Membership consultation

[A2OC]

Dear A2OC members,

For nearly as long as the Audi A2 has been available, the A2OC forum has been a fun, friendly and free resource for owners and enthusiasts.

The forum is run by a small group of volunteers who are enthusiastic about the car and the owners club, and it’s important to us that the forum is a valuable and current source of information and enjoyment for club members.

The running of the club costs money. There are operating costs of around £500 per year, and we currently rely upon donations from a small proportion of users to meet these costs.

We think this format is unfair, and we have recently also experienced an increase in the number of people who join the club only to sell a car through the marketplace. This increases workload for the forum moderators with no benefit to the A2 community.

Therefore, we would like to seek your views about the application of a small annual fee for ‘full membership’ of the forum, or to ask for ideas about how we could raise funds in an alternative manner.

A2OC is a non-profit club, meaning the committee is keen not to seek advertisers or sponsorship to support the club’s operating costs. We believe that the absence of excessive banners, pop ups and in-line links is a positive aspect of the forum.

Full membership would mean you contribute to the running and future security of the club. A small annual subscription would secure this and allow us to invest any surplus back into the club.

In practical terms, full membership would provide full posting rights, an increased Private Message mailbox and full access to the marketplace.

Anyone who was not a fee-paying member would have ‘read only’ access to the forum. We would also propose that the initial 20 or so posts were free before paid membership was required. Effectively a 'try before you buy'.

Over to you the members - what are your views on this proposal? Would you pay an annual subscription to use A2OC? If so, how much would you pay? If not, do you have any alternative suggestions to raise funds?

 

[shreddedmeat]

You have reminded me that I must make a donation soon!

Here's just a few immediate thoughts;

In the interests of fairness I think it's a good idea. Other clubs are already doing it and it would spread the cost somewhat between the fairly wide active membership here.

In terms of the openness and accessibility of the club, I can see it hampering membership expansion because in this day and age people are used to getting their information for free! I imagine we'd have fewer posts overall and definitely fewer 'new member looking for x' introductory posts. Will probably deter casual posters as well.

If we were to go to paid membership I think it could be made more enticing by offering a membership package which came with some sort of perks, such as a free A2OC badge and sticker set, or some form of memorabilia. I think the TTOC has its own magazine for members! Obviously all these costs would have to be factored in. I also think once you take people's money there's a greater obligation to ensure forum reliability etc and also to make the running of it as cost effective as possible.

As for members signing up only to sell, there should be a minimum post level required to post new ads (not sure whether there already is).

And one final thought - how would anyone feel about first trying to increase awareness of the fact the club relies on donations? A lot of users probably overlook that?

Cheers

 

[russellbridge]

Personally I think that it should stay free and open to all - it's a fantastic resource for all those with A2's, but also as much use to those thinking about getting an A2. It's format, openness and the friendliness of all participants whether wealthy or not have made it the best forum I have ever used. I've benefited from it this year, and I've made a good donation.
I would second sheddedmeats suggestion that firstly trying to raise awareness of the fact that club relies on donations is the best idea. Perhaps start with one week or month a year (to limit the annoyance factor) where all forum users are encouraged to make a donation if they have benefited from the forum. How about this August - donations required - suggested minimum amount £10. This could be a sticky thread with a 'target amount' and 'amount raised so far' which is constantly updated.
Russ

 

[URBAN]

Personally I think that it should stay free and open to all - it's a fantastic resource for all those with A2's, but also as much use to those thinking about getting an A2. It's format, openness and the friendliness of all participants whether wealthy or not have made it the best forum I have ever used. I've benefited from it this year, and I've made a good donation.
I would second sheddedmeats suggestion that firstly trying to raise awareness of the fact that club relies on donations is the best idea. Perhaps start with one week or month a year (to limit the annoyance factor) where all forum users are encouraged to make a donation if they have benefited from the forum. How about this August - donations required - suggested minimum amount £10. This could be a sticky thread with a 'target amount' and 'amount raised so far' which is constantly updated.
Russ

i agree with russel, paying a membership fee is ok for a mass production car like the TT but not limited production run cars like the a2, donations every august with a grand total would work or at least help.

 

[shreddedmeat]

August campaign sounds good - maybe make the suggested minimum the total yearly cost divided by number of active members and those who wish to give more can feel free to? Some kind of running total indicator would be good as well. Happy to lend a hand in the organisation of such a thing if required.

 

[Allan S]

is any profit generated from the sale of the stickers and badges? This might help if a £ was made on these sales, again not a profit process as it is put into the running of the club

 

[dicko]

I for one use this site quite often to help with repairs etc, I would therefore contribute to keep it open. However, I feel the cost should be in proportion to the amount of members willing to help. For example if there are 500 members (I am not sure how many there actually are), £2 each would pull in £1000. Would that be enough to support the site and cover the cost of administrating the collecting of donations? If not would £5 cover it?
Need a number cruncher to calculate the various scenarios.

 

[trufflestu]

Unfortunately I think people expect to be able to come on the internet for freely accessible information about everything.

I would happily make a contribution each year to keep the club up and running if it meant it being ad free.

As others have suggested if it is only a small contribution say £2 a year then i will happily pay it.

 

[Josall]

£5 annual membership to include A2 Tie Tac with the year included should suffice, as there are a number of collectors out there where ebay could be use to sell the (Tie Tacs, Tie Pins, Badges whatever you wish to call them).

 

[Adrian888]

in the days before internet forums nearly all clubs of whatever type had an annual fee or subs so I can understand the need to address running costs. If an alternative will work I will support it but will accept an annual fee if that is the only way to resolve this.

 

[chumsofmanutd]

I would be happy to make a financial contribution to the running of the club, an annual membership fee would probably be the easiest way.

Cheers

Rob.

 

[nuttinnew]

I've just written a reply, then mistyped & deleted before posting
I'll try and summarise;
there's a distinction between a donation and a subscription that, while nobody's ever consciously influenced by it, only has a negative effect. A donation is given, a subscription is taken.

 

[Draggon]

the amount of times i have searched on google for 'free' info....only to be taken to A2OC anyway usually means i am getting the info i need
I have used the site since 2009 and it has saved me £'s (plus scared me into checking all sorts on the car )
Plus key members have been happy to answer my silly questions....multiple times

I would Donate/subscribe (think I have already, but would make it a regular thing happily)

Steve

 

[Olly1]

Hi,

I dont think charging for membership is the way forwards. However I did make a contribution when first joining and received the A2club stickers. Not sure if many others do this though.

The best model in my mind would be to add advertising to cover costs and to bring in some extra revenue. Perhaps have a preferred supplier / vender section. I specifically buy my genuine Audi parts from Stoke Audi as they participate on this forum. They are not my local audi dealer and I have to pay for postage but i prefer them as i know they actually care.

If you had a vendor section you could hit up other vendors outside the audi group, eg detailers, window tinters, tyres suppliers etc etc.

Bascially the model should be free memebership and you make our revenue from advertisers. If you go the other route you will cover your costs but the site is unlikely to grow much.

A good point that someone raised earlier would be the inability to list in the classifieds unless you have say 50 posts of have been a member for more than 12 months.

 

[andybaggies]

The first thing I’ll say is that the donation sub window only appears on the site front page and I would hazard a guess pretty much everyone uses bookmarks to a different page (New Post/Activity stream etc) so would never see it. Even using the address line in most web browsers defaults to the most used page on a particular site and again miss the front page. I know this allowed me to forget about making a donation so how about putting the donation frame at the top of every page, say under the login frame? This may well help increase and maintain revenue at a sufficient level.

It’s always a tough one though, especially as I remember the very early days of the web and the laudable aim of providing data for all for free. But I'm not so sure this model is really applicable anymore and running costs are always going to be required. So, advertising or membership fees?


If we go with membership fees I feel things could start to get possessive and cliquey, why should non fee paying members have access to ‘our’ information etc etc. Additionally IMO, this is also a good way of strangling the input of new information. So advertising may have to be the nettle we need to grasp – I don’t know about others but I’m an old enough duffer to quite easily be totally blind to advertising and having it wouldn’t really spoil my enjoyment of the site. There again as long as it’s discrete and pop ups weren’t used!

Andy B

 

[Hedge]

I'd forgotten to donate, chiefly for the reasons outlined earlier. I'd never even seen the Donation Link until someone pointed it out to me! So I just stuck in 25 squids which, to me, is a total bargain, next to the contacts/ help/ advice I've received on here.

As for Annual Subs of just 2 or 5 pounds a year, I presume this is meant to be tongue in cheek...

Cheers, Hedge

 

[tdige]

I am more than happy to pay an annual Fee

Im totally opposed to advertising on the site, some sites you go on you have distracting crap flashing all over the place buy me buy me or you've won claim your prize or you have to click to close an add down before you can view the screen.

(I have made a contribution however I never received any acknowledgement it was received)

Cheers Tdige

 

[AUDI2012]

Hi Guys,
I've been a member now since February 2013 this year and I would say I was viewing the site as a non-member 6 months before that, Until I thought that’s it “ have to join this forum these guys are amazing” and the fact that it provides invaluable information on the A2 .
Since then i have come across great honest individuals, top advice/solution given and much knowledge learnt through the forum on those little problems we all encounter every so often which again saving us all money.
Therefore, I would be more then happy to contribute a small yearly membership and say I commend all those behind the scenes of the running of the web site and all members who put in much effort to help out.

Kindest Regards ,

Mohammad

 

[A2OC]

Hello,

Many thanks for all of your replies so far. It's great to see your enthusiasm and positive feedback for the club. Thanks also to all of the recent donations which have come in as a result of this thread.

There's clearly a desire to maintain the forum's open and accessible nature, and you've provided a number of interesting suggestions which might facilitate this. The new management team will consider the various funding mechanisms suggested and provide a follow up in due course.

In answer to some specific questions raised so far:

Q1 - Is any profit generated from the sale of the stickers and badges?

The stickers are sold at cost. The badges were priced to cover the high initial costs following some significant increases in manufacturing costs coupled with the projected sales over the first year. We have still not quite covered the initial manufacturing costs, despite a number of pledges from our membership.

Q2 - How many active members are there?

This is a difficult thing to measure as many of our members will go through periods of being active (perhaps as a result of a particular problem with their car). As a rough guide, we have 276 members that have been active in the last year who have contributed more than 40 posts. This rises to 383 for members who have contributed more than 20 posts; and 507 members with more than 10 posts. The forum software calculates that we have 380 active members - but this is purely dependant on the number of members visiting the site within the last month.

Q3 - Are there constraints on which members can use the Marketplace?

Yes - members must have been active for at least 3 months and meet a minimum number of post criteria. The full details are outlined in the Marketplace Rules section.

In the meantime, please continue to share your views on how we can best cover our costs without impacting accessibility and usability.

 

[mrmosky]

A voluntary donation scheme would be my favoured plan, but then the contributors should have recognition - "Full member" at the top of posts. People who have yet to donate would be given a different label - "Second class member" or "Tightwad". That would get donations up. (I haven't donated yet however).
Cheers, Geoff