Vote***financing Fauna***vote

Originally Posted by Peacemaker

Bronze Plan= $10.00 yearly for Bio's only!
Silver Plan= $25.00 yearly for Classifieds only!
Gold Plan = $35.00 yearly for Bio's and Classifieds combo!
Platinum Plan= $45.00 yearly for total Fauna use!

LOL!! Have you been talking to my graphics designer?

Further, I do wish everyone would read these two side-by-side threads more carefully to determine what I am proposing. I am NOT talking about shutting the site down completely and put a toll booth up on everything. The fee(s) I am talking about would be restricting only some access on this site, not everything.

Also, sorry, but I am just not of the mind to implement anything at all that would take more money out of my pocket in order to hire my programmer to do it. So any complicated scheme that cannot be done with the site "as is", or with very minimal expenditure, is out of the question. Actually I could not even do what I am now proposing up until very recently. Charging any sort of subscription plan would have required that I do it fully manually. So I was caught between a rock and a hard place even when I first thought that charging a fee for access to the BOI was the ONLY realistic way to ratchet the credibility up a few notches. I could not charge a low enough "credibility fee" to where most people wouldn't feel the pinch, and yet I wouldn't get killed trying to handle every single transaction and modifying the status manually in a user's record. Could you imagine what this would be like if even just 500 people went along with the program? I would have to drop everything else I am doing for DAYS to try to handle it.

So no, several things had to fall together all at the approximate same time for me to even start thinking seriously about this. Some of the factors are not obvious, but they are there, nonetheless.

Oh, and PLEASE just forget about the increased fines. The ONLY way that system would work effectively is if I ALSO implemented the $10 posting fee on the BOI along with the ability to READ the BOI. Losing the ability to READ threads in the BOI would be a huge incentive for those people suspended and fined to pay their fine. But the drawbacks of doing it that way should be obvious to everyone. Otherwise those people fined just come in as guests or re-register as someone else and they are right back on the BOI in less time then it takes to read this paragraph.

Oh someone asked about banning IP addresses. Nope. It only works on those people relatively new to the internet and don't know how to circumvent it. And there are some ISPs that it will NEVER work on right off of the bat. I WISH it were that easy.....

As another aside, I have had a flurry of people signing up for the Contributors subscription membership, and I do thank you for this. But honestly, it seems to take some sort of crisis for people to get the message that maybe sometimes I need a little help forthcoming. I don't know, I guess it makes me feel like some homeless guy staring at you all through your windshield trying to guilt-trip you into giving me a handout. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY appreciate you pitching in when it looks like the chips are down. But I shouldn't really have to be put in that position to keep this site alive, should I? I have tried everything I could think of to give you all extra value for the donated money. Banner ads, highlighted classified ads, fancy contributors' icon, text line ads, sponsor links in forums, sponsor ads, etc., etc. Can anyone truly say that I haven't tried hard enough to keep this from becoming a limited access site without paying a toll? ALL of those extra options COST me money to implement to try to find alternatives, you know, and some of them have not even paid for themselves yet, much less put anything into the black.

Maybe it is just time for me to call for a major vote of confidence about whether this site is worth it to YOU for me to keep at it. I think I have put in my fair share already, and from what I can foresee, it isn't going to get any easier, or cheaper, in the future.

Dang! I can't believe I just spent an HOUR writing this post....

Just to try and clarify what Rich has said a few times already. If a membership amount was implemented it would NOT mean you couldn't read the BOI, Classifieds or any other Forums (except Hell I believe) if you didn't decide to join/pay. It would just mean you would join the ranks of the guests who look but can't post.

You have my vote of confidence. I appreciate what you do.
And I think it is worth some of MY time and money in return.

The two (similar) polls have, combined, about 200 votes.

Please, help toward the goal of 10%, or 1500. Please vote. It makes your ideas count.


Thank y'all,
Lucille

You have my vote of confidence. I appreciate what you do. And I think it is worth some of MY time and money in return.

Ditto on that!

I've been a loyal fan of yours since BOI #1.

I hope it's clear to you just how truly invaluable this site has become. I could only imagine the headaches it may cause but trust us, from where we sit, it's totally, 110% appreciated.

Now, for my bright idea...
Rich, the list of things you've done so far to help raise monies was impressive, and covered all of the bases...except one...merchandise sales.
T-shirts, mousepads, etc. I bet you there's a user/member here that owns/operates a screen printing shop OR knows someone that does.
I myself would be MORE THAN WILLING to get both done for you at exceptional prices, but of course there is some out of pocket monies, which is what you really wanted to stay away from, so...how about taking pre-orders?? After coming up with the design(s) you could put 'em right there on the main page, BIG, BOLD, even Tantilizing I'd love to work with you on that, we could get a couple designs together - my treat, get some pricing on quanity, then see what happens. I dunno...but if you wanna give it a spin, call me sometime.
How many members are signed up here at Fauna??

Originally Posted by luvchondros

So, the buyer responded positively and we sealed our deal and I'm committed to donating $100 upon completion of our deal. I thought this was a pretty cool way to help support this site..

Cathy I like that idea if you make a sale form this site you donate a % Look the way I see it is "Rich" Has done a alot for this site by keeping it free up till now.....But this site has grown bigger the Rich had expected I'm sure, and now its costing him more money to keep going . I for one would like to keep this site here and I'll do what i can to keep it going ...short of paying for it myself.Here is a post that Rich has going on the same subject http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=57039 I think Y'All should read this if you havent all ready

So now we've come this far - paying for the privilege of communication. Kind of reminds me of the times I used to attend church, and before prayer we'd give our "offering" and thought about, "why should I pay for the privilege of praying?!"

It just doesn't make any sense.

There are plenty other forums available, and I would not hesitate one bit to switch over.

After all, my experience here in the past has been quite unpleasant. When I was a novice in the field, I'd ask dumb questions that none of the "experts" here ever took the time to respond to. The only good thing about this site is probably the BOI, but I can always contact the Better Business Bureau for that.

Although I have had a banner running here for almost a year (and did donate a check a couple of years ago), I just now sent the $$ for the contributing membership. Why? Because, although I was aware of the program, contributing required me to think about it and go find out where to do it, and to actually do all of this while I am here looking through posts that I find interesting. I seldom ever use all of the features listed at the top - just don't get around to it. I didn't know you could just click on the coin on somebody's post and go right to the contributor's page. If there was some kind of really colorful, easy to see (hard to ignore) banner asking you to become a sponsor / contributor on the main page, I probably would have clicked on it long ago. (if there already is one, then I guess I really am blind - maybe it needs to be even MORE colorful!) I like the ideas of various levels of sponsorship, such as contributing, patron, etc, or bronze, gold, etc. Each can have different perks, logos, and different prices. Lots of offline clubs and societies have used different membership levels like that for years. There are probably lots of lazy or busy people who won't bother to find the info for themselves, but would click on it if it was really easy and just a little "in your face" (but not too obnoxious). Seems like that would be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to increase revenue.

I could see charging for ads go either way. A small fee could actually make people perceive the ads as worth more (you get what you pay for) and help build the site. Or it could dissuade people from posting more ads, which is what increases traffic and is the whole reason to post ads. Not sure about which is better, but maybe find a way for supporting members to have special ad features that free members don't get.

Voters: 114. You have already voted on this poll

My vote went for: A general use fee of $35/year, membership would be required to access site. Although after reading the poll it seems I’m part of a minority that think this site is worth quite more than a dime a day.