Remember The Slightly Frustrated Admin?

[Richard Tracy]

I have a suggestion....

Why not have a Trading Forum that is available to Members Only...

where dealers and members can offer special deals ?

I would be willing to offer my trades only in that forum...as it would

give me a chance of dealing with serious community members,

not only for security, but to eliminate those that are only here to take

what they can get while giving the least...

[KB]

So a supporters Trading area separate from the general TA the K?

that's worth looking in to.

Ken

Ps................Yes John I have an evil mind it makes it easier to survive this place

Pps..............I'm gunna get you Larry, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow or next week even but just keep looking over your shoulder

[jnkay]

A free forum is great, but I think it's reasonable to offer a free get-to-know-the-place period and then charge a minimum fee for continued access. OR to allow posts and PMs only upon becoming a paying member. We're not talking big bucks here.

[Linder]

I would like to see a members only trade area.

I am also all for no posting or sending PMs until RWG Supporter status.

[fotoman]

So a supporters Trading area separate from the general TA the K?

that's worth looking in to.

Ken

Ps................Yes John I have an evil mind it makes it easier to survive this place

Pps..............I'm gunna get you Larry, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow or next week even but just keep looking over your shoulder

supporters seperate trading forum - great idea - Great minds think alike -

Everythingape - has a VERY IMPORTANT point. so, important infact, i had to stop typing to call it out, less my point might be missed in the middle of a lot of garbledy goop - like a supporters trading forum - i do like though however, "specials" for supporters.

Anyway, back to the BOLD - I work, at least for the time being in Politics - and the first thing you have to teach a new candidate is - you must ASK for a persons vote. Don't just go up and say, hi, i'm running, here are my great ideas - people don't react unless you ASK for their vote.

Just like Everythingape pointed out, he is a supporter because you asked. I don't know if that means a automatic email that says, Hi, you have been enjoying our forum for 1 week. We have many costs to keep up and we would love you to support us with 1 dollar a month, or whatever

i think this is KEY

also - i think the minimum grace period should be 1 month. I mean seriuosly - if your going to become a supporter? if your going to stick around - give it 1 month and this place and how can anyone turn away.

and strikes a good balance.

[SubFrog]

I don't know if that means a automatic email that says, Hi, you have been enjoying our forum for 1 week. We have many costs to keep up and we would love you to support us with 1 dollar a month, or whatever

Can this be done? Automatically? I think it's a good idea...but, if I had to manually keep up with that email list, I'd pull what's left of my hair out. There's a lot of people here and more signing up each day. I also like the supporter only trading area idea.

[TJGladeRaider]

OK, I hadn't signed up for the lottery, but now I have.

One other option is to add a few more membership categories:

First Month: Newbie

Second Month: Freeloader

Third Month: Deadbeat

Fourth Month: Leach

Fifth Month: [censored] Cheney fan (Just kidding )

etc.

.... until the person becomes an exalted Supporter.

Damn -- that's good!!

I think I'd it "Leech" though.

Really -- why not . . . and since non supporters have no business with avatars, why not put a leech in place for theirs.

Bill

[solicitor]

I've upgraded my membership. I think members should be charged a fair fee for access to restricted areas. Once members realize their access is denied, they'll come up with the money. Heck, this stuff is addictive. Withdrawal will set in quickly! Present fee structure seems fine to me.

[AMK000]

To me the whole thing is quite simple (.... maybe I am too naive to see it that way )

The whole forum should be free , except:

- The Watch repair and upgarde section

- The Expert area section

- The Trading Zone (the whole thing).

Browsing and posting (both intentions) for simple members (...dont know / cant tell about the dealers) should cost 5 USD a year - annual subscription only - for the whole lot (all of above three areas).

Assumptions and maths:

-----------------------------

3000 members approx.

Out of them 1000 decide to pay (let's face it, more of the members here, what are visiting more, is the trading zone).

Maths: 5.000 USD a year. Is that enough to maintain RWG ??? (that can't tell )

Do we have anybody here that canot afford to pay 5 USD a year ???

...... just an idea

AMK000

[Guest TTK]

Give them a taster.....let them see what the site is about......work up a bit of enthusiasm in them......but deny them access to viewing the Trading Area.......encourage the dealers ( or members ) to post more in the open access to all Photo Gallery......so they can see what dealers are offering.....and members are buying.....but they can't get access to Trading Areas.....untill they pay a small membership fee.....the fee will quickly be recouped....and once they're a member they'll want to continue being a member....if they drop their subscription....they go back to no viewing of the Trading Area.

In the meantime.....for all you Sub owners...who perhaps wish a little change....here's a little idea from me....if the Mods allow it.

I'm going to auction over a 7 day period...a Coca Cola dial and bezel.....highest bidder gets it...and the

money gets paid to RWG......!

Please check this link.

COCA COLA DIAL AND BEZEL

Edited September 27, 2006 by TTK

[dcrooz]

I think that monthly memberships are a bad idea as people will not necessarily renew as you've hilighted. I think that annual or semi-annual are better. Also, I do tend to get quite fed up with members who've been here since the start, have hundreds of posts and aren't willing to contribute. It's all well and good finding ways for newbies to pay up, but what about established members?

[rmcsherry]

I agree with most of what has been said - keep an area exclusive to supporters. At the moment, Supporter status does not offer anything over standard membership (other than posting in the trading area, and the psychological side of things!) - I probably would have become a supporter a month or two earlier if someting like the trading area was 'out of bounds', and I should imagine most of the members here would feel the same. I guess it's about trying finding a balance; whilst you want to encourage supporters, newer members could easily be driven to another board that has an open trading area.

[jonthebhoy]

At the moment, Supporter status does not offer anything over standard membership (other than posting in the trading area, and the psychological side of things!)

A very valid point I say.

JTB

[r11co]

Also, I do tend to get quite fed up with members who've been here since the start, have hundreds of posts and aren't willing to contribute.

I can take a hint.....

[Pugwash]

I've already offered to post my major articles/reviews/tutorials to a VIP Forum a week before they go to the general public. I'm no The Zigmeister and my articles aren't that important, but if I do it, then others would possibly follow suite.

I'd even do the same across the other boards so VIPs here and on RWI get the pre-releases, then it's released everywhere.

I'll never make my info exclusively VIP as I'm not being paid for this and therefore I want it to be free, but I'm happy to preview it for VIPs to help the forums.

Does that make sense or am I rambling?

[chubbchubb]

I think we've had a couple of very good ideas presented here and my feeling is - were getting closer to solutions:

Newbies should get limited-time full acces to most of the board - except PM and the trading areas (Dealer / Member), maybe - and after the expiration of the trial-period (time based or login-based) they either need to pay or leave. A popup could do the trick "PAY <-> PAW"

Access to trading areas requires payment of a basic fee - which will give you limited time access. For full time access, it'll be a little more.

While I believe in the free flow of information on the net I also pay for services that I really need and use (webspace, ebay, paypal). The trick however is - as long as you get if for free, you will not think about paying for it.

[jonthebhoy]

I've already offered to post my major articles/reviews/tutorials to a VIP Forum a week before they go to the general public. I'm no Ziggy and my articles aren't that important, but if I do it, then others would possibly follow suite.

I'd even do the same across the other boards so VIPs here and on RWI get the pre-releases, then it's released everywhere.

I'll never make my info exclusively VIP as I'm not being paid for this and therefore I want it to be free, but I'm happy to preview it for VIPs to help the forums.

Does that make sense or am I rambling?

Rambling...........definitely rambling!

JTB

[Admin]

1. Yes, downgrading the server/hardware is an option. The other replica boards seem to be running fine on lower end systems. Guess the real difference is the traffic we have; 12.000.000+ hits every month/100GB+ traffic every month. Another big difference is that we have a lot of members online at the same time. All of these members are causing the server to do databaselookups when they search, post, read, etc, and this goes really smooth when you have a large dedicated server like we do.

2. Every time I bring this point up, we get more supporters. I guess that tells me what some of the members have said. People are lazy. They have to be asked to upgrade/contribut. So I guess I just have to remind the members more often about this, via PM or other ways. At least put things into a system so that maybe members who have been here 1 month gets a friendly reminder that there are costs involved in running this board.

3. TTK: Thanks Go though your closet and draers and see if you have other small bits and pieces I could include in the lottery. That way maybe more members would be interested and we could finish it

4. Trade area for supporters only is easy to incorporate. I'll wait until we decide if we want a full blown RWG supporter area before I incorporate this. Or maybe just do it right away to give at least a litte extra for now to the RWG supporters.

5. AMK: If 1000 members decided to pay, we would have no problem running the board

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

Thanks again for all your good ideas. Hopefully I'll have a lot of time on my hands next week and be able to sit down and do something about all of this. After looking into all the comments, feedback, PM's, e-mails I have received (thanks for all your support and nice PM's e-mails, BTW!) and doing some investigations regarding how we can run this site better, I am looking forward to be able to incorporate some of the ideas found here and to do some other adjustments to the forum so that we will have our belowed forum around for a looooong time

[r11co]

How about this...

Access to trading area restricted to Supporters only on the basis that approved dealers posting there offer exclusive prices. I'm not sure if dealers currently pay a fee for their trading areas, but if so this fee should be reduced or recinded completely as they will be indirectly supporting the board through their discounts?!

If access to the trading area was restricted while the same prices and availability info was being carried on the dealers' websites then when word gets out about that there'll be no incentive to sign up. Also, the dealers without websites will suffer from lack of exposure as a result.

The temptation of exclusive deals and discounts will bring people running and avoid the issue of dealers without websites being 'screened out'.

Has that been suggested already?

[NRG]

2. Every time I bring this point up, we get more supporters. I guess that tells me what some of the members have said. People are lazy. They have to be asked to upgrade/contribut. So I guess I just have to remind the members more often about this, via PM or other ways. At least put things into a system so that maybe members who have been here 1 month gets a friendly reminder that there are costs involved in running this board.

Exactly! Is there a way of putting a nag popup or nag screen up each time a none-member visits the board after say a months free 'grace'

[Linder]

After sleeping on it, I would like to see non supporters get permanent posting ability to the newbie forum but no PMs and reading only to everything else except for no access to the upgrade forum, supporter trade forum and the experts area.

A few other thoughts:

What if we had a supporters only dealer area where up and coming dealers on the list and waiting for one of the 12 dealer slots to open up could post their wares? Maybe 3 slots for a total of 15 dealers. I think this would definately be an incentive as the newbies would want to view these watch offerings.

Other thoughts are free the forum to our dealers, expand it to 15 slots but only give newbies 30 days access to view?

[Admin]

*Admin gets his note pad......*

[Pugwash]

*Admin gets his note pad......*

Yes, removing PM ability from n00bz is the way forward.

[V]

My opinion is that VIP subforums are ESSENTIAL for people to pay.

Your original post with the many level subscriptions is too complicated.

Just my opinion is that we should have 1 subforum for VIP members

Plus I can offer a couple of straps as well for the lottery

[r11co]

My opinion is that VIP subforums are ESSENTIAL for people to pay.

Your original post with the many level subscriptions is too complicated.

I agree!