robertovillate wrote:I think Toby's existing rules are pretty reasonable. He has to walk a fine line every day that he moderates the forum to seprarate the wheat from the chafe, and it's a fair amount of work on top of everything else. I personally feel that Toby deserves to make money if he spends so much of his time and resources on it - it's his livelihood. And he needs to think for the future as one day he will probably sell the rights to the forum to someone, and he needs to preserve the value of it the best he can. In other words: In the end it's Toby's decision on how to run the forum. I am sure he listens to other opinions, but he does not have to agree with concepts that don't fit his business model.
well, i'm sure his business is not easy too and i'm far from trying to "deplete Toby's travel fund"(q.Laughingman), but he has to understand that this is the two way road
robertovillate wrote:I think that some "individuals" who are actually paying for advertisement still abuse the forum philisophically by spinning their own threads over and over and over. I mean, how many times can one person respond to one thread subject without it appearing to be completely self-serving? Of course we can all chose not to support that brand or to waste time to read those threads - which is what I do - but it would lend a lot of credibility to some of these individuals if they actually contributed content to subject other than only about their own kite brand. To me it comes off as being really egotistical, especially when it gets to the point about bragging about their success and personal popularity, and it's NOT consistent with the "stoke factor" they are hoping to be credited with....just my opinion.
yes, there are idiots all over the world spread pretty much evenly. so no guarantee for any brand their pimp starts meaningless thread about the "greatness" of his kite
robertovillate wrote:As for funding the forum - I am curious - how many members would be willing to pay $25 to-$50/year for the "privelage" of using the forum? Perhaps a subscribership would allow Toby to completely eliminate any commercial advertising...or create a dedicated forum group for manufacturers and their reps - and the various competing parties can bang away at it on their own sub-forum (and non-commercial participants welcome to the game as well).
Oddly enought it will probably be the same people who complain about commercial invasion who would complain about a subscription fee. Most people spend more than $25/week at the pub, so $25 or $50/year is nothing. I'd be happy to pay a small annual subscription if this were the case, since Toby has already demonstrated a good track record in general for the past 10+ years. One thing is for sure - you cannot make everyone happy all of the time.
how about i'm already paying twice for reading this forum? first time when i see the open publicity, the banners and payed publicity, and then second time when dozens of affiliated forum users trying to manipulate the opinion?
"forum" is something where freedom of expressions exists by definition, isn't it?
how kf would be different from magazines where only freedom of advertising exists?
now, that is why i don't by kite magazines - i don't want to pay twice and not to be able to express my opinion, first you pay for the magazine paper with beautiful pictures, and second for the payed articles. so, absolutely no objectivity!
so, any independent and objective forum or magazine should be free of charge for users, with advertising and with the possibility of affiliated users make their job.
or, it could be free of ads subscription forum with the payments, but still you'll never eliminate the pimps, and that leads to loss of users for sure.
robertovillate wrote:The important thing in a revised forum format would be that the forum creates enough separation between the normal day-to-day members and subject matter and the manufacturer threads. I'm not sure if this is just creating more work for Toby or if it might improve the situation.
Just throwing out ideas...but again, this is Toby's decision...and the forum is NOT a democracy. I am actually happy with the way things are. Some people seem to get so razzled by certain threads or forum policies - why not just avoid reading what you don't like, find another forum, or turn your computer off and have a beverage?
yeah, not the democracy, but it should be the freedom of speech in here certainly.
for a short time i was a member of this community i've seen several users disappointed in this forum publicly for the different reasons. common for those reasons was intolerance.
so, what are we registered for here? just to be subjects for marketing manipulations or really help the community to overcome FAQ and exchange the knowledge?