National Kit Car Show 2024 - will the Stratos Enthusiasts Club be there?

[Darkspeed]

You're right, Steve, it all gets a bit boring. But I'll be having words next time we meet about comparing me to Trump or Biden....

Sadly though, my role as Chairman is to manage the club, and the main part of that is keeping it going. It's quite a specialised subject and so we don't have many members, meaning we don't have a ginormous amount of money to throw around. We hope that people who come and join up as free users will find us helpful, friendly and fun, and so progress to being full members by paying yearly subscriptions, which help us to keep the place going, etc, etc.
Now actually, I don't mind having free users who only pop up now and then, because they might have something to say/offer that could be helpful to others. But now and then it doesn't hurt to chivvy those users along to maybe do the decent thing after using the facilities for years, and take out a subscription to help the club they've had enjoyment(??) from. Seems reasonable to me, yeah?
What does get my goat is one of those free users popping up and telling me to button it, when all he had to do was have the grace to blush slightly in embarrassment and keep quiet. But no, he chose to castigate me and even admit he's made a deliberate decision not to be a full member, and will continue to use the site for nowt. I've tried to be reasonable but it doesn't seem to have made any difference....
I'll try one more time to be nice. Mr Darkspeed, you don't seem to particularly like being here, but you still hang around - so please do the decent thing and either join or delete yourself. I'd not be asking you if you'd not stuck your head above the parapet and started sniping.
Oh, and by the way, make your mind up - you say you're not offended, but then say I keep offending you. As you so eloquently put it, "Uh??"

Quite an inventive and expansive interpretation of my posts - Thanks for being so nice friendly and fun.

[Normb666]

Inventive and expansive? Erm, no, it's simply a logical response to what you've said here and if you're confused as to why, as indicated by the use of your emoticon, there's not much more I can do to make it any clearer.... although keep reading, and you just might understand.
The facts are that you've said you're happy to use a service that's provided and paid for by others, without paying subs and joining the club, and furthermore, you've no intention of doing so. Although you've effectively rubbed all the members' noses in the doo-doo, and given us the finger, let's see if you can reflect on your stance and do the right thing and join the club....although I suspect you won't, not least because I think you'd see that as some sort of climb-down. Ball's in your court now - it's up to you.

[john]

THREAD RE-OPENED.

[PostRoom]

Mr. Postroom, great that you're going along, but as a "free user" it's a bit cheeky of you to expect a club you don't contribute toward to provide you with weekend entertainment....sorry if that sounds a tad caustic, but you've caught me on a bad day. Tell you what though, join up and pay yer subs, and see about organising a club stand at the next gig for us. Deal?

- Chairman Norm

Hello Chairman Norm, I wasn’t aware that I had given a cheeky expectation of free entertainment, rather, just wondering whether the club would be in attendance so I could press the flesh to see if I should rejoin. That said, I did meet a couple of delightful chaps in the free-entry car park who were anything but caustic. ;-)

[PostRoom]

For what it?s worth, which is less than nothing, I?m with Norm on this.

I know folk are a bit more fragile than they used to be these days but if you can be offended or ill
at ease by being asked to financially contribute to something you are making use of which requires financial contributions to exist then you are going to spend a lot of your life in a state of perpetual discomfort.

All IMHO. Other opinions are available.

Hmm, I don’t recall ever being asked to contribute financially en-route to this forum. If the configuration allows “free” members to browse content and drop the odd post, then I don’t see what all the fuss is about. If, on the other hand, the club votes to charge for this sort of thing, then make that clear and configure the forum accordingly.

Oh, BTW, what are the fee levels?

[hollytree]

https://www.stratosec.com/Forum/show...-Join-the-Club

[STR_Strat]

A coup,le of pictures from the Sunday

[Normb666]

Hi, Peter (Postroom). As I said in a previous post, I've no prob with people who pop by now and then, and make the odd posts, not paying. So you're alright there, but as I've also said, the club costs money to run, so if you'd like to avail yourself of our efforts other than occasional forum use, it'd be cool if you joined up and helped out. Mr. Darkspeed decided to take a pop at me for saying this, and then compounded that by declaring he had no intention of joining. Anyway, we'll see what he does, but I'm not holding my breath....

As Steve (Hollytree) said, there's a link at the top of each page that says "Join" so click on that to have a look. Cost is ?26-summat per year. We can't force peeps to join but we're very small - I think about 120 members worldwide - so we're keen that people do join if they're getting some sort of benefit from us. And believe it or not, we really are very matey. Sarcasm and general belittlement are an extra cost

Actually I've just looked at the bottom of the "Forum" home page and although it says there are 1435 members, only 103 are active, i.e. paid-up.....

[sdebez]

I have always felt the subscription fee in general is the best way of protecting any clubs interests.
And have always liked the level of conduct here compared to other free forums.
Your outlook is always different when it's free compared to when you have "skin in the game".

[Darkspeed]

Hi, Peter (Postroom). As I said in a previous post, I've no prob with people who pop by now and then, and make the odd posts, not paying. So you're alright there, but as I've also said, the club costs money to run, so if you'd like to avail yourself of our efforts other than occasional forum use, it'd be cool if you joined up and helped out. Mr. Darkspeed decided to take a pop at me for saying this, and then compounded that by declaring he had no intention of joining. Anyway, we'll see what he does, but I'm not holding my breath....

As Steve (Hollytree) said, there's a link at the top of each page that says "Join" so click on that to have a look. Cost is ?26-summat per year. We can't force peeps to join but we're very small - I think about 120 members worldwide - so we're keen that people do join if they're getting some sort of benefit from us. And believe it or not, we really are very matey. Sarcasm and general belittlement are an extra cost

Actually I've just looked at the bottom of the "Forum" home page and although it says there are 1435 members, only 103 are active, i.e. paid-up.....

Nope, another loose interpretation of fact, some furious backpedalling, aaaaaaaaand nope active does not mean paid up.

But you are correct in the fact that paid members are a small minority of the registered users on this board. It's also easy to see that the most active part of this board is the free access area. The members accessed area see's very few posts.

What improves membership is actually being a friendly accessible club that provides good value for money. Not telling people what you are "not doing" for your paying membership, just because people actually use a free access to ask what a club is doing on a particular day. But please go for it - dive in and change the settings to deny all access apart from SEC member - embrace your conviction that Free Users are unnecessary freeloaders.

And no, I will not be paying to join even if you are brave or stupid enough to make it members only - its just not particularly good value for money - may have been during another age under different management - but not now.