Al,
I really like your explanation and you did not really see me ever say it not worth it but then I like many that are working do not have that cash to join. Then if you want to sell you double its plus and pray that your product is good enough to make back the cost and more so you get enough to do another product. You know when you put a product out there you're expecting that it is good enough to make you the money but the bid Butt... What if doesn't? To say it is to stop spam not a justified reason. If people say we need to get paid to do this and make a better base that would be fine. They could also add in that it would help keep the spam down. To come out and say we are charging to stop spam is totally wrong. Yes it is the idea of it. I one day may be able to deal with the cost but I just like people to be up front and not beat around the bush. Hi the Warrior is a very valuable forum and charging is not a total surprise. It is a wonder Mark does not charge for this as the info here is very valuable. I know I think differently than others but I tell you I just me.
Hi Bill.
I can appreciate everything you are saying. This will definitely keep many of the people who cannot afford the membership fee out of the forum. Every time there is a product price shift upwards, you take some of the people out of the market.
The Warrior Forum has many income producing strategies in place and having it freely open to as many people as possible just increased the potential business.
The $10 fee is minimal and it is necessary to pay only if you want to post and interact. You can still freely access all of the forum posts and information except the private membership areas to learn the business. And, you don't have to pay anything else unless you want to get into their special offers section with a product.
As you have already stated, there are probably many ways to deal with spam on a forum. And many of them would be labour intensive and cost the forum management money to provide.
Charging for membership is just one of the ways to do this and that model is the one they chose.
They chose to make money instead of lose money, that is all. The explanation holds water. Could there be ulterior motives? Yes, probably. There usually is. But that is for them to decide, not us.
They own the rights to the forum and do not have to tell us all of their reasons for operating the way they do. Welcome to the business world. I know it upsets you, but companies frequently put spins on explanations.
Fighting spammers, bots and hackers probably costs plenty, and I do not know this for sure, but probably Mark would be the only one here that would have any idea how much time and money it would take to keep a large, active forum safe and available to us.
And... you are right, there is so much information here, that Mark should consider charging for the membership here to help with the tremendous investment to keep it safe from not just spammers but hackers with malicious intent. This a great place for us to come and discuss business strategy and in general, just talk. All for free. I do really appreciate every ounce of effort he packs into this place.
I was part of a large free forum several years ago run by Mark Farmer. Over the years, he had grown that forum into a super place to discuss self improvement and business topics. He put his heart and soul into that place. Everything was free.
Thousands of members and posts, and a very active forum membership. You may have heard of it, the Total Life Success Forum. It was gone overnight. Malicious hackers had gotten control and took it over totally. It was unsalvageable. What a loss. For the owner Mark Farmer, for the members and for the people who just came for information.
As of this writing, there is still nothing on that domain. What a waste.
As for the Warrior Forum, I do not judge others for doing what they do, especially if I haven't walked in their shoes. The value is there, just as it is here.
What I do know is that every moment I get emotional and spend trying to figure out why people do what they do, is time away from my business, and that has a cost to it. This is a wonderful place to meet and discuss business, thanks to Mark and the mods, I hope it is here for us for a long, long time.
Al
