Scale Soaring UK

Cliff Evans wrote: ↑10 May 2021, 09:03 I am seriously considering making the forum subscription based. There are 817 members of which 127 are donors. That is 127 people that have contributed to the upkeep of the site, that is 690 that get a "free ride" and access to all benefits. Subscription based will make it fairer for all and all subscribers will have full access. The subscription will be set at £5 per person per year. It will limit access to things such as downloads and certain topics to non subscribers. I would like opinions on this in the form of a vote that way it is anonymous.

This will not happen until January 2022

Please vote one way or the other above.

mjcp wrote: ↑10 May 2021, 15:16 Tricky one:

As a "new user" had there been a "pay to play" fee, I would not have paid - I would have no way of evaluating the value.

As an "experienced user", I probably would.


Alas, I doubt 800 odd members (not sure how many are active) would be enough to get meaningful advertising revenue of a target specific type - e.g. a vendor paying to advertise specifically on the site, regularly. Thus, "normal" advertising will be just annoying to the readership... those who don't just block the ads that is! And scatter gun ads won't give good returns, so the share of revenue will be low there too...

If you then require a pay to play fee too, the membership level is likely to reduce, so your "benefit" to advertisers reduces too. A catch 22.

Might require some back office work, but how about 1st year free, renewal (same email addy) is £5. You still restrict the plans access in the same way as now, but in a year the member has hopefully realised the benefit of the community by then and happily spends £5.

Mark Wilcockson wrote: ↑13 May 2021, 11:45 I'm going to be unpopular here as I am one of the people getting "free ride" long terms member. I browse occasionally and rarely comment but enjoy the builds and take notice of the good service section and tend to support those businesses with my purchases.

If forced would I pay a subscription even at the low level of £5 - no

Would I voluntary support if asked - probably yes

For one of my other hobbies I am a member of three forums. The first one the leading forum in the UK is free and was very active. I used the classified section and as a result of selling a few things decided to sponsor the forum £15 per year and a way of giving back and recognising the benefit. Sadly the moderators/owners decided to try to cash in on the membership and started charging to advertise in the classified section. Whilst this did not affect me as a sponsor I disagreed and have cancelled my membership going forward.

Much of the long established membership also agreed and voted with their feet, left and set up a new forum on much more friendly basis. I donated to the set up costs of the new forum and continue to do so. It's totally voluntary but I am happy to support as nobody is telling me what to do to get access.

The money is not the issue to me its the principle

Now I am not suggesting this will happen here but I do feel with a subscription based access you will get smaller and smaller number of members as time passes. This hobby needs to attract more members not do things to put people off.

My suggestion would to be open with the annual costs, I have no idea what they are and have an annual fund raise. Generating a surplus to fund an event is of no interest.

Mark

simon_t wrote: ↑13 May 2021, 17:49 I am a donor but have voted against subscription - my rationale is that any subscription will likely dramatically reduce the number of forum members, and ultimately that reduces the richness of discussion and input that makes this a great forum. Would I like more to donate? Of course, but a donation is just that, it is a personal decision. I don’t really look at what I pay in terms of fairness against others who don’t donate - I purely look at it from the viewpoint of the value my donation brings to me. I do agree with previous comments though, that non-donors should not have the same access to plans, 3-views etc. that donors should.

Simon

jimbo wrote: ↑18 May 2021, 09:00 Have you thought about this site?
https://www.patreon.com/
Dont be put off by the focus on creative art, i think it could apply also to other stuff. It would probably manage the collection of monies as well.
People are able to sponsor the site what they want (smaller or larger amounts) and get access to the premium content. You could create price tiers/plans etc. Enforcing a subscription seems a big hassle to recuperate the £75 per year hosting costs, which should be avoided IMO considering there is likely to be considerable decline in activity in an already declining hobby.

Peter Balcombe wrote: ↑18 May 2021, 11:12 Hopefully a lot more forum members will respond to cast a vote as 40 out of 800+ is a drop in the ocean so far & definitely cannot be said to be a fair representation of the membership.
However, there are costs involved in keeping the forum running, so funds obviously need to be found from somewhere for it to continue.
Personally, I see the forum as a valuable resource for interest and knowledge & have always been happy to make a donation, but it does peeve me no end that most people these days seem to expect to just sit back & take.
However, that unfortunately seems to be representative of a general trend in today’s culture.

The holy grail would be to find a way to find a way to keep the forum going without losing its attraction to interested parties, but also stop the unscrupulous ones ripping off the information available.

john greenfield wrote: ↑19 May 2021, 08:27 I have been watching this post with interest from the sidelines to see what others views are.
This website and forum is an invaluable resource and also a source of great inspiration and learning and it must be continued. I am happy with subscription. contribution or any other suggestion to raise the necessary funds to keep it going. I have not voted in the poll as I do not have any strong opinion either way but I do pledge my support whichever way it goes.

AEB

ChrisV wrote: ↑20 May 2021, 22:04 Cliff

Firstly thanks for all you do to support site.

I am always happy to contribute, but at times when I am busy I have not seen the request before the target is met.

I am not in favour of subscription only restrictions as that goes against the spirit of everything we are about. We always as a group encourage other flyers and we do need to get more people into the hobby. I particularly reflect on the younger or retired generations who are not as able to pay as some of the rest of us.

If we can fund it from those who are willing let’s continue the philanthropy.

If a request is put out for funding can I suggest that an email is sent to all members as that will reach the occasional visitors and should generate more funds.

Happy to help out as required, I have just donated to support this position.

Thanks
Chris

Elliot Howells wrote: ↑11 Feb 2023, 17:26 I can't even view the classifieds, so can I assume we're now on a subs basis? That's fine by me, just can't see a link to the paypal or whatever?

Cheers, Ell.

Cliff Evans wrote: ↑10 Feb 2023, 13:36 Donations are down quite considerably fo last year. To the point that it cost me. I am now of the opinion that the only way to pay for the upkeep is to make this a subscription-based forum. Not really what I wish to do but, it may be necessary.

I have opened this thread for further discussion. Please feel free to comment.