Contributions/Subscriptions

[GadgetUK437]

Any thoughts on paying contributions to the forum?
Can't be cheap to host.
Maybe with fringe benefits?

[bopdude]

I would chip into the pot

[Steve B.]

Same here, of the forums I'm a member of a couple of them have gone off the boil for me a bit lately but theres good people here and a nice vibe to the place which keeps me coming back so a yearly sub or whatever would be cool with me to help with the upkeep .

[Paulm]

Same here. We already get special privileges at meets in the shape of the rucksack sized bag of espresso coffee that Kieren brings along and shares out, got to be worth a few quid now and again !

Cheers, Paul

[Meadows]

In the real world the forum should be free and open access for all.
I've been turned off from forums that start charging for accessing extra features and articles in the way of "subscriptions" .
If there was a 'Donate" button but all the content was still open for all, I would be happy, well as happy as any Yorkshireman is at giving money away , to donate.

[callum]

I'd pay, I'm close friends with someone who owned a very good forum I was a moderator on it. sadly it got to expensive to run with all the updates. He sold it in the end

[Bowlin]

I think it is worth paying for, not really fair that at the moment it is having to be funded by one (a few?) individual(s).

It is one of the better forums I am a member of, a polite, knowledgeable, membership who do everything to encourage others and help with gear choices etc.

[craige]

While I'm not saying I'm against donating, I definitely wouldn't pay to use this forum... YET. I like it here and everyone seems happy and friendly but there is not (imho) enough content to justify paying...YET.

This is still very much a forum in it's infancy and has a lot of room for growth.

The main reason I pop my head in here is to see if I can help anyone and to see if anyone has been up to or bought anything cool. Not to learn or read reviews/trip reports.

I only contribute to 3 forums, including this one and donate to HF.net (but probably won't renew because I don't visit very often anymore) and trek-lite and I have a membership for bpl to access their articles (but haven't posted). I donate because I have learned a lot, they have some very experienced contributers and some great content: ideas, tutorials, reviews, articles etc.

Until this forum has similar content I would not consider paying to pop my head in hoping to help anyone. Sorry if this upsets anyone, especially the owner(s) because I know that a lot of time, effort, thought and money goes into making and maintaining a forum, but it is my honest opinion and I'm sure there will be others who share it. In the future (perhaps in a year or two), I can definitely see me being happy to donate... but not yet.

[Stevie]

While I'm not saying I'm against donating, I definitely wouldn't pay to use this forum... YET. I like it here and everyone seems happy and friendly but there is not (imho) enough content to justify paying...YET.

This is still very much a forum in it's infancy and has a lot of room for growth.

The main reason I pop my head in here is to see if I can help anyone and to see if anyone has been up to or bought anything cool. Not to learn or read reviews/trip reports.

I only contribute to 3 forums, including this one and donate to HF.net (but probably won't renew because I don't visit very often anymore) and trek-lite and I have a membership for bpl to access their articles (but haven't posted). I donate because I have learned a lot, they have some very experienced contributers and some great content: ideas, tutorials, reviews, articles etc.

Until this forum has similar content I would not consider paying to pop my head in hoping to help anyone. Sorry if this upsets anyone, especially the owner(s) because I know that a lot of time, effort, thought and money goes into making and maintaining a forum, but it is my honest opinion and I'm sure there will be others who share it. In the future (perhaps in a year or two), I can definitely see me being happy to donate... but not yet.

It's a fair point Craige and why as yet no effort has been made to ask for money. At some point point in the future we may introduce a 'donate' button but that is all it is - a donation should people feel the need.
Regarding reviews, correct again. However, that said, this is something we are actively working on and hope to have some good equipment reviews on the forum soon.
In the meantime everyone can do their bit and get out relaxing in the hammocks and review their kit for others to see.

[Tardis]

I'd happily make a donation but I doubt I'd subscribe to get 'special' articles.

[GadgetUK437]

I think subscription-only areas on the forum would be a bad idea, but offering the chance to donate would be OK.
You could sweeten the donation deal, if you could wangle some discounts for donating members from hammock companies (after all DD just did a 20% discount group-buy on the BCUK forum).
Especially if you sweetened the deal for the companies, letting 'em have some advertising space on the forum.

[callum]

A donate button sounds perfectly reasonable.
Subscription only areas will reduce traffic to the site as less content and keywords will be found through Google

[Bowlin]

Yeah, another vote for donation and not subscription.

Steve

[Kieren]

Morning all and a very happy Easter to you and your families. Apologies for not responding to this thread earlier but I've had a bit of a heavy working week and it's quite nice to collect as many thoughts and opinions as possible.

Gadget, thank you very much for bringing this up, it's good of you to consider the costs but to be fair, so far they've really not been anything that I wasn't prepared for.

This is something that has been quietly talked about for a while now but really hasn't had any urgency. It's worth pointing out also that while I've paid the costs so far, the site wouldn't exist without the two Pauls, who both contributed a lot of their time and skill in setting us up, the forum staff, especially Stevie, who is tirelessly and enthusiastically finding the time that I can't find to look after the site and the content from the members. If it wasn't for everyone involved it would just be a £5 domain and an expensive software download. So take that into consideration when talking about contributing because you already do.

Working through the comments:

Gadget, Bopdude, Stevie B, Callum, Bowlin, Tardis, thanks, very kind of you to offer your support.

Paulm, I like coffee, I very much enjoy the company I keep at the meets we have (if only I could find the time to get out more often) and contributing a little bit of coffee, lending a hammock and anything else I can do to enhance our mutual enjoyment is my absolute pleasure. And thanks.

Meadows, I agree with you, but it can't be free for all, every site in existence is funded one way or another. So far I fund this one but its use and membership by genuine people with an interest in the topic and content is absolutely free and will remain so.

Craige, I think you're absolutely right. I'm the site owner and I'm not upset in the slightest by your comments and don't expect anyone else is. The site certainly has room for improvement and certainly needs them. The structure and the individual forums were discussed some time ago and need re-ordering, merging and in some cases, deleting. That's quite a task if it's to be done without losing any posts, threads or content and I've not had the time to do it but it is on the cards and there are other improvements that I would like to make too.

There are a number of things that we can all do to make the site a better site. The thing that baffles be more than anything else is linking off the site. I've got no problem with links to other forums, as long as they are happy with links to this site existing within their site, but I don't know why you would do that. If there is relevant content elsewhere that is worth linking to then surely it is content that we want on this site. I'm not talking about copying and pasting anyone else's posts but if you have learned something somewhere else then post it, start a thread and share it here. If it's valuable enough to direct members of this community to then it valuable enough to bring new members to this site.

Something else we should all be doing is promoting the site. Drop the web address hammockforum.co.uk anywhere you can. If you sell stuff on ebay, if you have a facebook profile, if you send an email to DD hammocks complaining about your tree huggers breaking, anywhere where you think someone may be interested in the content, let them in. The whole point of the site in the first place was to promote the use of hammocks for camping in the UK, to prevent newcomers from being put off by bad experiences, to give good advice to people unsure about hanging in our climate, unsure about what gear would work for them and what was available in the UK, help them find people who they could meet who also wanted to get out. To fill in the gaps that hammockforums.net couldn't provide to it's UK audience. It's coming together quite nicely but we have a new season upon us and now is the time to encourage people to join us.

Anyway, as I've said above, the forum is always going to be free to join and use. It will hopefully be funded in other ways as the numbers increase but I certainly have no intention in charging members to use any part of the forum now or in the future. There are other ways to fund the forum, there are a couple of little side projects in development which will contribute which I'll share with you fairly soon and I am also considering creating a section which will have selective access for more established members and there is a reason behind that which I'm sure everyone will understand. It's sort of to do with an idea Gadget had a while ago that I'm trying to build on amongst other things, but this will also be free. But the thing that is most important to bear in mind is that the forum is a community and it's important that it runs in a way that suits everyone who uses it so always remember that you can flag up anything that you are not happy with and expect to be heard.

If everyone thinks that forum donations are a good idea then I'm all up for that. There are a few things that need doing. I'd quite like to get a web developer in to update the forum. The PM system needs sorting out, database needs to be checked as occasionally threads go a bit messed up. All the things I'm too scared to try myself. I'd also like to make the site a little friendlier on the eye and there are some nice features that we could add. But donations would be solely for developing the forum and improving the user experience. If everyone is in agreement that we should do this then I'll look into setting up a donate button.

I'd appreciate further comments below, cheers all.

[Sunndog]

Yeah, no harm in a donate button at all. Theres no pressure or hard sell about that imo, its just there, use it or don't

Agree with gadget about the "comments" in posts. the standard "quote" button is a far better system imo


Ere kieren, are you the same fella that posts as "woodland" then?