I have not read more than a few of the other posts in this thread (the first by Rich Z and the last by him for example), I don't have to read more in order to give my opinion, and I don't want to have my opinion effected by others before I state it but, I will read the others sometime after I write this:
This is your site to do with as you please, and to charge for above and beyond any contributions you have received if you feel it necessary but, you asked for opinions so I will give mine. As to just having to pay in general: You can look at your site like television. It can be free, or it can be cable where people pay. Well if you go the 'cable route' then you had better expect other sites to do likewise, and you had better expect a level of competition that you don't get now. People who spend their money tend to spend it where they get the most bang for their bucks – just like your, and your competition’s, advertisers do. Is your FREE site at FC the number one herp site right now? If not then where do you think it will wind up in the ratings when people have to pay to use it? Sure you may get a bunch to pay the first year's dues (or however long is the pay period), but will you get them again next time? Sure your programming may be great, but for how long until the price needs to be raised? Cable promised all the best in television, now they sell a lot of junk shows with a lot of commercials unless you pay premiums atop the premiums you already pay! I would hate to see fc go that route, even on a small scale. I do not think paying is necessarily a bad thing but, I wonder if this site is ready to be converted and if it is ready to lose members? Will you wind up having made the conversion with even most of its users intact? As far as a membership dues goes, let me make one thing very clear though, I do think charging a fee for the BOI would be a very bad thing.
Of all of the things that should remain free on this site, the Board Of Inquiry ranks number one in that regard! It was placed here to weed out the scumbuckets, and dirtbags who screw others over in this hobby just to make a buck. If you charge a fee of $35.00 to use the BOI then only those in business are likely to afford it, and only those in the business will leave one another feedback, and one of the whole reasons to have a BOI has then been flushed down the crapper because you will not be exposing the bad guys to the general herp world but only to the ones who paid their dues to fauna Classifieds. Do you really think that someone who buys maybe three or four herps in a year will pay $35 to use this site and the BOI (the site's main draw right now - isn't it?)? I doubt it very much but, I'll bet there are a lot of users like that on this site. I don’t even think many of those same small time herpers would pay $10.00. People who want to know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys would not necessarily find it worth $10 to find out - even if it actually was a cost effective thing to do. Then again, regardless of who will pay what, it seems that there will be a hint of impropriety (note I said hint of it – and that is exactly what I mean) surrounding the BOI, and my bet is it will be viewed more than it ever has been as a Good Old Boys Club kind of a thing. I wonder if that would be too far from the truth; you see the more you make it appear to be an exclusive clique the more, I think, it actually becomes one. Right now I understand that such is not the case, the BOI excludes virtually no one from joining initially and; it only winds up excluding dunder heads who have screwed up badly in their posts after the fact. Charging for the ability to use it will change all of that, especially when it will be the professionals who will likely be the ones to sign up. That isn’t right as I see it, and the BOI would become useless. So if you charge a fee for fauna Classifieds, why not just do away with the BOI or leave it free!
As to preventing jerks from using this site, or from registering after they have been banned, maybe $35.00 will do that but certainly not a $10.00 membership fee. Jerks would sign up at least monthly, maybe even weekly for $10 just for the opportunity to be jerks. If you charge a higher fee, like the $35.00 you had considered, then a jerk with lots of money will be able to keep registering. Then again, you will have had cut out a lot of jerks but, I am willing to bet you will have lost a lot of good people too. Instead, I would recommend dropping another one of your sites (a specific one with lots of shall I say less than respectful posts, you know the one), in order to save money that could then be used here at FC. I would also recommend a fund drive from contributors. I find it a bit difficult to believe that if you decided to charge a $10 membership dues, that such would put an end to you asking for donations. I am only guessing here but, I believe it would be a difficult stretch for the funds gathered from a membership fee of $10 per head to add up to what you get in contributions each year.
As for me personally, I have said this before, and will say it again: When a site like this starts charging a membership fee, you can probably count me out. I don’t care if it is $1.00, $10.00 or $35.00. You have advertisers paying fees to advertise, other advertisers as supporters (I guess paying higher fees), and contributors galore. If I did decide to pay the membership fee and stay, I would certainly never make another donation to the site. If it stays a free site, I will continue to make donations. There is a certain principal (or is it principle or is it both) involved.
If you need money why not ask for it as in the past. Have a contribution drive, raise your advertising fees, but please don’t expect users to subsidize your advertisers. You always seem to get lots of donations, well anyway that is when you ask for it yourself instead of having others facilitate things for you. So why not just go that route instead of the way of charging everyone a dues? Just my opinion as usual and; I say it again: It is your site to do with as you want but let me add, it is also your users’ money to do with as they please.
It could actually SAVE me a lot of money by keeping me from have to move to some really high powered servers in the near future.