From the technical side of things, why are you guys spending so much on servers and equipment that needs to be maintained? for what you've spent already you could have purchased several years worth of hosting from a datacenter, paid for plently of bandwidth, not have to worry about upgrading/maintaining equipment, and you would still get all the features practically builtin, email, PHPBB, Mysql, Postgre, etc.

This is currently how I setup all of my clients. At $60/yr for the account plus whatever extra for needed bandwidth, even at an extra $1500 for bandwidth, your per yr cost is cheaper. Your equipment maintenance is reduced to $0per yr, your security costs are reduced to $0 per year and your only investment is to cover the account costs and your time to create everything.

The idea that people will pick up the tab is a pipe dream. No matter how much of an enthusiest someone is, no matter how much they use the site, no matter how much they tell other people about it, they are just not going to pay for it. The people that do pay are the exception. This is how the problem needs to be attacked. i.e. what can we do with what we have vs. we need this and we can't do it without people paying. Our Wal-mart society has conditioned us to expect to get a good deal on everything. Cheaper is better. Free is best. If free is an option, then you will rarely get paid. If paid is the only option, then this would be a very small exclusive community.

If I am wrong somewhere or missing something, please correct me as I've only been here a short time and have 0 history on this site and those involved. From what I've seen though, this is the best suggestion I can offer.

 

Detroit,

I see your point clearly and agree with it in logic but I would offer this solution to most of the points you made:

Dig deeper into the site beyond "S2000 Talk" and the rest of the first forums on the site. Secondly, disregard the threads labeled with titles and questions you have seen a million times.

I do not know how prolific you are in your local forums or other parts of the site so do not take my statements the wrong way. I am not flamming you at all just putting this stuff out there for you.

the mods in the big forum areas do as much as they can I am sure but they have a lot of ground to cover. Just because a thread exists, does not mean you have to read it or contribute to it.

If you see yet another "which exhaust sounds the best" thread simply look past it. I choose not post in those threads because usually, by the time I see it, all of the necessary "look it up", "search is your friend" and all of the info I would normally offer is already there.

Again, I agree with your perspective but I just wanted offer up a simple way to make your time on this forum is more beneficial for you.

As far as the mandatory membership the semantics of it all is better commented on by the big boys and girls.

I hope this helps
RoB

 

Yeah , I can keep coming here for free, but I'm not. I 've gained alot of insight into my new car in the past 2 months.
So, I joined and am showing my support.
Not everyone has a 'walmart mentality'

 

what kind of bakery do you goto where they ask for money to buy ingrediants before they sell you a cake


I understand what you're saying though

 

It's like dealing with a small custom/fab shop. They can't fund buying the materials to do your project upfront without a sizeable downpayment.

 

 

First off, I am a member...
For reasons I deem worthy and on my own ground.

I think these posts are crap though...
These forums wouldn't exist w/o users and guest participation. They also wouldn't exist w/o a creator. No one is forced to be here, but we all choose to be here. Even Cthree. So in that we should all choose whether or not we want to contribute financially. No one should be requesting and or suggesting. If you want to put a disclaimer up of "if you would like to donate..." that's one thing, but to post up a sob story of why the forums are slow and that "WE NEED MORE MONEY" is kind of shitty IMO. No cthree didn't post it, but I don't see him taking it down either.
Nothing against Cthree, but this site is how the guy makes his living!!! So for every extra Gold membership you kick in, he gets another few dollars for his pocket. Maybe a few less dollars in his pocket would get that new server?
I'm all for people making a living and if Cthree can make his by running a website, I'm honestly happy for the guy. To some extent envious. The guy can do something he likes, get paid, and be a part of a community.
Although where is your money going, what exactly are you getting for that $50 dollars?

I have been told that it's up to me to decide that... So as a guest I guess you need to decide if a membership and or donation means something to you and or if you get what you pay for... Why would anyone pay when they can play for free?

I can name at least 2 other forums that are just as big and or bigger than S2Ki, get just as much if not more traffic, and have never once asked a member for donations. They have the same or less advertising and the guys running it are even turning a small profit. So what's different here?


Either way, thanks for a place to come, a pretty good site overall, and the chance to make such a post.

Jp

 

so now you want to tell us how to run our website? in case you didn't notice, many large forums close to this size run their websites the way we do. I will give you benefit of the doubt and assume your intent was merely a suggestion rather than a chastizing remark.

Hi, welcome to the real world, where servers and sites with this kind of traffic require money to run. Pipe dream? This site provides a wealth of information that would likely otherwise not be available. Us asking for donations via memberships to help keep the site going is not a pipe dream. I suppose you never make any donations to anyone then? I mean after all, if cancer, poverty, disease, poor children, etc don't affect you, then why should you "pay" anything to help any of them, after all you get whatever you want regardless? No skin off your back hey?

It shows.

 

Already upgrading to gold... but one question. Can you guys please do something about the "search" function? The syntax is ok... but when you hit back you have to start all over =(. If it is easier to just post then search, guess which people will do first.

 

lol touche. but you know what i mean.