Classifieds

[Richard Niemiec]

Has anyone else noticed the dropoff of posts in the classifieds section since the change to "contributors only"? It seems there's more posts with links to Craig's List saying "not mine" than anything else. I tried to reply to a listing to comment in support of the quality of what someone was selling and was barred....it seems something that worked well was "fixed."

RN

[Joe Chritz]

See one of my posts in the MM tax thread.

Here is the main gist....There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Was it "better" before? Yes

Was it realistic to continue as is? No

There was obviously financial considerations. I doubt that the mods are squirreling away money at their fun house in Cancun so good for them on finding a solution. It is better than closing outright.

Joe

[Keith Outten]

Richard,

I realize that there are less classified threads since we removed Members privileges to post in our Classified Forum however we had to find a way to let everyone know that only 10% of our Active Members donated during our November Fund Drive.

With such a low percentage of our Community providing for our financial support we made some changes and we are in the process of converting to an advertising based support model. Google Ads and an Amazon Store have been implemented and we are now looking for banner advertising sponsors. Clearly the majority here prefer to use The Creek for free so we are trying to find an alternative means of paying the bills.

I felt that the ability to post classified ads here at The Creek was certainly worth our suggested annual donation of 6 dollars. All of the other perks of being a Contributor would be icing on the cake so to speak. The truth is that removing posting privileges has not had a significant impact converting Members to Contributors so I hope that our advertising program will be successful so we won't have to move to a subscription based Forum and remove all free access.

.

[Glenn Clabo]

Richard,
Why are there less postings on the classifieds? What needed to be fixed?

Well...it costs money to run SMC. Keith and family tried for a long time to keep it a donation only site. It became very clear that the vast majority of posters want it otherwise...so Keith went to ads and felt that those who contribute money to run SMC should get more benifits than those who don't.

The real problem is people who didn't contribute felt using SMC for free "worked well"...while it was not. It's now getting "fixed" by going to ads...and giving those who contribute a little extra.

[Clint Jones]

Richard,
It became very clear that the vast majority of posters want it otherwise...so Keith went to ads and felt that those who contribute money to run SMC should get more benifits than those who don't.



I dont see any ad's when did this happen?

[Keith Outten]

Clint,

You don't see advertising here because you are a Contributor. You have the ability to turn them on and off in your User Control Panel, they are off by default.

.

[Richard Niemiec]

The real problem is people who didn't contribute felt using SMC for free "worked well"...while it was not. It's now getting "fixed" by going to ads...and giving those who contribute a little extra.

I understand the choice, and for me, I don't mind the ads, one gets sort of immune to them, but my only point is that the offerings in, and discussion about, classifieds are less in both number (which Keith noted) and variety, and that's perhaps an unintended result of trying to give contributors something "extra" that in reality has the effect of diminishing the overall "value" to members, whether they be contributors and non-contributors. Bottom line, you cut participation, you cut variety.

But, America is a great country, it's Keith's site and he can make the rules and I guess we'll see if this reengineering works out in the long term.

RN

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

It's better this way.

People posting here are required to have made that little gesture of commitment. That (albeit small) level of commitment helps to discourage the hit and run posters that might tend to under-state flaws or misrepresent their wares bearing no harm to their reputations for their malfeasance.

And on the flip side the possibility that a regular creeker will engage in sharp dealing is substantially lessened.

[Craig D Peltier]

Its hard to believe with all the info we get here and all the discussions on contributing that more folks havent coughed up at least $6 bucks, I mean nowadays thats like 1.5 gallons of gas. Less than a muffin and latte at starbucks.
This site an others like it in different fields of forums are invaluable for the info they can provide. Its like having a plumber or engineer or doctor at your fingertips or master carpenter.
I am not well to do, I cant afford festool, I cant afford to hoard lumber, but I contributed and plan to do so again when its asked of us again. It even took a while before I could contirbute , when starting off again in this trade.
Some folks just arent appreciative id have to guess or they feel they havent posted so they dont need to, but read the forums for a year.