Premium Membership worth $$?

[volcano buster]

Has information that was posted on SnowestOnline been used in SnowestOffline? I had heard rumors a while back that people were not happy that things that were posted were then used in the SnowestOffline magazine.

Truth or fiction?

 

[tudizzle]

your not going to get a straight answer

Christopher says they are seperate...but then mentions getting a delivery at the SW offfice. Says they are different...then says SW corp wants a mod removed.



I think they are separate entities when it is convenient and partners when its convenient.....best of both worlds

 

[snowmobilesrme]

not talking about the numbers silly...

then what r u talkin about silly goose?

 

[tdblakes]

 

[tdblakes]

i really opened a can of worms here didnt I...

 

[KSH]

i really opened a can of worms here didnt I...

Not really, just gave a place for some to vent until the snow gets here.

 

[MPS]

I find these threads, when they pop up, interesting.

If you are primarily a consumer of the information then its a fine deal to pay the subscription price. Although I think you can survive, as I do, as a basic member without missing much.

The whole issue that set people off and drove them away is that Snowest does not contribute much if any knowledge to the cause but wants to make their profit off the knowledge of others and charge them for it. Its the same issue I have with trade shows and such... the gun show comes to the local conference center and they charge me $10 to get in so that I can spend my money. You can agree with that or not, but that is the issue that came up. I understand that argument and agree with it. It for sure has affected how I approach my participation in the forums here.

Is what it is today worthwhile? Sure, I believe so. But no one who has been around here since before the charge change can honestly say that the info is as broad and complete as it was before. Still worthwhile though, sure.

I think you can survive just fine on a basic membership. Funny, but most of the things that we say you get with a premium membership are the social things that are available on other sites.

sled_guy

I also think that it's pretty ridiculous to charge people for using a forum...Imagine if you had to start paying to view wikipedia?! All information is provided by the user(s) similar to a forum.

However, you get 95% of the worthwhile stuff with the basic membership, and if anyone can't see past the 75 post limit and would like to see what is going on in that thread let me know and I'll help you out!

The ONLY reason that I paid for the premium membership was for the digital copies of snowest/modstock/sledheads magazines. Now I can still have access to all of the magazines without paying $6 a pop. If that wasn't the case then I feel there would be no REAL benefit to being a premium member. All of the other bells and whistles are very simplistic addons to a php style forum that anyone can get their hands on and are open-source.

I have to agree with these posts. I think it is fair to call myself a SW veteran. I left because I got pissed off like so many you mention did. I bought a premium membership yesterday, mainly for selfish reasons.

Many of us made the site what it was...the personalities on here, the technical support. We did not like that SW decided to market us. We understood that there were operating costs and we offered different alternatives. Most of the people you mention are on another website that cannot be mentioned on here because SW blocks it's identity. I don't like that either.

Chris and I seriously butted heads for a time during all of that drama. I won't get into the details...but it is water under the bridge now.

Not one of us cared about the amount of money it would cost to pay for access to the site. We left based on principle. There are people on the other site that will surely never come back. However, I vowed to never come back...but here I am. I started a business and need my biz website linked to get a higher search engine rating. I have a lot of posts here (should actually have above 11 or 12 thousand)...so I decided adding a signature would greatly help me accomplish this.

I am not here to b*tch and moan about the past. Everything changes and develops into something else. I am willing to give SW a chance. I will read the digital versions of the magazines. The social bells and whistles don't interest me at all. I think with the web values this site will provide for me as well as the digital magazines it will be worth it for me....and who knows...maybe it can be like old times on here again. I know Ruffy missed me! bwhahahahahaha

Edit: I just looked at my friend's list...most of the people on my list left...lmao. One guy even changed his name to "ex-member." lmao

 

[justinkredible56]

It costs a few bucks to host a site, to maintain the site.
cant be a pure profit deal.
15 a year is a fair price, ive saved thousands wrenching myself thanks to the forums.

I would bet that any of the apparent costs to run this site are recovered within a VERY short period of time with all of the ads posted along the borders. Any excess is pure profit, and I would bet that there is a lot of profit solely off ads.
How else would facebook/youtube/google make money without charging membership fees??

 

[MPS]

I would bet that any of the apparent costs to run this site are recovered within a VERY short period of time with all of the ads posted along the borders. Any excess is pure profit, and I would bet that there is a lot of profit solely off ads.
How else would facebook/youtube/google make money without charging membership fees??

I think you hit the nail on the head right there. It is good to see 22 year olds with good common sense.

 

[christopher]

your not going to get a straight answer

Christopher says they are seperate...but then mentions getting a delivery at the SW offfice. Says they are different...then says SW corp wants a mod removed.



I think they are separate entities when it is convenient and partners when its convenient.....best of both worlds

Let me try to make this clear yet again.

SnoWestOnline owns the Servers, The Software, all the support material, the Code, Ect...

SnoWest (AKA Harris Publishing) owns the CONTENT of the forums.
They hold the copyright to everything that is "Published" on the forums.
They own the Database.

All the hardware that powers the forums lives at SnoWest in the Harris Building. SnoWestOnline rents space in their server farm.


Thats how it has been since day one.
Nothing has changed.

I am in and out of their office on a pretty regular basis. Nothing magical or mysterious about this business relationship.

 

[RMK7SledHead]

I would bet that any of the apparent costs to run this site are recovered within a VERY short period of time with all of the ads posted along the borders. Any excess is pure profit, and I would bet that there is a lot of profit solely off ads.
How else would facebook/youtube/google make money without charging membership fees??

What ads? You mean it's 2011 and you guys STILL don't use AdBlock? I pay for the site...I don't need to see the ads.

 

[snowmobilesrme]

What ads? You mean it's 2011 and you guys STILL don't use AdBlock? I pay for the site...I don't need to see the ads.

thats not the point....

and okay you use adblock... many others dont, as its the internet, and people eat up the internet and the cool things that are on it. every time someone clicks on an ad, that only increases a companies exposure. its a numbers game. that company WILL get business from some of the people that click on the ads. snowest gets paid a small portion, orelse they wouldnt even put the ads up.

 

[tudizzle]

Let me try to make this clear yet again.

SnoWestOnline owns the Servers, The Software, all the support material, the Code, Ect...

SnoWest (AKA Harris Publishing) owns the CONTENT of the forums.
They hold the copyright to everything that is "Published" on the forums.
They own the Database.

All the hardware that powers the forums lives at SnoWest in the Harris Building. SnoWestOnline rents space in their server farm.


Thats how it has been since day one.
Nothing has changed.

I am in and out of their office on a pretty regular basis. Nothing magical or mysterious about this business relationship.

who owns snowestonline.com?

 

[dp2826]

Let me try to make this clear yet again.

SnoWestOnline owns the Servers, The Software, all the support material, the Code, Ect...

SnoWest (AKA Harris Publishing) owns the CONTENT of the forums.
They hold the copyright to everything that is "Published" on the forums.
They own the Database.

All the hardware that powers the forums lives at SnoWest in the Harris Building. SnoWestOnline rents space in their server farm.

that would be one ugly divorce, sound like neither one could function without the other

 

[christopher]

who owns snowestonline.com?

My business owns that domain name.

 

[christopher]

that would be one ugly divorce, sound like neither one could function without the other

Lucky for us we work together quite well.

 

[Tempest]

Well worth it

 

[SledBC]

I love how I can reply to this thread but can't even read or discuss my own reply unless I pay.
A bunch of us made this site what it was (huzurdady, shmo 18urcat, mtg paul, h20toyz, Scott, myself, etc...) if Google can make millions without charging their users surely Snowest can have a forum on their website free of charge like virtually every other site on the internet. Snowmobilers throw money away like it's going out of style and they're using this to their advantage.
I couldn't care less about the $15, but that's not the point.

 

[SledBC]

seriously.....I can't even read my own reply LMAO!

 

[snowmoherb]

Obviously, some think it's worth it to pay and some don't. The problem I see with the whole thing is that it drives a wedge between the members of the community.

Comments like "I won't ride with a basic member" only help perpetuate the animosity.

Did you ever stop to think that they might be new to the forum? Perhaps they are starting out with a free membership to check things out and see what the forum is like before spending the cash. (yes, it's only $15, but that could buy me 3 beers, and I certainly wouldn't throw away 3 beers!)

So now you have new (basic) members and the "PREMIUM" fancy azz members won't answer their questions or ride with their sorry a$$... So if they get treated like crap to start with, why would they want to pay for more of the same?

I did end up paying for the membership, but I think the whole site should either be free or have the whole site pay. It's supposed to be a community and when you have the population divided up into two camps, nothing good will come out of it. (oh wait, it's just like the two party political situation in our government, no wonder people are unhappy )