Membership would no doubt drop , and quality may go up.

Even if the numbers dropped in half you would have over $2000 to pay for the forum. Setup a paypal Acct , or monthly payment plan. Cliff , you are far too nice and have to start looking out for your own interests. You shouldn't have to fork over a dollar. I for one would be more than happy to pay for the valuable information that I recieve.

Set it up so people could buy 1 year at a discounted rate of $10.

If there are 2000 serious members on the forum then you would have enough to cover costs and perhaps even some improvements. This forum is a service like any other and should be treated like it. PayPal has an international feature in which you could setup an account.

I thought of suggesting charging for the use of the mall , but Ithink people would just turn to the mailing lists or other mediums.

I wouldn't rely on banners alone , it may not be enough to pay the bills at the end of the month. There are a few places I could think of that would get involved with banners , but it's hard to speculate how much income this would generate. How much do you charge for a banner and how long does it get to stay? What about all the infighting on the forum. People start a post and Bad mouth Shop XYZ , then shop XYZ wonders why it has a banner on a forum where they are being bad mouthed. They get upset , the banner is removed and you have more headaches on your hand.

Just some ideas.

JM

I would be willing to make a donation, buy PFF merchandise, purchase a membership, etc. This place it too good of a resource to loose.

I like the idea of "Official" PFF merchandise, too. T-shirts, Hats, etc. Maybe that would help.

I would encourage anyone who sells on the Mall regularly to purchase a banner ad, if and when they are available. I, for one, will start my Fiero vendor search there. If I have a choice between a PFF advertiser and a non-PFF advertiser, the PFF advertiser will get my money, hands down.

Yeah, and I'd put a stop to "FieroLisa" threads. That girl causes nothing but trouble. j/k. But, definately curtail the O/T pic threads, and I'd limit the size of pics in general.

All the vendors in your vendor section are already getting enough free advertising Cliff! They should be more than willing to pay for a banner because of all the business that this Forum has created for them!

Oh, and I think that pictureless sigs (just a few lines of text, not every single mod you have on your car) would be a good idea as well.

The idea about having ever pic that is posted in a thread turned into a link that someone could follow at will is also a good idea. That way, if someone is following a thread, but have seen all the pics in it, they don't download them again and again. They just download the text that says "click for my engine pic" or whatever.

If banner adds can generate the encessary funds to keep the forum up and running, thats great! I would not care if there were adds on the forum!

If thats not enough, and you decide donations are the way to go, I think you might run into a LOT of them initially, and then won't see many more in the future. It would die out, and you may occasionally have to beg for more.

Cutting down on badnwith here and there may help some, but people are still going to post, and with ever increasing number of members there will be more and more posting.

Membership fees may chase some away, and may cause some not to join. This would not help the forum or the community much. On the other hand, if your paying $1000 per month and there are 4000+ members, it would come down to a Quarter per member per month. A yearly member ship would be a bank-breaking $3. To me this sounds like a screaming bargain for this place... especially compared to the people mailing $35 per year to FOCOA. I know you don't want to go this route, and maybe it would be an administrative headache that wouldn't make it worth it. For members, however, it is next to nothing, and I am sure most people here would gladly pay it.

AMEN

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• Red 88 GT T-TOP 3800SC (very soon)
  
• Red 86 GT
  

I don't know if you have come up with a format yet, but I would consider taking a look at the LS1 forums ( www.ls1.com ). I feel they have the best banner setup around. It sits up at the top of the screen not taking up much space, and I feel it's very unintrusive.