OM REGULARS: Would You Pay Extra for a Members Only Forum?

[Florida_Bronco]

Originally Posted by Meck77

You know STG something like that would definetly work. Tailgating is fun! But it can be work if the same people get stuck doing all the work.

There are easily 7-10 different duties that if I know we have one person handling each of them then Disco/Myself don't feel we have to handle all of them at once.

I'll start a tailgating brainstorming idea thread in the tailgate forum on Monday. I'm heading out of dodge for a few days but I really do want to tighten things up this year so the crew members don't get burned out.

STG you are definetly becoming the online tailgate coordinator assistant. Even if you help me organize something like this online that would be really cool. I've been trying to run the tailgate forum/run the tailgates on my own/disco for years now but we have to branch out this season.

Go Broncos!

If you guys ever bring OF1 to the Florida games, I will come and help out in any way I can.

[Steve Sewell]

I think there are enough people on this site who truly appreciate it and would step up if needed to keep the site up to snuff. Premium boards tend to fragment the community and create division amongst the masses.

I think an anonymous poll should be made available on the football discussion forum by TJ (that only he can see) with various dollar amounts per year ($25, $50, $100, $200, etc.) and find out how much you can raise. If that number falls short of what you need, then you might have to threaten(in a nice way) everyone with the potential for massive server failures or a premium board.

[Steve Sewell]

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

i dont think i would pay just to post on the mane. I love the site and think its great but shouldn't any money come from getting some sponsers? I don't how this stuff works but if you get alot of hits cant you market that? I would think if so many people are making it crowded there would be a way to capitalize on that without trying to charge people. Maybe you could sell Orangemane Tshirts or something, at least get something for being a paid member. Like you become a premium member if you pay 20 bucks a yr, but then give the person a 10 dollar cap that says orangemane or something etc etc etc. Tshirt anything just as long as its not 20 bucks for just getting to post.

I'm in the fundraising business for non-profits, and this would be the equivalent of a bake sale, no offense.

What needs to be done is TJ needs to ask people who he can count on to step up and help with the administrative cost of the site.

I don't know if you go to church, but if you do, you'll notice those folks that only show up for Mass for baptisms, Easter, and Christmas. The majority of the registered membership here at the Mane would fall under that category, believe it or not. There are probably about 200 die hard posters here that would give $10 a month or whatever, and that is equivalent to $24,000 a year to help run the site. I don't even think those 200 would even require a premium board for it...they just love TJ and what he's done and want to support a good thing.

What TJ needs to do is just ask those people that he can count on and get a committment from them. It's the 80/20 rule, you are going to get 80% of your financial support from 20% of your constituents. This is a fundamental that has stayed true to form in every capital campaign that I've ever been involved in.

The reason that I think TJ needs to do an anonymous poll is to get an basic idea of "how much" he needs to ask people to give to reach his goal. I'd be more than happy to provide any type of advice needed to get this done...

[Steve Sewell]

Originally Posted by watermock

Let me ask you this. How much have you contributed to Charitable donatations that might be outside the sight of our goverment



Your taking the high ground of indignance. I bet you can't even tell me where that is.

Not one person said thanks for donating to the USO in theis entire thread. Donating to the thread goes without saying if it needs it. Asking me to donate 500.000's because I coulld if I chose isn't the point so don't goad me.

I ask you a direct question. You found the starving child and didn't have a problem postigg it. I caught hell for donating to the USO and you make a starving child as an Avatatar and don't bother to make a thread to donate.

Again, I ask, how much have you donateded to save that starving child? I donate to the Christian Childrens Fund. I haven't made every payment every month. It's none of your business how much I donate. I don't have a foundation to run off of.

I tell them NOT to send me a picture so that it just goes to whoever they need it to go to. I couldn't handle what you find amusing.

Do you?

How do you contribute to a donation?

[Steve Sewell]

Originally Posted by -Slap-

Mock, the only charitable donations you ever make are to the Take a Penny/Leave a Penny tray on the checkout counter at the local Liquor Barn.

[Florida_Bronco]

Originally Posted by Steve Sewell

I'm in the fundraising business for non-profits, and this would be the equivalent of a bake sale, no offense.

What needs to be done is TJ needs to ask people who he can count on to step up and help with the administrative cost of the site.

I don't know if you go to church, but if you do, you'll notice those folks that only show up for Mass for baptisms, Easter, and Christmas. The majority of the registered membership here at the Mane would fall under that category, believe it or not. There are probably about 200 die hard posters here that would give $10 a month or whatever, and that is equivalent to $24,000 a year to help run the site. I don't even think those 200 would even require a premium board for it...they just love TJ and what he's done and want to support a good thing.

What TJ needs to do is just ask those people that he can count on and get a committment from them. It's the 80/20 rule, you are going to get 80% of your financial support from 20% of your constituents. This is a fundamental that has stayed true to form in every capital campaign that I've ever been involved in.

The reason that I think TJ needs to do an anonymous poll is to get an basic idea of "how much" he needs to ask people to give to reach his goal. I'd be more than happy to provide any type of advice needed to get this done...

That's a good idea. Add me to the list of people that would pay $10 a month.

[youcandoit1687]

Originally Posted by gunns

I have to agree with Slap's reasoning. I guess though if it were just one part of the forum people could decide for themselves. My problems stems from one of the questions in the poll:

YES. But I don't have any money (caution: your vote will be made public)

Like not having money to donate categorizes someone as "less". I'm fortunate that I could donate because my children are grown, my job is good. But a lot of posters, very good posters are just starting out and don't have the money, even small amounts. I think this alienates them and you lose some of your good poster base. I would prefer to have those that can donate do it to get the best server for TJ to continue to make this the best site with a melting pot of posters with diverse ideas.

i agree with this. my personal situation is that i dont have the capabilities to donate, i dont have a credit card, my dad is scared of privacy hacks and i strongly doubt he would understand paying for this site. i plan on donating in person whenever i can make it to a game(hopefully xmas break 08). i saw another guy say that he had had problems with paypal. a lot of ppl arent comfortable donating over the internet and would prefer to do it in person or through the mail(although ive had bad experiences with this too). like gunns sed, some people dont have the money to donate to the mane but donate to it with insightful opinions, inside information, extensive research, etc.

my vote is to delete some of the people who havent been here in forever. look at this page and tell me, do any of you know who these posters are?
http://www.orangemane.com/BB/memberl...sort=lastvisit they havent posted for 3 or 4 years. by my calculation, there are about 2500 posters who havent logged in since the playoffs. if the site and broncos mean so much to them, they would have logged in since then.

i would be ok with those who pay being able to access pages faster. that is a perfectly understandable measure to take IMO and i wouldnt have a problem with it. i dont pay, give those who do a privilege. i post on an LSU site that is very "segregated" for lack of a better word and the environment is far from the same. non contributors cant see pictures, have avatars, go to certain forums, post in certain forums, etc. etc.

for now all i can offer is a big thank you to TJ and the mods and i will help in w/e ways i can online

[Steve Sewell]

Originally Posted by Florida_Bronco

That's a good idea. Add me to the list of people that would pay $10 a month.

The first thing that needs to be done is to find out how much TJ needs.

Then, we can set up an anonymous poll on the Discussion Board (because it's the busiest) viewable only by several people (confidentiality would have to be strictly enforced, obviously) to find out if they would give AND how much they would give on a monthly basis over a year's time. This would be the "feasibility study" portion of the campaign. In other words, we are trying to find out, given the amount needed, if can raise enough money or if we need to look at another option like a premium site.

The next step would be a silent "campaign" where TJ sends a PM to everyone who stated during the study that they would give with a link to the PayPal site, asking them to pledge the amount that they stated during the "study".

I say "pledge" because people's situations may change. A poster might lose a job and not be able to pay anymore, or a poster might win the lottery and be able to cover the cost of the site by themselves.

For people who can't give their yearly "pledge" all in one chunk, TJ could easily set up a system to track how they'd like to make their payments (I don't know if PayPal can do a monthly or quarterly deduction) and send friendly reminder PM's on a monthly or quarterly (however the poster prefers to divvy it up) basis to remind posters to pay their pledge.

TJ, anyone, thoughts on this? I do this for a living, I can help you formulate the poll, spreadsheets for tracking, anything you might need.

IMO, although this sounds complicated, it's the LEAST invasive way of accomplishing your goal, which is to be able to provide a top notch Broncos site for any Bronco fan, rich or poor.

[DenverBrit]

Originally Posted by Steve Sewell

I'm in the fundraising business for non-profits, and this would be the equivalent of a bake sale, no offense.

What needs to be done is TJ needs to ask people who he can count on to step up and help with the administrative cost of the site.

I don't know if you go to church, but if you do, you'll notice those folks that only show up for Mass for baptisms, Easter, and Christmas. The majority of the registered membership here at the Mane would fall under that category, believe it or not. There are probably about 200 die hard posters here that would give $10 a month or whatever, and that is equivalent to $24,000 a year to help run the site. I don't even think those 200 would even require a premium board for it...they just love TJ and what he's done and want to support a good thing.

What TJ needs to do is just ask those people that he can count on and get a committment from them. It's the 80/20 rule, you are going to get 80% of your financial support from 20% of your constituents. This is a fundamental that has stayed true to form in every capital campaign that I've ever been involved in.

The reason that I think TJ needs to do an anonymous poll is to get an basic idea of "how much" he needs to ask people to give to reach his goal. I'd be more than happy to provide any type of advice needed to get this done...

Good idea, I could go for that.
The important thing is have enough money donated to cover expenses and keep up the bandwidth speed. An additional fundraiser, for instance' could be auctions of Broncos gear, etc, which could probably be traded, in exchange for an ad on the site.

Lots of ways to raise cash for such a worthy cause.

Oh, and a 'Troll eject' button would be handy.

[smalltowngrll]

Reality is, this is TJ's baby...and we are all really blessed to have this site! If we truly feel that this is so well worth a membership fee, why not just donate?!

The situation isn't, to my knowledge, with how many are registered users that don't sign in any longer, it's with the bandwidth it takes when there are many page requests by those that ARE logged on.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Nuggets4

Didn't we have this exact debate (without the mock bashing) last year? And wasn't it shot down pretty hard last year?

We had this discussion earlier this year, and it wasn't shot down hard at all... In fact, it was supported by about 2/3 of the vote, with 1/3 coming in against it.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Master___Pain

This seems to be just like the rep problem that TJ perceived, and to a certain amount was real, in that it formed a "good old boys club" and alienated newer posters.

As soon as someone defines what "premium" will encompass, I will be willing to change my stance.

That's the part that I'm working on... and have some good ideas for it...

Nothing I can reveal yet... But it would be more than just a simple forum.

That's not to say the decision has been made. But it is to say that I'm working on ideas.

[Ray Finkle]

I still flip flop on both sides but prefer the no "member's only" area. I still like my idea of a yearly OM auction to raise cash.

[BroncoBuff]

Originally Posted by -Slap-

I'm not in opposition to a members only forum, but I would not frequent such a place, for reasons detailed here.

I think the idea of deleting dead accounts has a lot of merit. There are some people who have great user names locked up who have never even posted on the board one time.

I read your longer post, and I agree that minimum # of posts was a BAD IDEA. I was just hoping any premium site would have a higher concentration of guys I know instead of so many newbies I don't know. The little inside jokes w/ familiar people and knowledge of their quirks, etc... makes this place much more fun, imo. That's why I want it. I wanna read Khan, SoCal, you and everybody else I know - I don't care too much what "nt2brnco" has to say.

I'm not sure how the "elitist" or "nose-turning-up" dynamic comes into play on the Jets board ... I mean, so what? You paid $25 for a year on the premium site? Whoop-dee-doo.

I think everybody's gonna be REAL SURPRISED when the season starts, and you can't get on the site, or it's WAY too slow, or you can't find your buds. What we're seeing now with slowness and crowding is just the teeny-tiny tip of the iceberg .... almost 200 new users every week for the past month.....




I HAVE AN IDEA! TJ ... can you make the "Ignore" feature work on "all users less than 6 months old"? Now THAT would work for me...

[Odysseus]

Why does this keep coming up anyways?

I see people all over this board waving money willing to give Taco whatever he wants. What is the real question?

[broncocalijohn]

Originally Posted by watermock

Let me ask you this. How much have you contributed to Charitable donatations that might be outside the sight of our goverment



Your taking the high ground of indignance. I bet you can't even tell me where that is.

Not one person said thanks for donating to the USO in theis entire thread. Donating to the thread goes without saying if it needs it. Asking me to donate 500.000's because I coulld if I chose isn't the point so don't goad me.

I ask you a direct question. You found the starving child and didn't have a problem postigg it. I caught hell for donating to the USO and you make a starving child as an Avatatar and don't bother to make a thread to donate.

Again, I ask, how much have you donateded to save that starving child? I donate to the Christian Childrens Fund. I haven't made every payment every month. It's none of your business how much I donate. I don't have a foundation to run off of.

I tell them NOT to send me a picture so that it just goes to whoever they need it to go to. I couldn't handle what you find amusing.

Do you?

Mock, why do you bring up my avatar every few weeks? II give to the anti doping charity so skinny little kids dont look like barry bonds. It is a noble concept. I joked about you giving at least half of the $500 to your other favorite team and this gives you another chance to slam my poor child hood picture of barry bonds? Leave me and lil barry alone. Go start another thread on Carlos Mencia and the wrong info you had on him. Google him first then re hash your thread and why not add a youtube.com link to it? Hope you like another old photo from the mane! I think you need to look for fluffy around the house right about now!

[broncocalijohn]

i think we need to bring up the orangemane calendar featuring the omane girls all over againbut with massive $ needed, we need to go nude. STG, are you in for January?

[Natedogg]

just a few quick thoughts. First, this is the second time I believe this discussion has come up in my relatively short time on the mane. The first time I was against it. I still am. This might chance if the thing that is actually premium is specified. But I'm against a "country club" forum. Also I would be dissapointed if inside information (like camp reports) is "premium." That this info is free is the presice reason the mane kicks the crap out of espn.

I have not donated any money to the mane. I am broke as **** right now. When i get some influx of cash I deffintely will donate. I say this just to fully disclose that I am a member that uses the site (bandwith and all) almost everyday and has yet to pay. I also use firefox with adblock to block the ads. Again, when I get some money I will donate.

My final point -and this isnt meant to offend BronocoBuff, now you're a great poster-is that I find it a bit ironic that you, an even newer poster than me, started this topic. I remember not that long ago some of the regulars were a bit annoyed when you "sprung up out of nowhere" with all your large fonts and colors and so on. I think Alec almost got you banned for a month by some bet. My only point is that you are a relatively new member too. Thats just the nature of the internet; even moreso of a site as kickass as this (thanks tj), it will keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I hope it wont be ruined.

Id like to hear tjs take and other veterans take on what the future of the mane will be and what it will take to get there.

[Natedogg]

One other small suggestion, just for brainstorming's sake. What's the reaction to a small "i donated" logo for thouse who have. It can be really teeny, like a star where the rep bar used to be. It might help spread awareness and make money.

I know it might also single people out, but i would prefer that negative concequence to a members only forum.... unless it is totally revolutionary.

[Maximus]

Well, I promised myself that I would not jump into this discussion last season, but here it is again. I am going to re-state the obvious, but smoke this over anyway… What you have is population growth or a birth control problem. The current option under discussion has been tried and does not sit well with fans of larger sites. So, here is your chance to do something unique… My suggestion would be a combination solution.

1. Delete all dead accounts.
2. Do not allow new subscribers. Keep your current base through the season.
3. Open a new subscription period in the off-season. Free of charge.

This is population control people. Deleting dead accounts will give a true picture of how many subscribers OM really has and it will release some of the usernames that people want. Option 2 and 3 are the key. Putting a limit on the amount of new subscribers will allow Taco to predict bandwidth and plan for future server changes.

How can this be accomplished? If a person comes to OM to subscribe the process will remain the same except for the following:

1. The subscriber will be alerted at the end of the process that he or she will not have full posting privileges until the subscription period. In other words, read only privileges.
2. Allow subscribers by the date, time and availability of seats or tickets (Subscriptions available).
3. The Green Bay Packers have the longest waiting list in the history of anything worthwhile. People still want their tickets or seats.

This would solve the growth problem and allow Taco still grow the site according to his own criteria. It would also allow people outside of the group to still lurk and read content. It would also eliminate the air of arrogance that is prevalent in sites that have “Premium” subscribers. Whatever premium is supposed mean!

[Ray Finkle]

Originally Posted by Maximus

Well, I promised myself that I would not jump into this discussion last season, but here it is again. I am going to re-state the obvious, but smoke this over anyway… What you have is population growth or a birth control problem. The current option under discussion has been tried and does not sit well with fans of larger sites. So, here is your chance to do something unique… My suggestion would be a combination solution.

1. Delete all dead accounts.
2. Do not allow new subscribers. Keep your current base through the season.
3. Open a new subscription period in the off-season. Free of charge.

This is population control people. Deleting dead accounts will give a true picture of how many subscribers OM really has and it will release some of the usernames that people want. Option 2 and 3 are the key. Putting a limit on the amount of new subscribers will allow Taco to predict bandwidth and plan for future server changes.

How can this be accomplished? If a person comes to OM to subscribe the process will remain the same except for the following:

1. The subscriber will be alerted at the end of the process that he or she will not have full posting privileges until the subscription period. In other words, read only privileges.
2. Allow subscribers by the date, time and availability of seats or tickets (Subscriptions available).
3. The Green Bay Packers have the longest waiting list in the history of anything worthwhile. People still want their tickets or seats.

This would solve the growth problem and allow Taco still grow the site according to his own criteria. It would also allow people outside of the group to still lurk and read content. It would also eliminate the air of arrogance that is prevalent in sites that have “Premium” subscribers. Whatever premium is supposed mean!

well written....you make some very good anti premium points....

[Bronco Billy]

Good ideas, Maximus. Giving "non-subscribers" read-only privledges still eats up bandwith if they're viewing the site.

I agree that Omane should delete dead accounts, but as STG stated earlier, this is TJ's baby. At the end of the day, he is the only one here who gets the bills to pay for this site (to my knowledge). I just hope that we resolve any financial hardships so that we have enough juice to handle the season. Being overloaded for a few days during the playoffs last year sucked.

Like Sewell, I am willing to help with spreadsheets, budget analysis, polling / surveys, etc. Just let me know.

BTW, I too am opposed to a premium website which locks others out. I don't mind donating or paying a yearly cost as long as it doesn't take away from what makes the Mane great.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by quiettiger

Why does this keep coming up anyways?

I see people all over this board waving money willing to give Taco whatever he wants. What is the real question?

What is the real question? What do you mean by that? You think that somebody here is trying to trick you?

To answer your question... It keeps coming up because we are approaching some expensive territory in terms of bandwidth. Add the increasing costs to the increasing amount of time I spend, and the increasing amount of responsibility I have now that I'm going to be a father, and I have to stop doing this thing by the seat of my pants and come up with a way to keep the ball rolling here that makes sense.

Nothing has been concluded yet, but the discussion is valuable to me. The bottom line is that this keeps coming up and will keep coming up because we grow exponentially each and every year. I don't see that slowing down any time soon. Answering the question is the key to the longterm success of this entire thing. Bandwidth isn't free.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Originally Posted by Maximus

Well, I promised myself that I would not jump into this discussion last season, but here it is again. I am going to re-state the obvious, but smoke this over anyway… What you have is population growth or a birth control problem. The current option under discussion has been tried and does not sit well with fans of larger sites. So, here is your chance to do something unique… My suggestion would be a combination solution.

1. Delete all dead accounts.

What's a "dead" account?

Originally Posted by Maximus

2. Do not allow new subscribers. Keep your current base through the season.

That sure would be a good way to stagnate.

Originally Posted by Maximus

3. Open a new subscription period in the off-season. Free of charge.

Huh? Free of charge of what?

Originally Posted by Maximus

This is population control people. Deleting dead accounts will give a true picture of how many subscribers OM really has and it will release some of the usernames that people want. Option 2 and 3 are the key. Putting a limit on the amount of new subscribers will allow Taco to predict bandwidth and plan for future server changes.

Predicting future bandwidth needs shouldn't be very tough.

Originally Posted by Maximus

How can this be accomplished? If a person comes to OM to subscribe the process will remain the same except for the following:
1. The subscriber will be alerted at the end of the process that he or she will not have full posting privileges until the subscription period. In other words, read only privileges.

Other boards that do this suck, I refuse to join them and contribute.

Originally Posted by Maximus

2. Allow subscribers by the date, time and availability of seats or tickets (Subscriptions available).
3. The Green Bay Packers have the longest waiting list in the history of anything worthwhile. People still want their tickets or seats.

This would solve the growth problem and allow Taco still grow the site according to his own criteria. It would also allow people outside of the group to still lurk and read content. It would also eliminate the air of arrogance that is prevalent in sites that have “Premium” subscribers. Whatever premium is supposed mean!

It just comes down to whether Taco is going to go "large" or not. Denying people that come to the site the ability to even read posts is a sure way to chase people off. Making them wait to join (participate) is another.

[Crushaholic]

I agree that it's difficult to determine a "dead" account, but I would imagine there could be a statute of limitations of some sort. There are accounts that are 2 or 3 years old where the person creating the account has never posted. I don't think that's unreasonable to delete it.

I know that's not the real issue when it comes to bandwidth, but it's still a good idea...