VOD Subscription eMail ???????????

[petep900]

Can I just make it VERY clear I have nothing to do with this and don't agree with it.

 

[Head Womble]

Not had an Email, what does it say ?

[petep900]

Not a bloody clue Mark - not had one either

Think Paddy is targeting the non contributors or information leeches as I call them on our Classic Car Forum

[K.H]

WTF?

[Head Womble]

I must admit I haven't directly donated to the VOD for some time.

If Paddy's costs are getting out of hand I would have thought a post asking for donations towards the costs is all that's needed.
As a collective we've not been slow to help out when it's been required.

[petep900]

WTF?

My reaction exactly - not impressed

If subscription is needed then it comes with added responsibilities
eg. a plan as to what services you gain and improvements to be made
utilising the ringfenced money gained by subscription

[K.H]

The last time something was let slip was before all the ads appeared and the forum was making a small profit
As I understand it these issues could be solved by changing hosts etc so surely that should be the first move?

[Julian]

WTF?

My reaction exactly - not impressed

If subscription is needed then it comes with added responsibilities
eg. a plan as to what services you gain and improvements to be made
utilising the ringfenced money gained by subscription

Agree with all you say, Pete.  But as Keith points out the last we heard, the VOD generates a modest profit.  If that's  the case, what are the subscriptions for?  Previous questions on forum funding have gone unanswered, let's hope it's not the case this time.

Before it shut down for the night, I think I read a post on the VOD to the effect that until Paddy posts something to confirm he's requesting subscriptions, we don't truly know it's him requesting the payment.  I thought this was sage advise.

[high compression ii]

I just dont know whats going on anymore on VOD.... Part time, and subscriptions.....Ho-hum......

I had no idea and dont agree with the way its going. It will lead to VOD eventual destruction imho. The bandwidth issues are not the fault of your average user/viewer of the forum.....

I dunno--we see what happens.

[CHUNDER]

One thinks that one cannot believe all one reads as one cannot be shure 
who posted what on where.
 All I understand is someone is realy friging around with the VOD forum
and giving Paddy grief .

[therecklessengineer]

I just dont know whats going on anymore on VOD.... Part time, and subscriptions.....Ho-hum......

I had no idea and dont agree with the way its going. It will lead to VOD eventual destruction imho. The bandwidth issues are not the fault of your average user/viewer of the forum.....

I dunno--we see what happens.

Morning HC. Not seen you around for a while.

I agree. Given that many of the regulars are moving away from the site I think it's going to die a slow death.

[Rossey]

I got one

   20 Mar 2013 17:27:31 GMT
Dear Mark

patrick whetman would like to be paid through PayPal.

Merchant
patrick whetman
sales@goatindustries.co.uk
Note from merchant
Due to the extremely large amount of traffic going through the forum at the moment we are asking for a very modest subscription of £2.00 to maintain your membership. If you find the forum useful, please use the donate button at the top of every page at your discretion. Thank you - Paddygoat.
Description   Amount
Service   £2.00 GBP
Total   £2.00 GBP
Pay with PayPal
patrick whetman would like you to use PayPal – the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. Click Pay Now to continue.

[julianf]

For me, the trouble is...

If my fuel tank had a leak in it, if i didnt have enough cash for a repair, id have to keep chucking in more fuel, but, at the moment i had the cash for a repair, id make that repair.

Most of us donated previously, i suspect more than the running costs for the year that the donations were made in.

I feel that no change has been made.  As i understand it, Paddy has only recently swapped hosts (?) and the software is still outdated.

I understand that its probably not top of Paddy's list of things to do in the morning, and that, to some extent, the forum is probably just an unwanted responsibility.  However, in that case, possibly the admin of it should be taken on by someone else, rather than just pouring (my) cash into a leaky tank : (

[Keef]

Although £2 is pretty small change, I think I may use this as the break point as I'm not sure I can be doing with the ongoing year after year problems that Paddy seems to have with the forum.

Regardless of the fact that the VOD runs at a profit anyway, the forum is in fact a tool in Paddy's business as it vastly improves SEO and probably generates sales in itself (eg Bioboost etc).

Admittedly I don't put much in these days but nor do I get much out, and as previously said, we keep bunging the money in and nothing changes, so for that reason if I get the email ..... I'm out.

[Tony]

Most of us donated previously, i suspect more than the running costs for the year that the donations were made in.

I feel that no change has been made.  As i understand it, Paddy has only recently swapped hosts (?) and the software is still outdated.

The forum software did get updated to the latest XMB little while back - though obviously that has little to do with bandwidth consumption.

VOD's IP address is still in the United Hosting netblock, so hosting hasn't changed.  United Hosting don't provide much of a bandwidth allowance, and are quite expensive when it comes to exceeding this allowance.

We've suggested Aventurehost in the past based on Chug's recommendation - we can see by comparison they are much better value for money when it comes to bandwidth:

http://www.unitedhosting.co.uk/hosting.php
http://www.aventurehost.com/web-hosting.html

But unfortunately Paddy isn't keen on the idea.

If donations are being spent on hosting I feel that this should be spent in the most efficient way possible - and United Hosting don't represent great value for money in this respect, compared to many other hosts out there.