New Premium Fourms are a POOR idea

[mechanixfetch]

Aren'y "Premium Fourms" a little excessive? not to mention I thought that this site was about a passion for everything Auto related. "Powered by knowledge, driven by passon." not "powered by knowledge driven by money" I'm here for the cars and the people who love them nothing more. I am strongly against this "premium" idea it creates an artificial class structure that I think doesn't belong in this fourm. Read and Think on this. Thanks

[Batmobile_Turbo]

Originally Posted by mechanixfetch

Aren'y "Premium Fourms" a little excessive? not to mention I thought that this site was about a passion for everything Auto related. "Powered by knowledge, driven by passon." not "powered by knowledge driven by money" I'm here for the cars and the people who love them nothing more. I am strongly against this "premium" idea it creates an artificial class structure that I think doesn't belong in this fourm. Read and Think on this. Thanks

i agree with everyting you say, having someone who is a premium member is like saying "here is someone who paid and is therefore better than you" i don't think you should have to buy prestige and respect.

[Egg Nog]

I agree with these opinions, however you also have to understand the financial aspect of running a popular website. At this point, I don't really have any opinions on directly what could be done...

Nevertheless, I don't think a Premium forum would be very popular, because there's really nothing you could post there. You would only have less people there to view a given thread.

Anyway, let's not completely judge this... we've yet to see exactly what Wouter has in mind for the system.

[crisis]

I would probably not become a Premium member, however you gentlemen may want to appreciate the time and effort that must go into running a quality site like this. Im sure Wouter would like to spend all his time on it and the only way to do that would be for him to make a living out of it. Do you guys give up your time at work for nothing?

[r34_296kw]

i wouldnt like it to be a premium thing, doesnt tribalfusion pay wouter enough?

[<AAA-MOD>]

maybe the term "Premium" can get almost stereotypical. We're not completely set on the Premium Forum idea yet, and if I look back at the SC Premium Forum, it seems to be a complete waste.

"Supporting Member" is a much more suitable term for those of you interested in purchasing a subscription.

We don't intend on restricting anything like images, etc to the general public, but think some people may be interested in viewing an ad-free site.

We (wouter and i) surf the site the exact same way as all of you, with the banners, redirect pages, and pop-ups. it's all part of paying for the business. we definitely aren't making any worthy profit either. I have a full-time day job as well as some occasional extra work, and this has become a more serious hobby. The income that is generated by the advertising (and potential subscriptions) is used to pay for the web server and travel costs/expenses for the shows we attend.

We actually had hoped to get together and meet in person for the first time to cover the Cavallino Classic in Palm Beach FLA at the end of January, however funds won't allow that to happen yet.

We're extremely proud of what we brought to all of you last year with 16 major events featured. That's more than some sites have featured in their lifetime. We have a long way to go to meet our goals though. We're striving for more credentials to more shows and races, bringing our dedicated users the best we can offer.

[Egg Nog]

Originally Posted by <AAA-MOD>

...with the banners, redirect pages, and pop-ups...

Actually, you don't see any of that if you're using Mozilla Firebird Plus, you're not supporting Microsoft