John Hess wrote:
Georg Warnecke wrote:
...about the membership-fee for this forum, john, i'd say there ain't no such thing as a free lunch…
and as far as i can see reading the main fora is still free, isn't it? ;)
after reading in the fora for a longer time i decided to pay – yet i'm still member of the yahoo-group, too.
i was reluctant to join, but after i bought
my little boat i decided that the amount of money isn't that much, is it? ;-))...
Georg, at the risk of beating a dead horse, you precisely make my point for me. You joined the JRA only after you had bought a boat that you wanted to junk rig. I joined because I am researching shoal-draft internally-ballasted boats and wanted to learn more about Tystie by reading back issues of the JRA magazine.
I'm guessing that most core junkies have already joined your fine organization. If you want to seduce those on the periphery, those who at this point are just curious, you should make the forum free and easy to join. Charge for access to the Magazine, if you need to. And you don't need to grill a person during the sign-up process, nor do you need to ask them if they want to volunteer to help support the JRA. Wait until after they are active participants.
2¢
Hi John from the current the Webmaster of this site.
I was absent ill for a few days prior to my above post, but am glad that others responded to yours. I am glad you've joined. I'm glad you think we have 'a fine organisation'. I can tell you from 30 years experience that you are right, and that from my two years experience on the Committee that we all work extremely hard. We are all volunteers, and as such I am not going to backtrack through posts earlier than the above; enough has been said. I'll just respond to what you wrote above.
You suggest that we should 'make the forum free'. I assume you mean all of them. Some are already free to read. To post on them, people need to join. The rate we charge for basic membership is the cost of a couple of decent coffees here in the UK.
Why did those who set up the site choose not to allow non members to start or reply to posts? I was not one of them but I assume they did not want to see the sort of junk posts we sometimes see on the 'free' but as you say apparently declining Yahoo site, the moderator of which left recently. The $11 or so that you have chosen to pay for full access to our site is carefully monitored by the Committee to check we cover our costs while not making a profit. We have a legally binding UK
consitution to work to and members' money to look after.
Like you I'd be guessing if I said that most core junkies have already joined the JRA. I would hope so, but I have no idea how to find out. We try to attract new members in order to keep our running costs down. I see that one of the Yahoo fora has almost 3 000 members and the other under 1 000. Perhaps we have 3 500 to aim at!
You might wonder why we need new members. Members come and go. If they go and new ones don't turn up, our charges will rise to maybe four coffees. Others have explained why we need to charge. I'll just add that we charge for the magazine because many members like to receive a printed colour copy, all the editorial work, layout etc is done FOC by members. The extra £19 Sterling that members pay for three magazine a year goes on printing and postage. Contributors get nothing financial from it. We aim to keep printing the magazine until demand reaches the point at which it isn't viable.
Did we really "grill" you in your profile? Most of it was blank last time I looked, so you took the option not to fill it in. Some members return to it later; some don't. We hope you will but it's up to you. If it's still mostly blank then members can learn nothing more about you than what they have read here.
Re the Join In invitation in the profile. It's one opportunity to draw new members' attention to the Join In projects, a feature which we introduced last year for members who are interested and need to something to do or wish to offer the JRA the use of their talents. The reality is that few 'join in' until they are active members, which you will say makes your point. I would say that members are all busy and that experience has taught us that unless we say the same thing in several ways and at several different times we might as well be whistling Dixie.
So what I have learned about you since you joined? You are seriously into checking out members' junkie ideas. You have a lot to contribute. You think some things should change. Fine, but why the rush? Come on, give the site some time. Do check out new(ish) member Ash's recent '
Beginners Tour of the Site' article for new members. If you continue to feel the way you do, please start a new topic in the JRA, It's Website and Magazine forum which is probably where I would have moved this thread had I been around. Or send me an email. Otherwise let's drop it for now. Thanks.