Post by SandLapper on Feb 3, 2020 20:23:00 GMT -5
I've only recently discovered the resurrected Regal forum and it's exciting to have the opportunity to have both the shared comradery again and have access to the tremendous resource it can be. If you were familiar with the old site, there were years and years’ worth of knowledge there. It was sad to lose both the admin of that site and its vast collection of knowledge. It's now up to us to rebuild that community...if we so desire. The old site was hosted on a private server by the admin. While that meant it was very, very low cost. It was also very, very high risk, and in the end, that risk took away all the built up knowledge many of us had benefited from.
Av8ator1 took the reins and created a new community for us. So many thanks to him and all of you that have been contributing content and have been spreading the word. To his credit, Av8ator1 used a virtual or Cloud based system (ProBoards) for the new community. That is awesome because it means that the risk of losing all of our information again is almost zero. So our risk is now very, very low. However, it's not free and there are ongoing costs to keep this community going. To date, Av8ator1 has been absorbing this cost on his own. Again, many kudos and thanks to him. But, if we want to see the community grow, both in functionality and in membership, we will need to spend more $$ for that added functionality and growth. I personally do not believe that we should have one person absorbing all the costs when so many of us benefit from the community. But that is simply one man’s opinion. This is a community, and the community should have a say in where it goes. Which leads me to my question. I would like to know what you think.
Do you think everything is fine the way it is, or is there a model where you would be willing to make some small direct contribution to the site? Or maybe you would be willing to make some of your Amazon purchases through a link on the site that would put a very small percentage of your purchases towards the site costs. Maybe both? Av8ator1 is adamant, and I happen to agree, that all the models we're discussing would always be voluntary. I don't think we would ever want to make it mandatory for inclusion in the community. So, what do you think?
Attached is a poll. If you would be so kind, please give us your honest opinion. (You'll see the poll results in total, but all individual votes are anonymous)
Thanks to all!
John
Av8ator1 took the reins and created a new community for us. So many thanks to him and all of you that have been contributing content and have been spreading the word. To his credit, Av8ator1 used a virtual or Cloud based system (ProBoards) for the new community. That is awesome because it means that the risk of losing all of our information again is almost zero. So our risk is now very, very low. However, it's not free and there are ongoing costs to keep this community going. To date, Av8ator1 has been absorbing this cost on his own. Again, many kudos and thanks to him. But, if we want to see the community grow, both in functionality and in membership, we will need to spend more $$ for that added functionality and growth. I personally do not believe that we should have one person absorbing all the costs when so many of us benefit from the community. But that is simply one man’s opinion. This is a community, and the community should have a say in where it goes. Which leads me to my question. I would like to know what you think.
Do you think everything is fine the way it is, or is there a model where you would be willing to make some small direct contribution to the site? Or maybe you would be willing to make some of your Amazon purchases through a link on the site that would put a very small percentage of your purchases towards the site costs. Maybe both? Av8ator1 is adamant, and I happen to agree, that all the models we're discussing would always be voluntary. I don't think we would ever want to make it mandatory for inclusion in the community. So, what do you think?
Attached is a poll. If you would be so kind, please give us your honest opinion. (You'll see the poll results in total, but all individual votes are anonymous)
Thanks to all!
John