Question Would you pay £1 per month to use ShrimperZone?

[South Bank Hank]

Firstly this is not directed to those that have and do donate yearly...we thank you for that.

So second thing to say is, there are NO plans to charge people to use ShrimperZone.

However, I did wonder how much people actually value the community we have here. As you know from the money raising thread, we need more funds to keep the lights on and we sometimes need to be a bit creative to get the money in through bets, competitions, appeals, sponsors (thanks again to all of those!!), etc.

I just put some money in again as I use the Zone a lot and I enjoy the discussions, but I also noticed while doing it that the PayPal link has an option for putting in a monthly contribution.



Every bit helps folks so 50p a month, £1 a month, £5 a month... I wanted to ask if people would consider any of those options.

Thanks,
SBH

 

[Shrimperforlife]

So first thing to say is, there are NO plans to charge people to use ShrimperZone.

However, I did wonder how much people actually value the community we have here. As you know from the money raising thread, we need more funds to keep the lights on and we sometimes need to be a bit creative to get the money in through bets, competitions, appeals, sponsors (thanks again to all of those!!), etc.

I just put some money in again as I use the Zone a lot and I enjoy the discussions, but I also noticed while doing it that the PayPal link has an option for putting in a monthly contribution.



Every bit helps folks so 50p a month, £1 a month, £5 a month... I wanted to ask if people would consider any of those options.

Thanks,
SBH

Happy for a small donation, my life would be boring without a daily fix of the zone .....

 

[Thundersley Blue]

Would be happy but would prefer a small Annual fee.

 

[The Big Dady]

I prefer my normal annual donation but can understand others may wish to make it monthly.

But will consider it again next year. (Made my annual donation last week)

 

[Bromley Blue]

Out of interest what are the overheads other than hosting and domain name costs?

Not meaning to antagonise, just interested really.

 

[shrimperton]

Id be happy to set up the payment options & accounts, as long as there is not Telegraph reporters present! :winking:

 

[united we stand]

So first thing to say is, there are NO plans to charge people to use ShrimperZone.

However, I did wonder how much people actually value the community we have here. As you know from the money raising thread, we need more funds to keep the lights on and we sometimes need to be a bit creative to get the money in through bets, competitions, appeals, sponsors (thanks again to all of those!!), etc.

I just put some money in again as I use the Zone a lot and I enjoy the discussions, but I also noticed while doing it that the PayPal link has an option for putting in a monthly contribution.



Every bit helps folks so 50p a month, £1 a month, £5 a month... I wanted to ask if people would consider any of those options.

Thanks,
SBH

Yes I would be happy to pay monthly,even though its not something I had ever thought about until this thread.

Maybe a contentious issue- but I am a firm believer in ' you dont ask, you dont' get'

Lots of charities etc. have a 'recommended' amount to donate . This annoys a lot of people but on balance it obviously works or else charities wouldn’t do it. I would have no issues if the owners put out an email asking if going forward people would pay monthly and the recommended amount was 'X'. As long as it was clear that it was still voluntary and people could pay less , or indeed more if they wished, as well as nothing . I wouldn’t agree to anything where there was any differentiation between people who contributed and those that didn’t or a list that showed contributions etc.

As I said- if you don’t ask you don’t get

 

[Firestorm]

I quite happily pay a monthly subscription to read magazines online and I reckon I am on here about the same amount of time.

So Monthly payment set up....

 

[MK Shrimper]

I quite happily pay a monthly subscription to read magazines online and I reckon I am on here about the same amount of time.

So Monthly payment set up....

You mucky pup. Is Mrs Firestorm aware?

 

[Firestorm]

You mucky pup. Is Mrs Firestorm aware?

Aware ? she is in most of them

 

[Cricko]

Out of interest what are the overheads other than hosting and domain name costs?

Not meaning to antagonise, just interested really.

Hosting is £40 a week, we have a dedicated server now that works for us and you after we had a few years of problems. Updates and constant daily back-ups cost a little extra...we choose to do this , it makes sense....

The domain name is nothing much. vB cost us a few £100 a year with new advances to the site and we have a guy who helps us at times (who works for vB USA) if we get lost in updating or moving the site forward with things we cant do when we are not really that clever.

We also have accountancy fees to pay yearly as we are LTD to protect ourselves... it all adds up to roughly 3k , but we do try to keep a little in reserve for a rainy day to not let you lot down...

The Owners and Mods do not get paid at all. Hope this explains it all.

John.

 

[Pubey]

If you ever wanted to refresh things and potentially reduce costs then Discourse is fantastic. Another forum I'm on has just moved to it and it's excellent:

https://www.discourse.org/

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Yeah, well done - and enjoy the Zone.
PayPal's a pain in the...but will motivate oneself to donate.

 

[Cricko]

If you ever wanted to refresh things and potentially reduce costs then Discourse is fantastic. Another forum I'm on has just moved to it and it's excellent:

https://www.discourse.org/

There are lots of things we could do Jon, there is a whole new vB universe out there if we chose to take that update road....I guess the feeling is "if isn't broken don't try to fix it" these days for us.

I am sure we will do something in the future but the change of whole sites is massive as would be us implicating the new vB sites...We for one, don't have the time and things are ok I feel at the moment, but thank you for your input.

It works after all.

 

[RHB]

ShimperZone has a membership of 5838 with active membership numbers currently at 1,522. Simplistically, if every active member volunteered a £3 donation a year, running costs would be covered with a bit over. Obviously that doesn't happen at the moment, but SBH's post has a lot of merit.

 

[Cricko]

I am more than interested in why so far 20 odd people do not think it is worth paying?

Speak up please.

 

[Ex-Member1]

Perhaps the decliners as our constant, very annoying whingers? COYBB

 

[Ex-Member1]

ARE our constant.....

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Monthly payment set up. Make Shrimperzone great again lads (it was always great, but that catchphrase is my fing innit bruv).

 

[C C Csiders]

What about using Cricko's War Chest?