SNOWEST FORUMS: Member Comments on "Letter to All Members"

[ericbigbore]

Here is my problem, from the other side of the fence. Just because someone is a member of the industry doesn't mean they have to be biased and wield abusive power and authority over people. There seems to be 1-2 mods that members are generally unhappy with, 2 out of 42, and more than 2 are members of the industry. Its just that the others don't seem to be drawing your ire.

Thank you for addressing my question but I respectfully disagree on this point. I'm certainly not saying that ALL mod's that are vendors are doing a bad job, if any. I just think it's a MAJOR conflict of interest IMO.

Shall we have another poll? I think you would be surprised but maybe I'm off base. Eric

 

[SHIZZIZZLE]

why, oh why..... and I'm a new member....

 

[christopher]

why, oh why..... and I'm a new member....

Just because you live such a blessed life, and have perfect timing.

 

[Ollie]

Ya know.
I have been thinking about this.
What was once an easy to follow, easy to find forum has been split all over the place.

Did things used to get put in places they didn't belong.
Yea.
Did some discussions go overboard.
Yea.

I just don't like what the site has been turned into.
There's WAY too many sections and subsections and sub-sub sections.
It rediculous.
And worse.
It's no fun anymore.
If you pop off on some newbie that doesn't know what the heck he's talking about you get in trouble.
It never used to be this way.
It was fun, you could rass people, you could give em chit and they threw it right back.

The whiny "I don't want to have to read that in my section" crowd has gotten control and ruined what WAS a great site.
When this place goes pay.
I will cancel my account and move on.
The fun is gone and so am I.

 

[IShartd]

My Motivation is to make the site self supporting and to INCREASE the content far beyond whatever has been found here in the past.

How convenient is it to slide right by the word "profit", why do you find it necessary to insult the intellect of the members. The changes you've made to facilitate your speculative INCREASE on content was neither wanted or warranted, now you want us to pay for this. Come on guy, let's call this what it really is, no more than a modern day shake down. You created the problem in an effort to justify the means.

 

[Rizzo]

I dont have time to read through 15 pages of posts but here is my 2 cents. I If someone cant afford $9.00 a year to be member then you have no business owning a sled..LOL.. This is the most expensive damn hobby in the world and I own a Viper and take it to the track and sledding has cost me way more in the last 10 years than driving fast cars. It costs me well over $100.00 a year to be a member on the Viper Club but with membership came benefits. Its paid for itself with better deals for members only. Better info. Free Classifieds, etc etc etc. I would suggest that you ( Christopher ) try to arrange some member only prices from vendors so that it makes it even more worth while to join. I read a little bit and it sounds like you can still access a lot of the forums and make comments etc. So join as a basic member and try it out and if you still like it then join, if not then thats your choice. If it speeds this damn site up I am all for paying a couple bucks a year to become a member. My time is worth a hell of a lot more than a few bucks and if I can get the same info in 1/2 the time as its been lately then I am ahead of the game. See you all in the new paid forum.

Rizzo

 

[montanasledder]

been on this site for years, Met many good people and learned alot. 10 bucks a year. Happily pay that if it improves the site.

 

[christopher]

How convenient is it to slide right by the word "profit", why do you find it necessary to insult the intellect of the members. The changes you've made to facilitate your speculative INCREASE on content was neither wanted or warranted, now you want us to pay for this. Come on guy, let's call this what it really is, no more than a modern day shake down. You created the problem in an effort to justify the means.

OK, I will call it like it is.
The site has LOST MONEY for 11 out of 11 years and they are tired of it and want it to become 100% SELF SUPPORTING.

 

[agent orange]

I will sign up. send me the info

 

[christopher]

I will sign up. send me the info

Thank you for your vote of support.

 

[MtnDoo]

How about this: let's not be 1/2 pregnant about it.

Let's make snowest into the MySpace of snowmobiling sites!!

Completely overhaul the format! (wait, thats actually planned)

- flashing text
- music downloads
- tweets
- photos of your neighbor naked
- photos of your dog naked
- some cool advertisements for shave products and deodorant
- Ads for Horror movies

You could go all X-games snowboarder on it! Fresh, live Hip-hop style!
You could target the 13-23 year old crowd exclusively.

The hell with the community and what made snowest work so far.

No need for these old dogs that can answer clutching questions - better to chat about your pink plaid freestyle costume and which dashbag looks best on your 550fan dad bought you.

 

[christopher]

You must be talking about some other site, since that is clearly not where we are heading.

 

[Spur]

It's been a good run. I have enjoyed the site even though I'm not a big poster.

Best of luck to you SW.

To the rest of you, ride hard and stay safe.

Im outta here.

Spur

 

[tudizzle]

New Snowest theme song released

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4

 

[drscotch]

I apologize in advance and admit I didn't read all 15 pages of replies. I will however offer my opinion on the first post from admin.

First of all, $10/year - big deal, who cares? Well, it's actually $30 up front for 3 years. OK, that's still reasonable. So if only 1/2 of the existing 36,000 members decide to pony up, that's an initial cash injection of $540,000 or drawn out over 3 years $180,000 per year to spend on hardware, software, bandwidth and someone to look after the site (part time). Add to this new members at $30/year and advertising revenue....

I'm in this business and I'd like to know if I can bid on this contract? Sounds pretty good to me. You can argue that 1/2 the existing membership stepping up might be aggressive, but when looked at from the $10/year side, it likely is reasonable given what $10 gets you these days.

This smells a little like, "hope you enjoyed our crappy free service, now that you're hooked, will fix the issues and let you use our inexpensive but highly profitable service"

Get rid of all the useless & stupid features, remove all the advertisements that use up 1/2 of the screen real estate (particularly the advertisements for your magazine) and charge a fair price for the end result.

A for profit forum is risky business these days. Good luck! I hope it works as I do enjoy the form. I'll likely pay the $10 too.

 

[christopher]

Your too funny man!

 

[MtnDoo]

You must be talking about some other site, since that is clearly not where we are heading.

ROTLMFAO - 95% of 296 posts says it is.
I suspect some of them actually read the opening post.

But then again, that's just a small % of people you serve.
The rest we know waaaaannnt all of this crap as evidenced by their deafening silence.



MD.

 

[SnowXTC]

Christopher,
I have not read all the replies and I have not totally thought out my answers here. Besides, I will have to write them in Word and copy them here because whenever I try to post something longer than 30 lines it never works.

I just think it would be a good thing if you did not go to the Spokane Snow Show or put yourself out there physically around members right now. I have serious concerns about your safety.

 

[backcountryislife]

I dont have time to read through 15 pages of posts but here is my 2 cents. I If someone cant afford $9.00 a year to be member then you have no business owning a sled..LOL.. This is the most expensive damn hobby in the world and I own a Viper and take it to the track and sledding has cost me way more in the last 10 years than driving fast cars. It costs me well over $100.00 a year to be a member on the Viper Club but with membership came benefits. Its paid for itself with better deals for members only. Better info. Free Classifieds, etc etc etc. I would suggest that you ( Christopher ) try to arrange some member only prices from vendors so that it makes it even more worth while to join. I read a little bit and it sounds like you can still access a lot of the forums and make comments etc. So join as a basic member and try it out and if you still like it then join, if not then thats your choice. If it speeds this damn site up I am all for paying a couple bucks a year to become a member. My time is worth a hell of a lot more than a few bucks and if I can get the same info in 1/2 the time as its been lately then I am ahead of the game. See you all in the new paid forum.

Rizzo

What I hear over & over is that had they asked for money when it was a site that we all liked, there wasn't moderator abuse all over the place, it wasn't split up, and wasn't a bunch of foo foo junk on here, about 1/4 the amount of people would have complained. The problem is, they went against what most of us wanted, haven't taken a SINGLE piece of constructive criticism & changed, and they have screwed up the way that many of us interact with the forums...
Then they told us we needed to pay.

Everything about this implementation has been poorly thought out.
Then you get to the fact that Christopher sneaks by any of the hard questions & answers what he can twist to sound good without facing the real issue that people ask, and you have a pretty frustrated bunch of users.

I also think that most folks find it hard to believe that ALL these other sites can survive without forcing people to pay, but snowest (who's magazine is just a multi-page ad as it is) is incapable of the same thing???

The frustration has very little to do with the $$.

 

[LADIES MAN]

hmmm im not so sure about this place... I dont log on very much but it seem that payin for something you can get for free elsewhere is just plain stupid! I guess Ill just move on..