Swear Jar

[TheToyman75]

Hi Guys,

Firsty I want to say thanks to everyone for keeping this discusion on track and making relevant comment.

A couple of things to bring things into perspective on how the club floats financially.

Paid membership is $50, then $40 a year to renew. As Simon mentioned we currently have around 70 financial members. We have not increased the cost of membership for years, and we dont plan to. Hitting the pockets of people who have supported the club harder, is NOT the answer. We want membership to bring benefits, not increased costs.

We are constantly looking at how we can add benefits of membership. This year any membership (new or renewal) taken at ToyotaFest will be discounted by $5. We wont have to post out memberships taken on the day so are happy to pass some of this saving back. We have another surprise in store to but I will announce that soon in a more suitable thread.

So back on topic, It has only been thanks to the FCN who support us with a reduced price on the club member polo shirts that we can continue to offer the $50 joining rate we do. The membership fees cover the core club costs. These are things like our incorporation fees, ANSMA membership and Public Liability Insurance, The clubs PO Box, The cost of the window sticker you receive, the T shirt or renewal item you get, Postage, paypal fees, printing and laminating costs for the mebership card and hopefully this year 3 old school snail mail sends of a Toymods newsletter to remind members of our Key events (Classic Celica Day, Octoberfest and Dyno Day/AGM ). The membership $ does not go far and there is no surplus of financial cream left in it after that. Once upon a time we could finance the forums on memberships alone, but we can't now, the financial dynamic of the club has shifted substancially.

The Toymods Forums is an expensive exercise to keep running - In very loose round numbers the base costs of the forums (hosting, SSL, Domain Registration and V Bulletin Support) are around $2000 a year. Thats the bare basics. It doesn't cover our server maintenance, site maintenace or allow for any upgrades to the existing offering. This year we have already spent $1500 in site maintenance.

Forum Donantions have been an option for years and we will hopefully be adding a button to make it easier, until then there is a thread for it and we really do appreciate the occasional donation we receive. But its not a viable income to support a fixed annual cost.

The last thing to keep in mind is as Board members we are trying to look out for whats best for the club, not our own personal views. I personally dont find swearing offensive, am against censorship in all its forms (and surprise surprise have a healthy appetite for Porn).

The only way we can continue to fund the forum, without a financial impact on its members is through forum sponsorship, and finding the suitable level of that is what we are trying to do. Any negative financial impact of forum members will have a negative effect on the forums, People dont expect to pay just to browse a forum, hell we get several complaints a week just because people have to sign up. Adding a monetary hurdle will only limit the forums growth and knowlege base.

Toymods isn't here to make money, but we do need to ensure our survival so balancing the $ is a necessary evil. We are a large enough community that people can see the merit in advertising with us, and the best way we can utilsle that is to capitalise on our sponsors and not our members.

[o_man_ra23]

As I mentioned before, I would be happy for the membership fees to be increased to bring it in line somewhere with the CPI rates. However, as you have pointed out, the number of members actually paying is quite small, so although that helps Kirsty's workload a lot, it doesn't help the club's financial position.

A simplified "Donate here" button where users can drop a few quid in via Gheypal would certainly help, as with me whenever I have had some spare coin and the inclination to donate, I have never been arsed going through, finding the appropriate thread, and dropping the dollars in your lap. Call me lazy, but hey, that's the way these things roll It may surprise you how much such a button will drum up, especially if there is a reminder to users that said donations help to prevent further advertising increases.

Perhaps the forum software can be set up such that anyone who donates $5 or more has the advertising(not including banner ads) removed for a month? That gives people a choice, and an ability to remove the annoyance should they choose. Of course, this would have to be set up so there isn't any large amount of ongoing overheads for the volunteers who run the show.

Oh, and it would seem we have something in common other than an unhealthy appetite for classic celicas Rod (although you have certainly fed your appetite more than I)

[Chivalry]

As a (currently) non-paying forum member, I also don't think charging for forum membership is a good idea. You have to assume that at least the majority of non-financial, forum only members are in a situation that they are unable to afford a club membership. Besides, you can't assume that the 15,382-odd (current number less allowing for 70 financial club members) forum members are actually active. I think a PayPal donation button stickied to the top banner is an excellent idea and whilst the dust is settling from the initial swear filter implementation, I personally think it's a better time then ever to put it up and see what the response is like whilst the filter and other subjects are being reviewed.

I personally had no idea of the current club forum situation and upon reading posts in this thread from Rod and Simon I will be making a PayPal donation towards the club after I post this message. I also have no issue with modern society's infamous C word being filtered completely either, I do have an issue with arse being filtered, it's a beautiful word

Also, any of the top brass have any idea why the forums are so exceptionally slow lately? I'm not changing topic but noticed it has only really picked up around the time the filter was coming into play.

Is it related?

Donation made. Also, chalk me up on the tally for paying club members to at least have the option to disable the filter, if possible. I mean, we wouldn't go around in public wearing Toymods shirts immitating sailors but I'm sure that not a single mature word is mentioned when members are hanging out together in private or in the shed, or garage, or at a club gathering away from prying ears.

Just sayin'.

[Slim]

I made mention in the WPMO thread that i have a photobucket username that got blocked with the swear filter when it was introduced last week. The result being that any image link from my photobucket account was effectively made invalid due to 4 letters being replaced with asterisks.

I signed up to photobucket with this username a few years ago and over that time have uploaded many photos to my account. Many of my posts on Toymods have referenced these images and were adversely affected by the introduction of the filter.

Can someone please let me know if there is a way to protect the image links in my previous posts and even future posts? It would be a real pain to have to abandon the account i have been happily using for a long time.

note : the username in question is 'fotofucket'.

On the topic of paying to keep the forums going... I'd prefer to donate a few dollars than officially sign up. The reason being, as an interstate member, i wouldn't get anything i can't already get as a non-paying member. ie: use of the forum.
Where can details of the Toymods paypal account be found?

[o_man_ra23]

Where can details of the Toymods paypal account be found?

This is the reason a simple button up top next to the banner ads would be a great thing.

[oldcorollas]

why don't you just donate $2K per year and then you can swear all you want?

is it really such a big issue? do you swear at your mum? if not, why can't you extend the courtesy to people you don't even know?

[o_man_ra23]

Mum and I are both adults and we both use venacular not suited to small children to express opinions, emotions, etc. So sorry, your statement does not appear to be quite valid. The only close family members I don't swear in front of are my niece (4) and my grandmothers. None of whom work on cars regularly.

Maybe if we moved to Japan we would all be rich enough to afford a lazy $2k donation each per year?

[oldcorollas]

oh well, i thought you might act a bit more respectfully toward strangers, but your comments suggest otherwise.
japan comments? grow up child. One aussie miner could sneeze the entire cost of supporting Toymods without even noticing.

mountains out of molehills... for what is effectively a free service for you to spout your opinions. how dare they impinge on your freedoms!

[ian]

c,mon guys
its not helping

[trdee]

oh well, i thought you might act a bit more respectfully toward strangers, but your comments suggest otherwise.
japan comments? grow up child. One aussie miner could sneeze the entire cost of supporting Toymods without even noticing.

mountains out of molehills... for what is effectively a free service for you to spout your opinions. how dare they impinge on your freedoms!

yes how dare we try to keep the forums running for free!! we are fascists!!

eh it's to be expected i guess. every forum ive modded on has always been the same. whenever you try and introduce change you will always be met with resistance simply because everyone is different and what some people perceive to be fine, others may find to be completely intolerable.

as i said before, we will end up with a happy compromise as things get tweaked and then the few remaining whingers will fizzle out

[TheToyman75]

Dudes,

Up until this afternoon the chatter here has been good. So while I am not discounting anyone's opinion lets keep it on track.

Slim,

We are not filtering the use of the word Fuck at the moment so your photofuckit account should still serve you well. Sorry for the headaches the filter caused you.

I appreciate people suggesting alternate revenue sources and ways to bring in the dollars, and keep the suggestions coming, just keep in mind the board has been discussion the Toymods revenue meeting at pretty much every meeting since its inception so most of the ideas will have done the rounds of the board table a few dozen times over and having been on the board for around 11 years now there are some discussions I just don't want to have again. So if we don't respond to a particular suggestion please don't take it personally, we are taking it all on board.

If you want to make a suggestion without the commentary from others please feel free to email or PM it to me, We have a thread running just for the Board members which I will add your comments too so all the Board will get the suggestion.

And if this thread seems a little quiet its because the forum performance is also being looked at, its running like a busted ass at the and we are seeking assistance as to why.

[TheToyman75]

Dudes,

Up until this afternoon the chatter here has been good. So while I am not discounting anyone's opinion lets keep it on track.

Slim,

We are not filtering the use of the word Fuck at the moment so your photofuckit account should still serve you well. Sorry for the headaches the filter caused you.

I appreciate people suggesting alternate revenue sources and ways to bring in the dollars, and keep the suggestions coming, just keep in mind the board has been discussion the Toymods revenue meeting at pretty much every meeting since its inception so most of the ideas will have done the rounds of the board table a few dozen times over and having been on the board for around 11 years now there are some discussions I just don't want to have again. So if we don't respond to a particular suggestion please don't take it personally, we are taking it all on board.

If you want to make a suggestion without the commentary from others please feel free to email or PM it to me, We have a thread running just for the Board members which I will add your comments too so all the Board will get the suggestion.

And if this thread seems a little quiet its because the forum performance is also being looked at, its running like a busted ass at the and we are seeking assistance as to why.

[Slim]

In hindsight I accept that my username wasn't the wisest of choices. It was just frustrating that it's worked for so long and then went bad all of a sudden.

Glad the filter got given the ****ing **** it ******* deserved.

[Supra967]

Toyota

Option? Probably tried already?

[o_man_ra23]

^^^^ Great suggestion. Their sponsorship guidelines sound like Toymods could well fall within their scope of sponsorship, and similarly the quantity of money actually required to keep things going would be peanuts, so it should be a viable option for them. The only bit they may come unstuck with is the amount of flack they are copping from individuals like me who think the FT-86 (new Celica) shouldn't be a Subaru with a Toyota badge. But if we keep that sort of thing on the down low, or offer to provide constructive criticism/suggestions from enthusiasts, then it may well be a good thing for them.