Lumber yard forum

[andrew whicker]

Does the private lumber yard forum have open conversations on pricing?

What are the benefits of joining and being able to see / post in that area?

Thanks!

[Matt Day]

You can discuss pricing here if I'm not mistaken. As in "I plan to sell this XYZ what's it worth" or "is this XYZ I found on Craigslist a good deal" etc.

The Lumberyard doesn't get much traffic. Most topics that would go there go in the Off Topic forum.

The main thing you get with your measly $6/yr is access to the Classifieds and Deals & Discounts (D&D isn't very active these days, but Classifeds is). Well worth it IMO.

[Lee Schierer]

As a SawmillCreek contributor for a minimum of $6, you can have contributor status for a calendar year, which includes:

ABILITY TO TURN OFF BANNER ADS
Access to post in the Classifieds
Larger avatar (100x100)
Ability to create and post Blogs
Ability to post public and private project Photo Albums
Access to the private Lumber Yard forum
Double the private message Inbox size
..and more features as we add them

[Phil Mueller]

For a measly $6 you help to ensure a wealth of information continues to be available through this forum. The value FAR outweighs the cost IMO.

[Keith Outten]

Our Lumberyard Forum is a special place here and although it isn't used frequently it has some advantages. The forum is not accessible to search engines so it provides a place to discuss special topics that some may prefer not to be open to wide area networks. It also serves small groups who are involved in developing special techniques or those who are asking for assistance with projects and need feedback and require privacy or protection from commercial interests.
.

[Jim Becker]

All of the above are great reasons to become a contributor, but more importantly, that tiny annual donation that is about the same as the cost of a single quad-venti latté at Starbucks helps keep the lights on here. The cost to keep SMC online and at the performance levels necessary to support the high traffic is real. I honestly don't believe there are very many folks who visit here who cannot financially afford to contribute six bucks a year in addition to contributing knowledge or contributing questions that bring out knowledge. Thanks in advance to everyone, regardless, but even more so to those who help financially, too.

Jim
Forum Moderator
Community Member since a long time ago...

[Mel Fulks]

"It's a good thing". But I think the privacy thing is being exaggerated. I posed a legitimate historical and non political question in it that was quickly shut down with no explanation. It's an OK sand box....just remember it ain't your sand box

[ken seale]

I'd gladly pay the $6 if this place wasn't so overly moderated and if we were allowed to post links to other places.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mel,

The privacy thing is related to the inability of search engines to find and broadcast a post from the Lumberyard Forum across the global internet. It has nothing to do with the ability to discuss literally anything that crosses ones mind.

Beyond that one needs to remember that topics can be subjective. In other words it's a matter of personal opinion. What one person believes nonpolitical may be considered political by others.

[Mel Fulks]

Thanks,Ken. I fully support rights of ownership. And desire that my post be seen as a small complaint about a good sand
box.

[Frederick Skelly]

Does the private lumber yard forum have open conversations on pricing?

What are the benefits of joining and being able to see / post in that area?

Thanks!

For me, the benefit is not in the lumberyard forum or any of the members-only features. It is in contributing to help keep this valuable resource - SMC - available and online. A few years before I joined, Keith nearly had to close the doors - it costs money to host a site like this - and some long time members started a fundraising drive. The thread is out there in the archives and it's a good read - from sadness to "wow, we did it".

I started contributing after about a year, when I realized how much information I was getting. $6 is a starbucks and maybe a donut. For me, it was worth it.

[Adam Herman]

the knowledge here is worth 10x what the contributors pay for it. I am happy that I can help.

[Jim Becker]

I'd gladly pay the $6 if this place wasn't so overly moderated and if we were allowed to post links to other places.
I can certainly appreciate how you feel, Ken, but disagree that SMC is "overly moderated". There is no moderation beyond what is required to support the Terms of Service that the forum owner established (with input from original community members a decade and a half ago) and that every member agrees to when they sign up and sign in. That TOS is one reason that this place is still here, still operating and still experiencing significant traffic. Those things that are excluded here are the very things that make many other places difficult to manage and difficult to participate in. I help manage a couple other forums (different topics) that don't have similar rules and I can honestly tell you that this is a much, much, much better place with a better feeling of community than those other places, for sure.

As to your concern about linking...linking to "other places" isn't forbidden, unless it's another forum or similar or is self-serving. (advertising or financially benefiting the poster) There are a number of reasons that this practice was adopted from the beginning and all of them are to insure the quality of the knowledge base here and to assure that this forum doesn't link to materials that may be inappropriate for our minor members or offensive to many others who come here to discuss woodworking.

I hope you'll reconsider about contributing your six bucks in that light. :)

Jim
Forum Moderator

[Frederick Skelly]

I'd gladly pay the $6 if this place wasn't so overly moderated and if we were allowed to post links to other places.

Many of us favor the moderation Ken. Doesnt make my way right and yours wrong by any means. I just wanted to point out there are different viewpoints on that.