Just my opinion....

[FocusFin]

 In response to the comments that memberships help support the site, and without them, it wouldn't exist:  
Yes, memberships do bring in cash flow, but so do Commercial sponsors. In fact, don't they bring in more money?  I don't know how the sponsorship deal works, but I'm assuming they have to pay a premium to advertise and post here, right?  Gord

The financial support is only one aspect. It's only the paying members who are volunteering to run the club and site. The logic is without membership you have no volunteers and therefore no club, no club no site. One does not exist without the other.

Would you suggest having the sponsors run the site because other than volunteer members, there is no one and there are barely enough volunteers at that.

[RoxyDog]

Thank you all for your thoughts.  Here are a few of mine, and as has already been said, "This is my first and last 2 cents worth...."

First, it seems to me that if we were money hungry, it might be a good idea to charge more than $20 for a membership?     I can assure you we have enough money in the bank that we do not need to find ways to force people to buy memberships. 

If you are concerned with the sponsors, it is my belief you need not be.  If the thought is that we will have less traffic, it may very well be that that will happen.  But, doesn't having less cheap used stuff being bought in the classifieds make it more likely someone will go to them to buy instead?  If my logic is flawed here, please let me know.

Also, if any sponsor TRULY believes any of the changes we have made to this site makes the amount of money they paid for their sponsorship no longer worth it, I will gladly refund the balance of their payment and relieve them of their obligation to this website.  <<--well technically that isn't my decision alone, but I'm quite certain the rest of the Exec will be okay with it.   

I don't always agree with the decisions we make as an Exec, but I do believe everything is done with the club's best interest at heart.  So if any of you really believe the changes are a money grab, then you just don't get it, and I cannot explain it to you, nor will I continue to try.  I am all for free speech and open conversation, but why we're still discussing this is a little beyond me as I believe *most* people would prefer to be done talking about it.  The decision has been made and it's time to return to the reason why I *thought* people frequented this site, for sharing information about this hobby we love, fishkeeping. 

[Nerine]

Well said RoxyDog!

I don't think we shall have less traffic due to changes...This club reaches a very large area of people and not everyone is online only...Our meeting attendances have not changed...have any of you stopped shopping at our sponsors because of the classifieds changed or the rules changed?

[holachicka]

No, I have not stoped shopping at certain sponsor's place of business. I have however noticed a certain something missing here and I can't pin point it...*shrug* oh well, back to what this is all about, to me at least, fish, inverts, corals and meeting fellow nice like-minded individuals

[dan2x38]

Hola & Roxy agreed enough discussion about money. What's done is done. The primary purpose is aquaria. I am more concerned about the HST now... LOL Seriously like HolaChicka says, "back to what this is all about, to me at least, fish, inverts, corals and meeting fellow nice like-minded individuals".

[beertech]

Ok, so enough about money, I know the sponsors are all "big boys" and can speak for themselves. I was just trying to make the point that there are more negative aspects to this change than positive. Actually, I have yet to hear anyone come up with one positive point about the change to the classifieds, or respond to my question:
"What harm was actually being done by allowing non-members to feel like they were welcome and able to post ads? How difficult is it to just monitor and address any abuse case by case?"
As for my opinion, maybe I should try to rephrase it. Restricting the right to post ads to only members will in fact reduce the number of new people who spend time on this site. It may be only a minute number, but still a reduction in traffic. I can say that I have in the past referred people to this site whom I met elsewhere. They had done some trimming of corals, and didn't know what to do with them or were looking to upgrade some equipment, but had to sell the one they had first.  Now, some of these new people will see that they need to buy a membership before placing their ad and decide it's not worth it. They will then go post on one of the other "for sale" sites, and not bother checking this one out any further.  This means that a few less new guests will have the opportunity to view the other content of the site, and eventually become interested enough to become members.  Even if this is just 1 out of 100, why do we want to turn away that 1??   HolaChika said it best: "back to what this is all about, to me at least, fish, inverts, corals and meeting fellow nice like-minded individuals".

[washefuzzy]

I thought you got a freebie, and then it was $5 per non-member for each meeting after that? It's very possible I'm wrong, but that's how I thougt it was.

First couple of meetings you can come and check us out after that we expect one to join the club. The $5 is charged to guest or people coming to their first couple of meetings if we have a speaker that is more pricey or special.

[washefuzzy]

Sponsors bring a small percentage of funding to the club.

[mseguin]

It's always a balance. You see the classifieds being open as more welcoming to people looking to sell. I see the deluge of classifieds ads making the site less welcoming to people looking for information.  Our #1 priority is a club and a forum to share knowledge and camarderie of our hobby. Making sure people get to sell stuff is not as important. In the end, if the hobby and sharing it with others is what's important to them, they will be back to the forum and club. If they just want to sell, there are other sites, or they can become a member and reach out directly to hobbyists. But in the end, my number 1 priority is making this site a place to hang out and share about the hobby, not buying and selling.

[veron]

How is clicking on a classifieds button make the site any worse?? or drive anyone away.
Only people clicking on that button are people looking to sell or buy and most of those people know each other anyways. don't know what the big deal is.  Only thing I can see is that maybe sponsors didn't like it so charge a fee and most won't post. Just my 2 cents.
I can't think of any other FISH SITE that charges a membership fee. but I could be wrong.

[mseguin]

There are lots of sites that won't let you even view or post without being a club member, or paying a membership fee.

[sdivell]

The only thing this thread is missing is a real reason as to why the decision was made to change the forum rules to only allow members to post classified adds.

I have been coming to this site less and less over the past few months due to the general attitude of most of the topic threads and the lack of moderation of off topic posts and inappropriate posts.  The classified adds have never been a problem IMO.

This recent change by the OVAS Exec has left a bad taste in my mouth towards OVAS because it seems more likely in my mind that this change in rules has a lot more to do with sponsors/money than they will ever admit.

I will never purchase an OVAS membership again as I have never been to a meeting, never wanted to attend a meeting, nor were the benefits of having a membership beneficial to me.

I will likely leave this forum and frequent other, non-local forums instead.  The only thing that made this forum better then all the others was the access to a local classifieds.  I will instead get my advice/help elsewhere from a larger audience of hobbyist instead of locals.  A shame really.

[garnpet]

Just to be 100% clear here.

THIS DECISION HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH SPONSOR, MONEY OR SPONSOR'S MONEY.  (please repeat as much as necessary)

[JetJumper]

My Opinion for the Classifieds is to have it auto prune after 30 days.  If your topic doesn't see any update with in 30 days, BANG its deleted.  there are soo many outdated items in there its crazy.

[mseguin]

I guess we can only say it so many times, if you don't want to listen, there's not a whole lot we can do. At this point, I'm getting kind of sick of being called a liar over and over, but whatever.

[Snowgrrl83]

I guess the question being asked is:  What is the REAL reason for limiting postings on the Classifieds to members only?

[charlie]

I guess the question being asked is:  What is the REAL reason for limiting postings on the Classifieds to members only?

http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=44565.0

[mseguin]

Honestly, are you people just not reading? We have stated multiple times why. If you don't like that reason, then fine, but stop searching for this mythical "real" reason.

[Snowgrrl83]

Please don't answer rudely.  I simply asked a question and I'm sorry if I didn't get it the first time. 

The opinion of many is that we haven't seen any rude, commercial or off-topic posts within the Classifieds before these modifications occurred therefore, we're wondering why the Classifieds are limited due to this reason.  We know that its in the "best interest of the club", but we're really unsure of what that means.

[JetJumper]

Please don't answer rudely.  I simply asked a question and I'm sorry if I didn't get it the first time. 

The opinion of many is that we haven't seen any rude, commercial or off-topic posts within the Classifieds before these modifications occurred therefore, we're wondering why the Classifieds are limited due to this reason.  We know that its in the "best interest of the club", but we're really unsure of what that means.

Basically it means as a non-paying member you must go else where for classifieds.  Like I have done.  I still check occasionally, but honestly there isn't much there anymore of interest to me.  There was a lot more random stuff before, but now I just stop checking that portion as often and go to other places