[Fast Freddie]

Okay, it was suggested to me to offer members an ability to have their own sponsor member group where they would pay $20 per year (less than $2. per month) to have no advertisements and some extra features. This would help offset the cost for the bandwidth and avail special contests and prizes to these members.

I've stayed away from sponsors so far, even though I've had a lot of offers because I like my members to not be restricted as much. A lot of sponsors have tons of restrictions and that sucks. Anyway, give me an idea how you feel. If you think it's a sucky idea, tell me it's a sucky idea. I want to know your real opinion

Thanks!

FF

 

[LuciferRex]

I don't know how to vote on this....on one hand, special promotions would be nice, but on the other, paying money sucks.....

 

[10bv01]

I really think it's a no go Freddie, although I totally support you, paying money for a forum just is not worth it for me, I might be going out on a limb, but I think that you would lose a whole lot of members if we had to pay, if we can't have monthly prizes because of this, so be it. To be honest, if we do have to start paying, I don't think I would be around any longer.

 

[DrJones]

You'd be amazed at how often this is done, 10. Seriously like 2/3 of all the forums I participate in have sponsors. For some sites it's worth it, for others, it's not. It depends more on the features and privilages, than anything.

 

[dean]

Sponsorship isn't a bad idea, and I'm completely in support of offsetting the costs of bandwidth (I was wondering when this was coming). I'm not in favor of a yearly re-up fee for a couple of reasons:

(1) Now you're an accountant, reminding people when to pay, and with a hopefully growing membership, that sucks.
(2) From a member point of view, I like having the pressure put on you to keep making the forum better and better to attract new members to pay a one-time fee of, say, $20-30.

Note this isn't me saying you wouldn't do this already. I just don't like the idea of this place turning into a forum where the same people end up chatting each other a year from now.

Perhaps you could give a generic type of restriction a potential, sponsor would ask for?

 

[GTI MKV]

yeah to pay something every year just to be part of the forum would be prety bad. i use to play a game called nitto 1320 challenge (free online racing game) and they have a promotion where if you buy a membership you get some special stuff like... green text in the chat room, 10% off parts (on game), and like some game money. maybe somehow there could be a membership type of deal with this. pay 20 a year and get certain privledges only members have.

 

[Thalo]

I like GTI MkV's idea. I mean forum alone isn't worth paying money for (I know you pay money for it, Freddie, and we greatly appreciate it) but make sort of a standard membership of forum only and a gold membership for paying members that get access to some sort of other content and you might have something. The problem is creating that special content.

I really wouldn't mind ads either. I mean, I thought you had ads, sometimes I see things that look like google sidebar ads that link to related VW sites. If I ran a site like this with so much traffic I'd totally be whoring it out and rolling in the profits, but that's just me.

 

[Fast Freddie]

I really wouldn't mind ads either. I mean, I thought you had ads, sometimes I see things that look like google sidebar ads that link to related VW sites. If I ran a site like this with so much traffic I'd totally be whoring it out and rolling in the profits, but that's just me.

LOL, Thalo, you're funny as hell.

I'm against total member pay thing too. I really liked going to webmaster world, but when they went to a pay site, I quit going. I don't want that to happen here.

I don't think I was very clear at the start of this thread. Donating x amount and not seeing ads would be stictly on a personal preference.

1. MFG would still be free to everyone no matter what your member status.
2. Donating members would not see any ads.
3. Everyone else would see same amount of ads they see now.
4. Guests would see a few extra ads.

Perhaps you could give a generic type of restriction a potential, sponsor would ask for?

Well, nearly everyone has said they would not sponsor a site that condoned the Fword, Fuck that. > We're the "my FAST GTI" site, not the "my weeny-ass GTI" site.

1. I want you to be able to express yourself. We have a word censor for anyone who doesn't like the harsh language ( you have to actually turn it off ) and we decline anyone under 13 anyway. We still have young members that come on with parents so I do restrict racy pics and videos. Not to mention, a lot of salespeople send there customers here.
2. I don't endorse anything I haven't tried and believe in. Adding a site sponsor, says just that. That we endorse them.

Again, this would be just for members who don't want to see ads basically, and $20. was just what was suggested. Could be $10. or maybe less. Who knows? LOL

 

[dean]

So long as the restrictions aren't too stringent, I think if you put a disclaimer that you don't warrant or endorse the products advertised on your site, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Maybe if you bundled the "no ads" feature with the availability of more emoticons, search engines (archives, when you get to that point), etc., members would be willing to pay the optional fee, whatever you determine that should be.

 

[Fast Freddie]

We'll just keep it as it is for now. But I'll probaly look into picking up a few sponsors later.