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Contributing...
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Old 06-12-2005, 08:08 AM   #1
Menhir
Question Contributing...

I noticed today, that non-Contributing members have reduced functionality in the board, and thats why I'd like to write something about contributing and making donations on commercial boards.
Before I start, please keep in mind that this is not an attack, this should be a remark to think of facts and everyone can come to his own conclusion and so do I. Also, please don't be picky on single sentences - I'll try to form objective and correct sentences so if you feel offended, please ask back if it was the fact that I meant or just bad formed sentence. Thanks in advance.

When I first saw the "Contributing Member" coin I was a little bit disappointed. I first thought that this would become another site trying to earn money with other ones knowledge. I read, that such members get their own subforum and at this point, it became quite OK for me. Such a sub forum is a place for presenting your own animals and so "breeders" can use it as a small commercial platform. It's quite OK to spend money for that!
What I dislike is the fact that many people state that we have to "help" this site cause Rich is the only one who's paying and we are only taking, taking, taking. Let's try to analyse this fact:
A board itself can be a great please to present yourself and your animals. When I visit this board, I see a "Sponsored by SerpenCo". I see subforums like the "SerpenCo Photogallery" and other subforums dealing with pricelists and so on. Since the kingsnake-story, where I'm really on Rich's site of the coin, Rich has some kind of god status in this forum and the name "SerpenCo" speaks for quality on this board. (I mean this in a positive way!)
To me - THAT is one of the best commercials that a company, so Rich, can have. And IMHO, that is quite OK.
But let's come back to the "we have to donate" topic. I personally don't see the reason that I spend money to Rich's commercial platform. The whole thing is a give and take. Rich gives money and time for the board and I gets, as I stated, a super-duper presentation of his company that will show up in the amount of animals he sells. We take Rich's traffic and Webspace and give him a living community with knowledge, photos and discussions about new stuff and so form the platform. Thats our give and take.

A different thing to me would be a site that hosted by a private person without selling animals and without commercials on the board (I see plenty of them here BTW.). That would be a situation where I'd also donate things or contribute to the site in the way Rich allows it here. I myself run and pay for a site with over 250 visitors everyday (NO board on the site!) and over 100 of them use my Calculator every single day - for Free! We do not sell animals over our site so everything I earn with it are people telling me that I did a good job and I also have to spend money for webspace and traffic. That I spend lot's of hours programming and so on even doesn't count in this calculation.

Example: I'm quite into the whole web thing and I can get the webspace to run this board for about 20$ per month. That would mean - selling 12 normals a year more because of the board would make no costs for such a board. I don't know the prices in the US, but that 20$ would include about 200GB Traffic and 30GB Webspace. If there is a huge difference to your prices, please tell me so that I can recalculate the thing. I just don't want to offend someone because I used wrong assumptions on costs!
What I mean in general with it is: If Rich sells one e.g. Lavender Motley more cause someone thinks he is a good source for animals because of this nice board - the money he spend into the board already paid off. Thats the way commercials work all over the world and BTW. is true for every "breeder" presenting his animals on this site, especially in the own contributing-member forums. Thats the point where I come back to what I wrote above why it is OK to pay for your own subforum.

So, the get the whole thing to an end. If someone wants to donate to a "commercial" board, that is quite OK. If someone gets a subforum for his donation to promote himself or his animals, that's more than OK - I think it's quite an aspect of fairness to pay then. If you should donate to get full functionality to spend your knowledge to a "commercial" board, thats not OK for me. I read the "we have to give something back to the board (and that means money!)" in every 5-10th thread know and slowly I feel pushed into a direction that I don't want. That gives me the feeling that I exploit Rich because I'm wasting his traffic and as I stated above, I don't think thats the only aspect.
...if people would donate money for using my calculator? In this case, they give NOTHING back to me!

I hope that I don't get replies like "if you don't like it, shut the f*ck up and go away". I really enjoy this board, the discussions and the members. I learned a lot here and hope that this will continue and that I can also give a small amount of my knowledge back to others here.

Greetings
Michael
 
Old 06-12-2005, 08:45 AM   #2
princess
Very good post Michael. Whilst your stand is going to be unpopular with some, you have raised some very good points about the purpose of a business site as opposed to a private one. As I've mentioned in a previous post, if a member wants to contribute financially, shouldn't they be allowed to choose how much money they contribute? I agree that giving financial members access to their own forum or chat room is a nice idea, but taking away access to features in the forum such as being able to advertise in the for sale section or edit your own posts is not a positive move for the site in my opinion.

Another question for you all. Who contributes more; a person who has nothing relevant or interesting to add to the conversation but pays their fees or a person who brings with them a whole lot of knowledge and insight and likes to help new members by answering questions but perhaps can't afford to be a financial contributor?
 
Old 06-12-2005, 08:49 AM   #3
Mary-Beth
Just wanted to start off by saying that I love your calculator and I use it quite a bit. If you had a link (or if you do and I missed it, sorry) to contribute I probably would.

I never felt any pressure to contribute here. I decided to do it because I had gotten so much from the site that I wanted to give something back. If I had followed the pets stores advice, or even some advice I got on line, my snakes would be dead right now. What's the value of the information I got from here that saved their lives? Well $25 is a steal if you ask me!

You have some very good points, I just don't happen to agree with some of them. Reading your post made me think though, and sometimes around here we could use a little more thinking!
 
Old 06-12-2005, 09:41 AM   #4
oldhand
I can see both side's of the coin, i have a free forum, because i can't afford dedicated webspace, but if i could i would get it. As it is, i have learnt a lot off here and $25 isn't a lot.....if you can afford it. I can't afford it. But if i could afford it the extra benefits like my own forum page on here wouldn't interest me as i have a forum, and as to the sale section, i don't (and probably won't) sell my snakes over the net, i might advertise them but not on here as theirs not enough people from the UK and I'm not prepared to ship.

Still i rate this site as my no 1 site for info and reference, and would like Rich and everyone else to keep up the good work, and I'd like to say thanks to everyone for the additional knowledge i have learnt.

Just my $.02
 
Old 06-12-2005, 10:32 AM   #5
Clint Boyer
Yeah, I was a bit disappointed also, but that's life.
 
Old 06-12-2005, 11:20 AM   #6
Gronk
Michael said :
Quote:
I hope that I don't get replies like "if you don't like it, shut the f*ck up and go away".
I hope you don't hear anything like that...I'd be surprised if you did on these boards.

I contribute to boards that I enjoy visiting and learning from. I don't do it to get "extra" features or abilities. I think these boards are worth supporting just for the learning and sharing I get from the folks here. Heck to me CAV's humor is worth...it !

Seriously.....I may never have the knowledge on corns folks like yourself, Clint etc. forgot last week (smile). I appreciate what you share here. As to it being a commercial-business boards...I really don't think Rich hypes himself all that much here IMHO, if at all. This board is a lot more "community" to me than commercial.

Anyway just my thoughts.....
 
Old 06-12-2005, 11:34 AM   #7
Menhir
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gronk
I hope you don't hear anything like that...I'd be surprised if you did on these boards.
Not on this one, yet :-) It's just that some people answer critics with "we do it our way and if you don't like, you can go". Imho thats against having a subforum called "Discussion about the site".

Quote:
I contribute to boards that I enjoy visiting and learning from. I don't do it to get "extra" features or abilities. I think these boards are worth supporting just for the learning and sharing I get from the folks here. Heck to me CAV's humor is worth...it !
Good points so far. I did not contribute cause I also do not need the extra subforum, nor do I sell snakes. But I'll never contribute sites or forums that can balance their cost with commercial banners or their own "presentation" and so get it back through their business.

Quote:
As to it being a commercial-business boards...I really don't think Rich hypes himself all that much here IMHO, if at all. This board is a lot more "community" to me than commercial.
Is commercial a negative word in English? That wasn't meant that way! As I stated above, it's a positive thing that people see Rich as a person with good advises, stunning animals and hear many other people having good animals from him. But none the less, I think you agree with me that the SerpenCo Photo section, the direct link to SerpenCo.com and the "Sponsors BackOffice" is a very, very usefull part for Rich's business. Again, there is NOTHING wrong with it! But to me it means, that the things runs his business and is extra sponsored by banners and so I don't see a reason to contribute extra money to it.
Private boards without banners and just "cost" for the admin, no problems with contributing at all.

So, perhaps Rich could think of giving the contributers the extra benefit of a sub forum and open the rest of the functionality to the "community" again.

Greetings
 
Old 06-12-2005, 11:48 AM   #8
Clint Boyer
I harbor no ill feelings for the changes that have come about there. I've been here since Rich developed it as an alternative to KS.

I like 'free'! Who doesn't?

I will subsribe when my budget allows and when I need to sell stuff!
 
Old 06-12-2005, 12:13 PM   #9
Khaman
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clint Boyer
I've been here since Rich developed it as an alternative to KS.
Same here I was the 72nd person to sign up here and I got in on the second day of the forum.
 
Old 06-12-2005, 12:23 PM   #10
princess
Quote:
Originally Posted by Menhir

So, perhaps Rich could think of giving the contributers the extra benefit of a sub forum and open the rest of the functionality to the "community" again.

Greetings

Precisely.
 

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