I've never been part of a forum that expects you to pay! Is this normal in America? Do you get removed after a while if you don't pay for membership?!

I think this is a great idea, but am dissapointed with this aspect.

I am not an administrator or moderator on iluvebeagles so I can't state specifics for the site but I can tell you from running my own sites and admining other boards that running a forum takes money. You have to pay for hosting, you have to pay for ownership of the URL, if the site hosts pictures like this one does that takes even more money for storage of those things on the serve, and ease of access. You have to pay for forum board software upgrades and tech support in case there's a problem the owner/administrator has someone to call. Outdated message board software can be difficult to maintain, hard for members to find their way around, and it can be very, very slow. There can also be many conflicts between new things (like ISP and older software and server hardware). You also have to work security in there somewhere whether you pay for it along with the message board software or somewhere else everything (information, pictures, etc) all has to be secure. You also have to make sure you have everything necessary to make back-ups on a regular basis whether you buy additional software to do back-ups or the message board software includes that. If you own your own server you have to put money into upgrading the hardware and everything in between, you also have to have money for maintenance, ease of access, and speed upgrades as needed.

 

Third party advertising helps to alleviate the cost some but everything else usually comes from the owner's pocket, membership fees, or donations. Every board I have ever been a part of either offers paid membership "perks"(as this one does) or asks for donations either once or twice  a year, or has a "donate here" type button somewhere on the site.

Thanks for the insider information, it is all news to me. Sounds like a fairly risky operation.. I'm guessing if membership flags then the owner has to cough up so to speak. I'm happy to try and bring onboard lots of my mates here in the UK, but as I said, we're not used to the monetary side so I might not bring you many paying clients! lol.

 

It is nice to have a Beagle forum, I'm part of a UK based Pointer forum and it's my life!

Glad I could answer your question.

 

People are the main motivator in forums...you can have all the money in the world to start a forum, upgrade it, secure it, advertise it, yada yada but if you don't have active members it won't make a darn bit of difference. I'm sure admin and everyone else would loooooove to see new beagle-loving members, paying or not.   

 

Thanks Antonia for your question, and Beaglebabe for giving their insight.

One reason for paid membership is that 'free' usually means people will add all sorts of stuff to 'free' sites. Just look at myspace:-)

By requesting a nominal fee, we greatly increase the chances that the pics, blogs etc etc will include quality content because members have paid to gain the privilege of adding their stuff there. Not saying that 'standard' members don't make a great contribution to the site - they do. If everyone was able to add content to the site then we would spend most of our time removing non-relevant content, ads, spam etc etc

Another reason, most sites on the net have financial incentives built in. It's just the nature of things. Of course this is also a factor. If there wasn't a financial incentive for us we would be less likely to build and grow the site into what it is fast becoming - a magic Beagle owners community.

This community has taken many, many hours to build and even more time to market, and continues to do so. The cash investment is another story.

At some point in the future we may include ways for Standard members to gain free upgrades but for now the fee will continue.

I hope this has helped answer your question.

Sorry I should also add that the forum will always remain free, plus other sections of the site like the ability to add comments, make friends, keep contact with other beagle owners etc etc.

We value all our members, paying or not. Without ALL those who contribute the site would die off.

but guys i justed sighed up today and on the homepage it said free gold membershipp limited avalibilty so i sighed up and i says i have to pay and im wondering whats going on are they scaming us or something please repley because now i have an account that i can barely do any thing on

We apologise. We originally give free gold memberships to the first 25 members but that offer has long passed. We didn't realize the home page still contained that text. It has now been removed.

You can avail of the forum, profiles, commenting as a standard member. We will also be adding new site functions for ALL members in time.

Thanks, yes I feel fully enlightened as to the reasons why :D