@ Stefan:

Excellent!  I think you will learn a lot from this and whatever you decide, I am sure will make the site even better.  Thanks.

Bill

I voted #3

Put up a donate button, so I can donate some money and get myself the Overunity forum ads free
or a subscription (monthly donation).. maybe different levels get you different perks. $1, $3, or $5... each level the better the experience.

But I do feel that ad based (free) should stay an option or we'll loose members.

Jason

@stefan

I would prefer a yearly membership fee so we don't have to putz around with this every month. So let's say it was $25/year payable upfront.

Then if anyone comes on the board to make a mess of things, they have to pay, and if they get barred because they are total assholes, they lose their balance as a donation. Thank you very much.

We could also have free membership with ads, that's OK but you still have to realize that the free memberships with the ads will still draw bandwidth because all will be on the same server. So if there are 1000 free and only 25 paid, this will not help completely to lower the server busy errors if the server is getting overtaxed. But that's a mild problem.

What I would like to see in the new forum server is as follows for my OU wish list.

1) Better search featues. Search buttons for title, text in post, attachment or all.

This way if I want to search for all jpg's made by let's say @otto, I put "jpg" in the text field, put "otto" in the username field, then click on "attachments". This should give me a list of all jpg files posted by @otto. Right now, the searches do not look at the attachment filenames which is a major problem when you are looking for a specific drawing or image. Could take hours and major bandwidth.

2) In paid mode I would like to still have the modify button to correct last minute spelling errors and mild stuff but not to be used to remove posts.

3) In paid mode, we should have the regular Recent Posts List and also an option to have a Page 2 of recent posts. So when a thread is off the main list, you can always go back to Page 2 and pick it up otherwise you have to go through all the searching. Happens less now since I bookmarks each thread and keep in in by browsers OU Threads directory. lol

Thanks for your always great work and devotion to the forum.

wattsup

@Stefan

Hummm... Well my Penny is one of added burden and multiple problems.

If you give someone a drivers license, you then need to enforce their driving habits. When one has earned and payed for the right to drive yo now have the burden of proof to get them off the road fro the bad and dangerous habits they exhibit.

So what happens with infraction? Are they taken off the road? Do they get a refund for the license? Does the issuer keep the fee?

Well for one I would never pay for the dysfunctional commentary that is allowed on an open site.

Dr.S.

 
Sites such as these, that allow and encourage open exchange of ideas without censorship, will always be targeted by trolls of every sort. And for sobering reason.  We all harbor agendas to varying degree or we could scarcely be called 'sentient' beings.  Speaking as I do, as a self admitted 'troll' with an agenda....I value the right, in jeopardy though it may be, to speak my mind on various issues.  However, civility, as in any real public gathering should be consistently maintained.

Such being said, let's not forget the main objective of Stefan's considerable labors.  It is to foster the achievement of overunity, not social unity.....and let's face it, we all are forced on a daily basis, to deal with or overlook fools in real life, even when they prove, on occasion, to be ourselves.  Those doing real work, sharing the results of hand's on experience shouldn't bat an eye at the dime a day which Stefan humbly proposes.  The hour is getting late, my friends, and as the world begins to fragment quick as a prince Rupert's drop into cliques, cadres, and cabals of like mind in reaction to the obvious decsent into the cruelest form of feudalism the world has ever known....

Perhaps a dime a day to witness the cavalcade of creativity that Stefan has engendered should be exacted from only the observational theorists among us?  Leaving that relatively miniscule number of us who provide hands on results to their watchful eyes and active fingers, to devote such possibly critical expenditure to that extra magnet, coil, weight, etc. which just might leave us all refreshingly speechless for a while.

Frankly, I'd feel privileged to pay for relatively exclusive access to a truly serious and dedicated group of fellow hands on researchers. Those given to nobler pursuits are much less likely to prattle on with inane vulgarities simply to hear their heads rattle, as some have the custom.


Sincerely,


TS

I have not participated in so-called 'Elite' threads but the thought of offering a view for money is distasteful. If this happens I suggest the original posters have a chance to delete their posts first.

From what I've seen there is nothing worth the cost but some posts were made with the understanding they would be kept within the group. The main benefit I gather was to keep the scatterbrains away so serious work could be done without constantly trying to defend a thought.

Now that the scatterbrains are the majority of the traffic any remaining serious work will likely go to another forum.

Thanks for the forum Stefan and for keeping all the info fairly safe by backing it all up.

I would pay a $1 per month for adfree forum access, I should probably be paying a little anyway as I read this forum quite alot and rarely click on any ads.

I might even be tempted for the $3 per month with extra features.