News

[Priscacara]

"Now that your in IT, when me PC packs up, I will call you guy's"

I have a very easy solution to PC problems.
Step 1. Threaten it, this usually doesn't have the desired affect but it does help your mental state in preparation for step two.
Step 2. Give it a nudge.
Step 3. Similar to step one only a bit louder accompanied by slamming the mouse or keyboard a bit.
Step 4. Get hold of a solid object that is unbreakable and hit the bloody thing a few times.
Step 5. Explain to the kids and the other half how the PC just happened to go sliding off the table onto the floor and say it was getting old anyway so lets go get a new one.

 

[aussieant32]

You must have had the same computer teacher as me??

 

[Priscacara]

Lol yep old school repair work works like a charm.

 

[Sarg]

Bring back the donations box :)

And congrats to Ant and Prissy

 

[Ian G]

Paying for features will put potential members off. Donations are a great idea but it usually ends up been the same small pool of committed members shelling out. I believe you need to make it an "access all areas" rewards system based on contributions to the forum. We can limit usability/functionality of certain sections like we do now with the State Groups. Possibly extend this to the Classifieds (view "on", post "off") and maybe even 18+ (post "off",view "off'). That way, we can encourage new people to contribute without restricting access to core information which I believe is the keystone of this forum. The question remains however, how do we continue to ensure that the sight maintains financial viability? I must declare my ignorance here, I don't even know who pays to keep this site running.

I'm afraid I disagree very much with restricting classifieds. I can say with absolute certainty that everyone I know personally and who are into aquaria, has bookmarks that take them straight to the classifieds section on each forum. Food for thought.....

 

[The Reefuge]

Usaually paying for things like that doesn't go down so well. It's kinda a nuisance.... Why not just have a donation box I mean I'd be happy to pop in a couple of bucks a week and other too I'm sure. I reckon a weekly article on a subject would be awesome like a write up on something Intresting with links and pics and vids. Also a news board for new equipment discoverys and stuff announced :)

Hello @Johny Glover,

Users do not need to pay for these features, but they can do so if they do not want to put in the ground work. The Reefuge will never exclusively charge for features, nor will the features users need to work towards be features that will restrict information and interaction on The Reefuge.

Charging a small fee to join a state group probably isnt too bad.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Hello @DavidS,

The Reefuge is an open community that is here for members. We will never charge money for users to access areas of the site where non-paying members can not access.

Paying for features will put potential members off. Donations are a great idea but it usually ends up been the same small pool of committed members shelling out. I believe you need to make it an "access all areas" rewards system based on contributions to the forum. We can limit usability/functionality of certain sections like we do now with the State Groups. Possibly extend this to the Classifieds (view "on", post "off") and maybe even 18+ (post "off",view "off'). That way, we can encourage new people to contribute without restricting access to core information which I believe is the keystone of this forum. The question remains however, how do we continue to ensure that the site maintains financial viability? I must declare my ignorance here, I don't even know who pays to keep this site running.

Hello @Elias,

Again, these features are not "paid" features. They can be unlocked with a little bit of work put back into the site. The state groups were never restricted to members of that state. It only turned the other states invisible. Users could always change their state in their profile to access other states groups. However, this too was changed at the start of 2013 and now all users can access all state forums.

The site was never here to make money. It is and has been paid for by me, with the exception of a few donations that was running for a month. The site currently costs a little over $200 a month just for the server (it use to be $300). I am not looking for this site to break even or make a profit, although it would be nice. I am looking for forum activity to go up.

I'm afraid I disagree very much with restricting classifieds. I can say with absolute certainty that everyone I know personally and who are into aquaria, has bookmarks that take them straight to the classifieds section on each forum. Food for thought.....

Hello @ijg3956,

Classifieds will never be restricted.

Thanks.

 

[chimaera]

i see what you are trying to do with boosting activity, but I would make it purely rewards based. Let the business sponsors and advertisers pay for the site running and any profit.

 

[Salty]

Sorry fellas, decided to opt out of this :)

 

[Salty]

Lol, that was meant to be a simple, quick post.

 

[Meller]

As you guys would well know, Increasing post counts for certain features doesn't increase the quality of the content. Instead all you get is an increase in worthless posts imo.

 

[Scuba Rich]

Ia m a newbie, so here is my 2 cents worth... If when I was looking to start a tank (Like 3 or so months ago) and was searching for information and a place to call home (forum) so that I could get another viewpoint from my local LFS (Which I should add have been fantastic) I'm not certain I would have flashed my credit card your way..
.
I'll cut to the chase... If I had been asked for credit card details back then I would have walked and missed out on all the info and a few hours of my life would have been spent doing other things, I may not have even ended up with a tank? I thank MTG for replying back then and giving me some great advice too.
So, I think its not so great an idea but then im not balancing the books either...maybe look at the revenue streams and see if thise can be expanded if $$'s are the issue

 

[aussieant32]

ok, lets stick to what was proposed, not somethung that wasn't. I dont believe anywhere anyone said anything about credit card details etc when signing up. It was simply an option if you wanted a signature or gif avatar etc you could make x amount of posts or buy it straught away. This would be 100% your choice and not something forced upon members. There are many ways to make a financial transaction online without giving your credit card details.

I still do not see a problem. If it was being proposed that there would be areas only acessable if you pay, yes fine. It obviously is not the case here though. Great to see so many people talking about it though, really allows you to see a much broarder opinion instead of just one or two

 

[MTG]

keep the opinions coming everyone

 

[MichaelBinns]

maybe make the businesses pay to advertise?

 

[chimaera]

maybe make the businesses pay to advertise?

They do ;)

 

[MichaelBinns]

oh lol, ignore me then!

 

[Ian G]

As you guys would well know, Increasing post counts for certain features doesn't increase the quality of the content. Instead all you get is an increase in worthless posts imo.

 

[Ian G]

ok, lets stick to what was proposed, not somethung that wasn't. I dont believe anywhere anyone said anything about credit card details etc when signing up. It was simply an option if you wanted a signature or gif avatar etc you could make x amount of posts or buy it straught away. This would be 100% your choice and not something forced upon members. There are many ways to make a financial transaction online without giving your credit card details.

I still do not see a problem. If it was being proposed that there would be areas only acessable if you pay, yes fine. It obviously is not the case here though. Great to see so many people talking about it though, really allows you to see a much broarder opinion instead of just one or two

If a request for payment is there when signing up, in any form, then his comment is perfectly valid imo.

 

[The Reefuge]

Hello everyone,

Wow, that is a lot of replies. Keep the comments coming.

I think I may have not been clear about this at the start. The achievements will not be there upon sign up or anything like that. They will be displayed in the users dashboard on what is left to unlock and how to go about unlocking them. These achievements will not be major things, but rather smaller things that will make no difference to a users experience on The Reefuge.

Sections of information will not be locked out at any point. Information and major features will always be left open for users. A good example of this is the state groups. State groups will not have a fee or post limit to access them, they will be open. It is the smaller things that are more of a useless privilege that will have to be unlocked. Such as animated avatars, signatures, etc.

These again DO NOT NEED PAYMENT to unlock. A user can unlock them simply by being active in the community. If a user does not wish to be active in the community, but for some reason would like a certain feature unlocked, they can pay a fee to unlock it. This is a two way street. The website provides a platform that is completely free for everything, and the end-user helps us out by being active. If they do not have time to help us out by being active, they can help the site out by donating money. OR they can simply leave it as it is and read posts. Either way, end-users will not see a difference in how the forum operates.

Thanks.

 

[aussieant32]

If a request for payment is there when signing up, in any form, then his comment is perfectly valid imo.

yes, but it won't be. Everything being mentioned is 100% optional, you do not need to pay for anything you do not want to. Anything you can buy can also be unlocked by contributing to the forum.

Anyway, starting to sound like a broken record so will shut up :P