What Forums WON'T you pay to join

[Murgatroy]

I was a founding member of a car site well over a decade (and a half) ago. Being a member of the community for another half decade before that. I have been the admin of said site for at least a decade. While the hosting is covered, I do have a monthly fee I pay that goes toward hosting and the cat who handles our coding. At this point it isn't a viable site, it is just a spot to hold information, tech tips and history/progress of a car that was discontinued by it's company more than a decade ago. I am also the only 'regular/founding' member that doesn't do social media. I honestly believe if I were on Facebook, the owner of the site would shut it down and move all the write ups and tech tips to an archive somewhere. Development on the site stalled at least five years ago and we have less than a thousand active members, with maybe twenty unique daily log ins. 

We have been a close community for many years, as stated above. We have all gotten together for two yearly meets that are our general vacations, one for the West Coast in Canada, and one for the East Coast in Tennessee. We have been meeting at the Tail of the Dragon regularly for seventeen years. We have had several members pass on the site, one I mentioned here was a police officer in Jackson Mississippi, whom I was blessed to know well and consider a close friend. When he passed we had folks drive/fly in from North Dakota, Chicago, Utah, Maryland, Atlanta, Kentucky, Alabama and more to attend his private service. I told his widow when I walked in with twenty cats (my car load alone had been without sleep for a combined 72 hours as I had a ND cat with me) that "I said I would be here. I said we would all be here."

But again, at this point I consider that site a legacy and personal venture. Even a labor of love. Every year on April Fool's Day I ask for a random volunteer. Then I ban them for the day. All these years later, I still get folks that volunteer.

 

Now, to be honest, if I were still in Tennessee, TGO would be a site I would consider paying for. I know that I could anyways, and the site could always use the money, but as I am a state away, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea as to buying and selling.

[AuEagle]

I've never paid to join any forum, made a few contributions, yes, when I felt it was worth it.

I'll be paying the Benefactor fee here as I have a bunch of good things to sell/trade & I feel it's very well worth it.

Thanks for the great forum.

Edited July 20, 2017 by AuEagle