"I know one thing. Continued caustic attacks and demands on Keith could make him decide it's not worth the personal grief and effort. He might just let it dry up."
--Ken Fitzgerald
BINGO!
Contributor
"I know one thing. Continued caustic attacks and demands on Keith could make him decide it's not worth the personal grief and effort. He might just let it dry up."
--Ken Fitzgerald
BINGO!
Contributor
i agree. Remember I said Time, Money, Aggravation. All this stuff just feeds the aggravation and that one is the most lethal of the three.Originally Posted by Ray Newman
Jim
Contributor
Until one learns to delegate the aggravation parts....so it stops before the Boss sees any of it....including "Nasty-grams"....let the mods take control of the aggravation part....
Contributor
Yep. Before all this came up, I became a contributor. If you don't feel full, unfettered access to this group of forums is worth $6.00/year, fine. If that describes you, quietly go away rather than stirring the pot. Allow those of us that value the service Keith and the moderators are providing to keep this valuable website.
Member
It's Keith's site and his to do with, as he sees fit-we're his guests, and he's been pretty nice, though so much of the time he's so busy hosting us, he doesn't have time to join in the conversations.
If he wants us to continue visiting forever, drinking all his beer, great for us. But he's tired of some being ingrates and wants us to bring a six pack to the party at least once a year!
If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.
Moderator
I like that analogy. I have always considered myself a guest in Keith’s home.
Please help support the Creek.
"It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
Andy Rooney
Member
Thank you to everyone that makes this site work. And for those that claim there will never be a new member much less a paying one, I'm proof you're wrong. I signed up and paid before my first post today (this is my first post). Sheesh, $10 and I'm on the good side, that wasn't hard. And now I get to see the pictures! (I've been lurking for the last couple years).
On to the important stuff, such as sharpening and proper steel alloys!
Member
I've been dismayed by the anger, invective, resentment, and pure negativity of some of the posts in this discussion. When the membership gate goes up, I probably won't join/contribute, but not because I don't appreciate the good value of the conversations here. My income is limited, and my "available" money tends to head toward the local food bank and some of the social action groups we support (which I will not name, so as not to bring politics into the mix). Well, and, yeah, some of it somehow winds up staying behind if I go to an estate sale with interesting tools (insert slightly embarrassed smiley face).
But, to the negative folks: a lot of work has gone into creating this forum, and a lot of people have contributed their money and their time to helping people who are learning how to work wood and celebrating people who are making good stuff from wood. If parts of it don't work for you, you can surely wander around on the internet and find somewhere that does. But don't trash this place or the people who make it work. Add some positive value to the world today instead.
Administrator
In 2005 we were in the same spot we are today, for a different reason but the situation was critical all the same. In 2008 we suffered once again when the economy took a terrible turn and we lost almost all of our advertisers. For the record the situation we find ourselves in right now is serious. Our banner advertising views have dropped from 17 million per month to just 44,000 and this is a trend that will never be correct itself. There is no going back, we have to make another adjustment to remain online.
We have survived and I expect we will continue to remain online, in some capacity, no matter what adjustments we have to make to deal with our current problems. A large number of people will step up and help us to move forward, they always have. Some will leave and come back later when all our problems have been resolved and some will never return.
Such Is Life
Last edited by Keith Outten; 04-01-2019 at 6:36 AM.
Member
I’ve been lurking for a couple years and I’ve never seen anything saying that the site needed financial support.
You can blame that on me if you’d like, but my browsing habits here haven’t led me to see anything about it. It wasn’t until I read this thread about PW.
I strongly support the idea to try another solution before making it a paid only site.
- You could do fundraising drives like Wikipedia does.
- You could put a banner at the top of the site for every user who has not contributed.
- You could limit non-supporting users to a certain number of visits per month.
- You could pop up a message for any user using ad-blocking and tell them they need to whitelist this site to participate.
If any of those were in place, I certainly would have known that the site needed financial support, and would have been forced to ask myself the question “Do I want to help keep this great community up and running?”
Last edited by Glen Pfeiffer; 04-05-2019 at 12:09 PM.
Contributor
Howdy Glen and welcome to the Creek.
These are all good ideas, but one problem is finding someone to program them into the system or finding hosting software with these functions included.
It may be the future of publication where advertisers can include a years subscription with any purchase of a predetermined amount.
To bad we still have to wait for the future.
jtk
- Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation. --Edward Murrow
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 04-05-2019 at 1:59 PM. Reason: added Welcom
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Administrator
Through the years we have tried about everything you can imagine to convince people to donate. We have sponsored over $44,000 in FreeStuff Drawings for Contributors, had fund drives during the month of November for a few years, and a long list of other things that were unsuccessful. The only constant is the response we received when we asked why people won't donate was "why should I donate when everything is free".
I am out of options and patience trying to convince people that The Creek is worth 50 cents per month.
Member
This thread has stretched on for nearly two months. Don't you think it is about time to make the change and move on?
Member
Thanks Jim! I love this community, even though I've only been lurking; I just don't participate online anymore - not like when I was in my 20's and 30's.
If there is interest in doing some things that require programming, I might be able to donate a few hours to help. I don't have many to spare, but I do think this community is worth helping.
Member
Hi Keith. Thanks for all the work you put into keeping this site running. I certainly feel that it's worth paying for - and if you do make it a paid membership only, I WILL continue to support the site as long as it continues to be the great place it is now.
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