The future of aussiefrogs > The Proposal For Keeping aussiefrogs (post#288) > Subscriptions/ Donations Active (post#392) - All threads Merged

You point out the impermanence and un-usability of facebook, in contrast to this forum - something that could be useful.
Also suggested is while you would pay according to your valuation ( royally ) the lower the cost, the more merrymakers.
Could the face book users be co-opted some how - by being mirrored here for posterity and ease of reference?
Certainly there is significant overlap but their page notes no affiliation - could a future forum use Facebook as an entre?
 
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Stay away from Facebook, is my opinion. It is for modern "young People" who only think of today and tomorrow. Good articles from 2 weeks ago are extremely difficult to retrieve, as you have to process pages of worthless chatter. Current format of AF is fantastic.

My 2 cents .....

Ray
 
Yeah facebook isn't designed with this psudo library in mind. Great for short sweet recent snippets, but not a structured forum.

Get your wallets ready everyone, as you all know, this place is worth supporting.

GibGib, how much treasure do you need ongoing each year, give us a target (if you still want to be involved / want to do this? :S )
 
geckoeng said:
Stay away from Facebook, is my opinion. It is for modern "young People" who only think of today and tomorrow. Good articles from 2 weeks ago are extremely difficult to retrieve, as you have to process pages of worthless chatter. Current format of AF is fantastic.

My 2 cents .....

Ray
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I agree, although FB isn't for young people, they too shun the site. Snapchat and Twitter apparently are the go.

There is something going on with the net that I can't quite get my head around yet. I sense a greater fragmentation than ever. Maybe that is only because I am chasing certain cars and information about them.

If you wanted to buy an older French car, you'd look here first, and maybe gumtree or carsales. Now there are so many other sites to look at. It feels like there are so many auction houses taking an interest in classics now too. It's hard to keep up. I am still looking for a good 604 -- granted, this was sold in tiny volume, many caught fire or whatever, so a very, very small pool left. It is like finding a needle in a haystack, because there are so many places to keep up the search. You just can't tell what site the seller thinks is the best one to sell the car on. Could be FB Marketplace, could be justcars, could even be the languishing Trading Post website (geez I should have another look there, forgotten that one).

I've noticed that up to when a model is about 15-20 years old, there is lots of activity on a forum. After that, it becomes sparse. That is a massive generalisation, I know, but it holds for most of the cars I am interested in.

I remember when I first joined AF back in the early days, I owned a 505. There was so much info here as well as a few bulletin boards. Anything you wanted to know about the car, it seemed like someone had experience with. I recently nearly bought a 505, it had a broken sunroof cable. I found one site that mentioned the fix.

I do wonder the long-term future for AF. Fewer new French cars to talk about, fewer old cars left -- or older people left to post about them. I am not saying that I want it to end -- not at all, I'm here every bloody day at least once -- but how do we future-proof whatever evolution of AF that occurs when this one ends? How do we keep up the traffic?
 
Gamma said:
And here I was checking out Frogs for sale in the view of getting another one.....and I find out it is soon to be over....it's been interesting to say the least. I don't want to buy an old pommy car, (puddles of oil and rust....I just could not take it)...
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At least with a pommy car you’d never have to worry about putting petrol in it, given their reliability :)
 
Andrew Watkins said:
At least with a pommy car you’d never have to worry about putting petrol in it, given their reliability :)
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Gee you guys are a bit harsh on the poor old Poms.😁 I had this 1962 Austin A60 a few years ago that I bought as a stripped down abandoned project. No rust ever, even the "surface rust" in the photo I had to spray on. Didn't leak oil and never broke down or failed to start even once. My current 1971 Citroen on the other hand.🙄
But I would I swap the Citroen for the Austin back, no.
 

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bowie said:
Can we fix this with money? I'll pass many hats around.

But echo'ing the words above, this place has been an incredible instrument, social outlet, source of "things" Much happiness due to this place Gerry, :)

Thanks a million for 22yrs worth of stuff here! :)
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I'm with you Mr Bowie!! This is terrible.
 
There’s been many opinions about the dire situation that a closure of Aussiefrogs means to most attendees here. There’s been quite a few suggestions on how it’s continuation can be maintained.
I hope that Gerry is monitoring the thread with an open mind and at some stage will explain to us all the reasons for his decision.
I remember just before the Go Daddy crash where large chunks? of data were lost, Gerry was about to put the site up for sale.
So, is that what’s now needed? A new buyer of the website?
With the outpouring of concern in these 5 pages over its future, maybe there lies the answer.
As mentioned, I hope Gerry will come on board and address this and other suggestions about this great site’s continuing future.
 
I have only been on Aussiefrogs for about three years, but it, and its many contributors, have become part of my life. I agree with the congratulatory comments above . Contributors have assisted me several times with suggestions and information that saved me time , money and frustration in respect of specific issues with my GS, but reading through posts on all the makes provide great ideas generally . I appreciate Gerry's position, in that at some stage you have to evaluate things and if necessary move on, But I hope that someone can find a way of continuing this amazing forum. It is a daily car magazine, a workshop manual covering several makes, and a friendship group all in the one very accessible spot. Bowie and several others have suggested that they are prepared to subscribe for the service, and I'm happy to add my name to that list. Up to a couple of hundred dollars per year shouldn't be too hard to find , so that should give anyone thinking of how to do it an idea of the budget that might be available. For me, Facebook would not be a suitable substitute. Ian
 
The subscription on the landrover forum seems to be working. Given the number of members, your looking at about $10 a year. This issue is this is even more upkeep. And a lot of members will complain loudly and bitterly ....... and leave. You would probably need a huge membership base to cater for the fact you will likely loose a lot of members :confused: .... Another possibility could be to contact whoever upkeeps the landrover forum and see if they can make us a dedicated sub-forum :D

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/payments.php
 
DoubleChevron said:
The subscription on the landrover forum seems to be working. Given the number of members, your looking at about $10 a year. This issue is this is even more upkeep. And a lot of members will complain loudly and bitterly ....... and leave. You would probably need a huge membership base to cater for the fact you will likely loose a lot of members :confused: .... Another possibility could be to contact whoever upkeeps the landrover forum and see if they can make us a dedicated sub-forum :D

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/payments.php
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slap! We've been at war with England for centuries and now you want FR and UK to live in the same place.🥖🥐
 
The shared version of the Toad Pond would be a right laugh :p
 
59 Floride said:
slap! We've been at war with England for centuries and now you want FR and UK to live in the same place.🥖🥐
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Maybe ask Benzworld then instead? :blackeye:

Frankly, Facebook deserves no part in anyone's life until they are broken up, lose s230 exemptions and forced to become merely a public utility.
 
bowie said:
The shared version of the Toad Pond would be a right laugh :p
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I don't think that has a place in a 'free' or open version of this forum using something like Tribe or leeching off another forum. Losing it wouldn't detract much from the car side of this forum.
 
Subscriptions don’t seem to work here.

It was always the intention, as with any business, to make a profit with aussiefrogs.com in a very moral way.

There had been until the intro of Xenforo (current forum software) last year, the ability to subscribe by becoming a VIP sponsor. It was for the ability to post & canvas business within the forum posts. We had a couple of paying subscribers in the early days. This alone doesn’t go very far dollar wise.

The non-paying members are just as important as the paying ones & I see it wrong to charge anyone to add to or tap into the knowledge database.

The idea was always to have an external advertiser(s) show an advert to us with something relevant to our interests.

The “buy sell ads” did not work very well. If you remember there were spots you could click “advertise here”. The external company handled the payments but took a fair chunk of the revenue & a lot of users blocked the ad content anyway. This was ditched when Xenforo came along.

Recently I tried something different to generate $.
A member here started a new business creating merchandise & offered to include aussiefrogs.com. I had a banner going for 2 months prominently on the forum. There weren’t any orders at all.

I am not the kind of person that would enjoy kicking the tin asking for money because we are falling short. It is also more unnecessary work. Subscriptions/ donations or similar ideas aren’t being considered sorry!

aussiefrogs is a business with current registration & trademark in Australia https://www.aubiz.net/company/aussiefrogscom-pty-ltd-126640024/ .

Any other alternative site would need to be not related in name/ logo. I personally don’t care about this, but a subsequent owner (if that happened) may take it as a violation.
 
Wow,

I’m saddened a little by the prospect that it won’t be the same continuum of knowledge sharing that it was. I’m glad it will still be an archive of sorts.

And I’m happy to have been a part of it of it over much of the past 20 or so years. Such a fantastic community, I’ve met some great people, all who have been keen to help.

Thanks to the team who ran it, revived it after the big crash, and to all the people who keep it going.

If the community lives on here or elsewhere (yeah FB is not the best), I‘ll see you all there.
 
gibgib said:
Subscriptions don’t seem to work here.

It was always the intention, as with any business, to make a profit with aussiefrogs.com in a very moral way.

There had been until the intro of Xenforo (current forum software) last year, the ability to subscribe by becoming a VIP sponsor. It was for the ability to post & canvas business within the forum posts. We had a couple of paying subscribers in the early days. This alone doesn’t go very far dollar wise.

The non-paying members are just as important as the paying ones & I see it wrong to charge anyone to add to or tap into the knowledge database.

The idea was always to have an external advertiser(s) show an advert to us with something relevant to our interests.

The “buy sell ads” did not work very well. If you remember there were spots you could click “advertise here”. The external company handled the payments but took a fair chunk of the revenue & a lot of users blocked the ad content anyway. This was ditched when Xenforo came along.

Recently I tried something different to generate $.
A member here started a new business creating merchandise & offered to include aussiefrogs.com. I had a banner going for 2 months prominently on the forum. There weren’t any orders at all.

I am not the kind of person that would enjoy kicking the tin asking for money because we are falling short. It is also more unnecessary work. Subscriptions/ donations or similar ideas aren’t being considered sorry!

aussiefrogs is a business with current registration & trademark in Australia https://www.aubiz.net/company/aussiefrogscom-pty-ltd-126640024/ .

Any other alternative site would need to be not related in name/ logo. I personally don’t care about this, but a subsequent owner (if that happened) may take it as a violation.
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During the times when I have had the means, I considered sponsorship as a way to help out, but I don't have a business as such to promote that would be useful for other froggers, nor did I want to influence the site, which is one reason for suggesting a trust style infrastructure to develop a group of interested people who don't want any control, as that would be a paltry contribution anyway considering all those that have done so much including yourself, on mostly a voluntary basis.

A trust of course has a life of its own both legal and under tax rules and a founder can entrust the entity for the future. Still quite a lot of work to maintain such a structure and has its own costs, but once created it lives on, even though those that came before pass on.

I would have thought that sites such as this must have some market saleability or is that an impossible dream.?

As an onsold entity members would have to accept the business motivated concept and probably not viable without a big money organisation and a move away from the volunteer concept that most of us favour. (Bloody cheapskates..;))

Ken
 
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