Concerning the new Buy/Sell posting format

[reefwars]

to be honest sponsors can do alot more to better themselves on canreef , seems to me to be a waste of money if you dont post, dont sell ,dont do anything....

i find it funny that i read through the sponsors list and i bet just about them all post very little about anything.

if sponsors are worried about members taking up the sell sections they should post their products themselves too, i rarely ever see frags for sale by any of the sponsors, none of them post pics or videos.

i can guarantee for a fact that i take no business away from the lfs here in calgary because my coral comes from there....where else would it come from??

im currently helping 2 stores in town do better business and bring in more customers as i know so many reefers and new reefers, one of the stores im talking into doing a sponsorship with canreef to help with his online business.

just so know one gets the wrong idea im a hobbyst always have been for years im about collecting coral, i have over 50 colonies of zoa and palys that i frag reguarily and never sell out ,ive researched and practised to the point where i can grow them fast.

anyone who knows me knows im up for a trade before cash , but alot of people refer to just buy coral.

as levi mentioned earlier currently in calgary there is not one place in town out of 6 stores to buy zoa frags(im not including coral master in this list, i dont think he does much for zoas anyways), its colonies only. none of the stores are willing to frag and its buy the $150 colonie or go elsewhere. to me and im sure many others that kinda sucks as sometimes i dont need 200 heads of watermelon zoas to get the 5 polyps of blue i did like.

if i have to buy a large colonie of something you can better believe ill be willing to frag it to offset the cost....anyone would.

also anyone whos been to my house knows i only have a 90g tank and a 50g fragtank so by no means a big commercial operation hell not even a basement operatation.




thought i should clear this up as it seems my name is getting thrown into this....

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Seriak

Those were simply examples. Avatars and special icons wouldn't cost anything. If the amount got high enough they could put part of the proceeds towards the purchase of a piece of equipment to auction off. Members could donate frags towards a draw to contributing members. If part of the vendor sponsorship fee was lowered due to member contributions, maybe some vendors would donate items or pass along discounts as a thank you to those members. These are all just ideas. You just have to think outside the box.

We have avatars so are you thinking some shouldn't have them or some should have bigger ones? Special icons? Like "I'm Special"? Who cares, like I said unless the site actually needs the contributions it's a waste. Lowering vendors fees for the exchange of vendor donations doesn't get you anywhere, both the site and the vendors end up with the same net. Plus you must think peoples time is worthless, as all those things will take time to organize and arrange each month or whatever. Time is money. I can also assure you while this might sound great for so called "premium members" plenty people will be left out and p'd off about so called privileges. And vendors rarely care for such things either, if they want to give things away it would be in there best interest not to exclude anyone or focus on actual customers. And do you really think regular members will donate items to be given to premium members?

Trust me you're not thinking outside the box, you're talking about creating a very small box and forgetting about everything outside of it.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by sphelps

We have avatars so are you thinking some shouldn't have them or some should have bigger ones? Special icons? Like "I'm Special"? Who cares, like I said unless the site actually needs the contributions it's a waste. Lowering vendors fees for the exchange of vendor donations doesn't get you anywhere, both the site and the vendors end up with the same net. Plus you must think peoples time is worthless, as all those things will take time to organize and arrange each month or whatever. Time is money. I can also assure you while this might sound great for so called "premium members" plenty people will be left out and p'd off about so called privileges. And vendors rarely care for such things either, if they want to give things away it would be in there best interest not to exclude anyone or focus on actual customers. And do you really think regular members will donate items to be given to premium members?

Trust me you're not thinking outside the box, you're talking about creating a very small box and forgetting about everything outside of it.

If I give 10 friends a gift at Christmas and they in turn give me each a gift and we are all net zero. Was it a waste of time? The size of the box would be dependent on the members. At this time, we have no idea how big or small it would be. I think titus was right in at least throwing the idea out to a poll.

[sphelps]

Cool we can change the name to ChristmasReef

You guys want to be premium members forget about the title and money, go spend a little extra time helping out another member in need. That's what this site is about and that's how to contribute.

[dc4]

Originally Posted by sphelps

That all costs money and time my friend, you don't gain anything. Sponsors can't be expected to just donate items and credit to the site because the site brings in more money. As for editing you think mods will let you break rules cause you pay $20 a year. It wasn't removed so that it could be purchased back. Other sites may need donations to keep it going, or at least that's what the shady guy behind the scenes is telling you, Canreef isn't like that and I don't know why anyone would want it that way.

You're missing the point...

My post was not to say what would happen, it was simply to state what other sites do and what could be done here.

For example, lets say there is a $5-$10 optional monthly fee. If only a small fraction of members contribute, lets just say 100 ppl. That would generate $500-1000 per month more than the site gets now. Multiply that by 12 months, and thats an easy $6000-$12,000 a year.

I never said anything about sponsors donating items, simply the owner of the site can use those fees to run contests and give out promotional items like shirts, stickers, gift certs. (good for both members and sponsors). The costs would only be a fraction of the optional fees that would be received. Also, I would hardly call having an edit feature "breaking the rules".

All we are saying is that, there could be an OPTION, for a paid membership. Whether you like it or not has no bearing as you would choose to pay or not pay. If you dont pay, you are not penalized, you just carry on with your day as you normally would on canreef. I dont see what your arguement is.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by dc4

Also, I would hardly call having an edit feature "breaking the rules".

Oh ya, big time rule breaking there. No editing.

edit: ever!!

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Oh ya, big time rule breaking there. No editing.

edit: ever!!

We all know that will never be a perk for anyone. I didn't even bother going there.

[Bblinks]

This is getting semi outta hand. I don't see anything wrong if some of the member wish to support. Canreef support avatars will be cool but it shouldn't give you "special previlages". Its a choice and not a must. If any member decides to contribute then he or she gets an avatar to show that they enjoy this forum and they are willing to go a step further to ensure others can enjoy this site as much as themselves, nothing wrong with that. Also this doen't mean they should lower the sponsorship cost for vendors, what for?

I don't see anything wrong with the site right now. We are still allow to buy and sell stuff, sometimes a member with a larger tank have more corals to sell so be it! I don't post too many for sale threads but I can tell you my corals are growing like crazy and I will be posting them on the site for sale and if the mods question about it I will be gladly to bring them into my house and show its definitely not a commercial operation or a side business.

However if the member contribution support program does come into effect, I would like to see some of the areas like TOTM do get updated on a timely fashion, you know just small stuff like that. Use the that money to better the site.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Seriak

We all know that will never be a perk for anyone. I didn't even bother going there.

Well, if future upgrades allow easy distinction between forums, we would allow some and not others, rather than a blanket policy. For now, we don't have that option, so it's all or nothing, and nothing works best for us. We would prefer to be able to tweak the feature, and we do edit larger things for people, like indexing on build threads, etc. So if something really needs editing, contact us and we can do it for you, just not in the for sale threads.

[sphelps]

Well first no site similar to this charges $5-10 per month, $20 per year is normal. Then the problem comes to these paying members wanting something in return like say a month draw for something worth $50. 100 members (unlikely) = $2000 per year, = $167 per month. Then consider the time involved to set this all up. That's my argument, if you can't see it I'm sorry.

As for editing, cry all you want it was clearly removed for a reason. It was a privilege that came with responsibility mostly relating to not editing/removing items in for sale threads as per Canreef rules/guidelines. After many people broke this rule the privilege was removed. So yeah improper use of the edit feature is breaking the rules, if you cared to read them you would know this.