For those Who have joined since 1st October 2012 and are still awaiting membership packs, you will be contacted individually in regards to your specific Membership options.
Cheers
Simon
All forum users & Club Members,
At the January Board meeting it was resolved that Membership to the Club & the Forums be streamlined and made more digital.
In order for us to better service our financial members and make financial club membership more attractive to the wider forum community we have decided to make the following forum and club membership changes:-
As of 31st Jan 2013 (the end of the Clubs Financial Year and when current memberships expire (with some exceptions))
•Membership pack of T-Shirt and renewal item dropped.
•Membership Card & Toymods Sticker posted out each year.
•Financial Membership is being reduced to $30 flat rate.
•Paid Subscription through Vbulletin Software using Paypal the only option for membership. Credit Card is an option through Paypal if you don't have a PP Account.
•Membership expires 12 months after join/renewal date.
•Permissions to forums changing as outlined below, premissions upgrade is controlled by the Forum software
Based on the feedback from the Forum community, the Board needs to further discuss some of the finer points of the changes. As such, the Board has decided to keep the current Rep/Posts permissions system in place for a 3 month period (Until May 2013). The old Club members user group will be shut down shortly and any members manually transferred to the new system in the coming days. Any Expired members who haven't renewed on the paypal system will roll back to the Rep/Posts permissions group (if the user qualifies for that group) meaning that access to classifieds & Non-Car will continue until May when the Rep/Post permissions group will be shut down.
The Rep/Posts will be held static, meaning that if you don't qualify when the shut-off occurs, users can't earn the permissions.
Note also that whilst the board needs to discuss certain points, this isn't any indication of a change to what is outlined above. So assume the above is the plan until further notice.
The discussion this change has created is great, and We are taking constructive comments on board for futher discussion.
Further details and explainations will be added once confirmed.
Changes to users permissions on the forums.
Definitions:- To be clarified in separate post & FAQ's
Guest - Not registered to use the forums, Cannot make posts, PM others. View certain sections only
Registered User - Signed up to the Forum Only, Ability to create threads in certain sections, ability to PM others, ability to view certain forums but not create a thread.
Financial Member - Paid Subscription to the Toymods forum & Club. Ability to Post in all Non-Admin forums, Ability to create threads ain all Non-Admin, Non-Sponsor sections, enhanced features (more PM storage, gif Avatars etc)
Forum Sponsor - Forum Sponsor, Same permissions as a Registered User, with the addition of Access to their own Sponsors forum.
Board / Admin - Forum adminstrators (usually Board Members) access to all forums, edit permissions to all forums.(at discression of the board)
Comments Welcome
Cheers
Simon
Last edited by Lambolica; 01-02-2013 at 12:06 PM.
Beige.... The new Black!!!
For those Who have joined since 1st October 2012 and are still awaiting membership packs, you will be contacted individually in regards to your specific Membership options.
Cheers
Simon
Beige.... The new Black!!!
Hi,
This all seems fine except for registered members not having the ability to create threads in the classified section. Finding parts for the older Toyota's is hard enough already if we limit where people can advertise I can see it only affecting ourselves?
Alex
I'd argue that the reduced annual fee (40% cheaper), coupled with online payments would get rid of most of those issues. Sure, the guy who signs up just to sell his $29 AE82 grille is going to have to pay more than he makes from the sale, but those kind of people are the ones who are using the forums purely to flog bits and pieces without contributing to the community. $30 for unlimited For Sale ads to a targeted community is a hell of a lot cheaper than the Trading Post or Carsales.
AE102 - Charlene the Old Faithful, Reborn
JZZ30 - Lexi the Spacecruiser, 1JZGTE>>3SGE. 200rwkw, hunting Skylines and n00bs in SS Commodores
ST162 - Charlie the non-ghey Celica, 3SGE>>4AGE. GOOOOOOOONE
AE82 - Rosie the Bitsa from Hell, 70.8kw atw. Has been converted into garage space and money at last
KE55 - Billie the Beast, sadly missed
Hiro's comments generally follow those of the Board.
Whilst the line has blurred over the last few years, the Forums are an extension of the Club and exist to benefit the Club Members.
The Boards current view is that whilst there is advantage to having registered users posting stuff for sale, the disadvantage is exposing Club members to the few less honest folk among the registered users. And at the same time making Financial membership more attractive over being a registered user by making membership cheaper, and offering more access.
Furthermore, looking at the Classifieds section, most of the threads are either started by current or previous members, and a significant drop in posts isn't expected.
Part of the streamlining is to alieviate the board members admin duties, and part of this is clarifying the old "how do I post in the classifieds" PMs that are quite frequent. (multiple daily PM's from users who register just to sell stuff). The line is more cut & dry. Registered Users Can't post, Financial members can. If a new user wants to just sell stuff without contibuting to the forums then they can contribute by way of supporting the Club that in turn supports the forums.
The board realises that this move will ruffle a few feathers, however, with dwindling club membership, and board members, something needs to be done to keep memberships at a level where the forums are supportable for the forseeable future.
Cheers
Simon
Beige.... The new Black!!!
While i dont have a problem paying to support the forums i feel we (there must be lots of forum regulars and old faces from way back who arent currently paying members) are being somewhat backed into a corner - pay $30 within a week or lose for sale and non-car discussion privileges that we have had forever and be limited to 50 pm's
This doesnt mean im not going to pay but the "stick it to the man" part of me is screaming what the hell!?
Without wanting to create another shitfight, will the extra revenue from many new paying forum users offset the high cost of forum sponsorship which i assume is currently a big contributor to club/forum costs? Id love to get my products out to the toymods community but simply cant justify the price when there are other forums i sponsor for the $50-100 mark. (Not saying it has to be this cheap, but its pretty bloody steep atm)
There is no substitute for PUBIC inches
Never late in an x8
seems like a good idea, dropping the membership to encourage new members. Great for people who occasionally use the forum but don't get along to as meets as they would like. it was hard to justify the old membership fee's when I only made maybe 2 events each year. certianly makes it much more appealing for me to sign up.
I just have a question. when this new setup comes in if registered users currently have ad's in the classified section and more than 50 PM's in our inbox, what happens to these? do you kull the ad's and kull our PM inbox's? I keep meaning to go through them, just never have the time.
89' MR2 AW11... His
00' MR2 ZZW30... Hers
ive been meaning to become a member....but my wife keeps taking my money
RT104 with 4AGTE
Some assembly required
Just to clarify, the 50 PM's I'm pretty sure has always been the case. This is storage of, not total number available to send. So you can have a max of 50 PM's in your PM Inbox/Sent items combined.
I believe you get a warning banner at the top of forums if your are nearing or at your PM limit.
Existing Classifieds threads will not be culled.
Andrew, I've noted your other comments.
Cheers
Simon
Beige.... The new Black!!!
Thanks for the write up and explanation of the changes.
With the digital streamlining just give me a call or email, am still here to go over the web-development side of things when ready with you Board guys.
1982 Soarer MZ11 1JZ-GE VVTi build
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1981-1985 Z10 Soarer Owners International Group
Former rides ~~ RA65 '85 Celica ~ MA61 '84 Supra ~ JZA80 '98 Aerotop ~ AE101 '92 Levin Toyo4life
Yeah man, I'll be calling this week sometime.
Cheers
Simon
Beige.... The new Black!!!
You have just killed the classifieds section
Well done
Here's a brilliant idea, fucking limit the number of posts there. That way the guy with the box of 4AGE parts in his shed can sell them for $50 and the bloke selling shit here as a second job can pay the $30. I wouldn't pay $30 to sell the odd part once a blue moon and I have a good feeling I'm not alone, might as well put it on eBay or take it to another forum.
The main concern seems to be about the classified section, why is the non car discussion forum being punished ?
You mention a cutoff date of the 1st of October for giving applicants an option to moving to the new system.
What happens to the $50 I paid on the 27/07/12 and never heard a peep back except for 'we are too busy, wait and we'll get to you soon'?
Do I just get screwed over for that $50 and have to pay another $30?
Also what happens to my ability to reply to my own build threads if my membership doesn't get rolled over? I'm not to keen on fronting up another payment when I haven't seen any benefit from my last one......
I also +1 on the 'not keen about penalising the non car discussions', classifieds are fair enough, but not the Things that piss you off thread!
Seeing as you are a club member I fail to see how this affects you, unless you aren't planning on signing up again this year? The idea is to stop one post wonders signing up to flog their shit and making 100 useless posts in the forums etc. it costs twice as much to sell a car on Carsales, and eBay fees rack up pretty quickly too. If you wanna flog your mobile phone/Xbox controller etc, go use gumtree...
Terra, we've been busy sorting out who is paid up, who's membership has expired, and who has paid but not received their packs yet. I believe river is contacting those people such as yourself. No you won't have to pay twice. And no we aren't planning on running away with everyone's $50 to the cayman islands. We are all busy people and to be brutally honest, we just dropped the ball with the memberships thing this past year. But we are catching up now...
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