Subscriptions , Free Users and Behaviour on this Forum

All,

Some of you may have seen the unedifying correspondence between me, in my role as Chairman, and one of the Free Users of the Forum. This has resulted in his permanent banning not only due to his unwillingness to acknowledge that he is only using the club facilities on a try-before-you-buy basis and might want to consider contributing to our ongoing costs by paying subs to become a member, but also because his posts became ever more vituperous and began to fall outside of the behaviour expected by the club. As a result, I feel I should create this topic to clarify the situation regarding free users, and put people's minds at ease.

The idea of having free users is so that someone can sign up and get a flavour of the club, before deciding whether it's something they want to be part of. If they want to join, they pay the annual ?26-odd subs and are automatically upgraded to an SEC Member. We charge a fee in order to cover the costs of running the club - web hosting, software rental, purchase of goods for the Regalia shop, blah blah blah. So obviously if we didn't have paying members, the club would fold as it wouldn't be able to pay its way. Bear in mind that the people who administer the club take no payment for their efforts and neither do they claim expenses for such as petrol etc. if travelling on club business. This is also true of any members organising events - they do it for the benefit of the members, and not for personal reward.

Well that's the theory, but here in the real world people will tend to sign up and not bother joining the club. As it happens, and as I said in my exchanges with our banned "friend", I'm fine with those who only pop by every now and then and only make the occasional post, so long as they realise that their hanging around doesn't carry the same weight in the club as that of a full member, and that they're only here on the sufferance of those members.
As Chairman, I'm here to manage the club; and so, if I feel like I need to give someone a nudge to become a member, I'll do so. If that person declines my request and gives me a good reason why, I'm open to letting them continue as they were. However, if someone who's been hanging around for years gets shirty when I ask, and starts to make a scene, then that smacks of entitlement and rudeness and the eventual result will be, as our former associate has discovered, that they'll be removed.

Going forward, it's been mooted that we look at restricting free users to a certain period, after which they'll have to join if they wish to continue. It's a pain, but as ever, it only takes one or two to queer the pitch for everyone else. We'll see how that goes, and if it's implemented, notification will be made on here. But for now, it's business as usual.

As an aside, one of the accusations levelled at me was that the club wasn't what it used to be and wasn't worth the money. Pretty rich given that he didn't pay us any money, but what he failed to appreciate is that the club isn't the committee, or any one person - it's the members. Therefore, if anyone wants to see some sort of event or feature or whatever, feel free to have a go at organising it! Your subs aren't paying for the committee to organise your fun activities, it's just to keep the club going....needless to say, when I asked our "friend" if he'd like to create something to improve the club and for the benefit of the members, he sidestepped the question and continued with his previous pointlessness. Hey ho.

Right, I've said what I need to. But if you're a free user, and I ask if you'd like to contribute to the club, remember to respond civilly, reasonably and logically!

Thanks for reading!

Chairman Norm

Thank you Norm, every former committee member knows what goes into the roles played by those people willing to serve the club and it's really appreciated. Keep up the excellent work, without you all the club folds.

We will always have a number of people taking whatever they can get for free and, please correct me if I'm wrong, I thought that there were areas that were not open to unpaid members? I can't recall if a restricted forum was merely not visible but is it possible to open these parts of the forum up so visitors can see thread titles but clicking on them merely brings up a message saying that access is restricted to fee paying club members? That might encourage visitors to dip their toes deeper into the pool and hands into wallets?

Just a thought.
Guy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Guy Mayers

please correct me if I'm wrong, I thought that there were areas that were not open to unpaid members?Guy

---

I tried this out Guy, by logging out (btw, don't do this if you can't remember your password).
After logging out, I could still access all the club events threads, but got this when trying to read the build threads: (all the build thread titles appear though, you just can't read them)

Ta for the support, Guy, and Chris for trying out the access levels. I'm not actually sure what people can see or not - I've got this sneaking suspicion that so long as you're logged in, you get to access everything, free user or not. Chris' experiment above was as an unregistered viewer, so we need to ask a free user (therefore "registered") what they can get at and whether they can post. Or maybe when I get a minute I'll try and create a new userid and see what happens.

Just had a laugh when seeing who's viewed this thread so far, and it's all paid-up members....erm, does that count as a good thing or not??? :) :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Normb666

Ta for the support, Guy, and Chris for trying out the access levels. I'm not actually sure what people can see or not - I've got this sneaking suspicion that so long as you're logged in, you get to access everything, free user or not. Chris' experiment above was as an unregistered viewer, so we need to ask a free user (therefore "registered") what they can get at and whether they can post. Or maybe when I get a minute I'll try and create a new userid and see what happens.

Just had a laugh when seeing who's viewed this thread so far, and it's all paid-up members....erm, does that count as a good thing or not??? :) :)

---

Some people just don't get it Norm and sorry you have to deal with these "individuals"
I just wonder if the "free" users can't get onto the Club News section of the Forum Norm. Maybe replicate your post in Chit Chat and pin it too.
Cheers!
Ade

I still think the club is worth the money. and the level of conduct up until this minor issue is a reflection of the quality of the club.

Being Scottish and tight fisted I'm happy to volunteer to have a refund of my subscription and provide feedback as to whether I'm missing anything. ;)

Bet you won't miss a poke in the eye or a boot up the bum for trying it on :)

The mind boggles Norm! keep up the good work, for those of us that struggle to attach a picture to an e mail, I can only guess at what goes on in computer land to make it all work, without even mentioning the time needed by committee folk as well.

Thanks all & ignore the 'nonsense':) .

Thanks Tim, but if I ignored the nonsense I'd never speak to anyone on here at all :)

Recurring subscription is what I have which is great received this yesterday, but we seem to have a Recurring date as well lol still says 2021.Attachment 22855

Well the thing is, the subs are still the same....so if we updated the notice to 2024, the price would go up too. I'd keep schtum if I were you :) :)

������ depends the rate of inflation but would still be great value.