All members please read! uber important anouncment.

[lilryan]

i think if you can afford to mod these cars and run them ect you can afford 10quid its not a bank breaker

[raffa_mk]

dont mind paying to the keep the site running, but you will need to give us a good run down in the costs involved over the years so we now where its actually going to,

you can have different membership types,

free membership

£5 membership

£10 membership

Traders membership

with different options and upgrades on accounts when moving up the membership tier.

[Hou]

no i dont think i do actually hou, i know exactly what im saying...

2 broken long term relationships, 8 years worth of costs, 1000s of hours spent, because of this site, na im pretty sure i know what im saying.

im only speaking about uksc, the other 3 sites are small with no traders on a shared sever

uksc is on a dedicated virtual server.

Not saying you don't know what you are saying Geo, I am saying that is how it comes across and this last post makes it sound even more like that. To me it reads that due to all the time, effort, grief etc that you feel you should be getting money, so these membership fees are paying you back for the past! Obviously not trying to cause any issues, I know the effort you put in, I was there at the start!

If the other sites are so small surely Matt can't charge much to host them!

[Ricky@Race-Tech]

You seem to be playing a guilt trip so people give "donations" what you should do is charge people to use the service. Other sites do this. You want to earn money from it which is fine. You earn from traders and you want to earn from members.

The problem is not many would pay as the site breaks every couple of weeks.

[ro55ifumi]

Dissappointed my post was edited

You asked for opinions

John

[mattyD]

i would pay providing members had certain assurances etc

[darylb]

Geo, been a long long time since ive been on here and met you in '08 at the show in mersea island, if you need help sourcing a different host message me, i do alot of web hosting and development work and have a couple of dedicated servers myself, so can help if you need it. I should be back in an EP soon if things go to plan and will pop some membership payment your way.

[Guest Enzo]

The problem is not many would pay as the site breaks every couple of weeks.

in all honesty, in the bigger picture out with that spell over the festive season there really isnt much truth in that statement, i think you know that too,

uve been here for how many years ricky?? and in all that time there were no interuptions so will just ignore that..... you also havent read my first reply or the posts in the mod lounge if you think the site is "breaking"

Dissappointed my post was edited

You asked for opinions

John

nothing edited here dude, why would i do that??????

|whats been edited?

[lilryan]

every1 needs to just chill out for a few .i see it as if the man wanted to earn money from it fair enuf look what he has provided us with and the wealth of infomation and help on this site ect .but i can also see where he is coming from he's put x amount of pounds in to this site out of his own pocket so as people like me and every1 else is a member can come on chat about day to day stuff cars get info help sell buy stuff and trader can advertise .as for the site breaking shit happens its a computer they all break so do cars its not the end of the world its always been fixed and back up and running id ont see the problem with having to say pay 10quid or woteva for a years member ship or 6month to keep the site and starlet commuinty going to be honest .

[ro55ifumi]

I mention with Paying membership that you get the following

• Are able to buy and sell
  
• Avatars
  
• Sigs
  
• More Pm space
  
• Membership Yearly Sticker
  
• Etc
  

Someone has edited it out of the post

John

[Taggy]

So basically you want to make UKSC profitable rather than just meeting yearly costs. I think thats fair enough considering the work thats been put in from your self since you started UKSC, i think the only downside with that is members dont mind paying, but i would say 9/10 they would expect the money that they pay would be poured back into the club, after all it is that a club.

but if you charged yearly membership i would be happy with that idea, as long as the site is up and running, what ever else you do with the money is up to you

[micky boy]

Yeah seen what you put john ;) ya not going mad haha

[akyakapotter]

I don't mind paying to be a member it's only £10 I'd waste then on macedees or kfc saves me getting fat :-D

[Hou]

There are pros and cons with paying for selling:

Pros

• Gets money in
  
• Stops people signing up just to sell
  
• Reduces risk of scamming
  

Cons

• Stops those bargains you get when people just sign up to sell their last bits/clear garage. Instead they put on ebay or TGTT
  
• Puts off those who come on, sell a few bits and realise what a great community it is so stay
  

On a separate note, fair play if you want to make money, but don't forget it then stops being a not for profit club and becomes a business, meaning tax returns etc ;)

[MARC MOSS]

I'll pay full whack for whatever membership is on offer....

I personally think paid membership is a great idea

[enzo_e492901]

I don't mind paying for sure but the funny thing is if you charge everyone to use the site the usage will go down for sure (maybe by alot maybe by a little) then maybe the site wont even need all this extra hosting stuff.

Gavin

[ste91]

Haven't read through all the replies here so this might have already been said. I know most of us wouldn't mind paying for membership, but what about those of us who have been around a while or been and gone, but still post here for the banter/occasional use of the sales forum, etc...?

[ste91]

I don't mind paying for sure but the funny thing is if you charge everyone to use the site the usage will go down for sure (maybe by alot maybe by a little) then maybe the site wont even need all this extra hosting stuff.

Gavin

That's the point I was getting at, the reason UKSC is "good" is because it's chilled/good banter/etc... and forcing people to pay would probably scare away a few members. Of course there will always be the dedicated ones who would pay regardless of how much it costs.

[ali_legend]

I think it's a good idea but personally I don't own a starlet anymore. I just come on here to see how everyone's build threads are getting on so only sign on Afew times a month.

[shavnh]

I think this is fair if enzo has paid such amount, with no donations and is out of pocket is only fair to charge, alot of forums charge.

I even pay for my local club, for benifits, such as 10% off at motorman, certain % off at local tints etc

£10 a year is nothing really

Think of all the tenners you save learning how to fix your car or getting parts a lot cheaper than main dealers

[grum-glanza]

i have no problem with paying a membership im not joined on here very long but i love the site loads of info it would be cool joined members coulld maybe get a certain % discount with traders its just an idea

but ya paid membership is a good idea you have had to do a lot of work you should get helped out with the costs

[darylb]

i cant see the traders agreeing to a % discount on goods for members, they pay enough to be a trader and giving a discount to members just lowers the profit margin even more when its prob pretty low anyway

[rob_bower]

i have no issue with paid membership i think its a good idea in terms of covering running costs and giving the paid members a few little extras over the non paying members is a must.

But i think lining your pockets is a little out of order imho.

[Hou]

i cant see the traders agreeing to a % discount on goods for members, they pay enough to be a trader and giving a discount to members just lowers the profit margin even more when its prob pretty low anyway

Some already give % discounts to members whilst also paying trader fees, I guess another way round that is to lower trader fees slightly to get them to offer a higher discount especially for members. I know if my fees were lower I could maybe push discount to 10% or offer special UKSC member only deals

[Nanglebadger]

keep the input coming folks, this is the whole point of the thread, to bat this back and forth and find a way to make most folk happy.

from my point of view, the primary aim has to be covering the running costs of UKSC. over the last few years we have grown like a weed, meaning we need bigger and better and more secure resources to host and run the show. this, naturally, has increased costs. back in the day, it was no problem for Geo to cover this when it was a matter of a few bob, however, now that it is substantially more than that, I dont think any of us would expect him to pay huge sums of money from his own pocket just so that we have somewhere to talk EPs and post pics of boobs. that would be fairly unreasonable tbh.

Geo isn't talking about lining his pockets here, he said recoup some of the costs. he has stated that in recent months he is out £600....i cant imagine the grand financial sum over the last 8 years that he is out of pocket, for us. therefore, i have no problem contributing to keeping this place going as I have always said that the financial burden of UKSC should not fall on one person when so many people benefit so much from it. im not going to pay to work here, but I will contribute to keeping the lights on because of all UKSC has given me and continues to give me.

lining his pockets is not the correct term, recouping some of the costs of UKSC is totally different than out and out profiteering.

also - please, no more editing of other people's posts folks. this is an open discussion, the whole point is to hear all sides.

Phil.