Quote:
Originally Posted by Boondockreptiles
So, here are a couple thoughts that I have. I'm trying to say this as tactfully as possible and so I will preface it by stating that these things are ultimately my fault for not doing as much research as I should have done. However, these things are true none-the-less.
I've been using this site since 2012. I have made over 30 posts - most of them classifieds. I have bought and sold nearly $10,000 worth of animals during that time. I have a boi thread about me. I have contributed to boi threads about others. And...
1.) I never knew (until just now) that being a contributing member was only $25.00
2.) I never knew, and honestly, still don't know what all the benefits are to being a contributing member. Now that I am one. I'd like to know.
3.) I never knew what Trader Ratings were or Reputation level and how to use those.
Is it possible that some of this stuff could be better advertised across the site? Have you ever done membership drives or fund drives on the site? For example, have you ever done something similar to how public radio occasionally makes a concentrated effort to increase contributing members and donators? I'm not meaning for this to sound accusatory, as if I'm blaming any of the problems on you, Rich or whoever else is involved in hosting the site. I hope it doesn't come off that way and if it does I'd like to apologize in advance. I've just been rolling all of this around in my head the last day or so and I've been asking myself about how my own experience with this site has been over the last several years.
I know that spamming people with messages begging them for money is a turn off to virtually everyone. However, I'm wondering if I would have become a contributor earlier if I had received an email or message or something once a year and even when I first signed up on the site saying how much it costs for each contributing membership level and what the benefits are for each one.
Once again, I'm not trying to blame anyone who is in charge of hosting the site. I'm just thinking about my own experience. For example, I didn't know it was only $50 per year to advertise on a forum until just today (because I looked for the first time - yes, obviously, that is my fault). That is such a low price.
|
Yeah, from the start, I never set my sights on trying to get rich off of this place. So I never set high prices on anything. As long as the bills get paid and I have some positive income making it worth dealing with the headaches and aggravation (gee, just like a JOB), I have always been OK with that as a modest goal.
I guess my philosophy has been to expect people to look for and find what they need to know. Not only do I not like spoon feeding people, I also do not like at all jumping around and waving flags at them and trying to drag them to information that could be important to them. I've had a text link posted at the top of every page saying "Want to help support this site? Click here." And pretty much all of the information needed to find out about various functions and opportunities to help keep this site afloat have been posted in this very same forum that this thread is located. I've never really been much inclined to chase down people for money. Yeah, perhaps most people do think that websites grow on trees, or everyone will make every effort to provide what they want for free. Who am I to rub their nose in reality? Any time I have ever tried to do that it did not end well for me.
As for a mass mailer, heck I tried that once or twice a long time ago. Back maybe when there were only 2,000 or so registered members here. And I got at least 1,000 bounced back emails because of invalid email addresses. Took me days to clear them out of my mail reader. How do you think that would turn out for me now with 141,000 registered members? Many MANY people seem to create email addresses merely to register on this site, and then quickly abandon them. I still get notices every day of bounced email notices because of invalid or non-existent email addresses. I'm sure the number of them in accounts right now over the history of this site is some enormous number. I would probably have to just throw my laptop in the trash and kill that email account used rather than have to field all those incoming bounced emails.
And then invariably I would get hate mail as replies from a bunch of people. People who are incensed over the intrusive email as well as those just looking at this as an opportunity to tell me what is wrong with my site and how I am running it. And what is wrong with me too, of course. Because, well heck, everyone knows they are innocent of the charges someone claimed about them in the BOI! If I would only just BELIEVE them! Yeah, like I want to waste my time going through that sort of garbage.
Anyway, no, enough people know of the BOI and this site. Enough people are already registered here. I don't need to see 3,000,000 people registered only to still have just 2,000 people logging in every day. If only half of the registered members were even checking in here every day and making a post, and/or just one 100th of the membership were contributing members or sponsors, then we wouldn't be where we are right now concerning the BOI. There is no longer the strength in numbers that I feel is vital for the BOI to do what it was designed to do. The peer pressure it could exert in order to make a positive difference is gone. So with that in mind, there is no reason for it to still exist.
Sorry, but no, I am not about to go begging to people asking them to help save the BOI. And then be called a MGA (money grubbing asshole), and other less kind derogatory labels, by a lot of people for my efforts. I feel I have done all I reasonably could and all I want to in order to keep the BOI alive.
You see, I really don't need the Board of Inquiry in my life any longer. I was only willing to keep it running through thick and thin, even after I retired, because I thought the majority of people in this industry were supporting it. Now that I know better, then doing away with it is perfectly OK with me. I don't need to worry about "bad guys" in this industry any longer. Perhaps most of
YOU all do. After 02-02-2020, YOU all will just have to go somewhere else for help with them.
Sorry.....
Oh, and for the record, no, I am not interested in expanding the Trader's Ratings into becoming a "BOI Alternate". If it exposes me to the same liability for frivolous lawsuits that the BOI has been doing, then what the heck would I want to do that for? I would be right back in the same boat again with too much liability and too little member support. Matter of fact, if I were to see it heading in that direction, it too will have it's plug pulled.