Im going to say something controversal

[Anonymous]

I'm not paying for this, most of you broadcast yourself as the most awful bunch of wankers ever

Apologies to those that do this

Edit [sp3ctre] - Banned for profanity

 

[jimmybell]

I'm not paying for this, most of you broadcast yourself as the most awful bunch of w*****s ever

Apologies to those that do this

So let me get this straight, we all pay a fee - and El Taco disappears?

My main concern would be that we'd filter out the weedy trolls as above, and replace them with ones willing to pay a subscription - arguably more committed to trolling. Swings and roundabouts..

 

[Bradders75]

I'm not paying for this, most of you broadcast yourself as the most awful bunch of w*****s ever

Apologies to those that do this

So let me get this straight, we all pay a fee - and El Taco disappears?

My main concern would be that we'd filter out the weedy trolls as above, and replace them with ones willing to pay a subscription - arguably more committed to trolling. Swings and roundabouts..

The committed trolls might be funny though? I'm in!

 

[Carol M]

I'm not paying for this, most of you broadcast yourself as the most awful bunch of w*****s ever

Apologies to those that do this

Edit [sp3ctre] - Banned for profanity

You know where the door is.

 

[Taz]

I voluntarily contribute every so often, however if it was compulasary I think at times I would possibly drop out. There are several post that get completely out of control and members can become hostile. This could put me off, but then i could do as i do now and just not get involved in the argumemative post

 

[PerryGunn]

To encourage people to donate in a non-arm-twisting way, perhaps donations of, say, £10 or more p/a could be reflected in some sort of acknowledgement/indication that you are contributing to the upkeep of the site e.g. by changing the colour of the stars to green or adding something like a 'Site Supporter' banner below their avatar (BMWLand do this)

Larger PM stores for contributors would also be useful and would cost little in terms of storage


NB I donate a little something every year around the anniversary of the date that I originally joined, I use this place a lot so I think it's only fair that I chip in to the tea'n'biscuits fund

 

[stevo///m3]

The admins will let us know when the time comes to contribute, how much, where and in what format.
Stevo

 

[Jasey]

The problem with contributions / fees is that it can lead to greed setting in with the forum owners.

Ultimately that can cause no end of problems for everyone concerned.

I'm very much in the "if it aint broke" camp

 

[bladeowner]

I'm in the if it ain't broke camp. If there was a crisis and sp3ctre needed the cash we'd chip in. A lot of us did for the 'marmite' car. Even more would in this case.

 

[Fast3000]

I'm in for paying. But don't loose what you already have.

 

[synthedup]

I suspect that the forum generates a good income from the advertising banners on the home page, i suspect it is more then enough to cover hosting and any small maintenance tasks.

 

[ncrossy1980]

I'd pay. I've come across far too many old threads now from up to 8-9 years ago which are now totally useless and may as well be deleted because the links to pictures hosted on external third party sites have been removed. A lot of threads mean nothing (guides etc) without these pictures and when they're removed by the user, the thread fails, losing vast amounts of knowledge and info currently held within this forums history.
I'd pay if the site could have it's own image hosting service to avoid this scenario in future, that obviously wouldn't help with historical posts though. And I'd love to see a more mobile friendly site developed.

 

[exdos]

My attitude to most participatory things on the internet is that I make contributions of help to others if I can and I take help from others when I need it. With this "give and take" attitude, I may give or take at one source and donate or receive at another and find that "karma" tends to equalise everything out. For me, this is the spirit of the internet, where the goodwill of your fellow (wo)man prevails amongst total strangers.

I have been running an "issues" based forum for the past 8 years for which I've invested a huge amount of time and effort from which many other people, as well as myself, have benefited. Indirectly, it has probably cost me a fair amount of £££s, but heyho, I've come across some great people on my forum and this forum and others, so I'm quite happy to participate on this forum without making a financial contribution. At the end of the day, I think my approach all balances out in the greater scheme of things.