Other members subsidizing paid memberships?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Well it does happen in arms deals every now and again. I've had people throw in ammunition, extra clips, holsters, and what not. Usually this only happens in private sales and not from dealers, however.

And no, the vendor is not being subsidized to offer those memberships. Perhaps some people are just interested in helping promote this site, hard as it may be for some people to believe.

It isn't hard to believe Rich. I just like getting the facts straight because I hate those hidden costs (although I am the king of putting them in with certain utility companies).

And I have had some free ammo and maybe a hardcase or two thrown in by private sellers, but with dealers or wholesale forget it..

Originally Posted by bcfos

Sure doesn't happen in arms deals, strip clubs, and importing illegal aliens to work in the fields.....

Maybe should try another strip club? Course there are some bonus' one wouldn't want

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Well it does happen in arms deals every now and again. I've had people throw in ammunition, extra clips, holsters, and what not. Usually this only happens in private sales and not from dealers, however.

And no, the vendor is not being subsidized to offer those memberships. Perhaps some people are just interested in helping promote this site, hard as it may be for some people to believe.

I agree with this statement...I have definitely had some extras thrown in when purchasing firearms...and usually through smaller gun shops...just good people who want to make their customers happy...

Which it sounds like in this case as well...

I think this is a great idea from a business point of view and an industry wide view...and I wouldn't worry about scammers...so far this site has been an invaluable tool for weeding them out regardless..this would definitely help keep more people informed...and educated...and get more of the herp community involved.

+ This would be a great idea for bringing more people to the site and once they are memberws for a year chances are the will find it worthwhile to renew at thier expense the following year.
Also the members here that advertise and sell on other sites would be bringing people here that probably have never known that this site existed. I see this as a win X win situation for every one involved.
Rich might even consider throwing in a "counter" down next to the rep points and warning point for the members brining in more members to show how many new members each of us has brought in to the site and at the end of the year throw a bone to the member that brought in the most new members as a great incentive for everyone. I can see it now...In big bold letters...

Fauna Classified Membership Drive Contest
Fauna classified is proud to announce that it is offering a free "to be decided by rich" to the member who brings in the most new members in "time frame??"
To be entered in the contest you must be a paying member of fauna in good standing. All new memberships must be payed for within the contest time frame. All new memberships must have unique I.P. addreses to be entered into the contest. Lucille the "god Mother" of fauna will answer any and all questions concerning the contest in the "so and so" forum. ( I figured I would throw lucille into it to keep rich's time free to handle other things, plus Lucille loves stuff like this). Every contestant that brings in 15 (150.00) new members during the contest will recive a free "contributers" membership for one year at the time of thier yearly renewal. The contest and rules are subject to change or cancellation at any time at the discretion of the webite administration.


Rich has got to think this would be a great idea since you will have a lot of people trying to win something and support the site and every new member brought in will mean a minimum of 10.00 for the site with the potential of more after the new member finds out how valuable the site is.

If a seller is offering a paid membership to fauna as a bonus to customers when they purchase from him, what does he do when a customer is already a member? Does he do like my ISP does when they offer half price to NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY: tell existing members they are sol? Because it really makes me grind my teeth when that happens.

They could pay the membership fee anyway... which would renew their customer's membership for an additional year...

Originally Posted by leaftail

If a seller is offering a paid membership to fauna as a bonus to customers when they purchase from him, what does he do when a customer is already a member? Does he do like my ISP does when they offer half price to NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY: tell existing members they are sol? Because it really makes me grind my teeth when that happens.

Well, depends on how you look at it I guess. Some places rum promotionals in order to get NEW business, so that's why they offer those incentives. In this case, the vendor offering free memberships here is doing so in order to attract new members (or at least new PAID members). So is someone really LOSING anything if they are already a paid member here?

If I can figure out a reasonable way to upgrade a membership level to a higher one, then that may be a solution for the lowest level to the next level. But I don't see any vendors offering free upgrades to the two highest levels offered.....

Originally Posted by WebSlave

So is someone really LOSING anything if they are already a paid member here?

Well, the seller has to justify those free memberships to his business somehow, if he adds it to the cost of the goods, then yes a paid member would be a loser.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

...I don't see any vendors offering free upgrades to the two highest levels offered.....

No, me either.

Originally Posted by Alias47

They could pay the membership fee anyway... which would renew their customer's membership for an additional year...

There ye go!! The perfect solution. WebSlave, what do you think?

I don't know if the program is smart enough to do that. My suspicion is that a latter membership would just overlay the previous one, making the expiration date 1 year from the last subscription. Unfortunately, I have no way to test this. PayPal will not allow me to send a payment FROM myself TO myself.

Well DUH! Unless I put some custom programming in place for this project to accomodate people signing up other people for memberships, this will be a fully MANUAL process for me anyway. So yeah, I could do that, in that case. Of course, if I can get my programmer to hack the site and make this all automatic, that would be my preference. Unfortunately he is really snowed under with some heavy projects right at the moment, so I am trying to give him a breathing spell from what I want him to do for me. So yeah, I might have to do this manually for a while...

Rich, I can offer to test the software to see how smart it is, when I get the money for my fauna fund auction. (IF it closes satisfactorily)

Just a thought.