V Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 My idea behind this: Someone comes in... he has access to almost everything.. He wants to SELL? He will pay... He just wants to BUY? After some time there are two possibilities: 1. He will be just another guy with 10 posts who just comes in to see the new models and just communicates with dealers. You are not gonna take his money whatever you will do. 2. He will contribute to the forum.. And when he will start to do this he will be curious what's going on on the VIP subforum and he will eventually PAY to be a REAL part of the community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 First of all a big thank to Admin, the rest of the team and active members We have several vailid points here... My personal impression is that we should have a some extra-options... let it be a special trade area or whatever... About the posting and PM functions i think for normal users these functions should be limited per week/day or... Expect it's possible that we can sort members via IP i would vote for an full free trial-month of the functions of the supporters so the newbies know exactly what they'll get if they are willing to support the forum... Keep posting your ideas here so we can work out the best for the forum BTW: Thanks Neil and V for spending some items for an auction in favour of RWG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dani Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Regular member (Free); Can only read and post in forums where regular members have access. No access to PM, avatars, no access to the trading zone, etc... Get's 1 month free Silver membership trial when they sign up. After 1 month they are downgraded Silver members (cheap membership..something like $1 pr month): Regular status. Gives you access to use PM's, avatars. Like the regular membership today Diamond member/VIP/RWG Supporter: Full access with access to own areas very good idea. I em a mod on 2 forums and we generate like all cost only on dealer fees maybe they shoud step up more here and pay more. Cheers Dani Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TTK Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Why should dealers pay more.....we already shoulder a considerable burden in terms of the service we offer.....it's hardly a 2 way street when compared to members.....they're getting the benefit with very few drawbacks.....they should pay for their forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 If the dealer pay more means they have to rise prices so the customer pays it in the end too... i have no clue how many watches sre sold via this board but maybe another solution could be something like a tax on the watches sold here... like like 0.5% or 1% the dealers and members selling here just add the line selling price XYZ plus xy% tax... maybe this will work also... funds made over the costs will get a few beers for Admin and for the rest watches will be bought and be prices in a free christmas lottery with one or three tickest per member But allover i would like to see that the forum is paid via supporter and dealer fees... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vric Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 (edited) Regular member (Free); Can only read and post in forums where regular members have access. No access to PM, avatars, no access to the trading zone, etc... Get's 1 month free Silver membership trial when they sign up. After 1 month they are downgraded Silver members (cheap membership..something like $1 pr month): Regular status. Gives you access to use PM's, avatars. Like the regular membership today Diamond member/VIP/RWG Supporter: Full access with access to own areas This is a good idea. Paying $12 (or make it round at $15) by year wouldn't hurt most of us. I'm not against the idea of a cheap by month fees. I already give $20 by year to this forum (donation, not upgrading my account) so it would change anything. I think most of us are ready to help, we are just a bit lazy. Edited September 28, 2006 by vric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 6. Phoband: Over 90% of the traffic RWG has is return visitors. About 80% of the current members seem to visit the forum once a month or more often. 1/3 of the members visit the board daily. On top of this comes the unregistered visitors/traffic Wow , this is much higher than i thought. ok - I think the plans were talking about here would work. With low fees. You could let it go auto for 1 dollar a month, or pay the 12 bucks up front (90% of people will just pay the 12 bucks) But when you offer the 1 dollar, it sounds better re: supporter trading forum - if we got int he habit of posting there first fora few days at least - i think people would definatly want in. The longer i hvae been around the more i realize the value of trading and frankly the best deals are gone within hours if not a day or 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r11co Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Why should dealers pay more..... I think dealers fees should be cut or done away with in exchange for their offering exclusive deals or first bites at new stock to supporters. Thus the dealers will indirectly finance the board by members wanting to upgrade to see what the best offers are. Incentives all round. Carrot rather than stick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertk Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Wow , this is much higher than i thought. ok - I think the plans were talking about here would work. With low fees. You could let it go auto for 1 dollar a month, or pay the 12 bucks up front (90% of people will just pay the 12 bucks) But when you offer the 1 dollar, it sounds better re: supporter trading forum - if we got int he habit of posting there first fora few days at least - i think people would definatly want in. The longer i hvae been around the more i realize the value of trading and frankly the best deals are gone within hours if not a day or 2. The suggestion that dealers post in a vip forum first affects there sales. What do they think? The most practical suggestion is for those that visit regularly to anti up the fee. All these other suggestions, while well meant, simply reduce access. If I'm a newbie and I visit to check this forum out, I want to see everything. That's going to entice me to come back. If I don't have access to purchasing I'm less interested. After all, that's why I'm here. Hopefully, I'll get hooked (as so many of us do). Put the pressure on those who visit regularly who don't pay. Don't penalize the newbie's who are the future lifeblood of these forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tracy Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 The suggestion that dealers post in a vip forum first affects there sales. What do they think? The most practical suggestion is for those that visit regularly to anti up the fee. All these other suggestions, while well meant, simply reduce access. If I'm a newbie and I visit to check this forum out, I want to see everything. That's going to entice me to come back. If I don't have access to purchasing I'm less interested. After all, that's why I'm here. Hopefully, I'll get hooked (as so many of us do). Put the pressure on those who visit regularly who don't pay. Don't penalize the newbie's who are the future lifeblood of these forums. My suggestion does not pull dealers out of the regular trading forum or anyone that wants to trade... it only adds a separate forum, for special dealer offers and those members that would like to deal with other certified members, while garnering increased support for the board as a whole. In my opinion, applying pressure to long time members, will only drive them to the other boards and does not offer then anything different or unique, however if, let's say some dealer, or member were to offer, for sale, a swiss 212 for huge discount, but you could only view details of such offers in a private forum, this would make it logical to pay a one time yearly fee that you could recoop in one buy when gaining access our members only forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 My suggestion does not pull dealers out of the regular trading forum or anyone that wants to trade... it only adds a separate forum, for special dealer offers and those members that would like to deal with other certified members, while garnering increased support for the board as a whole. In my opinion, applying pressure to long time members, will only drive them to the other boards and does not offer then anything different or unique, however if, let's say some dealer, or member were to offer, for sale, a swiss 212 for huge discount, but you could only view details of such offers in a private forum, this would make it logical to pay a one time yearly fee that you could recoop in one buy when gaining access our members only forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikellem Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 Admin, First of all many thanks for all the work you have put into this - it had to be done. My initial thoughts are that the majority of our members don't give a frig, judging by the amount of them who participated in the survey. We have built an excellent forum here with tons of resources and information, not to mention direct access to the best replicas at the very best prices and I think all that is taken for granted quite frankly. Therefore I think the time has come to install a fee-paying membership scheme with restrictions on access for those who don't want to shell out a little money to give something back. We may lose many members as a result but this to my mind this is no loss. If they don't think it's worth contributing then goodbye I say. I think it's appropriate at this juncture to give thanks to the small percentage who have supported the forum thus far. Much kudos to you all. JTB Hi Admin, I totally agree with "JTB". Let's be honest here and admit the truths! The majority of our members do not care...So we need to concentrate on raising money from the 10% of members that do care. We do not need 3,200 members whom do not want to contribute financially. My thoughts are this T, If you let me know how much you are short monthy, (Dollar wise), I can then work on preparing a plan to more than cover the monthly bills. Please PM me. I would love to help If I can... Thanks, Mike -MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Manny Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 I agree. I'm a grape waiting to be picked. I will pay for average treatment but, hey, there is a VIP section, move over buddy. Now I will only sit in the corner and act cool but that is a different subject. Give the real collectors some value and I bet a few of us will kick in. Random thoughts: Special dealer sales Nanuq personal heavy handed rep service Giant Pornographic Avatars All plated watched upgraded to solid gold Polex reps will use OEM movements from this point forward. Just a few thoughts. Cheers, CM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TTK Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 @mikellem.....Please PM me. I would love to help If I can... Don't you start pissing in my Rice Krispies again.....with that donation nonsense...... PS.....dya want this Fortis or not........I've got people biting mah ankles.....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmeister Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 It is interesting that other forums use lesser cost lower bandwidth services. Our problem appears to be that this forum provides too much bandwidth to users for free. I don't know what dealers pay but I will assume that what Neil say is true and so charging dealers more is not viable. It sounds to me like paying for certain sections is the only way to generate more revenue. The oxymoron is that if you do this some folks will disappear and then we will need less bandwidth. Also if RWG has a fee and TRC doesn't I suspect the traffic at TRC would probably pick up and require more bandwidth. Does TRC have the same problem? In any case I think modest membership fee for access to certain areas is necessary if ads are not working. But if done here it would have to happen at TRC as well. I suspect that there might be fewer noobs screwing up the dealer transactions as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Why should dealers pay more.....we already shoulder a considerable burden in terms of the service we offer.....it's hardly a 2 way street when compared to members.....they're getting the benefit with very few drawbacks.....they should pay for their forum. I agree, could the dealers though offer a better price to supporters(i dont mean cheeper than now) than noobs in a private vip/supporter area area bearing in mind the extra work to change websites ect, or a discount voucher put 2/3£ on the price for noobs and pass the discount on to the supporters of the forum that provides the conduit to the dealers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Giant Pornographic Avatars All plated watched upgraded to solid gold Polex reps will use OEM movements from this point forward. Just a few thoughts. Cheers, CM Theres a thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeroguy Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 How about members/supporters get first crack at watch trades and dealer offerings. Let's face it, dealers and traders want as large an audiance as possible so limiting those areas only to paying memebers lessens the audiance. Make trades and dealer offerings visible only to paying members for the first 48 hours. After that... everyone can see them. Missing that rare DW Daytona offering in the member trade section over and over again will draw some desire to upgrade... first crack and all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marrickvilleboy Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 its funny that almost all the posters in this thread are supporters. I think the best way to do this is to have the approximate cost of running this board for 1 year, once we know this, we can find a way to make up the numbers. I can understand the fustration of the admin and some of the supporters who feel that it is they who is paying for this board. This is a great community but i don't want this financial situation to put a hole in what we have already. I personally feel that perhaps charging a one off yearly membership fee(compulsory) is probably best. The cost will be low and we shouldn't have any issues. But it will depend on what your purpose is in the first place, for example, charging a premium is to allow contact with dealers, then its unfair to the dealers who will be losing alot of their business, plus the members who are here already have most of their contacts so it won't make a difference - since they can just leave. But if it isn't this, what other avenues are you charging a premium membership for? repair and upgrade? the majority of the repair and upgrade are answered by US - god knows how many PMS and topics are answered by the same bunch of people - The Zigmeister, joe, randy, bazz, me, and other modders. Doesn't that mean someone should be paying us for our "service"? I'm not trying to create a stir as you can see i'm happy doing what i'm doing, but if you are going to implement a membership system, it must be very well thought-through and fair. Please keep us updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMK000 Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 This thread is a bit old (sep 26). Admin , can you give us an update of the situation ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Just a really short update: There will be a large forum update just after new years and a lot of the ideas in this thread will be incorporated. The economy is ok for now since we have members paying a larger fee for the 1 year membership and I can use this money now, but because of this, the forum will run out of money again in the future. To keep things running smoothly we need about 10% of the forums membership to be RWG supporters. Currently it is at the same level it has been for a long time, about 7.8%. It's either this, or people start clicking the google ads like crazy or buy TONS of stuff from amazon using the ads here There will also be a couple of new lotteries now and then, so hopefully this will also provide some money to RWG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssurfer Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Just a word about advs. Some time ago I clicked on an Amazon adv, went there, ended up in buying some stuff (winding boxes), and finally Amazon said they were not going to sell those items outside US. I felt quite unspurred to click on advs again, and still I feel this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Just a word about advs. Some time ago I clicked on an Amazon adv, went there, ended up in buying some stuff (winding boxes), and finally Amazon said they were not going to sell those items outside US. I felt quite unspurred to click on advs again, and still I feel this way. Hmmm...wasn't aware of this and unfortunately it's not much I can do about it. They don't have any settings that will take into consideration the country you are based in and then display ads that will ship to your country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pollux1 Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 My first time reading this thread, as anyone can see when they look left, i've become a supporter of rwg, simply because i'd hate to lose the knowledge contained herein. Hopefully others will follow suit ( i'm still a noob so don't be too harsh on me! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tracy Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Just a really short update: There will be a large forum update just after new years and a lot of the ideas in this thread will be incorporated. The economy is ok for now since we have members paying a larger fee for the 1 year membership and I can use this money now, but because of this, the forum will run out of money again in the future. To keep things running smoothly we need about 10% of the forums membership to be RWG supporters. Currently it is at the same level it has been for a long time, about 7.8%. It's either this, or people start clicking the google ads like crazy or buy TONS of stuff from amazon using the ads here There will also be a couple of new lotteries now and then, so hopefully this will also provide some money to RWG. Glad to hear it T. Looking foreward ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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