All Torque

Well the management team over at FFOC thinks that it is. I was an active user of their forum for many years thats untill their new forum launched last night where only payed up members can access 100% of the forum, us mere registerd users gets approx 5% that being General Chat and you may only look at the pictures in the forecourt total ****e if you ask me.
I know its only £20 and thats not the point its the princeible. How long are they going to last before we get emails begging for us to return.

fatherpierre

No.

dpb

the what ..

Lee247

I pay to use this one and I think it's worth it.

Jaydee5

But why, Lesley

Maz

iTrader: (34)

I think it would weedle out the riff raff. Says the non paying user!

Markus

If the forum was critical to my needs, for example, something relating to my job, then yes, I'd probably pay for access. Apart from that, I might pay, it really does depend on what benefits paid membership would bring me.

I did have Plus Membership on here for a year, but to be honest it didn't really give me that much, hence one of the reasons why I never bothered to renew it.

If you have a very active forum then you may well be able to continue when you shift to a paid membership model, however, unless you offer something very specialised and specific, I don't think it works most of the time.

More than likely, disgruntled members would setup another forum, with no paid memebrship.

Markus

A good point, providing the trolls don't decide to pay to troll Though I'd guess the T&C's would need to be updated to make mention that if you act like a troll, regardless of whether you're paying for the privellege of doing so, you'll get banned.

Why did FFOC implement paid membership? was it to help with the running costs? Do you get anything above and beyond access to the forums with the membership?

All Torque

Yes but all the technical info that has been posted by the forum users over the past 5 years is still there and is now hidden, unless me or any new or existing user pays for the privelage. Some of this infomation I may add have been posted by non members, who are also getting quite narked that their articles are still being used and have asked for all their posts to now be deleted.

Jaybird-UK

I had a plus membership here for a year too, got nothing special so didnt renew.

I think we should at least get avatars (small one, 80x80 30k max) if we are plus members.

A forum owner needs to have a fair balance, without users there is no content - no content no users.....

Markus

I can partially see why they have gone for total lock-down, as making the sections read-only would still allow people to read the handy threads, and then bugger off somewhere else without contributing, but it's a little heavy-handed to say the least.

I'd be interested to know how many people would pay for access to SN if it was to adopt such an approach.

All Torque

Why did FFOC implement paid membership? was it to help with the running costs? Do you get anything above and beyond access to the forums with the membership?

Partly to help with the running costs, and also if you become a member you get some freebies sent to you, car stickers and a postcard with a WRC Focus when I payed a 2 year membership when it 1st started. One user have offered to host the site for free though on his own server in order to get it back to how it was.
Now if the site was in financial trouble and asked for donations to keep up the running I would be 1st in the que to donate.

Lee247

Why not
It all goes to help make the site better and I enjoy being here. For what it costs, I say again, I think it's worth it.

AudiLover

the site layout is poor, and its slow. I wouldnt pay to use any forum.

Jaydee5

<wiggley hands thingy> Not convinced

Markus

I don't see the forum being any better than it was since plus membership came along. In fact in the past four years I feel it's actually gone downhill.

If the plus membership guaranteed that the trolls were kicked back under the bridge, and that the muppet forum, super muppets and fight club were removed then I might consider paying for access.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I would say no but then wonder what I would do with my time ?

Lee247

I like it in there and have met some good people who have now become good friends
As for trolls, no comment, he might come back

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, you are not SDB in disguise are you ?

Lee247

No

OllyK

I paid for 1 year of plus membership to make a contribution, but I wasn't prepared to keep paying £20 a year for a keyring and services I don't use. If I was selling a lot then it may be worth while.

Swen6

No i wouldn't.

Herts Subarus started charging for access to around 50% of the site, the fact the site was only 6 months old, and not as busy, under a 100 members???. Also the fact was i only popped on there if there was nothing happening on here or the other sites i go on. I told them i wouldn't be paying and they said it was for running costs, fair enough. Still pop on there but even less than before.

The Lancer Reg is the same, you get 20 posts before you have to register.

Turbohot

I only paid for my SN membership on a friend's suggestion because,it gave me access to Supermuppets and Fightclub.When I did access them,I found them useless
I may carry on paying because,i do understand that the site and site related events do have running costs.I will think about it
So far other sites are concerned,If there is a good forum worth the money,I will pay the cost.

robby

i've been using the ffoc forums for the last couple of months since i bought my ST170 - went on today after it came back online to find i can't get to most of the sections as i'm not a full member
i never saw any mention of membership charges being introduced before the site went down so i was a bit peed off.
The problem with charging now is most people wont bother so the board will slow down and replies wont be there - people will find other forums that are free.

scotty44

iTrader: (12)

Spot on m8 , some of the sites i use do have a small fee but its worth paying , iv ran a forum before & it can cost a lot depending how far you take it , 1 thing that does & will work is a donate tab that way the people that dont wont to be known dont have to , just an idea

Shark Man

Personally I would not pay to use any forum.

If it was part and parcel of a proper club with good events local to me. And it actually provided information of technical importance then it would be worth considering....and by that I DO NOT mean the useless hearsay, conjecture and **** twadle that infests almost every technical post in this forum rendering them useless for gaining hard facts. Or huge commercial orientated gatherings that push out the small fish in favour of the big boy tuners.

Turbohot

So, you certainly wouldn't pay for a forum like Muppet Show,then?

Suresh

I would happily pay a nominal amount to use a good, reliable and popular forum. But 20 squids is more than a nominal amount IMHO. A fiver per person would give a much better return than getting 20 from a much small percentage of users.

r32

No

Miss Kinky

i wouldn't pay to join this forum...i did look at the options yesterday... i know the costs nvolved must be phenomenal..i dread to think how big the hosting package must be...

in favour of paying for SNET - its £25 per year - thats £2.00 a month - what does a typical car mag cost per month, its gotta be £5... how many hours entertainment do you get from SNET...? how many hours from the mag...? what do you do with the mag once you've finished with it...?

i will be paying to join a Cortina forum that is currently being set up...

however i'm admin on another forum that is completely free - no software costs and no hosting costs - all it takes is time. i wouldn't expect anyone to pay to join...