Make fourm read only for non subscribers

[RavetcoFX]

I was thinking that making this fourm read only for non paying users could make it a valuable resource, as the point of paying to use this fourm is to have your exact question answered, but if it were read only, someone might be able to learn from the existing threads, and give them a taste of what they could have if they were to pay. I imagine there are many younger or people in poorer parts of the wold that wouldn't be able to afford the $30USD that watch Rossmann's channel that could benefit from just accessing this fourm in a read only mode to learn repairs on their own.

Just something to chew on.

 

[larossmann]

I hear you, but the idea of this forum is that it is intended for people who are in the business. If you are doing this for a living, even if you are undercutting everyone, $29 is a drop in the bucket to fix a few boards. For people who are younger or in poverty there are 220+ YT videos front to back describing everything for free.

My goal is to keep this a low key, private, member's only club, and to keep it from becoming a cespool of riff raff.

 

[nate8organic]

^^ this is funny because my brother and i brought this up the other day and are totally with Louis here.

We discussed that maybe in the future when there is tons of already solved cases you can search for to find a basic run down of where and how to solve your specific problem without having to ask questions and can only view as a guest. well that would take lots of advertising so if you want to have flashing blinking annoying things in your peripherals then more to you. so there in my opinion will always be a payed membership. honesty you pay for what you get.

Without a doubt i would pay a $100 a month or even $30 an employee to have access to direct help and see it as nothing but a small expense in running my shop. seriously if you factor all the costs you pay every month to run your business $30 to an exclusive non over ran help line/forum for finding answers is how could i say this *** PRICE LESSSS*** Seriously congrats on bringing this online, and keeping it exclusive so it wont turn into a cesspool
Bless up!
"Health is Wealth, It starts with your self"

 

[Monkey Bytes]

I hear you, but the idea of this forum is that it is intended for people who are in the business. If you are doing this for a living, even if you are undercutting everyone, $29 is a drop in the bucket to fix a few boards. For people who are younger or in poverty there are 220+ YT videos front to back describing everything for free.

My goal is to keep this a low key, private, member's only club, and to keep it from becoming a cespool of riff raff.

This makes me think of some of the unusual indian (I think) sites that charge forum membership by the day. I've been guilty of paying $2 just so I could download an assload of schematics and boardviews only to never return.

If the forum were public, then this website could at least contribute to google results. A place where the weird one-off problems are actually SOLVED. I always appreciate more of those. Now with it remaining private...

I know you *clears throat* don't nor will ever distribute schematics or boardviews. Yet that's probably the #1 or #2 incentive for people to pay $30/mo.

Will a paywall keep things hidden from Banana Incorporated? Nah.
Is it a good idea to turn a blind eye to members distributing educational material amongst ourselves?
Probably not but it would be amazing to have a safe place to do so.

 

[nate8organic]

i actually have to disagree with monkey bytes on "Yet that's probably the #1 or #2 incentive for people to pay $30/mo." this is def not true at all in fact i did not join this site to get any schematics. the schematics are out there sometimes it takes 3 hours or even days and a random seeder will come online and then bam you got it. the torrent sites are for that, not a help/ forum. and if there is anything that gets shared here about finding schematics or asd would indeed help send people in the right directions for rare or hard to get asd or schematics but that needs to be a community post and needs community input that is always changing information.

 

[RavetcoFX]

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting anything that would turn this place into a cesepool, just what Monkey Bytes was saying, have solved answers available for read only so that they show up in google and help people if they have the same one-off problems. This is absolutely invaluable and cost wise its nothing for a business.

 

[Repairable]

leave is private imo there is already inuf free/readonly/infested places already.

 

[larossmann]

Will a paywall keep things hidden from Banana Incorporated? Nah.
Is it a good idea to turn a blind eye to members distributing educational material amongst ourselves?
Probably not but it would be amazing to have a safe place to do so.

If I saw people attaching boardviews or schematics I would delete it. If it happens repeatedly I'd just delete the user. I can't have that here. There are too many places online to get that stuff from, and this isn't one of them. If this ever becomes implied as a place to get schematics or boardviews I'll have to police it more and strictly and disable attachments altogether and start banning people, but I hope it doesn't get to that point. However, when that DOES happen(which it's bound to), I'd rather it be for ten minutes behind the eyes of the members than in front of the prying eyes of the entire internet: wayback machine caching, google caching... no thanks.

In terms of indexing it to make it easier for others or Google, I don't care. Let me explain.

I believe knowledge is free. I would not seek to hide information. However, delivery of the information, and formatting of it, is not free... free is a bean plant or corn in the backyard of my house that you can go and get and cook. $29/mo is "heeeeeeere comes the airplane!" as I take the spoon of prepared Gerber's food and take it directly to someone's mouth. That "heeeeeeere comes the airplane!" level of service is for people who paid. I really have no desire to give away more for free than I already have. The collection of information you'll find on the YouTube channel is more than you'll find on this topic everywhere else on the internet. Answers to specific issues, with tool lists, strategies on troubleshooting as well as specific solutions, techniques on microBGA/large BGA/QFNs/jumper wires. It's all on YT, and it's all free. If people do not wish to pay $29/mo for specific answers to specific questions, they can just go through the videos and find it there or figure it out on their own as Duke & I did for years of our lives before we knew wtf we were doing.

Further, it makes the read access a part of the value. I honestly don't feel like dealing with "I didn't use the forum for two weeks, can I get a $14.50 refund" messages; or any customer service at all. This is a business to business resource that is dirt cheap for what it is. This forum makes up less than 3% of my business' gross revenue, can't say what it is for duke's, so it's not worth the time or effort if it becomes a liability, a nightmare, or a customer service hell. Read access for paid users only increases the value for a paid user, but also gets rid of that entire "I didn't post for two weeks so I am entitled to a two week refund" thing by including the readability in the value of the subscription.

It isn't even about the money here so much as it is about having to figure out a way to figure out if people logged in or not, look up their account, wait for PayPal to load, find their payment, refund it, log into quickbooks, refund it from accounting and setting a precedent that we do that for users who ask. Duke and I already have to weigh posting vs. spending our time on paid repairs for $200-$400, it can't turn into something that requires real customer service on top of that.

I like the idea of this being a private community.

 

[Monkey Bytes]

If I saw people attaching boardviews or schematics I would delete it. If it happens repeatedly I'd just delete the user. I can't have that here. There are too many places online to get that stuff from, and this isn't one of them. If this ever becomes implied as a place to get schematics or boardviews I'll have to police it more and strictly and disable attachments altogether and start banning people, but I hope it doesn't get to that point.

The workaround I've seen on AdvancedReworks seems to have been the "Pm me and I'll give it to you." If your messaging system was unmoderated or 100% private, liability ought to be shifted to the individuals doing the distributing rather than this forum as a whole. It's not like Banana Inc. will go after a couple hundred stray users; they just want to wipe the resources from the eyes of google.

I like the idea of this being a private community.

I love that too! Inevitably, this forum will be dependent upon the individuals you pay to provide answers. Most public forums instead rely on the goodwill of others willing to share knowledge. $29/mo gets you spoonfed specific information.

Have you thought about making a portion of the site members only? On one hand, it will not make you money directly, it may take away from the value of the paid forum, and it will require further infrastructure. On the other hand, it allows a seeding point to expand the existing community, it can provide a free entry point for people considering paying for the paid forum, and people who desire to spread their knowledge with others freely will have an outlet to do so without paying with their money.