Premium Membership Poll - Your thoughts please

[Andrew]

I have to try not to spend time on here as it can be time consuming. Work is too busy to get involved in the same questions that were being answered 2 years previously. There are often threads on here that spiral out of control as well and I just don't have time to get involved in half this stuff. In the early days when the forum was developing I was happy to donate but now there are so many that get a lot out of the forum that it should easily be funded. People who get information that helps them along should stump up the cash. Thankfully, I am not in the position where I need the arranged discounts as I can buy in volume if I need a better price. I just pop on here now and then to keep an eye on the subli world but hardly get a chance of the last year to get involved in discussions.

There is large value in this forum for many involved in printing and I think much of this wealth of information should be to subscribed/ paid up members. Perhaps just have the original post available to all but answers open to paid members. To many people are along for the free ride and taking advantage with no intention of giving back. Half the posters seem to want to set up in sublimation with the cheapest option out there with no research beforehand then think they have a get out of jail free card by asking everyone else to sort out their problems in getting a decent print. I got fed up of dishing out free information to people that took me years to gather off my own back. I was always happy to help out members who give back to the forum either through input or membership but to many times it seems like you end up banging your head against a brick wall.

[rezyac]

Can i ask what proffesional section means?

it means to keep people like me and other new people out of the pro section, so they can talk and business tips and not have to deal with me popping up asking how do you do things, so kind of like keep the noobs out, i think its a good idea

[Paul]

well... so i am not the pro

[michc]

I have been doing sublimation/garment printing for about 5 years and would like to make this my main source of income however circumstance mean I can't 'give up the day job' to do this. I paid by donation when this was first requested (way back)and then by membership when I've been using the forum. Apologies but I rarely post, as any issues I may come accross are already posted/answered and there are lots of people with much greater knowledge and experience than me to answer new posts. However, I feel I do support the forum through the membership payment (which I would happily double/triple). I don't often use the discounts avaiable to members, but use the forum to get information and/or solve problems. I appreciate the forum takes a lot of work to run and the information gained from it has benefitted me over and over which is why I am more then prepared to pay.

I will add one thing though, I lost a considerable amount of money, which I could ill afford, through a 'fly by night' selling on the forum. This maybe needs to be tightened up in some way.

[socialgiraffe]

Thats an intersting point MichC about sellers on here.

On another forum I belong to they have a PRAISE or PANTS section where you can not only post good customer service but also bad experience. That might solve some of that issue but I doubt if it will make it 100%

[John G]

'fly by night'

Who was that then - 1st I've heard of any conmen directly selling on the forum.

[michc]

I'm not going to name however the person joined as a junior member and their last activity was 4 days later. This was last year. I should've known better and stuck with building on what I do as opposed to looking for a quicker way to do it. I could've added to my equipment as lost the amount of money to cover a laser printer (not the white one) and from TMT so I could use WOW system which I could really do with. Lessons learned though

[John G]

Sorry to hear this, there's always going to be the odd conman joining any forum to make a quick buck.

[Paul]

thats why I am deleting every single new add that is made by new member. And regards mention names. yeah! keep doing that and let other lose money too!

I think they should be named.

[Justin]

I'm looking at making a few changes to the for sale section very soon. It's not only new members that can cause these issues though, I've had complaints about members selling goods even when they have 100's of lists please let me know if you have such issues.