Paid Membership with perks? Any interest?

[Meatman]

Out of curiosity, how much does a website like this cost to maintain throughout the year?

[vmln8r]

I would not pay.

But for me that can not enjoy the Fellow pub and its conversations a bit away from the children's room I would not mind If EB made a pure AFOL area , even if it would cost me some money to enter it.

kindly mechamike

I agree with mechamike. I sometimes stumble across ancient threads, and they tend to be much easier (and more worthwhile) to read. However, I'm not sure what the solution might be; it seems to be the price of popularity - we've seen it happen before (e.g.,: Mocpages).

It would appear worthwhile to consider various options to cluster interactions on the forum, to try and maximise the benefits of such a large user base and minimise the drawbacks. Cross posting to multiple sub-fora? Making ranks, tags, post counts, etc private? I dunno. One thing I like about flickr is that it is easy to filter out interactions that aren't of interest to you (through things like limited-access groups and the fact that discussions tend to focus on photos).

[Capt.JohnPaul]

I would not pay. Though if some people would get perks and want to pay for them, that's ok. Really, the ads aren't bad, I think... All I see is a little box at the bottom of a page. I don't even see it unless I purposefully look for it.

Sorry to say, I wouldn't pay for it.

[greeny]

I wouldn't pay. As much as I like this website I just don't think it's worth the money. Having a donation box (like other users suggested) is a very good idea!

[Sarah]

The problem is management. For less than $5 it's not worth the accounting time... unless it was yearly.

The forums I have actually joined have all been yearly. Not another monthly bill.

[jfbat]

The ads on this site don't bother me at all. I wouldn't even mind if they became a bit more prominent, as long as they wouldn't distract too much from the main business, if this would keep the site free.

I am on a few sites that offer paid memberships. Almost always there are "perks" for paying members. Some offer a membership that entitles you to free or reduced priced activities or goodies, that are sometimes also exclusives for those paying members (meaning they're not available to others). Some go further and have parts of the site closed off for non-paying members. That last option always makes me feel uneasy: I understand that some paying members would like something back, but that kind of "we paying members are an elite group of people" thing would actually put me off considering getting a paid membership myself.

So would I consider paying for membership here? Well, I'm not sure. I believe that the first option should always be to keep it free for all. If for some reason that won't work anymore and paying members would help keeping the site alive, I might consider it. I would want only perks that would not feel like "locking out" to non paying members (a nice exclusive item at a reduced price, for example), otherwise a small title showing I contributed to the upkeep of the site would be just fine.

At the moment I am not a paying member on any site. I have been a teammember/moderator on one site for more than ten years now. The time and effort spent on that site don't bother me, I still enjoy doing it thoroughly and the gratitude sometimes shown by member by just small compliments or letting you know they appreciate you being there for them makes it al worth (and nullifies the abuse that we also have to put up with, alas).

[TheLazyChicken]

I get the impression that many of us here spend $1000-$5000 US per year on LEGO and LEGO related activities, so $60 per year should't be a real hardship.

Well, I don't and I only spend an average of $200 a year.

I wouldn't like Eurobricks to be a paid site though. I would pay like $7 for two years like the lego club because I really do not have the amount of money to pay for a lego site. Also, I use an iphone and on iphone, there is NO ads. So I wouldn't pay for this site as much as I like it.

Edited December 22, 2013 by TheLazyChicken

[AndyC]

I wouldn't object to paying a yearly fee (monthly becomes too much of a chore to bother with, IMO) to help the upkeep of the site, although I can't really think of any "perks" I'd particularly see a need for. I would be concerned about "badges" for paying members though, that sort of thing leads to somewhat of a two-tier system in my opinion and I think that ends up being rather divisive.

[Ardelon]

I wouldn't pay either. I don't have the means, and this won't change for another year at least. Even if that wasn't a problem, I hardly notice the ads at all, and like someone already mentioned, I wouldn't mind them becoming more prominent if that was a way for the site to get needed funds. I don't think I'd be interested in any perks.

[Blast]

A Donation Box is really the best thing to do.

[Legonardo]

a $5 or $10 annual fee mightn't be too bad, but i honestly would leave the site if there was a monthly fee, as much as i love the EB community, im pretty broke as it is, teen + lego = no money

[Yatkuu]

I would be concerned about "badges" for paying members though, that sort of thing leads to somewhat of a two-tier system in my opinion and I think that ends up being rather divisive.

This is a very good point. Even without badges I am worried too that having different class of members would cause some imbalance in the community. Let's face it, being a LEGO hobbyist does not prevent some individuals from being jerks. How soon is it going to be until some folks consider themselves as being more important or superior to other non-paying members? This is something very different from the ranking system already in use, right now it does not matter wether you are a "newbie" "fellow", "knight" or any other rank, we are all guests here. Add money in the mix and I fear it will change the relationship between members.

Another problem is that the moderation of discussions involving paying and non-paying members could become tricky to address. It could indeed be difficult for the mods to appear truly non biased by the membership category of the different protagonists (and the bias could be perceived as going in either direction). And if it comes to that, banning a paying member would lead to other complications as some people would probably ask for a refund...

If the "ads" solution povides enough funding to keep the site running my vote is to keep it as it is now.

[jodawill]

I'm in favor of a donation link with no perks. I wouldn't mind donating a few dollars occasionally, but I wouldn't want any commitments.