Forum Changes

[Xingu]

We will never please everyone. There is always going to be someone who says they are never going to use the board again. We are getting ideas and will discuss pros and cons of any change we make. If we open everything up to a poll, we will more than likely still only get a small percentage of registered members to participate. There have been a few new voices in this thread, that is good to see. Most of the time it is the same small group of vocal members who participate. We know that there is a downside to any change that is made. We have to try and make the best informed decisions that we can that helps the long term outlook of this board.

[Bugatti Fan]

I am retired on limited income and would like to see a buy and sell on here, but not as a 'premium' item requiring a regular fee.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Well if you can't please everyone just block adblockers. It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads. I see only 40 members and 160 guests right now. All of the guests see the ads. How many of those members care about the ads?

Edited 12 hours ago by bobthehobbyguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Well if you can't please everyone just block adblockers. It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads. I see only 40 members and 160 guests right now. All of the guests see the ads. How many of those members care about the ads?

I don't want to see the ads and I'm willing to pay to not have to.

Just because YOU don't mind them doesn't mean everyone else should be forced to see them or be...essentially...banned.

EDIT: Or maybe it does.

It's for the mods to decide, and the rest of us to react to.

Edited 12 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[sidcharles]

1 hour ago, Xingu said:

We will never please everyone. . . . 

a thought: while supplies & parts are definitely a major part of the hobby, we need to reinforce the major part of model building is creativity.

if someone needs reinforcement of this, look at the roots of motorsports. whether customs, dragsters, or anything with wheels, the very inception of that vehicle started in someone's mind.

yes; even the lowly model T Ford.

that creativity cannot be bought. it can be capitalized upon, but the seed was planted before the contract will be written.

go for a walk some day with a zip-lock bag. pick up some things: a crushed nut, piece of rusty metal, a shiny dime (if you live in the upper crust), whatever you can put in the bag.

come home and make something from the stuff you found. you'll be surprised how much fun it can be.

 

sid

[Rodent]

57 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads.

I hate to dredge this up again, but every other site I visit SOMEHOW knows I like cars, build models, recently did a kitchen remodel, shop at Amazon and Lowes, like to cook, etc., but this site sends me Temu and Etsy ads with scantily clad women, t-shirts with R-rated phrases, and lately some very strange "click here" ads about daughters of former presidents and how "big" they are or pics of their "partner". This is on my office PC that I have never searched for anything related to this, and it is in full view of anyone walking behind me if I don't scroll past it fast enough. Reporting these ads does no good. Some of them do not have a way to report them.

I personally wouldn't mind donating to the forum AND seeing ads if they were relevant. It's not like this site is like some of the news sites with constant video ads, popups, etc. One ad per page in the header is about all I ever see here, plus sometimes a smaller one mid-page. They seem to have solved the ads covering content issue.

[bobthehobbyguy]

I have no issue with the paying for no ads as long as the free access allows access to everything available now in some form.

The pay feature should be added value. Adding selling is added value. Trades and wanted items should be accessible but have posting limits with additional access to more listing's is reasonable. I think making existing features premium access is artificially creating value.

Personally I don't believe that there are that many people that bothered by the ads and this is an attempt to fix something that isn't a big issue. And the more complexity that is created means more resources required to administer it.  Curious to see how this gets resolved.

 

[stavanzer]

9 hours ago, Xingu said:

We have been discussing making the Marketplace one of the premium areas and allowing buying and selling. There would probably need to be an extra set of rules for this area that members would need to acknowledge before being allowed to use it.

That sounds like  both a good idea, and a fair one.

Need some fairly Heavy Duty Disclaimers I think, but I'd sign up for it.

[Redisetta]

I’ve been around here for about 11 years, you guys have done a fantastic job providing this great source of abundant information for our wonderful hobby.l know it takes a lot of effort to make it function properly.  I’m also in favor of some type of pay feature . I also like the idea of a Marketplace. I’m sure any changes you make will be met with some criticism but that’s to be expected. 

 

[OldNYJim]

Agreed with the previous comments on making the NASCAR forum a little more generic so weekend warrior type short track cars have a more obvious home 

And if I were allowed to post, say, a hot rod T bucket with a pickup bed in with the hot rods legally without feeling bad, then that would be cool…

And I’d 100% pay for a premium version of the site!  The photo hosting is important to me, but I don’t need tonnes of it - but it would be worth paying for, for me.

I’d recommend that a magazine subscription adds some kind of tier-perk to being a forum member also…win win for the forum AND for adding magazine subs 

[Bugatti Fan]

The ads don't really bother me. If they pay for the site to be run, that's fine by me. A small price to pay for free usage !

The nature of some of the ads that could be deemed very undesirable appear to be out of the site's control it would seem.  I'm afraid we just have to live with that sort of content in ads these days. It was pointed out in an earlier post that they are viewed by all guests looking at the site as well as members, so from the advertiser's point of view this forum and many others too  are a rich vein to promote their products.

It this forum goes over to being fee paying, and other up free to use forums up to now do the same, then the users will be forced to be subjective about what sites they chose to use eventually. Could be some attrition as a result overall.

[Straightliner59]

18 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

The ads don't really bother me. If they pay for the site to be run, that's fine by me. A small price to pay for free usage !

That would echo my sentiment. There are tradeoffs, with everything. I really barely notice the ads, anyway. It would be cool if they could be ads for places like Albion Metals, Scale Hardware, Micro-Mark, Sherline, etc., but whatever pays the bills! Nobody's being harmed by ads. If you are being hassled over the ads on here, you might want to find some more reasonable people to hang out with!

[sidcharles]

sidebar:

Q: do the advertisers pay to display their goods?

[stitchdup]

At the moment the advertisers pay google, who then pay us something. I believe part of the aim with having a paid option on the forum is so we can sell our own ads which would be relevant to us. What i'd like to see is it being successful for the advertisers, our members and ourselves so that we could possibly have special deals for members in the future. I'd also like to see any advertisers have their own news section for new supplies or products so they can become part of our community too. it can only benefit us all if we get it right.

[stitchdup]

13 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

I am retired on limited income and would like to see a buy and sell on here, but not as a 'premium' item requiring a regular fee.

I think buying and selling needs to be premium to prevent scammers. they are less likelly to show up if it costs them money and their payments can be traced back to them. instead of thinking of it as pay to play, think of it as a virus blocker on your computer. For it to work for us honest folk we need them to go away. we dont want anyone being robbed and if a fee prevents that it might be the only option but nothings set in stone yet and its early days