Members and Contributors

[jack duren]

As a professional should I pay or be payed?

I'm here because it's a hobby for me and try and help or argue(sorry), but payed every week as a professional in this field....

[Jim Becker]

Jack, if you enjoy the forum and find it valuable for any reason, giving and/or receiving, there's no harm in helping support it financially. But that's a personal decision.

[Scott Shepherd]

As a professional should I pay or be payed?

I'm here because it's a hobby for me and try and help or argue(sorry), but payed every week as a professional in this field....

I don't know, when you ask a question, do you plan to pay for other people to answer your questions?

This forum is built of people who are happy to help those who ask for help or want to learn. Members, Contributors, Moderators, and Owners all contribute to that. There are 10'000's of professionals on this forum who offer up their knowledge every day because they wish to help others. SMC gives them a place to do that. I suspect if everyone thought they should be paid for their advice on the internet, then there wouldn't be many people on the internet.

[jack duren]

I don't know, when you ask a question, do you plan to pay for other people to answer your questions?

This forum is built of people who are happy to help those who ask for help or want to learn. Members, Contributors, Moderators, and Owners all contribute to that. There are 10'000's of professionals on this forum who offer up their knowledge every day because they wish to help others. SMC gives them a place to do that. I suspect if everyone thought they should be paid for their advice on the internet, then there wouldn't be many people on the internet.

I give and take information on these wood sites.. Free is a good trade...

[Scott Shepherd]

I give and take information on these wood sites.. Free is a good trade...

Except it's not free. That's the point. It has to be paid for by some method. Paid membership or selling advertising. They are the only two available revenue streams. If people don't support the ads and advertisers, then where's the money come from?

[jack duren]

It's free to me and that's the point...I'll not pay to be on this site..

[Scott Shepherd]

It's free to me and that's the point...I'll not pay to be on this site..

No one's said you need to. Everyone is welcome here.

[Simon MacGowen]

It's free to me and that's the point...I'll not pay to be on this site..

This is the point my previous post was trying to address. As a first step, owners of the site need to collect some intelligence on how existing members and contributors feel about a pay-to-access Forum.

Simon

[Simon MacGowen]

As a professional should I pay or be payed?

I'm here because it's a hobby for me and try and help or argue(sorry),

As long as the arguments are made with valid reasons, they add to the discussions in this Forum.

I hate to be part of a group in which everyone agrees with everyone. Such groups DO exist...you can easily tell from the comments of the followers. To an outsider, they seem to be all blind, in the sense of blindly following the Blog owner. I like to think that if the Blog owner tried to fool every one of his fans for an April event by saying if you soaked a furniture piece partially in the bathtub for a minute or two before applying the last coat, he would succeed!

Simon

[Stan Calow]

I count how many hours a month I spend being entertained on this site, and figure its worth a lot more than $6 a year. Thats a lot less than the woodworking magazines I buy, and with a lot more good information. I can understand not wanting to pay, if its just an occasional thing to do.

[Brian Henderson]

This is the point my previous post was trying to address. As a first step, owners of the site need to collect some intelligence on how existing members and contributors feel about a pay-to-access Forum.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but my question is, no matter how small the contribution, what do contributors get for their contribution? You can sell things. Great, I don't sell anything. If I ever wanted to buy anything, and I don't because nobody lives within 1000 miles of me, but if I did, I can just PM them and don't have to be a contributor for that. All of the other things on the site that were contributor-only are gone. Giveaways? Nobody has done one in over a year. Contributor-only forum? When is the last time there was a post there? I think that's something that the administration needs to ask, why should anyone contribute, other than the good feeling they get for doing so? What are the demonstrable benefits?

[Frederick Skelly]

And there's nothing wrong with that, but my question is, no matter how small the contribution, what do contributors get for their contribution? You can sell things. Great, I don't sell anything. If I ever wanted to buy anything, and I don't because nobody lives within 1000 miles of me, but if I did, I can just PM them and don't have to be a contributor for that. All of the other things on the site that were contributor-only are gone. Giveaways? Nobody has done one in over a year. Contributor-only forum? When is the last time there was a post there? I think that's something that the administration needs to ask, why should anyone contribute, other than the good feeling they get for doing so? What are the demonstrable benefits?

What you get is the continued existence of, what I believe to be, a really great place to hang out and learn. If that isn't something you want to be concerned with, that's perfectly ok - we'll cover you because the knowledge and experience you bring is sort of "payment in kind" (as I think Jack Duren was saying earlier). All I ask is that you participate/share what you know rather than just lurk. Lurkers don't usually give much back.

Another reason I decided to contribute monetarily - and this is not intended as a dig at Brian or anyone else - is that I got to feeling like the guy who always drinks the drink that somebody else bought, without ever buying a round myself. But that's just me. Doesn't mean anyone else has to feel that way.

Fred

[Brian Henderson]

What you get is the continued existence of, what I believe to be, a really great place to hang out and learn. If that isn't something you want to be concerned with, that's perfectly ok - we'll cover you because the knowledge and experience you bring is sort of "payment in kind" (as I think Jack Duren was saying earlier). All I ask is that you participate/share what you know rather than just lurk. Lurkers don't usually give much back.

Another reason I decided to contribute monetarily - and this is not intended as a dig at Brian or anyone else - is that I got to feeling like the guy who always drinks the drink that somebody else bought, without ever buying a round myself. But that's just me. Doesn't mean anyone else has to feel that way.

And for a lot of people, that's not enough. I mean, look over at YouTube, the woodworking channels there don't exist off of people's good will and continued content, if they want people to donate on Patreon, they have to provide more. They have to provide exclusive contents, giveaways and the like, otherwise people just don't donate. You might be right that people SHOULD give just for the sake of giving, but people DON'T. This isn't just true here, it's true EVERYWHERE.

So let's deal with reality and not wishful thinking. That's not intended as a dig, it's just the way things are.

[Frederick Skelly]

And for a lot of people, that's not enough. I mean, look over at YouTube, the woodworking channels there don't exist off of people's good will and continued content, if they want people to donate on Patreon, they have to provide more. They have to provide exclusive contents, giveaways and the like, otherwise people just don't donate. You might be right that people SHOULD give just for the sake of giving, but people DON'T. This isn't just true here, it's true EVERYWHERE.

So let's deal with reality and not wishful thinking. That's not intended as a dig, it's just the way things are.

I understand. I didn't intend any wishful thinking at all. I described the two reasons I personally donate as one possible answer to your very valid question "what do contributors get?" I agree it is unrealistic to expect that everyone would/should/will give without a good answer to your question, because there's so much free content out there. So most people in real life don't work like that. I'm the odd man out because I just happen to. YMMV.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple years won't it?

Have a good week!
Fred

[George Bokros]

Regarding ads, a little garage door company in my neck of the woods just had an ad pop up here on SMC. I am puzzled because I am sure the owner likely has no idea of the existence of this web site so why is there an ad popping up on here from them if the hosts of SMC derive revenue from the ads??

I as on their website last week looking for a company to replace my garage door opener since I did not want to do it myself and now they pop up with an ad on SMC.