Should there be payment for CPF?

LEDBE
Nereus

Nereus

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 11, 2005
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509
Location
Espoo, Finland, Northern Europe
CPF is growing fast and one possible future scenario is the fact that you have to pay for being a CPF member. Would it be ok for you if there were e.g. 1 USD / month payment? Why / why not?

My personal opinion is yes for a small payment (e.g. 1 USD / month), for the following reasons:

- More commitment to the forum from the members: you do not want to trash something you have paid for.
- More discipline: getting banned for one week hurts more if you have paid for that week (even 1/52 USDs).
- Less "server is busy, visit EDC forums (and jam it too)" messages.
- Payment "filters" new members in a positive way - they surely try to find the info on CPF first for free. This means less frustrating newbie questions that could have been easily answered with the simple use of the "search" function.
- We could pay some kind of salary for Sasha for the brilliant work she does all the time. Like that it would be more unlikely that Sasha gets fed up with weirdos like us and technical problems.

And guys, I am sure this is a hot topic... Let's keep it civil and fact-based, shall we? :)

So, feel free to express your opinion and reasoning behind it! :)

- N
 
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I would say no but putting a link at the top for a paypal donation somewhere very visable would be great. :)
 
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Are you saying, "pay to post?" What about the lurkers and new members? Would/should they be allowed on the board without paying?

I don't think it'd be a very good idea. A lot of people come here because they want to ask a question about something, or get help with a project, and I don't think they should have to pay to do so. I think that would discourage new members from joining. As it is, there has been a payment required system implemented into the B/S/T boards. I think that's enough, but I would actually like to know if it IS enough. Are the small fees for selling covering server costs and such?
 
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No. That would be the equivalent of hitting the CPF self destruct button. Before considering that, At least take a look at what has happened to other sites when they tried it. The users are the attraction, they provide the content, don't drive them away.

A much better way would be to negotiate with the people who are making lots of money on CPF. The top users who make thousands on CPF would probably be willing to share a fair and reasonable about of the profits with CPF. They are invested in this site. This is where they have their customers. The top sellers on CPF are also some of CPFs biggest attractions, so they would also have leverage if demands became unreasonable.

At any given time CPF has 500 or more people online. These are people who are interested in flashlights. If the top sellers could find a flea market somewhere with the same number of people with an interest in their type of product, how much would the top CPF sellers expect to pay the owner of the flea market?
 
Trashman said:
Are you saying, "pay to post?" What about the lurkers and new members? Would/should they be allowed on the board without paying?

I don't think it'd be a very good idea. A lot of people come here because they want to ask a question about something, or get help with a project, and I don't think they should have to pay to do so. I think that would discourage new members from joining. As it is, there has been a payment required system implemented into the B/S/T boards. I think that's enough, but I would actually like to know if it IS enough. Are the small fees for selling covering server costs and such?
Click to expand...
My basic idea is "pay to become a CPF member" and IIRC you can not post without being a member. But you can read forums without being a member and get lot of answers to your questions.

I agree with you, Trashman, in many aspects - this is definitely not an easy issue. You can improve my basic idea if you want to! :)

Sasha and moderators, you must have discussed this. What is your opinion? Is there pressure to introduce payment?

-N
 
A few ideas:

1.If someone is not willing to pay 12 bucks for the privilege of belonging to CPF why should he have the privilege of taking up the bandwidth?

2.Internet is not going to be the free party it is today, forever. Change is coming. Microsoft already had plans to charge per e-mail. This IS coming. We don't have to like it. But let's not close our eyes cause the sight of the tsunami frightens us. It is coming. Things will change all along the net. And services will be charged for.

3.While it is all right for somebody to throw a party and invite friends and NOT charge them for it, when people decide to make the parties a regular thing and establish a club or association of some kind, there WILL be fees.

4.If there's work involved, there should be payment. I don't work for free. Friendship is one thing. Solidarity is another. A 25,000 members institution is another. And they are not the same. If somebody came to me and suggested that I dedicate the needed time to administer something like CPF my first question would be "how much?".

5.Perhaps with a members fee, I'll see much less of those messages that tell me that the server is busy and to try again later. THAT would be good. I'll pay for that.
 
Some members would be willing to pay but what if they don't have PayPal? (or they just don't have a credit card). Even if it were 1$/Month - that could be too much effort for someone, not because of the ammount but because of the payment itself (like if you don't have paypal), mostly for international members.

My idea would be - just make the Donation button bigger :). I am new here, but I already donated some dollars (hey, I am just a poor student from Slovakia :broke: ..:grin2: ), just because I like this forum and it gave me a lot of info, which is very valuable.

You would loose members for sure, even if it was 0.001$/Month (and not because of the money, but because of the transfer itself)- I think that it should stay on voluntary basis.

Maybe you could put banners arround and earn some money? Like Google AdSense (https://www.google.com/adsense ), it's a text banner - no flashing graphics, just text advertisement which is relevant to the content of the website (like here, it would display some flashlight text banners). Maybe it would be worth a try?
 
Jorge Banner - Microsoft does NOT have evil plans on taking over the email empire....They never have, and never will - to say that statement blows your credibility in my mind. THat is amost as old as the whole Nigerian Widow letter scam.

I, for one did not even know there was a way to donate to CPF - so thanks for pointing out the payment buttons !

I believe if you make this a site that is mandatory to pay, people will stop coming around - I would pay, but feel bad about a mandatory payment - and I am sure others would too. I DO agree with making hte pay CPF buttons a little more prominant though.
 
I've been educated to put my money where my mouth is so, Ms. Sasha, you'll find a small contribution of mine, via PayPal. And thanks a lot for your valuable efforts. :goodjob:

SenKat, I'm going to have to take a period of mourning for my blown credibility in your mind. Don't expect me to come back to this with you, remember, I'll be in mourning, filled with regret and trying to come to grips with my sorrow for the loss. In fact, you can consider me rolling on the floor laughing, <ahem!!>, I meant, howling in pain. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
 
Jorge Banner said:
A few ideas:
Microsoft already had plans to charge per e-mail. This IS coming.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've been reading those same chain letters for 12-13 years now. They're no more accurate than the letters saying the US Postal Service is planning on charging for First Class Email, but hey, believe what you want.

I've donated to CPF, and I throw business towards its advertisers whenever possible, but would wouldn't want to pay a manditory entrance fee. The signal-to-noise ratio is too high for that and I'm most definately not a flashaholic.
 
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BillCurnow said:
Yeah, I've been reading those same chain letters for 12-13 years now. They're no more accurate than the letters saying the US Postal Service is planning on charging for First Class Email, but hey, believe what you want.
Click to expand...
In the midst of my desperation for my recent loss of credibility, a horrid thought crossed my distressed mind, that I might loose credibility in someone else's mind. Horror of horrors! My credibility turned into a joke for fools to laugh at. So, I stopped my cries of pain, got up from the floor and googled for <microsoft "charge for email">. Amongst other 4400 (what a number, hey ?!) responses was this one. Enjoy.
 
Copied from my post on this subject in the "new rule" thread:

dyyys1 said:
Making members pay would be a perfect way to kill CPF. Sorry to use harsh words, but it's true. Part of what makes a place like this great is that it's free and costs nothing other than the time you spend here. That's what draws people. How many of the people here, even the longest-standing, most active CPFers, would not have joined in the beginning if there was a fee? There is always another free forum where people can get the same information. You must remember that only the dedicated will want to pay. How many people here were only brought into their full flashaholism as a result of spending time here? Do you think those people would have been willing to spend good money here before they got really interested? I think that supporting our mods and admins is a wonderful idea, but I don't think a mandatory membership fee is the right way to do it.
Click to expand...
 
This has been posted many, many times over the years... but I'll post it once again.. as it still stands...

>>>>THERE WILL NEVER BE A MANDATORY FEE TO BE A MEMBER OF CANDLEPOWERFORUMS<<<<
 
Jorge Banner said:
So, I stopped my cries of pain, got up from the floor and googled for <microsoft "charge for email">. Amongst other 4400 (what a number, hey ?!) responses was this one. Enjoy.
Click to expand...
I remember the firestorm when he said that three years ago. I also remember that Microsoft's own PR people quickly pointed out that there was a big difference between Gates saying one way to cut back on spam would be to charge for email and Gates saying "Microsoft plans to charge for email". That being said, I just now realized you said "had plans" and not "has plans". Fortunately for me, I never said anything about your credibility.
 
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