its true theres some great people on here, and then theres morons that think there great on here ha ha. I'm glad that everyone I have met in person has become a friend and some very good friends. I don't mind paying at all. art

The PAY format is not an option. this site is getting advertising dollars and should NOT have to charge their members to view this forum. Actually, this discussion is pushing me away as there is something going on for this to be a topic. Someone is feeling us out to see how much we will pay...raise your advertising fee's and get what its worth with all the traffic.

That would be like an addict having his drug right in front of him and being told not to take it. :lolhit:

I understand and agree with this post 100%.

I wasnt asking the original question from the aspect of what IBs rules were or what and who drives value or income for this place. I agree that the input is of equal value to the site whether it be from a non paying member or otherwise.

I was coming at it from another angle.
I was more asking from the viewpoint of the members themselves.
It wasnt whether IB should make more or less money or where they generate it from or whether other sites are free.

If a bunch of guys get together at a bar for the afternoon I would think most would offer to buy a round. I read on here every day and see that the general attitude of most , is that everyone should pay their fair share for everything.

Its obvious that this place doesnt exist if someone doesnt pay.
Was curious about some letting others pay and they not.

I respect the posts that were made and see where those that arent paying are coming from.

Was curious, and now I understand. Thank you.

This is an interesting thread. I have been a paying member of OSO most of the time since I joined long before I even had my own boat back in 2003 or so. My current subscription actually ran out right when SOS started and I went over there so I didn't re-up.

Once the world realized Sunkin was a DB I started spending my time over here again. I find that not being a paying member actually facilitates me in spending a little less time on here which equates to me getting more done in my life. During the winter months I have a lot of free time so I will more than likely re-up as a paying member.

My membership ran out and took my avitar away IB (internet bullys) lol just kidding,winter is here and spend way more time here in the winter so I just renewed.

Check out that bad azz avitar :coolcowboy:

whats that? Deans AMT? yea that was a great boat :D didnt everything blow up that weekend? lol


I have no prob with how the membership thing is structured. I get a lot out of this place and hope that i add to the content.

Thats it girl, you have been bad! over my knee NOW!!!

I spent 15 years at Fortune 50 corporations...hate 'em. The worst form of existence possible. And no I'm not a bitter former employee, I did well in them and advanced to my last day. But at best you're a whore, assimilated like the Borg, full of phoney baloney and politics (maybe I am bitter LOL!!).

That being said, I buy plenty of products from corporations out of necessity, but as a personal rule I support the small business person without exception at every opportunity and it pains me to see them going out of existence all the time now. America is turning into nothing but a faceless corporation everywhere you look.

When OSO was privately owned I supported it, but now that it's owned by a corporate entity I'd give that a second thought (admirable job done by the mods not withstanding).

As far as time goes - I'd say that I spend about an hour a day on here in the winter time. Much less in the summer, as I'm actually out enjoying my boat in some form or another.

In Re Value: Sure, it's a great value to get insight on labor costs, parts depots and whatnot, but that information is free. You don't need to be a paying member to get that info, and if there was a fee for general membership that provided that info this site would lose a great deal of its members.

I couldn't disagree more with the contention that this site would disappear or that membership costs would go down if everyone paid. That's not how corporate America works. There are a TON of Php powered message boards, and anyone can start one, virtually free. Where there is a void enthusiasts fill the void, and many of those "free" message boards that people start up, if they grow enough, can MAKE money for the owner of the site via advertising.

All it takes is time to create a message forum, and any message forum is only as good as the quality of members on that forum. If a site charged for general access it would likely lose value - both to advertisers and to other members, as the quality and quantity of replies would diminish greatly.

As for the anti-corporate....

Mr. IB is not a performance boater.

On the positive side, Mr. IB has not claimed to own 37 Apaches, two turtle doves and a Fountain in a pear tree.

On the negative side, Mr. IB probably doesn't know that a 42' fountain is only 28' minus the beak and swin platform.

Yet Mr. IB asks us to pay money for the privlidge of talking about boats and douchebags.

There are many places we can talk about boats and douchbags for free on the internet.

Since Mr. IB doesn't boat, and if one assumes he is not into douchebags, he is getting us to pay for what we can get free, and not providing anything substantially diferent than what is available for free.

THerefore, Mr. IB is exploiting internet boaters for his own monitary gain.

And finally, one cannot argue that there is not significant monetary gain to be had, when one argues that somebody else is secretly running another site (which in size and traffic is a mere fraction) for monitary gain

One more thing I like about OSO is how fast you get responses. You can post on other boards and might not get a response for days or weeks. Sometimes on OSO its a matter of minutes. Oddly enough, I get alot of my "news" here on OSO first whenever something happens.

Hell, most of us have spent more on a round of drinks than the price of a membership here.

[QUOTE=catastrophe;3271969]I understand and agree with this post 100%.


Its obvious that this place doesnt exist if someone doesnt pay.
Was curious about some letting others pay and they not.

QUOTE]

Is that really all that true?? I can think quickly of one really good, free boating site very similar to this, that has existed for a while. And im sure there are many more

[QUOTE=Boomer35;3272207]

I just counted 7 adds on this page, the bandwidth is paid for.....

Why can't you learn to spell LABOR correctly? :D :D :drink:

HEY....our COLOUR Commentator woke up !!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=phragle;3272235]Gotcha.

OK lets ask the question a different way.

To all those that are paying....if what is being said is correct re bandwith..advertisers..value added by everyone...why are you paying to be here, when you clearly dont need to ???

Maybe a good question or perhaps the topic of another thread would be as a paying member of OSO, what would you expect ou of the site for your money?

Promotion of the board?
Promotion of the sport?
Active involvement in matters affecting legislation of the sport?
Active involvement in racing?
Active involvement in poker runs?

In my mind, the site is profitable. If it is not a for profit company would not have bought it. Should a portion of those profits be invested in the sport or should those profits be purely for the benefit of IB?

[QUOTE=catastrophe;3272251]Boat porn is addicting.....

Good stuff !
Reminds me of a speech I listened to during the winter of 08-09:evilb:

9 months ago I showed up at the Cape Corral PR w/my OSO t-shirt.... You guys wanted to burn it and give me SOS gear, So I jumped ship, let my membership lapse...now I'm back.

Randy

No doubt about that... I've also stuffed more down the G-String of a hot blond...

Those are "pay to play" scenarios though, this isn't...

:coolcowboy:

:lolhit::lolhit::lolhit:

LOL.....was it a sweater vest? :D :drink:

Another interesting thought....how successful would the classifieds be if this was just a small site for paying members? Not sure the cost of an add, but if it's $20 times the 1,234 in there right now sure seems that's not bad money for just having some servers and software.

i can say i paid religously for 4-5 years, once the whole IB/Serious Offshore / Sunkin thing came about it was just a turn off, so i stopped paying, and i havent missed any paid features as of yet

That's why I say that the membership isn't needed for the site to maintain itself/be profitable. I'm not a paying member, but I have purchased items from the classified ads.

stand by my post.

all the paid membership and supposed exclusivity cheerleading aside...

to say that this segment is "evolving" implying growth or into something better is denial period.
It will never be what it was and is less every year as builders continue to drop out (lack of demand), existing values continue to tank (continuing and growing lack of demand), and more and more move away from this segment (see original post) which is responsible for the prior two...
how can anyone deny that?
really?
this downward "evolution" has a few years under it's belt now...
and I firmly believe it's gonna get worse, excuse me, further "evolve".


as far as the membership thing goes, again I stand by what I said...
you think this is friendly?
answers are fast?
wealth of info?

not so fast...
examples like (there are many) dieselplace smoke that theory and this site(pun intended) as posting traffic of real value seemingly continues to diminish since the IB takeover
and the site I used as an example is FREE
should I say, the epitome of friendly, fast, info rich,
oh... and did I mention FREE
how in the world :rolleyes: does that site survive?????

and yes I've met and know members there, have done business with members, they have local clubs and get togethers by state ect, ect
there's MORE of that and get this...it seems FEWER banners!
How in the hell does that site survive????

paid human interaction is legit for doctors, lawyers and whores.
Wait a minute...
I get a SERVICE for those $ !!!
(sometimes the same service LOL :grinser010:)


some of the other posters on this thread have hit all the fringes of my original points right on the head.
To insinuate that non-paying members (such as myself) are somehow "freeloading" on this site is ludicrous...
as is the thought planting that paid membership has anything to to with establishing relationships, friendships or goodwill.
I have added real value to this site with detailed how-to and project threads including step-by-step pics that forever add value to this site, are permanently archived and available to all.
many have over the years...
The question for those taking the other stance is...have you?

don't take this wrong, I'm not being hostile just further defining my points.
It's just "winter chatter" :kiss:

I think there's a lot of overlooking some stuff here...

such as those benefits that come from being in the right place at the right time and having a little vision, maybe a lot of luck,
and managing an online community into something who's sum is worth more than the individual parts.

and then making a business move with impeccable timing.

Is this not the heart of capitalism and entrepreneurmanship in action?
I thought this place was full of republicans. :cool-smiley-011:

it is.

and in that light Steve is a hero of capatalism.

but that's old news and the topic at hand is the present incarnation of this site.

Thats why I stated that if its profitable as is, and Mr. IB is asking for money from us, what is it that we consider a fair return on our investment?

If it was a democratic thing, we would all ask Mr. IB to pay lurkers to be here and demand that Mr. IB sponsor 4 race boats, 7 poker runs, OPA's entire 2011 schedule, 6 parties (including food and drink) and buy enough boats that everybody could go for free boat rides.

And if you really want to make a left turn...
Everyone that has payed membership and actually owns a boat must also pay a 45% REAL BOATER TAX.

If it was a democratic thing, we would all ask Mr. IB to pay lurkers to be here and demand that Mr. IB sponsor 4 race boats, 7 poker runs, OPA's entire 2011 schedule, 6 parties (including food and drink) and buy enough boats that everybody could go for free boat rides.

And if you really want to make a left turn...
Everyone that has payed membership and actually owns a boat must also pay a 45% REAL BOATER TAX.


:bsflag: :lolhit: :bsflag:

Yep Dean's AMT and bunch more bad azz boats,the bat did'nt blow nor did the elianator chuck just lost a starter on the sleek if I remember right the AMT is the only one THAT weekend lol

LMAO!!! We sure did do that....but much has changed since then!!!:angry-smiley-038::drink::evilb:

I just took a box of SOS clothing to Goodwill today.....including that stupid phucking sweater vest.:eek:

User Generated Content
 

Correct me if I'm wrong...
there is a core community that was, and is, still here.
same spirit, same love of boating, some different names.
Members' use of, and participation in the forum, evolves as the community matures.

People come and go, the sum is still greater than the parts.

I doubt IB cares if the paid subscription model fades-
they're more interested in ad $$$, long term.

hahahahahahahahahahahahaa. Craig in a sweater vest!!!??? LMAO. Jey please tell me you have a pic of this.

As for the other stuff. GLH summed it up perfectly in the beginning.

:Whatever: I pay nothing for any type of internet. Free is not a bad word.
I get Wi Fi for free now also, just go to any fast food joint and wam, I am in your face.
SOS is still a honest great site for info. Do not beat it up cause OSO has large pockets to wich one can waste money on.
B3

I hope no one still pays to look at porn sites too. If so, time to move ahead & get out of the 90's.

From inception here paying,
Went to SOS and wondered why I did,
poop hits fan at SOS,
came back but things are different ..............
ed

[QUOTE=catastrophe;3272251]Now you're starting to understand... The advertisers pay all the bills here and more. Paying members just add to the pocket lining. The members provide the content, which brings more members/traffic, which in turn brings in more advertisers, and more $$$.

If all paying members were to stop paying tomorrow, the bills would still be paid by the advertisers, just as it's done on all the other free forums (which the vast majority are free)... this is nothing new and the owners of higher traffic forums still make out quite well.

Now I can understand some members that indirectly profit through this site feeling the need to chip in a little extra. Folks can and do make their living through these sites, even if they don't directly advertise. In these cases I would suggest it's not only money well spent, but partly deserved by the forum owners...