Pete,, I agree the information on this site is second to none,, thanks to Jeff, Steve, and most of all, US...

I guess, what I think is that, for the membeship fees to go from 20 to 50 bucks in one year, the advertisers must not be doing their job to support the site. I have no idea what it costs to advertise on OSO, but it must not be enough. There are hundreds of people making money off OSO, selling their stereo's, boats, plasma tv's, and a slew of other things that don't pay a penny to advertise on here, I see it day in and day out.. I wonder how many off brand boats have been sold because of OSO, boats I NEVER would have EVER heard of. Maybe when possible, we should ONLY buy from paying advertisers of the site, if these other guys on the site profiting from us want our business,, they should pay for it.. The 50 bucks you save could be your own.. :eureka:

I don't like the fact that it went up either but like someone said it's better than the mags we get. If I take my lap top into the crapper I wouldn't need the mags.:D How many of you are a NRA member I was but didn't seem to be getting much form it, and theirs ain't cheap. Maybe OSO will do a life time membership for like $100

You still have your guns,don't you ?

I cant b*tch about the fee here.....Ya gotta pay to play anywhere you go

I still have them but they (NRA) seem to be moving to the left more than I would like.

Everything in life is relative.

If you don't think it is worth $50, don't pay it...

Dean

just happily renewed mine a few days ago. i strongly believe it is worth every penny. this site has repaid me in deals on parts or help info on boats. hell, i even got a few graphics jobs just through having some of my work seen on the site. keep up the great work OSO :cool: :cool:

I'd hate to see you go, Chris! :(

For the price of two mag subscriptions, you've got a year on OSO, which is better than 10 magazines combined.

You know you'd miss us! :p :D

Nick,, you know it's not totally about the 50 bucks right ?? I guess its the point of the matter... and for anyone who thinks I'm bashing OSO or don't think this place is worth it,, please refer to post # 34...

In Steve's own words he does not want to charge us,,, some people need to step up,,... I have been contacted by several people ( who shall remain un-named ) who have been trying to peddle their products on me over the years,, and I don't see them in the advertisers index.. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


With the exception of the General Discussion and Technical Q&A all other sections of the website now require Gold or Platinum Membership to post replies or start New Threads. Gold and Platinum Members can start new threads in the General Discussion. All others can post replies to threads already started.

We have attempted to use Moderation to control the Forums the best we can but due to the size of the website and its rate of growth, our expectations are not being reached.

Requiring paying Membership we feel will hold people accountable for their actions and comments and will encourage more Advertisers to want to participate.

Currently, we have over 16,000 members, 50 million hits on our two dedicated servers per month, and serve over 400 Gigabytes of data per month. Other sites may not charge dues but they also do not have the membership, traffic, nor the overhead. The traffic helps us all buy and sell our products and services and is costly for us to obtain.

A new feature has been added that allows guests to view a certain number of threads before they are required to register for a FREE Membership with limited features and benefits.

This decision has been discussed with several of our major advertisers and influential members and we have decided that our decision will be for the best of the future of the website.

We hope that the majority of you that are already paying members will support our decision as we continue to try to give you the best service possible. Those of you that are not paying members (the minority of daily visitors) we hope you will decide to join our Membership and help us continue to grow the site.

A brand new Classified and Auction Section will be launched shortly followed by some other new features that are in the works.

Thank you all for helping us make this the best Boating Website on the Web. We hope that our number of Advertisers continues to grow and one day membership dues can be eliminated. Internet advertising is still a tough sell to many business owners and many people try to find a way to use the site to solicit their products while trying to avoid even Membership dues.

I would hope that everyone would want to hear what every paying member past,present and future has to say. If someone dosn't want to hear what someone has to say on an issue that directly effects them I say that speaks to the quaility of the person anyways...I am in no way trying to offend anyone. I am a paying member trying to explain my thoughts on the subject along with a few questions that I have. I think they were in no way disrespectful and If this can't be discussed (which I think it can) then I think it answers alot of my questions just in that.:rolleyes: If someone has a problem with consructive respectful debate then go join the liberals and the Democratic Campiagn this year:D Again sorry if my views upset anyone but they are what they are. Remember they are just that my views:)

BH

I`ve gotten way more than my 50 bucks worth on just the friends that I`ve met through OSO. Keep up the good work guys, most of us appreciate the great work you are doing.