Membership subscription would you be prepared to pay?

[eldarvanyar]

Hi guys, it seems to me from reading the forum that we do get problems with people messing others around and causing problems with their posts and also the whole ripping off saga.
I don't know about you but I would be prepared to pay a membership fee for a year say Ԛ£10, which is in no way excessive which would give access to the forum and technical help/articles. It must cost something to run the site and it would help pay for that.
That way it would be the geniuine zoners not the 'fast car' ford 'max power' vauxhaulers saxo etc etc or twits winding others up. If they have to coff up the Ԛ£10 via paypal or credit card or something we know who they are and they are less likely to bother if they have to spend some cash for the trouble.
Anything worthwile is worth paying for, and the help we get on the zone and the community side is worth protecting and maintaining.
Maybe the money thats left over could be used for club events etc.
What do other zoners think?

[march109]

yes and no

have a public area otherwise new members are less inclined to join up if they can't see what its all about or like.

But maybe only sell or buy in the members area. and lay down some rules regarding selling - such as send all parcels signed for post minimum. Like Ebay this will protect the interests of ALL concerned.

[Davenotouring]

I think it's a bad idea, but only cos it'll get rid of some good people too.

The nobs soon get told they're nobs and that's that.

If they keep coming back and talking shi* they'll just get laughed at.

[eldarvanyar]

Totally agree March, I think your right to have a public area but have the paid up members area for selling and I can't see why we cant get paypal to to the payment thing which gives protection.
Lets drive up the standards, quality car deserves a qulity zone,
which it already is admins, don't get me wrong.

I know many ites do this already. I am sure that there is a good balance we can find. Maybe we can throw in the zone stickers as part of the fee.

[E30Mark]

Always nice to receive money, but you will need some one to do all the admin, accounts, tax, returns, letters, posting etc etc it would be many hours of work a week to maintain.

Other than the 'possible' security benefits you feel it might gain us, is there anything else you want / need from the zone? comments always gratefully received.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

I can see how and enhanced membership or payment based membership may well be a good idea for buying and selling, just to protect people from scammers.

However I seem to remember similar issues causing great pains the the BMW car club forum, or am I mistaken? I think blanket charge for membership will kill off what the zone is all about and the rare community spirit you find on this forum.

Any sort of payment based elitism will reduce new members and to be honest, if I was a scammer, I'd pay Ԛ£10 to rip some one off for a couple hundred quid or more, basic economics really.

I know an enhanced disclosure to zone mods to enable selling and buying status may be an option, creditcard details used to varify address incase of fraud, but you then have data protection act implications over personal details. As previously stated, you'll need a whole host of "employees" to manage the mechanics of the site. That could potentially see costs incurred for this and that for members, just to cover running costs and fees for the zone.

You could go down the route of charging for technical articles and place them in the zone shop, turning the website into a business machine. I'm sure with site hit rates, advertising could also develop revenue to contrbute to the "business". This would drive the community spirit away rendering it similar to an out of town retail park perfroming a souless function. The very fact these tech articles exist is testament to the contribution of the community spirit on this site.

I for one am not a massive earner, I live in a small market town and have to seriously juggle finances to keep my car running. This site is like a comfort blanket for me, and probably countless others in the same earning bracket, who are fortunate to be able to afford a car they can be enthusiastic about. Being able to rely on the information here makes working on these cars and running them a viable prospect as we aren't having our pants pulled down over gargage costs and the price of parts.

I agree, the blatant scamming and ripping off of fellow zoners (felow zoners.. nee community spirit) has to stop. Perhaps some clever protocol involving a third party could be arranged, insuring consequence for those attempting to commit crime on this site. It could take the form of an agreement, disclosing personal details, agreeing for this to be provided to the relevant authorities in light of any dispute. It's just an idea!

[essexboy]

i agree think it would be a good idea as the zone population is getting very big now it would be good to have a safe area for the true bmw equipped zoners, not rude little fiesta boys here to wind up others so yeh good idea, but as mark says the downside is who will sort out all the accounts.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

I'm sure as adults we don't need to pay money to protct us from nuisance chavs and their keyboards!

[DaveD]

totaly agree with Blatantarrogance

Just because there might be a charge to join the forum it would not deter someone joining just to rip people off..if you have a look at the new car club site it is very sparsely populated and the number of members on here would surely go down as most do not like or cannot afford or even can't be arsed to pay and it would not attract new members who become addicted (like me) ,,,the diversity would diminish and we would all be the poorer

another option is to go for sponsors... quite a few companies must have advertising money spare with the demise of TBMW..lots of the US based sites manage to do this (bimmerforum E30 tech)..so why not the zone

[dobbie82]

if the zone was struggling to pay its hosting fees etc, we would naturally have a whipround, but the having to pay up to view sections would kill the zone. You could sell a members pack, Ԛ£10 a year and you get a sticker and a little note under your name

[Rosc0PColtrane]

totaly agree with Blatantarrogance

Just because there might be a charge to join the forum it would not deter someone joining just to rip people off..if you have a look at the new car club site it is very sparsely populated and the number of members on here would surely go down as most do not like or cannot afford or even can't be arsed to pay and it would not attract new members who become addicted (like me) ,,,the diversity would diminish and we would all be the poorer

another option is to go for sponsors... quite a few companies must have advertising money spare with the demise of TBMW..lots of the US based sites manage to do this (bimmerforum E30 tech)..so why not the zone

Thanks mate! Our computers at work are shite, so long as the ads aren't flash based and slow my access down!!!

[e30bmlover]

i totally agree with the Ԛ£10 fee. i mean jesus christ, i earn more than that in an hour! whats a tenner? @uck all. plus it will get rid of the nobs as mentioned before.

[eldarvanyar]

I think there are valid points from all sides lets keep thinking about how to improve the site. I must admit what I have loved most about the site is the friendly community spirit and the humour, well most of the humour

Can we start a poll on this? I don't know how to do it

[dobbie82]

i totally agree with the Ԛ£10 fee. i mean jesus christ, i earn more than that in an hour! whats a tenner? @uck all. plus it will get rid of the nobs as mentioned before.

will you marry me?

Hannah the Ԛ£5 an hour skivvy...

[march109]

I agree good arguements for and against, but the main arguement came about cos of recent parts sales, so how about you just find some way of protecting members interests on that?

Firstly whoever mentioned data protection is wrong, the data protection act doesn't stop ou storing dta about people, what it makes you do is hold it securly so its only accessable by yourself or company and upon request you ust provide a person with any information you may store about them. For the purposes of a community like this keeping a handwritten note in a locked filing cabinet and photocopying and posting those details when requested would solve both those issues.

I have worked for DVLA, marketing firms and currently new media outlets so know that it is infact very easy to satisfy the law as regards data protection and that it is often miss-qouted.

However in the case of one recent transaction I won't give my personal opinion on the people involved, but think that simply sending it registered post for and extra few Ԛ£'s would have solved the issue full stop, and just implementing this as a site policy would help. Also if an intermiadiatary were to take payment and that payment only be sent to the seller upon reciept of the goods would help too, who would do that I don't know but it would work!

The thing is every commmunity has there rogues, if we are a true community representative of society we'll never get rid of them, withought some form of big brother system, civil liberties anyone?

I like the Zone as it is by the way.

[eldarvanyar]

However in the case of one recent transaction I won't give my personal opinion on the people involved, but think that simply sending it registered post for and extra few Ԛ£'s would have solved the issue full stop, and just implementing this as a site policy would help. Also if an intermiadiatary were to take payment and that payment only be sent to the seller upon reciept of the goods would help too, who would do that I don't know but it would work!

The thing is every commmunity has there rogues, if we are a true community representative of society we'll never get rid of them, withought some form of big brother system, civil liberties anyone?

I like the Zone as it is by the way.

I think that there is something called escrow that does the holding of money untill both parties are satsified. But then again paypal seems to be good so why not get both parties to agree to do an ebay transaction on a buy it now, via paypal between the two parties as that will grant some security as well as feedback.

[Simon13]

no,no and more no. We have discussed this before and i don't agree at all!

[jonb]

no,no and more no. We have discussed this before and i don't agree at all!

i agree. its to much agro, and ive seen forums that charge a fee. they are shite and boring.

ok so theres plenty of losers on here. but they get dealt with by simon13, me, pete, andyboy, etc, oh and the mods.

if it isnt broke then why fit it.

[d6dph]

Both Simon and Jon have hit the nail on the head, been spoken about before and doesnt work well tbh.

How often does a transaction actually go wrong? very rarely for the amount sold imo.

[cliffybabe]

Both Simon and Jon have hit the nail on the head, been spoken about before and doesnt work well tbh.

How often does a transaction actually go wrong? very rarely for the amount sold imo.

Ill go along with this aswell

[dazleeds]

have to agree

charging wouldnt make any difference anyway

lets face whats a tenner to someone who,s out to rip others off

but it would put a lot of new people off joining as have seen this happen elsewhere

[mattG]

there is a cost to running this site that the founders are paying for out of their pockets,
a Ԛ£10 sign up fee would put a lot of new people off, not just the money but the agrow factor, how about first 6 months free.
after being a member for only a few months myself i would not mind paying some thing to help pay for the site as i have found it helpful and fun

[m-dtech]

I do think the zone should be funded, perhaps some sponsorship could be arranged ??

If you require a treasurer i would step up

I have a chartered accountant as a mother and a financial advisor as a girlfriend !

oh i also used to work for the inland revenue & morgan stanley fraud departments.

The whole purpose of the internet and this forum is for passing knowledge, we have lots of hits perday get some sponsors ! !

Mike

[eko]

Both Simon and Jon have hit the nail on the head, been spoken about before and doesnt work well tbh.

How often does a transaction actually go wrong? very rarely for the amount sold imo.

My thoughts exactly

[andyp]

there is a cost to running this site that the founders are paying for out of their pockets,
a Ԛ£10 sign up fee would put a lot of new people off, not just the money but the agrow factor, how about first 6 months free.
after being a member for only a few months myself i would not mind paying some thing to help pay for the site as i have found it helpful and fun

Funny this should come up again as i was only talking to a mod the other day about running of the zone which THE MODS pay out of there OWN POCKET for us all, which is the bit i do not agree with.

[eldarvanyar]

there is a cost to running this site that the founders are paying for out of their pockets,
a Ԛ£10 sign up fee would put a lot of new people off, not just the money but the agrow factor, how about first 6 months free.
after being a member for only a few months myself i would not mind paying some thing to help pay for the site as i have found it helpful and fun

Funny this should come up again as i was only talking to a mod the other day about running of the zone which THE MODS pay out of there OWN POCKET for us all, which is the bit i do not agree with.

How much does it cost to run it? There should be a way we can all help with it or maybe sponsorship is the way. I wasn't aware that this had come up before.
I think the mods do a great job by the way.

[thebigone]

i'am a new fella, was suprised to see that the forum dose not have a fee up front. With the figs that the site gets each day I have to go with M-dtech IMHO

[andyp]

ok it is not for me to answer this question, i am going to leave this for the mods to deal with, and yes they do a great job here as well as pay for it

[dips346]

i would pay,it might weed out the scammers and rip offs,if you paid a fee then you can sell and buy stuff works great on other sites

[fuzzy]

i think a fee for a higher level of membership which would allow you to sell cars and parts and gain entry to certain sections of the forum as passionford does with their gold member scheme etc but still allow other members and browsers access to see the rest of the site would be a good idea.

[dips346]

i think a fee for a higher level of membership which would allow you to sell cars and parts and gain entry to certain sections of the forum as passionford does with their gold member scheme etc but still allow other members and browsers access to see the rest of the site would be a good idea.

i think passionford is sorted as it even has a Muppet Room.and Misplaced your Dummy room which at the moment would go down a treat here..............

[fuzzy]

i think a fee for a higher level of membership which would allow you to sell cars and parts and gain entry to certain sections of the forum as passionford does with their gold member scheme etc but still allow other members and browsers access to see the rest of the site would be a good idea.

i think passionford is sorted as it even has a Muppet Room.and Misplaced your Dummy room which at the moment would go down a treat here..............

the muppet room is a great idea where anything goes

[Simon13]

i'd like to go to the muppet room

[320Touring]

i'd like to go to the muppet room

it'd be your front room

[dips346]

i'd like to go to the muppet room

it'd be your front room