Donations to keep forum free

I strongly suspect that this has been "posted" to death but if not I have just noticed a box at the bottom of the right column asking for donations to keep this forum free.

I am trying to get "my head round this".

JA

edited - put in quotation marks

Edited By JA on 15/08/2022 18:06:31

I saw that and made a small contribution as I have benifitted greatly from the help available and would like to continue to get advice.

Someone did start a thread when it first appeared but go no more postings.

I think it's fair enough as there are many here that make use of the forum but don't have a subscription and some of those even run add blockers so are really getting something for nothing.

Several other forums I use also ask for donations, some are more commercial than others. Traction Talk and HMEM are two that spring to mind in our field of interest.

If this is leading up to a paywall introduction, then Morton's can stuff it. If, as JasonB says, many users contribute nothing, fair enough - charge them. Just reserve free use for those ( like me ) who have a subscription as a benefit of same. Been taking ME for 60+ years and MEW from no. 1. Most of those 60 years managed without internet's recent invention so won't miss the Forum enough to feel the need to pay for it on top of two expensive subscriptions.

But TT does not have anything like the censorship on here, I don’t mind donating to an open forum but I wouldn’t donate to this one unless some of the restrictions were lifted!

Paul.

There is no forum on earth that I would pay to read, I'm happy to give my knowledge free to people who need it on here but I can live without it.

Tony

It is also worth noting that users of the forum who are not subscribers make valuable contributions to the forum.

People are more likely to become subcribers after finding and using an open forum than paying for a subscription to use a closed forum.

Robert G8RPI (non subscriber)

Nothing is ever free. Many sites are paid for by advertising you have to watch or your data is sold to whoever will pay for it. When mytimemedia owned tis they ran the site and presumably picked up the tab if the advertising revenue fell short of the running cost or made a profit if they could. The main restrictions that people fall foul of are posts that recommend suppliers who do not support the forum which makes sense if you are a supplier funding a forum that promotes your competitors for free. I pay a number of subscriptions to various things that interest me. It would be interesting to know how much the donation box is trying to raise so an average donation could be quantified. Sites like Wikipedia are free to all but funded by voluntary donations from people who value its existence rather than expose themselves to advertisers editorial pressure. If the users of this forum enjoy it enough to fund it then the rules could probably be changed. A bit more information on the donation scheme would be helpful , things like what happens if the members should by some miracle be generous and overfund the forum, is the money ringfenced to meet future costs?

Mike

The fact that it's tucked away at the very bottom where many/most people haven't noticed it might suggest it's not a "forum breaker".

Donation requests have been normal on various motorbike forums I have frequented over the years. Purely optional. A couple have closed down over the years, so it can happen if the owners figure the return is not worth the effort. Never seen any that go to a purely pay-to-use model. Seems like there are always other free forums so it would not work.

Edited By ega on 15/08/2022 23:16:01

Edited By ega on 15/08/2022 23:17:45

PAUL KEMP:Dont forget there are people like me who are not subscribers but regular purchasers of the magazine. The reason is pure laziness but my local newsagent stocks it, I see it everytime I go there and it is just too easy to buy a copy on the spot. There must be many like me or the publishers would not bother with retail sales. Even though I am a non-subscriber I make a lot of use of the forum, buy stuff from forum advertisers and have ,hopefully, contributed some forum articles that people have found useful.

Would I pay for the forum if I had to? Good question but as a retiree on the pension, I would have to think about affording a subscription plus a forum fee. I guess then I would have to take out a subscription which would also come into it.

Well I tried, twice, but I couldn't make it work, or maybe I have been twice as generous as I intended.

Paul I don't look at Traction Talks "off Topic" section but assume it is much like our "tea room" and that is where 99% of the censorship takes place and most of that is due to political posts.

I can't remember the last time I took down a link to a third party on here but must be several months ago at least. When that rule was added I was doing several a week but it seems forum members have learnt not to do it and the forum still seems to be functioning as it should.

Many forums including this one do have subscriber only sections/content, TT has parts you can't access without donating. In the early days of this forum items were uploaded that are only accessible to subscribers which are still that way so no real change although there has not been much added lately with restrictions.

I just tried it and it went through fine using Paypal. Just click on the amount you want to pay or click other and enter an amount in the box that comes up. Click the yellow "donate" button and that just takes you to the usual Paypal sign in and payment process.

Only thing that did not work was it did not take my back to Mortons after confirming transaction and thanking for the donation.

Hi, advertising on the forum has been mentioned above, however two of the major suppliers stopped advertising here at about the same time the donation box appeared. It probably would have been prudent for some sort of statement about donations before or at the time the box first appeared.

Regards Nick.

Before I would even consider making a donation I would at least like to see the reduction of some of the tea room topics for example those that are asking question about everything which has nothing to do with Model Engineering. If people want to ask questions about computer problems there are forum for that use them The exception are when asking about things like CAD and the like as I know many do enjoy using CNC to make their models etc (which I don't but that is a personal thing)

Also as a possible donater(if there is such a word) would I be allowed to link to whatever selling site I like and not be dictated by the present advertisers

Quite, I have every issue and have replaced a number over the years when the wife has "tidied up". I have always purchased the magazine from a newsagent and latterly enjoyed delivery along with the daily newspapers. The Newsagent covers a significant number of the outlying villages over eight miles from his premises.

Most members have fond memories of past times when virtually every village had a shop and local filling stations were commonplace. Classic car and motorcycle magazines hanker after the "good old days" and then encourage readers to subscribe thereby contributing to the destruction of the local infrastructure.

Robert Butler

My blank post above was the result of a failed attempt to cut and paste my originating post in the earlier thread mentioned above by Jason.

I said then that I would be happy to donate (and become a donor!) if some of the peculiarities of the site software could be addressed eg the tortuous procedure for posting photos and the gratuitous insertion of smileys; to that I would add the difficulty of cutting and pasting.

I see no harm in asking for a voluntary donation but think it would have been better if it had been announced and explained in advance.

PS Contrariwise, kudos to the designer who put the donate notice down at the bottom out of the way!

Edited By ega on 16/08/2022 11:22:39

I am with Tony on this one, my knowledge was given to me freely and I reciprocate this,

Regards

Gray,