Rokslide subscription, premium access

[suchee]

I was encouraged to bring this up here, and would like too bounce some ideas around a paid subscription forum not unlike BPL, and others.

Im on lightfighter.net from time to time and they use a premium paid use only for a classified thread, allowing another level of buyer/seller protection.

I've been told the relationship with sponsers is excellent with honest feedback being accepted. BUT my feeling is it opens an unwanted open door, maybe only in perception, to sponsor influence.

BPL has no corporate outside influence to sway user reviews.... Well from what i see, just look at backpacker/climbing mag, top rated products tend to always have heavy ad dollars driving/influencing it.
Again this does not happen here, just bringing up what could happen.

Running a forum costs TIME and MONEY.... And for the quality of information and content on here, i'd be more than willing to pay for premium content, unendorsed user reviews(already here, but could be pay per article), gear exchange etc... And maybe help take off any financial pressure ?

 

[colonel00]

I am ok with having some premium goodies if you are a paid supporter. I spend a lot of time on a BBQ site that works this way. There are a few forums (usually nothing that is important content) that open to subscribers as well as other things like having a custom avatar, increased PM storage, etc. I have also seen on a camera forum where you had to be a subscriber to sell in the classifieds. I understand the idea of having a buyer be a subscriber but this is also a niche community so that might cause some people to miss out on selling something to a person that only lurks here a little or stumbles by via a google search.

 

[suchee]

Lol thats me!! 2 year lurker... Ive gained alot of info here, and would be willing to help thats for sure

 

[Justin Crossley]

I don't want to see it go to that. I like Rokslide the way it is right now.

 

[Beastmode]

I don't want to see it go to that. I like Rokslide the way it is right now.

Same here. Pretty good group of guys here. If rokslide goes to a paid site I don't see it being as good as it is now.

 

[Manosteel]

Not to sure about paid subscriptions. I like this site because its open and because its created, maintained, supported and followed by like minded serious backcountry hunters. I have no worries about buying from the classifieds here since the average user is sincer and a man(women) af their word.

You start paying for a right to access certain areas then you are limiting user activity and potentially contributing members. You mention PBL, I am not a member and never will be because of the subscription requirement. As such, I miss reviews on items I may be interested in and potentially would have bought but didn't because I did not read a review that could have been the tipping point for me.

Similar logic for paying to sell your gear or buy gear, you will end up limiting user activity in sales. Bottom line, if you start a subscription requirement, you will lose out on the sites growth and potentially excellent new contributing members.

I love this site the way it is... don't think paying for the right to be a member would make it better.

 

[colonel00]

Just to clarify, I agree as well that you shouldn't have to pay to get anything that is already available. I just think there could be rewards for site supporters. One of my favorite forums on the BBQ site I mentioned is called the Woodpile and it is just a fun forum where people can "hang out" and post random stuff that would be considered off topic for a BBQ forum. Things like funny videos, asking questions about fixing their car, showing off their new "toy", etc. It is amazing the amount of information that can be gleaned from a community.

 

[dotman]

If a paid membership allowed access to articles like the ones on the home page and new ones popped up weekly I would be in. For the forum I don't think it is needed but if we had 4-8 new articles popping up a month on various topics I would pay a $10-$15 a year sub for that option, heck most of us pay more for magazines we hardly read.

 

[Matt Cashell]

I suppose that this is in reaction to some of my actions, so lets clear the air...

Some time ago, Rokslide's admin asked me to help moderate the forum and admit new members. I spend so much time here, and have been writing for the main website, so I agreed. The only guidance was to make sure it doesn't turn into one of those other bickering forums the web is filled with. I have tried to do a good job at that.

NOBODY ever told me to defend the sponsors. NOBODY ever told me to silence negative reviews. NOT ONCE EVER did any company, sponsor or otherwise, express any displeasure whatsoever with the forum, or how it was moderated.

I made my moderation choices alone, based usually on the TONE of the thread, given the instructions I had to try to keep it from going down the path to the other forums. When members take a thread topic as an excuse to wax poetic about how they hate something about the company, or founder, or whatever.

There have been lots of threads that have been critical about a piece of gear, or a sponsor's customer service, or importing issue, or whatever. That is not prohibited. It just seems to make sense to make your point without snyde, rude, sarcastic comments or personal attacks.

As in:

"Acme stoves haven't held up for me, and it seems like the quality went down when they moved productions oversees. I won't be purchasing any Acme products in the future."

vs.

"My replacement Acme Hurricane stove broke again!!!!! I will never buy another stinking Acme piece of junk, because that lousy lyin' Bob Acme is so full of shit his eyes are brown when he swore their Korean-made poopy stove was the most durable stove since the rock circle! Designed in the US my ass!"

Maybe I over-moderated a thread in the past. That was not my intent.

 

[Shrek]

Make this a pay to play place and I'm betting the growth and with it the ad revenue goes south. I trust the integrity of the owners to play it pretty straight. I've been censored more than most but I haven't felt like it was heavy handed to protect advertising too much. I would hate to see this place stop growing and new people deterred by a subscription. All the large sites are free and live on advertising and I've never once been censored on the 24hr campfire or longrange hunting and I've certainly been critical of some of the sponsors. There really only seems to be one sponsor here that many love to hate and although they have been protected from some of the most vitriolic criticism they have still been taking a beating. I think it would be better for them to answer the criticism in their own voice instead of some of the censoring that occurred but there was plenty of critical conversation still left of the products.

 

[Brock A]

I suppose that this is in reaction to some of my actions, so lets clear the air...

Some time ago, Rokslide's admin asked me to help moderate the forum and admit new members. I spend so much time here, and have been writing for the main website, so I agreed. The only guidance was to make sure it doesn't turn into one of those other bickering forums the web is filled with. I have tried to do a good job at that.

NOBODY ever told me to defend the sponsors. NOBODY ever told me to silence negative reviews. NOT ONCE EVER did any company, sponsor or otherwise, express any displeasure whatsoever with the forum, or how it was moderated.

I made my moderation choices alone, based usually on the TONE of the thread, given the instructions I had to try to keep it from going down the path to the other forums. When members take a thread topic as an excuse to wax poetic about how they hate something about the company, or founder, or whatever.

There have been lots of threads that have been critical about a piece of gear, or a sponsor's customer service, or importing issue, or whatever. That is not prohibited. It just seems to make sense to make your point without snyde, rude, sarcastic comments or personal attacks.

As in:

"Acme stoves haven't held up for me, and it seems like the quality went down when they moved productions oversees. I won't be purchasing any Acme products in the future."

vs.

"My replacement Acme Hurricane stove broke again!!!!! I will never buy another stinking Acme piece of junk, because that lousy lyin' Bob Acme is so full of shit his eyes are brown when he swore their Korean-made poopy stove was the most durable stove since the rock circle! Designed in the US my ass!"

Maybe I over-moderated a thread in the past. That was not my intent.

Matt,

You do an awesome job moderating. Keep up the good work.

 

[HellsCanyon]

I would be scared that if you required payment most of the experienced hunters on this board will leave or it'll inhibit more from joining. A FNG will naturally be willing to pay to learn where as a been there done that hunter has very little incentive to join up...

And trust me there are some websites out there that make PLENTY on advertising alone! Imagine 65k+ members on a board with 100+ sponsors paying $2000+ a year to advertise on there! That's a lot of coin....

 

[Justin Crossley]

Matt,

You do an awesome job moderating. Keep up the good work.

I agree 100% Matt.

And I know that you have deleted some of my posts when they were poorly written and the tone was wrong. I have no problem with that at all. Sometimes posts don't come across the way the poster intends.

This site is the best hunting site on the internet because of the moderators and I hope it doesn't change.

 

[Shrek]

I would be scared that if you required payment most of the experienced hunters on this board will leave or it'll inhibit more from joining. A FNG will naturally be willing to pay to learn where as a been there done that hunter has very little incentive to join up...

And trust me there are some websites out there that make PLENTY on advertising alone! Imagine 65k+ members on a board with 100+ sponsors paying $2000+ a year to advertise on there! That's a lot of coin....

^^^^this.
The owners have put in a ton of work but it will pay them well in the future. I would bet that there aren't too many sites that deliver more advertising value than Rokslide does. This is a high end grear junkie hangout and advertisers have got to love this place. I go on some other sites that are related and although they have huge memberships they don't have the real gear related content in the forums that Rokslide does. We may see Robby , Ryan , and Aron hunting sheep all over the world in the near future .Lol

 

[realunlucky]

If a paid membership allowed access to articles like the ones on the home page and new ones popped up weekly I would be in. For the forum I don't think it is needed but if we had 4-8 new articles popping up a month on various topics I would pay a $10-$15 a year sub for that option, heck most of us pay more for magazines we hardly read.

I'm a member of a landcruiser site and they offer a program to be a star member its like 20 a year. It doesn't really offer many benefits( increase pm box, more avatar options, ect.) in the forum but for me it feels good to support something I benefit from.

 

[realunlucky]

That being said I don't feel we are over moderated here, but as membership grows so will the drama

 

[bbrown]

I really hope this is not directed at or an attack of BB or any other of the moderators, staff or Owners. Been around here long enough to know I like the crowd, info, pictures and atmosphere. The few times a few of rabble raisers with bad intentions have tried to disrupt the positive direction of this forum were dealt with quickly and we moved on. I used to visit a few other forums frequently but have slowly drifted away and stick to Rokslide mostly.

As far as making this a paid forum or anything similar I do not like the idea. I would much rather they keep the quality sponsors around and in turn I will continue to spend my hard money with them because of that. I have tried to check out a few of those paid sites like BPL and have moved on just as quickly. Not for me.

 

[Liljozie495]

Same here. Pretty good group of guys here. If rokslide goes to a paid site I don't see it being as good as it is now.

This is by far one of the best most informative site I've ever been on and everyone is nice and friendly. Love seeing all the pics, experiences people had and all the info on gear. This site is growing and growing, as long as it doesn't get drama filled like the local forums why not let it stay the same as it is.

 

[littlebuf]

I would be scared that if you required payment most of the experienced hunters on this board will leave or it'll inhibit more from joining. A FNG will naturally be willing to pay to learn where as a been there done that hunter has very little incentive to join up.......

Have to agree with this. I wouldn't pay a subscription to this or any other Web site for that matter. This site is to the point that many of them get to. Lots of repeat threads "what's your pack weigh" "best gear list" " first time this or that". Make no mistake, I still believe rokslide to be the best hunting based website out there,its just the nature of Internet forums

 

[tipsntails7]

Littlbuf is spot on, this is a great forum but let's be honest it is an Internet forum. And because this has been such a great hunting site more people will want to join which means that this site will get closer and closer to all the other sites in terms of drama, bashing and trolls. I had actually never been to a forum that made you pay a subscription fee till I visited BPL last week in search of a sleeping bag. Now maybe I would have been a one post guy or maybe I would have turned into a constant member of their forum. I will never know because I'm not paying for something that should be public, I do enough of that to states for parking in wildlife areas.
Mods and owners you guys do a great job and have created a site unlike any other. Hopefully we can keep it that way.