I just got my membership renewal e-mail .
 

so I checked out the home page and see its 25 bucks for 6 months,,, is this right ?? wasn't it 20 for the whole year ?? whats up w/ this.. :confused:

Yes it seems it went up, I went with the $50 deal for the year and dvd.

wow,, 150 % increase in 1 year,,, guess bandwidth costs have gone through the ceiling.. :rolleyes:

When I signed up in July, it was $20 (I think) for 6 months and $50 for a year. And I still haven't got my DVD! :confused:

:eureka: :eureka: :eureka: Hasn't the price of gas gone up lately!!:D :D :D

The DVD deal was not going on in July. Sutphen, PM us with your formal name and we will tell you the status of the DVD. We have about 60 on their way that have not gone out.

Both DVD's I received with my membership were great. $50.00 for a year is a good deal IMO.

Yea the 2 dvd's are cool but the jacket and hat are the bomb.

I got a whistle and a decoder ring too!

the decoder ring


be sure to drink your ovaltine.......OVALTINE???? a crummy commercial.....son of a

geez I guess I should have joined when it was $20, I can't afford another dime now......well my $20 membership would have been up anyways by now....dang I'm either cheap or broke.....

You can still be a free loader I mean member you just can't see all the good photos like Packin posted this morning.

yes that is correct, hit the PM and send one over to me and I will be happy to look at the pile in the office.

I signed up in July, but didn't become a Platinum Member until Sept 15th.

Sorry, it was a misinterpretation on my part. I read this thread and missed the part that said renewals. :( It wasn't the only reason I went with Platinum so no biggie.

Hey someone's gotta pay his big Fuel bill with gas prices so damn high! :D

How bout I advertise the site by putting OSO stickers on my truck, hey don't laugh it works. I used to have a site and you wouldn't believe how many folks came in with "hey i saw this on the back of a car" stories.

wife manages the checkbook......trying to think of a counter attack here :)

With the new rules you cant start a new thread either. Not complaining and I have to much going on to be here the amount of time I am anyway....but here I am :crazy:

I initially complained about 20 bucks, but eventually deemed it was worth it, I mean this is a great place for info and killing time and you can't beat the people,, well some of them need a beating... :D :D It's going to be tough but I don't think I'll be renewing,,,, IF it cost me 50 bucks a year to be a member of all the websites of the hobbies I enjoyed,,, it wouldn't be pretty... see you guys around.. :(

I would think the with the fees the Sponsors are paying, our cost would remain some what affordable :confused:

I just don't see why it would require a fee in the first place. Hell for $20.00 I did it more as a donation for the site who I understood that the money was "needed" to maintain the sight. Well It didn't even last a year and now I will need to pay more than double to get a year!?:confused: :hothead: If bandwith is the cost then limit picture size somemore. Limit downloads and then it shouldn't be a problem....I don't always post but I come to this site 7days a week If I can mostly several times a day...I just get the feeling this has become a profit move for people(s) not just a requirement to keep up service. I thought this sight was "for the love of powerboating" or something anyways.....Givng money to speak and share ideas with like-minded boaters is hard to swallow....Seems like someone wants to have a good job making money off of Offshore Only. Why pay to advertise if we can not handle the membership we have without raising prices? To me the answer seems very obvious....PROFIT. And my personal opinon is that you can not have the board in your best intreset if Profit becomes #1?
I just don't understand why "outher" sites proudly state they are free and the best site in the land starts charging and then doubling in just a year or so.....I wish I could state these opinons as fact but with a lack of understanding as to the issue I can only assume..I love OSO and hate to see long time loyal members saying goodbye cuz of making a dime. OSO wouldn't be here with out us the members...Someone has forgotton that. With that being said they have a right to make a profit and constuct their site as they please. Because we woulndn't be here without OSO either! Though we would be on outher boards....Heres to hoping I am misinformed and that OSO can build on what brung her to be the best site on the net for peformance boating. If this site goes on to become a profit first site it will cease to exist as we once and even now know it. I wish everyone here the best and hope things can work out on this for everyone's sake.


Randy
"Bad-Habit"

Certain people won't want to hear your comments Randy, but I applaud you for posting that.:cool:

I get way more from this site then all of my Magazines combined, I'll pay it....

I certainly agree that OSO has the right to charge and do anything they want, it's their site,, and why should't they make some profit,,,, but like the debate that started when charging began in the first place,, where will it end,,, first 20.00 and then a year later now 50.00

But like Randy stated,, what would OSO really be without the members, who make this site what it is and so great...

Yep! Best $20 I spent a few yrs ago. :D :D :D

I read the post stuck @ the top of the page about the number of hits per month,,, I am curious, how much of the monthly traffic on OSO is related to the forum ?? would seem to me,, but I have no idea, that the majority comes from us, the forum members, who in turn buy products from advertisers..

How many hits and how much traffic actually comes from the home page ?? does anyone actually use the home page,, I didn't even know there was one in the beginning.. There are exactly 746 paid classified ads on the home page, yet several thousand in the forums classifieds, seems to me it would make more sense to make anyone wanting to sell something pay for the privilege and make them put it into the home page,, would generate a lot of revenue and maybe take some of the burden off the forum members...

Because if you think about it,,, 99% of us are here for one thing and one thing only,,, the forum...

So TRUE!! And the "news" you get in the the mags are old news by the time they go to press. OSO is like the Drudge Report, it has the scoop days before anyone else.:)

True,, but what are you getting from OSO ??, The information we so greatly crave is comming from each other... They are providing us a place to exchange information,, a forum,, there are lots of free forums all over the internet for us to do the same thing..

They are selling forum space, and @ 50.00 bucks a pop and well over 15,000 members,,, 750,000 per year ain't too shabby at that...

LOL, Your right. But I just payed for a Platinum membership anyway to support the site. Hell, my bar bill at the Miami OSO party was probably more than the cost of the membership. Thanks Steve and Jeffrey.:) :cool:

What do you get? You get to meet some of the greatest people and make Friends from all over the country. (world) Up to the second race updates. Insite from some of the movers and shakers of the marine industry. (past and present). Watch new boats and products come to fruition right before your own eyes. Answers so ANY QUESTIONS you might have in life from people who have been there and done that. PRICELESS!!:) :cool:

Me and Monica were Kind to Steve and Jeffrey with the bar bill I think we had only 4 drinks between us :D

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.