EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
I'm curious why so many frequent users of this site aren't supporting members.
Question for all the 2500 club members (and higher)
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Susan Edwards
5000 Club Member
I am. Best money spent. The value here has made all the difference in my reefkeeping ability
OP
OP
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
I feel the same.
Sean Clark
7500 Club Member
Well... I think that is a fantastic question.
I'll use myself as an example.
I was in the hobby long before I signed up as a member on R2R.
After signing up I did not really do much on the site.
Once I got my new build going, I wanted to document it for myself and others.
R2R had their membership drive which I almost went all in on even though I was not very active.
That membership drive closed and then my build started to take off.
I started to learn from everyone on the site and was receiving a lot of great feedback.
This caused me to become more and more ingauged and really see the value in the platform.
This caused me to become more and more aware of how important it is to support what supports you.
I have had a wonderful time figuring this out but it is due time I gave back some of that support.
If a person is a 2 500 club member or higher - IMO - It is the best evidence that he/she really support the site. Support can be done in a whole bunch of ways. As I see it - a site like this needs its active/long time participants more than money in the long run. I´m a R2R supporter because I am in the reef squad - I´m not sure that I would be a paying member (money) if I left the Reef Squad
Sincerely Lasse
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
What do you gain by being a reef squad?
I get a badge with R2R supporter and I think the benefits are the same.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
Personally, I just don't see the benefit in trying to pressure other people to do something.
I choose to be a supporting member for the same reason that I occasionally donate to Wikipedia: I find value in the platform and want to uphold my end of the open market by rewarding things that bring value to me with monetary support.
If other people decide that they bring enough value to R2R by putting their eyeballs on the ads that R2R displays, that's a fair proposition as well. If someone has a lot of posts, they've probably seen quite a few ads, and that's brought value to the platform.
So I say, let people choose to support the site as they want to, and don't badger them about changing how they do that. If R2R feels like they need more supporting members, they're fully capable of pushing for additional people to sign up. I think they probably understand what they need more than we do, so let them decide when to poke people to become supporting members. =)
I choose to be a supporting member for the same reason that I occasionally donate to Wikipedia: I find value in the platform and want to uphold my end of the open market by rewarding things that bring value to me with monetary support.
If other people decide that they bring enough value to R2R by putting their eyeballs on the ads that R2R displays, that's a fair proposition as well. If someone has a lot of posts, they've probably seen quite a few ads, and that's brought value to the platform.
So I say, let people choose to support the site as they want to, and don't badger them about changing how they do that. If R2R feels like they need more supporting members, they're fully capable of pushing for additional people to sign up. I think they probably understand what they need more than we do, so let them decide when to poke people to become supporting members. =)
sixty_reefer
5000 Club Member
If I understood the question right, it insinuates that someone should pay to be a active contributor to the forum.
There may be many reasons to one not choose to follow that root and in most cases I wouldn’t be surprised that it may be for personal circumstances or geographical location, whatever the reason may be, it should be private and not exposed in any way.
Does that mean that they are not supporting the forum in any other way? I would think they are, many spend many time greeting new members and making them feel welcome to the site, they help folks with a large variety of problems and questions, they also contribute for site content that helps brings more traffic to the forum, those may be small contributions although they help in a greater good to the site.
If you were to understand how marketing works you may have rephrased the question in a different manner, no one goes on social media to see the adds. I would imagine.
There may be many reasons to one not choose to follow that root and in most cases I wouldn’t be surprised that it may be for personal circumstances or geographical location, whatever the reason may be, it should be private and not exposed in any way.
Does that mean that they are not supporting the forum in any other way? I would think they are, many spend many time greeting new members and making them feel welcome to the site, they help folks with a large variety of problems and questions, they also contribute for site content that helps brings more traffic to the forum, those may be small contributions although they help in a greater good to the site.
If you were to understand how marketing works you may have rephrased the question in a different manner, no one goes on social media to see the adds. I would imagine.
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I got my supporter badge thing for free.
I don’t feel the need to pay. They probably benefit from me being active member and the site has tons of support and sponsors already. I generally reserve money donations for charities.
I don’t feel the need to pay. They probably benefit from me being active member and the site has tons of support and sponsors already. I generally reserve money donations for charities.
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
Why would they give it for free? I’ve never heard that.
You can like win it or something for being helpful. I got it with my excellence award. I guess it is their way of saying thanks.
fish farmer
2500 Club Member
I use this site. This site uses me. Vendors have gotten plenty of traffic from me whether from actually buying product, endorsing product in posts, giving honest feedback, etc.
If I knew exactly what my money went to, like maybe improving livestock shipping conditions, incentives for local land based coral farming, restructuring poorly designed LFS's...sure I'd probably pay a license fee to use this site.
Quite honestly I feel I support the site by helping people where I can and I also direct people with relevant questions to this site in person and from Facebook if I know there is a relevant thread. I don’t feel the need to contribute money with my other contributions and the number of sponsors the site has, which I use and give feedback on. I don’t know the financial details of the site but I have not heard it is in need of money to keep in operation and unless I am mistaken it’s a for-profit operation and again I personally feel I contribute plenty. For me to give money for membership I would only feel comfortable if I could then see full transparency of the site financials (which maybe they do).
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
Haha. I like your thinking.
OP
OP
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Very good points!
OP
OP
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
It was certainly NOT my intention to pressure anyone. I myself only recently realized that there was a paid membership option. I assumed that some others also neglected to read all the "non-reefing" club/forum info, and are/were not aware of the option.
I was happy to sign up -- I look at it as a donation like many others I make to help support organizations I find valuable.
I absolutely agree that many members make invaluable contributions with their advice, expertise, etc. I also share my experiences and knowledge but don't know how valuable that really is, so chose to make a monetary contribution as well.
I'm sorry if my simple question came across as a criticism or judgement.
OP
OP
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
You have made a lot of assumptions about a simple inquiry! I was not 'insinuating' anything, and I resent your negative assessment of my intentions!
And to imply that I don't 'understand how marketing works' is completely unnecessary (as well as untrue), and feels like a personal attack.
*I actually have you on "ignore" because you have been very confrontational and insulting on other occasions as well. I see that this feature does not stop you from seeing/replying to my threads; maybe a "block" option needs to be added...
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