Contributing Content (And Money??)

[Bill Edwards]

Dear All

 

I am writing this short piece as a member, my own personal thoughts and not as a site Administrator/Moderator.

 

If you go to a newsagents/supermarket and buy a magazine about one of your hobbies some of the money you hand over goes towards the physical pages that you take home with you. A large proportion of your money goes on staff wages and researching the content of that magazine. As you are handing over your hard earned cash, you are within your rights to expect content - after all you've paid for it.

 

Internet messages forums and in particular All The Fun Of The Fair are very different. Member's pay NOTHING for the content they receive - donations by forum supporters are gratefully received and will be mentioned below - but the content you see is FREE. We have no paid staff, everything that you see is given freely by our members. If members only took content and didn't contribute there would be no forum.

 

For this reason, it is imperative to the survival of this forum (and every other forum you may be a member of) to contribute information/content when you are able. I am extremely grateful to all those members who take the time to publish funfair reports, post their photos, answer questions, provide information, updates etc - without YOU the forum wouldn't last a day.

 

If you read the forum, take content/knowledge then, in my opinion, you are duty bound to contribute when you are able - it's only fair and how Internet forums work and survive. There is anecdotal evidence that some members don't contribute and I would invite those members to consider the future of the forum if every member did that.

 

If you don't contribute content would you be willing to share the reason? Either here, or in a Private Message to me or direct to any member of the Forum Panel (completely anonymously if you like). Is there anything we can do to make contributing easier? 

 

The success of the forum means that we are hosted in professional space supplied by the software provider. To maintain the level of service we do costs money. Fortunately donations from members just about cover the hosting costs (some months I am down, some I am up) - and I am extremely grateful to all those members who do contribute - when contributions consistently fall below the cost, the forum will close, unfortunately I am not in a position to cover the hosting myself. I make no profit, there are no wages - all 'staff' - Administrators, Moderators, Panel Members and Members all "work" on your behalf for free - for the love of OUR hobby.

 

I would ask you to CONSIDER making a financial contribution to help with costs -  although supporter packages are set up for £5, £10 and £20 per year (compare those prices to those of magazines!) any donation, big or small is very gratefully received!

 

All the best

 

Bill

 

[Jamie Peters]

Unfortunately I don't get to visit as many funfairs as I used to a few years ago, personal circumstances change, but when I do, I always make sure to share my photos on here for all to see, and write a report if one hasn't been completed already.

 

I've been a member of this forum for a very long time, it is actually set as my homepage, so it is the first thing I see when I log on to my laptop, and honestly, I'd be lost without it, I love seeing all the news and photos from fairs across the UK i'd probably never be able to visit, if I see a post which I can help with, I'll reply, we're all here to help each other afterall

[Paul McHaddan]

I am 100% with Bill on this..

 

May be new members in future should make a payment to join "All The Fun Of The Fair" Forum!

 

Or make it a fixed price for 1 year £20?    I know some members may not be able to afford this amount due to personal reasons!

 

I will be uping my payment from £10 - £20 When its due next Its our hobby & forum & i wouldn't like to be with out it....

[Bill Edwards]

I've always been against making access to the forum payment only for a number of reasons - there are so many reasons why people can't/won't contribute but bottom line is I believe it would seriously curtail new members joining, would massively cut down our contributing members and would ultimately lead to the demise of the forum.

 

I believe the way to go is stay free, but occasionally remind members just what they do get for free and ask them to consider contributing

[Chunkie]

£20 a year works out at just 5p a day. Where else could you get such great value?

Hopefully the 4000 members, that don't currently contribute to the running costs, may like to think again.

[Paul Needham]

i completely agree with all said, but, it took me about 10 mins clicking about all over to redo what I had before ie paid member, I only found it because I happened to see that link at the bottom of bills post and that took me to it, now I'm only saying this to help not to knock, but if I found it hard and ive been a member in the past  then maybe some (few?) will do too, and I was motivated to redo what I had done in the past but was about to give up and try again tomorrow or ask bill, what if you are not that motivated? no I'm not on your level pc wise, ( still mesmerised by MJE mentioning skins) and yes I clicked under all the supporter buttons and went through them

, if I cant find your post (this one) and I had to find you and then look at what you've wrote, and then go on this and then accidently see that link then IS IT that hard for others and then don't they bother? as said I'm only saying to try and help, but a lot of people on here are at NASA compared to me computerwise, I'm not a dimwit otherwise ( eh !, trying to make a serious point here, lol ) but you don't see how hard some things are because you are so good at it,, if you had a request type message, a shorter version of the one you started this topic with, and a to contribute,,, then that link, then after that its a doddle, even for me,

having stuck my head up and tried to honestly help, please don't chuck bricks at it

[Chunkie]

Wow, Paul. That took some reading.

I think this is what you would like to see.

 

Please support the forum by using this link.

http://www.fun-fairs.co.uk/store/

Thank you.

 

[Bill Edwards]

8 hours ago, Paul Needham said:

having stuck my head up and tried to honestly help, please don't chuck bricks at it

No bricks I promise - not even pebbles

 

I welcome feedback and if one member finds a task difficult it's likely others do too and I will always help. It is sometimes difficult from my perspective because my first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 (c1980), I was on Bulletin Boards and Prestel before the Internet and have run Web Sites since 1997, so I do sometimes lose sight of the fact that what seems easy to me isn't always so!

 

There is a link to Forum Supporters at the top of each Forum Page

 

 

Paul, can you suggest another location for this link that would help (Sidebar?)? Can I improve on it? How can I spread the message? Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

All the best

 

Bill

 

 

[John Carter]

"Forum supporters" doesn't seem like the right heading to me. If you want someone to do something it should be a verb rather than 2 nouns. Following on from that, my suggestion for the top bar would be Browse, Catchup, Donate, Advertise, FAQ, More. I think I'd put Rules as an option under More.

[Chris Russell]

Sometimes I think you have to be a bit more blunt. The trouble with the internet in general is that for the most part whatever you look up is free without any obligations.

That's the mentality really, why pay for something that I can see for nothing.

That mentality doesn't understand that if they don't contribute the site might disappear.

Can I suggest, being blunt again, that you push it a bit more.

Like you have at the moment, the panel about the Content Ratings Icons. Put in a box here how much you would like from members, showing as price per day and leave it there for a few weeks. Then just add a link to the details.

Just a thought.

[Bill Edwards]

1 hour ago, Chris Russell said:

Sometimes I think you have to be a bit more blunt. The trouble with the internet in general is that for the most part whatever you look up is free without any obligations.

That's the mentality really, why pay for something that I can see for nothing.

That mentality doesn't understand that if they don't contribute the site might disappear.

Can I suggest, being blunt again, that you push it a bit more.

Like you have at the moment, the panel about the Content Ratings Icons. Put in a box here how much you would like from members, showing as price per day and leave it there for a few weeks. Then just add a link to the details.

Just a thought.

 

Thank you Chris, I fully accept your point about the Internet being free for users. However, being pedantic NO part of the Internet is actually free. The hardware/software that makes up every site must be paid for - somehow. That is either done by individuals/companies donating the cost - which I cannot afford to do or by Advertising/Sponsorship - I could sign up with Google Ads etc and plaster the forum with ads, but I don't really want to go down that route and I suspect most members wouldn't either and in any event being a niche market it's unlikely we could generate enough revenue to cover costs. That leaves us with voluntary donations and I am reluctant to be blunt or push the costs too much - I know it can get tedious.

 

To be honest, whilst a few more donations would be appreciated, we aren't YET at the "donate or lose it" stage - although that day will come - Subscriptions are declining!. In fact, the main point of my message was more about members contributing content when they can - I know you do and I'm grateful - many of our members do and again I am grateful, but there is evidence that some members, who are in possession of content DON'T in fact share it, and I was hoping to prick a few consciences and get some of those members contributing

 

[Paul Needham]

bill, perhaps I didn't explain it properly, what I thought would/might help is a shortened version of your OP with the link on  but perhaps at the top of a lot of the pages? as a pinned? bit,

thanks for the history,explains why you ( to me lol ) seem like you should be sat at one of those screens at nasa where they go such and such systems are go

I was checking my emails later on and got a paypal one sayng you have paid a Richard such and such, I made sure I didn't read it as I thought it dodgy but went on paypal instead still wondering who/what this was about,  imagine my surprise to find out it was you,

chunks, re long message, bill did ask for more content 

[harry m]

BIG Bright red button saying 'DONATE' usually works best in my opinion

[Bill Edwards]

11 hours ago, Paul Needham said:

bill, perhaps I didn't explain it properly, what I thought would/might help is a shortened version of your OP with the link on  but perhaps at the top of a lot of the pages? as a pinned? bit,

thanks for the history,explains why you ( to me lol ) seem like you should be sat at one of those screens at nasa where they go such and such systems are go

I was checking my emails later on and got a paypal one sayng you have paid a Richard such and such, I made sure I didn't read it as I thought it dodgy but went on paypal instead still wondering who/what this was about,  imagine my surprise to find out it was you,

chunks, re long message, bill did ask for more content 

 

10 hours ago, harry monk said:

BIG Bright red button saying 'DONATE' usually works best in my opinion

I've now added the message at the top of the forum, currently rotated with details of the New Coming Events.

 

Many thanks for your feedback!

[Paul Needham]

22 hours ago, harry monk said:

BIG Bright red button saying 'DONATE' usually works best in my opinion

that sounds good, where abouts is it please

[Trojanhorse11]

Bill, I've just donated whilst still getting over Norovirus, so do I get some extra "brownie points" for that??? 

 

 

[Bill Edwards]

2 minutes ago, Trojanhorse11 said:

Bill, I've just donated whilst still getting over Norovirus, so do I get some extra "brownie points" for that??? 

 

 

Many thanks - much appreciated. Extra brownie points in the post

[Gary Parker]

Just renewed my Gold Supporter, don't find myself visiting the forum as much as I used to due to the lack of restoration topics which is my main interest, but still come on pretty regular to see whats going on.

 

Many topics seemed to have moved to Facebook which is a shame, I'm not on Facebook but have had a look at the Winterwonderland stuff on there, in my opinion it was a better and easier viewing experience on the forum.

 

Appreciate the hard work of Bill and team, keep it up