Subscribe in-order to Trade?

[PAPPACLART]

Hello

I am a member of a motorcycle forum as well as a few others. This said forum introduced a subscription for members in the way of Platinum, Gold and Silver! Each of which had many additional features vs standard non paid membership at different costs - larger PM boxes, the option to take adds away and many more etc More Importantly you needed to subscribe in order to sell items within the forum.

AV forums is a great place, and I have learnt allot in a short space of time but what I find most annoying is when I look for new posts, every other thread is a 'for sale' thread, where more often then not you have members with under 10 posts (many it is there first post) using AV forums as a place to off load any stuff they have. These members will often sell there goods and then never post/contribute to the site ever again which is a bit of a liberty.

Another reason for the subscription was to weed out the scammers as we had our fare share, as with the process to sign up for subscription, some personal details would have to be handed over, namely a valid PayPal account which in most cases is tied into a Bank Account or credit card. This is not water tight as obviously the serious scammers would use stolen cards etc, but this mostly discourages the usual scammers. Quite a few were against a subscription including myself as I am a long standing member, but in the end it paid off, as I was happy to contribute to the site and it's upkeep as well as benefitting to the extra features and even monthly raffles to win stuff which was part funded by subscriptions and sponsors. The entry level silver subscription cost about £10 per year and in my book is worth every penny. Also along with subscription there is a 50 post limit before you can sell items also.

What our your thoughts if something like this was introduced here?

[adbrad]

i think that perhaps there are maybe some things that could be done to improve security, but i don't think that a subscription is the best way. I think alot of people would be put off of selling things as it may not be worth it for the odd thing that they sell.

But all in all although i've not used the classifieds alot i always find it a smooth transaction, friendly and fair.

[kavanf1]

Interesting, I commented on this topic earlier this evening and now the thread has disappeared. Perhaps it's being investigated.

[Beetlejuice]

It was the classifieds that brought me to AVForums. Now I'm on here quite often (and much poorer for it ).

If there were paid subscriptions, I would never have joined, and I suspect many people would be in the same boat. It's a great place as it is, I for one don't feel it necessary for paid subscriptions.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by PAPPACLART

IAV forums is a great place, and I have learnt allot in a short space of time but what I find most annoying is when I look for new posts, every other thread is a 'for sale' thread, where more often then not you have members with under 10 posts (many it is there first post) using AV forums as a place to off load any stuff they have. These members will often sell there goods and then never post/contribute to the site ever again which is a bit of a liberty.

I don't understand why you would find it "annoying" that so many people register to sell something as no-one is forcing you to buy the product.

It may be "a bit of a liberty" for people to register here to sell something and never return again but it's Stuart's forum and only for him to be unhappy at that prospect as it doesn't affect anyone else in the slightest.

He takes the view that it's good to encourage people to join the forum to buy or sell something as some of the new members will stay around and join in the AV Forums community whilst others may spot a banner advert and buy something off one of our advertisers.

The idea of subscriptions has been mooted several times before and always with mixed reaction with so many saying that they wouldn't pay a subscription that it makes the whole idea unattractive and that is before we get to worry about how we would administer such a scheme anyway.

[Bilbob]

Pretty much wot Ian said...
I've always seen subscriptions as a way of getting more cash out of people... AVF is free, and I suspect doing ok out of it, the subs would only serve to get more cash, and fewer people in here, diminishing the community.
If the product is good, then people will use it, and the advertisers will pay the way. If it's not, then people won't be coming back and the site won't get page and advertiser hits.

[ChrisPB]

Well I’m one of the annoying people that use this forum to off load stuff, and predominantly post in the classified sections. I find the attitude of some members that people like myself are freeloaders or some how taking liberties, bizarre.
I make a useful contribution here by selling my unwanted items in the classified forums, thus providing a service to other members, and by giving my custom to forum advertisers.

So what’s the problem if some of us only frequent one section of the forums?

[mij]

I have never seen the lack of posts as a negative, one useful genuinely helpful post is worth more than a 1000 pointless ones.

If I am required to pay a fee to view a forum or to trade on it then I would want something that I could not get for free elsewhere.