membership/posting fees

[Stefan]

I just had an idea. Can we please introduce membership/posting fees? So everyone would have to pay a bit to be a member and for each post?

Mainly of course to reduce the amount of messages, particularly the overwhelming amount of useless selfish stupid ones, but the money could also be used to get rid of the advertisements or to have events like the recent 7x7 contest thing.

Not sure about the membership fees, but I'd really like to see posting fees. And I suggest each post costs $1.60 in the first membership week, then half as much in the second week, and so on until it reaches $0.10.

EDIT: This thread by now has taken a different direction, instead of fees we're talking about possible restrictions/education for new members.

[pjk]

I've been thinking about offering 'Premium Membership' where users can pay something like $10 and get ads removed, get a custom user title, and a Speedsolving.com t-shirt or something.

However, charging just to register will not happen.

[hdskull]

I've been thinking about offering 'Premium Membership' where users can pay something like $10 and get ads removed, get a custom user title, and a Speedsolving.com t-shirt or something.

Good idea.

[Stefan]

I don't really care much about those things. What I'd really like to see is a higher quality forum, where people think before posting, and small posting fees might achieve that. Have you seen my above third paragraph that I added?

[pjk]

Stefan, I understand where you are coming from. However, wouldn't it be a little unfair to start charging people to post since already 2,000+ members have got in free?

The best way to keep a forum's quality is to organize it. When stupid posts are made, they can either be removed or moved to a more proper location. As of now, it seems we have a forum for almost every subject, so it is just a matter of organizing it.

The sad part about an online community is that when it grows, the probability of a people making stupid, worthless posts also grows. The only way to deal with it is by moderating it.

I can also bet that if there was a charge for new members to post, new members wouldn't post. I'll be honest, I sure wouldn't pay to post.

[Bryan]

Can we donate some money to get more PM storage?

[Stefan]

I can also bet that if there was a charge for new members to post, new members wouldn't post.

That's kind of the point. I could be wrong, but it's my impression that new members post too much and should look around and get to know us first. Btw, I would post and pay that "much" if what I wanted to say/ask was important enough. But I'd restrict myself to few posts. Which, again, is the point.

Ok, maybe an increasing "number of posts per day" limit would do that job as well.

[genwin]

The best way to keep a forum's quality is to organize it. When stupid posts are made, they can either be removed or moved to a more proper location. As of now, it seems we have a forum for almost every subject, so it is just a matter of organizing it.

I was once part of another non-cubing forum(maybe 2 to 3 years back) where every thread will always be "sent" to a moderator for approval. So before it becomes a new thread, it would have been a approved by maybe several mods. I guess you can add more moderators Pat.

[PCwizCube]

I think if you charge for a membership and posting, almost no one would come and post because there are other cubing forums where you can register and post for free.

You should notice that mainly only new members spam a lot. Within a month they usually understand the basic rules and will post normally. They're eager to learn about cubing and they're having so much fun. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Just make sure that they see the rules. Maybe you could give a pop up before each post for new members for like for their first three days of posting? Just a suggestion.

And I don't think advertisements are a problem. There aren't that many here and they're mainly text advertisements. What I really hate are those flash (video) advertisements. They're really annoying, but there are none here!

[brunson]

You should notice that mainly only new members spam a lot. Within a month they usually understand the basic rules and will post normally. They're eager to learn about cubing and they're having so much fun. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Did you read and understand the proposal? Only new members would be charged for posting. Get it?