What do you think is fair?

[Justin]

Good comments there. Yes, the issue with regards to new members is tricky and we certainly need incentives for them to stick around, suppliers may well hold the key here. I like the idea of throwing in a subscription with every package sale.

[John G]

I said from the start that due to the info given freely on this site it should be a paid for membership but I think you might have to look into how its run for legal reasons if your going to have a membership fee/advertising options.

If you charge for membership, plus any monies coming from advertising you will have to run it as a legit business, pay taxes on any income or profit and keep books for tax return purposes etc. This would all add up and I think the £5 / £10 your thinking of charging wouldn't be enough to sustain a business.

Going back to trial membership - as JSR mentioned, the ask one question and scarpa brigade wouldn't bother paying the membership fee. I see the only way around this would be restricted areas where they can join for free but only have access to certain topics/sections of the forum - more info needed or access to members info/contacts and i'm afraid they'd have to pay for it.

Cheers John

[Paul]

I like the idea of throwing in a subscription with every package sale.

I dont tbh
I think suppliers should be "members" too. but pay bit diferent for membership acces.

[bms]

pay taxes on any income or profit

You might be able to avoid this if the organisation is set up as a members club - there won't be "profits" which are taxable, but surplus of income over expenditure which wouldn't be taxable in the same sense as a "company".

I see the point that John makes - I guess there are a lot more people browsing the forum rather than being a member. So there needs to be an incentive for browsers to register and pay up. What would that incentive be?

[Justin]

Again I need to look into the legalities before making any final decisions. I really want to work towards creating more incentives for members to join whether it's thorugh regular supplier discounts for members only or new sections that all members including the experienced will benefit.

Background work continues but I do need to stress that donations are few and far between. I'm looking at pushing forward again, possibly changing the format of the forum, upgrading etc. to enable us to have new sections and far more functionality but I can only cover so much of this by myself.

Ideas and suggestions always appreciated

[bms]

stress that donations are few and far between

What sort of running costs are there likely to be per annum? If there are 450 members at present and each contributes £5 then that gives you £1800. What magnitude of costs are there per annum? £100, £500, £1000, £2000?

You should have received my donation recently as well as other members saying they've made some form of payment, but can you give us some indication of how much is needed each year?

[John G]

Thats the problem - there might be 450 members but i'd bet that well over two thirds wouldn't pay for membership.

[bms]

Thats the problem - there might be 450 members but i'd bet that well over two thirds wouldn't pay for membership.

That's okay though if the 1/3 do (150) and all pay £5 bringing in £750 if that is what is needed to cover the running costs. If we don't know what the running costs are likely to be each year then it's all academic discussion about how many will pay and how much they would pay.

[Justin]

Charing for the forum isn't sitting well with me, I have mixed views. I'm looking at everything this weekend with a view to reducing curent costs and getting the arcade/gallery etc. back online. If things go to plan I won't need the same income to run the forum at this stage. However, to move forward with additional sections, storage and so on a regular income will be needed. Swings and roundabouts.

I would stress however that I'm not in this to make any sort of income. If members would prefer total transparancy with costs I can do that. We used to have the graph showing current funds for each project, maybe this would be good to put back?

I moved the forum over to a virtual server and whilst this has cured all down-time issues it's created some background problems that are proving difficult to sort. I'm looking at going back to a hosted platform again, the biggest benefit would be a huge cost saving but there will always be a risk of down-time this way, all be it minimal.

Whilst we have 450 members we rarely have more than 10% regular visitors from this. A request for donations usually yields 5/6 individuals and whilst this is greatly appreciated it begs the question why does no-one else wnat to donate?

Martin, not seen any donation come through I'm afraid, when was this made please?

[bms]

Martin, not seen any donation come through I'm afraid, when was this made please?

Will pm you the details...