THPorsche

I can send you some pics of her for $20

Marc Shaw

Click "membership" at the top right of every page. More than one membership is a great idea (I have two).

Encourage people to stop posting huge, bandwidth sucking photos in the OT forum might help.

Not a great idea as conversation would stagnate here pretty fast if no new topics could be started. Most pictures in signatures are hosted on other sites, not Rennlist, so that change would not help.

Seems like a short-term solution. If someone joins for 6 years at $17.95/year then the site has already got more than the $100 lifetime membership.

I have pointed it out to him.

We have that already

Marc
p.s. Opinions expressed here are my own and are not meant to represent the views of John D or Jenn. And no, I am not a lawyer.

OCBen

Hmmm, I don't know about that -- sounds like pretty good lawyer-speak to me.

Rassel

A.) I think one solution would be to have a public server with smaller bandwith and one for paying members.

B.) I also dont like the idea of trial period. I think normal posting should stay free.

C.) One thing could be that only paying members could upload pictures. I think seeing the pictures should be available for all, perhaps through different connection as mentioned in A.)

AW

> Encourage people to stop posting huge, bandwith sucking photos in the OT forum might help.

Actually, if the pics are hosted somewhere else, there won't be any difference.

> We have that already (sponsorship)

This is not what I'm reffering to. I'm not going to go in a long description here but will be happy to talk/email John directly.


> I disagree. I believe it will result in a more valuable online community because of its very exclusivity. It will become like a PCA club for members only, with the exception that outsiders will still be allowed to peer in and learn valuable useful information for free.

I respectfully disagree. The fact that people are willing to pay for a service doesn't make them experts or value contributors. The exclusive site you describe won't feature many interesting contributions from some people which are not willing to pay and will simply move to other boards.

AW

Larry Harris

I think we have collectively identified a problem. My experiences with decisions by committee aren't always good. The moderator needs to raise yearly membership prices and enforce the payment thereof. $25.00 per year is more than reasonable and would facilitate continued viability of this site.
Maybe not the ideal solution..wheres you're idea?

Marc Shaw

True, if pictures like those in a sig are posted elsewhere they won't make a difference -- most pictures in the OT forum are uploaded to this site though so do affect bandwidth.

OK - send the payments directly to me at my PayPal address... No, really - this is John D's decision.....I'm just a worker bee.

Marc

Cogito

O.K. I started this Topic because it got to be very frustrating waiting for a page to load, any page. I've learned A LOT here from you good people waiting for my P-car to arrive. I hope a 2 year membership helps in some small way. I just joined.
"Thank you for your Order and Support of Rennlist!!!"
Don Weiser

OCBen

Alright! ... Way to go Don! ... Welcome aboard!

I was convinced just like you after realizing how much I had learned here that helped me select the options I eventually ordered - the info was priceless!

Thanks for helping us all! ...

OCBen

Here's a suggestion. Since these forums here were intended to be discussion forums (i.e. text intensive) why not ban threads in the OT Forum whose sole purpose is to encourage members to post as many photos as they can, such as the infamous "Girls with Great Butts" thread? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like to see nice shots just like anyone else, but not at the expense of my being able to use Rennlist as a source for useful information. (I seem to recall what a turbo boost Rennlist got after that thread got deleted.)

Or place a limit on the number of attached photos (allocated server space limit) on an off topic thread. Once the allocated space is used up the thread is maxed out and another one needs to be started as #2 in a series (if the interest is still there and if by doing so it will help the bandwidth problem).

Cogito

Ben, thanks.
Darn, it wouldn't let me go to the Off Topic forum. I'll try later when my membership is updated.
Don

Wachuko

Read this:

Read this!

PEvans

I am a relatively recent member, and I really like the variety, pictures, smilies, etc. Changing that would kill what makes the site worthwhile. There are a lot of nonmember posters and frankly we all benefit from them.

That said, Rennlist is now so slow it is not worth it unless you REALLY have nothing to do. This is serious.

We can debate for pages but the folks that run the site need to figure this out and either fix it or propose solutions to the community. In other words, even if we members all agree to pay more, there is no assurance that that is a solution. (BTW, I'm fine with higher member fees.)

I do notice that some of the wait is for downloading ads. The sponsors get an enormous benefit from their association with this community, and the last thing their ads should do is affect the experience.

I could also see the logic in limiting what nonmembers can do other than posting text, but regrettably, and only if pictures, etc. are really the source of the problem.

DHL LMP2

If paying memberships are Rennlist's preference for forum participation, they need to emphasize that when a newbie registers. I was unaware of paid memberships and find it to be an unusual expectation of web forum users.

Marc Shaw

All that hardware and bandwidth JD pays for does not come cheap - if you like it here, a small annual contribution is a small price to pay.

Marc