I buy and sell a fair bit on oOple and have always been happy, its a great forum and the galleries and reports are second to none. I would happy pay £5/10 a year for membership to oOple.

For r/c are very rarely sell on ebay due to fees, i still buy on ebay though. But i think a small yearly charge wouldn't be unreasonable considering the amount of time and effort Sir Jimmy and the crew put in.

Raymond

Its a good idea!

I would even look at more than £5, oOple is great!
I sell loads of things, £5 is nothing!!

M

Do it Jimmy, £5 sounds good to me

I'm also of the opinion that it should be free - and the horrors of what happened on racechat have just been brought back to me with someone's comment.

It's not about making money though - it's more about giving something back and making the section a bit safer. I think the one negative comment is probably enough to keep me off it for now.

I like the idea of a annual fee for selling or a one off payment for each ad as I sell a few bits but not everything sells, either 10p per ad or per item

The one negative comment is about another community, not ours.

Were all happy to pay a measly £5 per year to help you out :thumbsup:

One of the other forums i use has a "premium" membership status, they get a few extra features like extended reports that they get to see 24 or 48 hours earlier than the "oiks" access to the magazine back issues and so on).

And also it means that the web admin actually know who they are (CC details, home address, work email addresses and so on).
This has tended to mean (except in one case) that they are the more trusted sellers.
Might be worth looking at if Oople is to become a commercial success.

Just paying for posting privileges seems a bit, um, high risk.

I will look into it - the site is going to be totally revamped at some point and I will be putting a lot more time into it no matter what. Covering a lot more events hopefully and producing some ace content.
Vbulletin allows a very easy 'membership' thing that's all automatic afaik - maybe taking away is the racechat error. I felt a real second class user on that site myself. I Will look how I can justify a small contribution to give some extra and show at least you're a paid up member and thus MORE trustworthy (as I have your details and will come get you).
Online chat is great but very server heavy I think - I will look into some options. We used to have it on the doughtyuk.net forums and sometimes all gather together on msn group chat (like, 50 racers at once - madness)

It would be good to have a subscription of £5 too oOPle and for that you can sell/buy for free. Buyers need to be free as so to encourage sales.
By having a subscription it could be set up to remind you every year. While jimmy deserves paying for his reports, to limit it to members cuts his work getting viewed by many world wide, they need to be free to promote oOPle/off road.
Tough you charge and the members/ traffic could drop.
To me annual subscription with free for sale adds, and maybe a £1 fee for all sales from non subscribers.

I've donated a few times now, Happy to do so. I'd welcome a for sale payment. Needs to be viewable by buyers though.

I've also asked about a Advertisers section a couple of times via PM with no responce ;). Just though I'd post that in here as I know your on this topic Jimmy :). Might be out of my price bracket? but there is no harm in asking and it would mean I don't need to keep bumping my threads :blush:

Brilliant idea.

Although not knowingly for most people, the trade section on oOple is taken for granted.

You have a fantastic way of selling your gear aimed at only the right audience and the only fees you pay are those through PayPal payments.

I say do it, get them charged!

Hi mate, I know I know - give me a bit of time - at the moment this site has just been a pure hobby and done on evenings. We don't have a TV or anything - oople is all I do and sure I get burnt out and frustrated sometimes that I can't do all the stuff I want on it as I don't have the time / energy. Well that's changing.

As much as I HATE paying for anything..... £5 to have access posting ads in the 'For Sale' section is something I think that is a simple way to stop spamming, scammers and target your private ads at the right people.

I would say, paid membership of any other kind I would frown upon, as that is why most of us ended here, RaceChat and their stupid paid membership thing, so you could have more than 10 pm's etc....

My opinion on it is that i would have no issue at all in paying a small monthly fee to be a paid up oople member.

On a car forum that i'm a trader on, i pay to be a trader, and the members can either not pay to be a 'full member' but this limits their posts to 20 a month, and they get delayed access to view items for sale. The paid up members can post as much as they want and can view items for sale as soon as they are listed. they can also PM anyone where as non paid members cant use the PM system.

its a tricky one, as making people pay to have more benefits does drive some people away, but if its a small charge and their are some benefits for paying up (ie early access to the items for sale), then i'm sure everyone will be fine with it

:)

Being a member of another forum that has a subsciption 'Plus member' scheme. I do feel that it gives a them and us type of feel to the place, which I dont think would be right for oOple.
The paying for trade access for sellers seems to me to be more suitable. Personally I have not sold anything RC related I just keep getting bigger sheds. But if I were to go into therapy and be cured of my fear of selling, I would have no issues with paying a small subsciption for a sellers status. I have bought loads of stuff from oOple and never had a bad deal.

Great news your going to have more time to try and tweek oople which to me is a perfect forum (only one I've ever been registered with.

I think £5/£10 is a bargin to sell in the trade section where else do you get such service? I have sold some balls once on eBay sent them out by my usual method and the buyer said he never recieved them this has never happened on oople due to the fact everyone bar a few a honest people

Buds

Very good idea,cant see why £5-£10 a year would be any problem for sellers as like it has been mentioned before ebay can take well over that for 1 sale!!!,i would pay without hesitation and remember this payment would also be helping the best rc site on the net, so a no brainer i think.

you would get more of this though
http://oople.com/forums/showthread.p...667#post684667

Hi then a moderator could simply point the few that would do that in the direction of the for sale forum,its hardly going to happen hundreds of times,look at the overwhelming support for the idea,what ever field you are in some will always try to beat the system though for the sake of £5 hardly seems worth the trouble.

Just to clarify Jimmy's original post - the fee would be to post in the trade section only. Everyone would still be able to view the threads and still be able to PM everyone in order to purchase - nobody's status would change except that (unless you had paid the yearly fee) you wouldn't be able to POST in the trade section. Presumably this would apply throughout the trade section inc wanted and non-RC.