Just remember this forum's success is because of the users. Start charging high fees and the users will go elsewhere and so will the advertisers. I don't mind the ads as they help pay the costs.

I was nominated a Plus member but I have no need of the extra perks or special status. These are just a waste of resources that the majority of us will never use. If a member needs the extra resources and wishes to have the carbon and orange then let him or her pay for it. However 50 bucks a year sounds like too much to me.

Originally Posted by teookie

Looks like most agree $50 is likely too steep a price. Especially for what you get. Now, what if you got something of value for your money? What if the money went towards more flying events throughout the country? Or flying events in countries that don't currently have many if any at all? What if the money went towards saving or creating more RC clubs? What if the money was donated to charity? Any or all of these ideas (and more) would make RCG+ worth sooooo much more then it is currently.

But, it appears they are more interested in profit then the hobby. Would love for them to prove me wrong.

I don't think they are interested in proving us wrong. You know they are reading every one of these posts, and are choosing not to respond. Or they fired their PR guy who thought this was all a good idea. When the new PR guy starts on Monday we can expect a written statement!

Originally Posted by Murman

The main thing I don't understand is why $50? This has always been a free forum. The vast majority of users will never pay to use this site. At $50/year, you may be lucky to get 1% of 439,000 users to sign up thus generating $219,500. At $25/year, that percentage would probably jump to 3% ($329,250), and at $10/year, I would guess membership could jump as high as 10%, generating a whopping $439,000/year. In this economy, $50 is a lot of money to pay for a "free" forum.

I agree with your figures and way of thinking

i dont think anyone realizes how much more they(site) are paying out to keep this free site available to us, as the bandwidth and traffic rises
I can almost bet that it's much higher than any and all ads combined will ever pay for

but i still dont think a rounded off $4.20 a month is much to pay to help keep the site alive and available to those who cant afford to pay
so i plan to pay when my nominated plus runs out someday

Originally Posted by irun4fundotca

...but i still dont think a rounded off $4.20 a month is much to pay to help keep the site alive and available to those who cant afford to pay...

Me thinks "420" may have been a factor in choosing the $50 fee.

maybe !! lol
heck.. i just waisted 6 bucks on 4 choclate bars.. that i really dont need to eat lol

And now it's $4.95 a month
$49.95 is the DISCOUNTED price

WOW

We said $50 a year was too much so what do they do? Increase the price to almost $10 a year more if you pay $4.95 a month.

BUT WAIT

If you pay for the whole year you get a five cent discount over the previous stated price ....



Interesting

As an aside, If money is tight here at RCGroups I would be willing to make a donation to help keep things going. I'm not sure if this fee-for-service thing is in reponse to the profit motive or something of an existential nature here at RCG. If it's the latter, for sure I would donate...

Originally Posted by Murman

Me thinks "420" may have been a factor in choosing the $50 fee.

lol...thats funny rite ther. ha ha passes one.....eeeerrrrrrrrr

The Netflix debacle does comes to mind here...

Let’s see, I have annual dues in this hobby for:

1- AMA, $58
2- club/field, $50
3- R/C Scale Builder support, $20

Not to drive members away from here (or any other R/C website) but I support R/C Scale Builder because I’ve learned a LOT about not only about building scale models, but many tricks and techniques for general building from world-wide builders. Yep, they charge a fee for full access, but for me, I get a lot out of watching these master-builders at work.

I am primarily a model aircraft builder. My list of subscribed forums reflect that. I am not into helis, boats, or cars here on R/C Groups. If there are hobbyists that are taking advantage of the full-gambit of forums here on R/C Groups, they’ve got a LOT of time on their hands! I would venture to guess that the average R/C Groups member is into two - three at best areas of the R/C hobby. More than that, R/C Groups IS your hobby.

With the above in mind, I think Murman has the wise approach. Given my areas of interest, I’d gladly give $10 annually for support of this site. I think the base would broaden and there would be many $10 as opposed to a hand-full of $50 supporters.

I’ve been a member since March of 2008. Sorry Terry, but not one of the benefits you list as being a Plus Member made me say, “finally!” In my case, and more than likely a vast majority of the R/C Group community, it just doesn’t warrant $50.

EJWash

Originally Posted by UCDme3D

I don't think anything was taken away, but google adds was added to your screen!

I am not seeing any difference, the ads that appear on my pages are EXACTLY as they have been for the past several months or more. It wasn't that long ago that they offered bronze, silver, and gold memberships in return for increased PM storage, etc., complete with a dedicated forum for those that had these "upgrades". I still can't see what everyone is worked up about...

On a side note, I am familiar with what transpired in regards to Hobby King taking 3DHS's work and pirating it, and that isn't cool at all. That is a different & separate issue than the Plus membership offering.

This is the 2nd post suggesting we are worked. My comments posted in this thread weren't to demonstrate I'm worked up and weren't stated for other members. My comments were to tell RCG why I won't pay $50 so they can understand and maybe adjust / improve.

I'm not worked up what so ever I"m very happy with my free RCG in classic view. I'm so happy in fact that I wanted to give feedback, nothing more .

Cheers

Originally Posted by Jim Varley

I am not seeing any difference, the ads that appear on my pages are EXACTLY as they have been for the past several months or more. It wasn't that long ago that they offered bronze, silver, and gold memberships in return for increased PM storage, etc., complete with a dedicated forum for those that had these "upgrades". I still can't see what everyone is worked up about...

On a side note, I am familiar with what transpired in regards to Hobby King taking 3DHS's work and pirating it, and that isn't cool at all. That is a different & separate issue than the Plus membership offering.

The hobbyking/3dhs issue isn't what I'm speaking of, it was rcg's blatant deletion of numerous posts and many unwarranted and post dated points being awarded to users who spoke up, seemingly to protect hobbyking (huge sponsor) that led to users fleeing to another site in the first place. It also may or may not have lead to 3dhs holding their garage sale this week over on that other site as opposed to over here on a site that helped protect hobbyking and not the company that was ripped off during this debacle.

So for many, they are unaware of all of this, but for the 3d community, the recent actions of HK and RCG are still very fresh, this just adds possibly another nail...

It seemed that the smoke was possibly blowing over for some, but this just brought all that back to the surface.. I bet that other site is stoked that RCG is doing most of their recruiting for them.

$50 per YEAR is pretty steep. I'm a lifetime member of other (non-RC) forums for less than $50, a one-time fee.

I wonder if the beta testers had to pay the 50$.