is to sell the forum and let the new owner deal with it.

[TrackCage]

1 hour ago, benos said:

No clue on that. Can you send me some info on that.
forum@brianenos.com 
I'm out till Monday.

Sure I'll send it to you in shortly.

[Echd]

As a lurker who has been here more for the dillon and not for the Uspsa, if you aren't feeling it you'd be time and a headache ahead to just sell it.

 

This isn't a massive forum, although there is a lot of good info here. Hosting should not be that expensive, and appropriately targeted ads would likely cover much of the overhead.

 

Most forums that charge membership fees essentially just implement them as donations for members who want to support the site. $15 a month is crazy high, and if it's required to sell, the classifieds will die fast. If you just want to kill the classifieds to avoid their associated headaches, just do that.

 

Look at a site like ar15.com. They're owned by brownells and people still line up to give them membership money. That said I always felt this was a much more technical forum and that is a much more community based forum which for many is just for random discussions. I find that I rarely need to post here to find an answer to a question I may have because I can probably find it by searching old posts. Average user engagement on sites like ar15 is higher and that results in people being willing to donate more. Here I might scan the classifieds or see what's new in the reloading forums, rarely do I spend a lot of time posting.

 

But overall if it's a financial and / mental stress to maintain the forum, deep six it or give it away.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Echd

[teros135]

1 hour ago, benos said:

For those that voted: "Yearly membership fee" - what would you consider a reasonable amount? 

And please quote this post for your reply. 

$25

[quiller]

$25 a year seems about right.

[B_Seehawer]

I’m not sure $25 a year is a good value vs the cost to run a forum.  
 

I belong to a ton of forums that I don’t pay a dime to and social media is a free resource. If it’s become a hassle, just nuke it and let the next generation sort it out. 

[rsn_tx]

2 hours ago, Sarge said:

$5. Seems the lower you keep it the more who will stick around therefore making more

 

My first thought would be banner ads and keep it free (if thats even possible), but I wonder if Sarge is right.. I could definitely do $5. 

[looking4reloadingdeals]

I have zero interest, in my life right now, in putting in the work it would take to recruit dealers for banner ads.

I think the first thing we all need to know is what cost are we covering? I totally understand that you no longer have a desire to pay for the forum and would like to enjoy the rest of your life, everyone’s interests change through their life. But I think if the members understand what costs we need to be covering to keep this amazing resource, it may or may not change they answers you’re getting. At this point the majority of us are just guessing and saying what we would be willing to pay for the resource. So I personally think the best thing for those who would like to see the forum go on is what it costs you per year and from there we can better figure out what would be an appropriate amount to charge members.

That said, I would say $5 yearly membership would be a safe bet to keep most members around and make some revenue, especially if paired with banner ads. I would personally pay between $10-20 a year for this amazing resource, but again, when charging members a yearly fee you are likely to loose many members which will reduce the wealth of knowledge, and reduce the value of the site, and eventually reduce the number of members to the point that the forum can not sustain itself again which will mean the forum will get shut down.

I think there are multiple members who are offering to help figure out the banner ad side of things, so why not try that route for 3-6 months to see if that will even be close to covering the cost of running the forum. If it’s close then maybe send out a reminder to donate once a quarter with a link to this thread reminding people that if there isn’t enough money the forum will be s#!t down.


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