ads in every thread?

[retarded pilot]

i dont find the ad to be verry annoying..anything woodie has to do to keep this site running is fine with me!! ads or no rcnt hmm its a no brainer for me
and I've been meaning to ask about the contributions link not working...heck id like to set up a payment to rcnt automaticly like a bill payment...small price to pay for info
considering what you can spend on a magizine or the cost of buying a poorly made hop up because you didnt have rcnt regulars to ask for input
id pay for rcnt

 

[FastEddy]

How about renting avatars and signatures by the month.
$3 for an avatar and $5 for an avatar and signature will go a long way.

No one will be unconvinced by ads and supporters of the site will be easily recognized.

One time donations are great however the site expenses are a monthly re-accruing issue. I believe PayPal has an automatic re-occurring payment setup

 

[fisherman]

hey iv read some threads on here about kids in their neighborhood asking to drive your car or truck, well tell them they have to pay a certain amount of money but then you would have to trust them not to crash. IDK I'm just trying to think of a way to raise money for the site, maybe go to the dollar tree and buy some cheep candy to sell lol and then go door to door. Id give a little bit of money but my parents wolnt let me which is retarted to me. Its my money but what ever. Fasteddy had a good idea with the aviters and sigs

 

[robmob]

A thought.....Make the gallery for contributing members only which can cut down on bandwidth usage. Then do as Ed suggested regarding the sigs and avatars except also make it only for contributing members.

I think there should be more incentive for people to become contributing members.

I for one do not want to see this site turn into RCU by ads, but woodie should not have to foot the entire bill for a site we all use and enjoy.

How many of us have a magazine subscription? Probably just about everyone. You are paying for that magazine and basically reading it for about a week then into the can it goes. Here you get to read and participate in an ever changing online magazine of sorts full of information. If you are willing to pay for a monthly magazine subscription, I don't see why you would not be willing to pay for a subscription to this site.

Just my opinion. I am not trying to come down on anyone or make anyone feel guilty.

 

[FastEddy]

I like the idea of the site and the information being free for all to use.
I'm also in favor of charging a fee for those that want a little more.

Avatar
Signature
User Title
Additional forums
Attachments
Gallery
For Sale Forum

These are all ad-ons that don't necessarily interfere with anyone getting the info they need to help the hobby. An active user of the forum will find value in them and see no reason not to subscribe.

The issue here is knowing what the monthly income will be. Once a baseline is established this reacquiring income can be spent to improve the site. As of now the funds needed to improve the speed of the site are around $200 a month and will keep growing. This is a fee that needs to be paid every month.

40 members paying $3-$5 a month will come close to covering it. Additional $ from advertisers and google ads will help pay for software upgrades and additional programing fees when needed.

 

[AC48]

Well, I don't mind the ads at all either. But I think WoodiE si trying to stay away from a subscription. A lot of good ideas have been said, and I think it would be a great idea to get of the gallery for non contributing members and leave it for contributing members. I have a few pics in there and have been meaning to delete them cause I don't even have the R/Cs on some of those pics anymore lol.

Also, I think that if you want to have something other than text in your sig it should cost just a few bucks, nothing major though.

I think the best idea yet is to leave the adds, and for any contributing member they should be gone. Or anyone who wants to pay to get rid of them.

 

[msly]

Well, I don't mind the ads at all either. But I think WoodiE si trying to stay away from a subscription. A lot of good ideas have been said, and I think it would be a great idea to get of the gallery for non contributing members and leave it for contributing members. I have a few pics in there and have been meaning to delete them cause I don't even have the R/Cs on some of those pics anymore lol.

Also, I think that if you want to have something other than text in your sig it should cost just a few bucks, nothing major though.

I think the best idea yet is to leave the adds, and for any contributing member they should be gone. Or anyone who wants to pay to get rid of them.

The sigs are linked from other places not through RCNT. Its the people posting Burt Turkey Demon heads sucking up all the bandwidth... those bastards...


https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25380

 

[Rolex]

I've also wondered why there are pics in the gallery, posted by people that I have never seen on the site, or people that have never posted. That takes band width, and the person is not an active or contributing member.
I think that anytime a member hasn't logged in for a year, the gallery should be removed.
It might also be a good idea to auto delete threads at one or two years old, since the questions continue to come up anyway.
I'm sure a lot of old threads are dealing with obsolete parts anyway, since this hobby advances so quickly.
If the ad banner stays, it would be better on the bottom of the page. It's like renting a movie and fast-forwarding through the ads in the beginning, but at the end, you would be more prone to watch, since the main part is over. If they are under the last post in each thread, we'd still see them, rather than scan past them to get to the other posts.

I'm also for dropping signature photos. They take up a lot of space, and when they are animated .gif files, they can be annoying.
It seems unnecessary for a response of a few words to be in a box 8 inches long.
Just a few suggestions for saving WoodiE some band width.

 

[msly]

I've also wondered why there are pics in the gallery, posted by people that I have never seen on the site, or people that have never posted. That takes band width, and the person is not an active or contributing member.
I think that anytime a member hasn't logged in for a year, the gallery should be removed.
It might also be a good idea to auto delete threads at one or two years old, since the questions continue to come up anyway.
I'm sure a lot of old threads are dealing with obsolete parts anyway, since this hobby advances so quickly.
If the ad banner stays, it would be better on the bottom of the page. It's like renting a movie and fast-forwarding through the ads in the beginning, but at the end, you would be more prone to watch, since the main part is over. If they are under the last post in each thread, we'd still see them, rather than scan past them to get to the other posts.

I'm also for dropping signature photos. They take up a lot of space, and when they are animated .gif files, they can be annoying.
It seems unnecessary for a response of a few words to be in a box 8 inches long.
Just a few suggestions for saving WoodiE some band width.

As stated many times before... the powers that be feel the strength of this forum is the mass of posts and information that is gathered over the years. I dont think they will ever delete posts... maybe just the demon turkey head...

sLY

 

[robmob]

I like the idea of the site and the information being free for all to use.
I'm also in favor of charging a fee for those that want a little more.

Avatar
Signature
User Title
Additional forums
Attachments
Gallery
For Sale Forum

These are all ad-ons that don't necessarily interfere with anyone getting the info they need to help the hobby. An active user of the forum will find value in them and see no reason not to subscribe.

You should add those annoying smileys to your list.

I agree that all the information and the ability to post should be free of charge. Just like a library. All the extras should cost some scratch for those who want them.

 

[FastEddy]

Smilies are a good idea but I'm not sure as to the softwares ability to limit access to them for a given group of users.

 

[WoodiE]

First I'd like to say the problem here is NOT bandwidth. In fact we have 500GB of bandwidth available and only using about 40GB. So saving bandwidth is not the issue. The problem is the money to pay for the kind of server RCNT needs, right now the way RCNT is hosted is on a Virtual Private Server which is nothing more but a nice fancy server that's shared with a number of other people, thus everyone is using the same computer. We're quickly getting to the point of needing our very own server. This way instead of sharing a 2Ghz machine with a few dozen other sites, we're getting 100% of the system resources ourselves. Then again that cost money and isn't nearly as cheap as our current bill (even though $150 a month isn't to cheap). Anyways it's not really a bandwidth problem anymore, but something more.

As for making some features a subscription based we could do all of the following:

Avatar
User Title
Additional forums
Gallery
For Sale Forum

However I'm not to sure about the attachments and signatures. I'm also not sure how well the For Sale forum would do making it a subscription based forum. Something to think about and maybe try out for sure, I'll look into what I can do to something like this up.


-Michael

 

[FastEddy]

For sale forum would be only to post items, not to look or buy.
If nothing else it would help weed out the scams.

 

[1meathead]

Not that I don't want to give but if you charge for the F/S I would not post in it. I use it because it is free and to give other RCNT people a chance at my stuff. If I had to pay I would just put it on E-Bay first or a free forum. I am all for the avatar user title gallery things I don't use them but would pay just to hellp out.

Could we do a 50/50 or even 70/30 raffle? May get more people every month as opposed to the lotto.

 

[FastEddy]

Its a difficult balance to find.
I'm sure people that have an avatar but don't use the FS forum would rather us just charge for posting FS items but not avatars.

We are just putting ideas on the table for discussion and your point is well taken. We are going to try to find a balance between having as much as possible free and being able to pony-up the fees needed to keep the site growing.

I can only speak from my point of view but I don't think we are going to do anything drastic. The site has a lot of great members and the last thing we want to do is to drive them away. Remember this is an all volunteer site funded by WoodiE. Yes there is a small amount of money generated each month but WoodiE is responsible to make up the difference each and every month. If we want the site to run smoothly it costs money and that money has to come from somewhere.

 

[FRIDGE]

first off wahoo finally a thread of mine that someone cares about!! now back to business, i dont mind paying a small amount to use certain features of the site. if it were $3-$5 a month i would be proud to support the site because i have a good time here.I'm sure alot of people wont mind doing that. IMO you should post a sticky type thread and pass it by all the members kinds like when picking what the next lotto will be. and then see what you can do from the reaction.

ALSO the new ad bar like rolex said probably will do better right before the quick reply box.

 

[dougc]

Ok I would pay for the use of a avatar, sig and gallery. I would like to keep this site around for every but I dont think I could handle paying every month, maybe you would be able to get a yearly fee up?

 

[FastEddy]

If we go ahead with paid benefits, I'm sure we will have different options available.
What would you like to see?

What would you guys be willing to pay per month / year for these three packages?

Package 1
Avatar
Gallery

Package 2
Avatar
Gallery
User Title
Additional forums

Package 3
Avatar
Gallery
User Title
Additional forums
Signature

 

[ZANDOR]

40 members paying $3-$5 a month will come close to covering it. Additional $ from advertisers and google ads will help pay for software upgrades and additional programing fees when needed.

This is a very good point here. I no now you pay 20$ to become a contributer
but there should be a fee like every other month for those of us that are contributers.I try to atleast donate 10 a month when i can..
Don't pay your bill you lose your privlage as a contributer.

Just like when you don't pay your phone bill they shut it off .To get service back you have to pay a fee+++

 

[DarthRacer]

If we go ahead with paid benefits, I'm sure we will have different options available.
What would you like to see?
What would you guys be willing to pay per month / year for these three packages?

I was thinking about something like this before you posted, but here's what I think.

Package 1 - $1/month or $10 for the year
Avatar
Gallery

Package 2 - $1.50/month or $15 for the year
Avatar
Gallery
User Title
Additional forums

Package 3 - $2/month or $20 for the year
Avatar
Gallery
User Title
Additional forums
Signature