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There have been a lot of posts recently asking what the premium membership is and why it was created. I have closed a couple of other threads and pointed folks here to keep all of the info in one place. Here's the skinny:
The standard FREE membership is not going away. This site has always been and will always be free to join, post, gather in fellowship, commiserate, whatever. I have no plans to change that.
With that said, I have always wanted SS to more than it has been. Bigger and better in all sorts of ways. That takes several things; money, committed staff and dedicated membership. Unfortunately, very little progress was made over the last few years and I know many of you became disenchanted with the site. Some of our really good members just walked away frustrated and disappointed. Hopefully, they will start to come back once they hear things are changing for the better.
Thanks to Patracy, things are looking up around here. We have our TM section back, we have new classifieds and the software and add-on's are being updated. I have been drawing on the very broad base of experience that Patracy has to implement these positive changes. He has seen a lot of ideas that have worked in forums and lot that have not. Personally, I struggled with what to do with the classified ads for the last couple of years. I really liked having ads out of the forums in a separate area. It seemed like that software add-on was going to be the answer to our problems, but unfortunately, the software just didn't work right. We couldn't get ads to expire, couldn't keep the spammers out, couldn't mandate prices or link locations to user accounts. It just didn't work.
So, after a long discussion with Patracy, we decided to go back to forum classifieds, but there would have to be some restrictions on them to keep them from being abused. I didn't want zero-post members or members with nothing invested in the site to take advantage of our hospitality by coming in, pawning their stuff, and then disappearing. I didn't want the spammers to be able to come in, sign up, and start selling viagra and cialis. That's where the Premium Membership comes into play. Anyone, even non-members, can view the ads, but if you want to sell in the forums, then you have to shell out for the Premium Membership. You have to be invested in the site to use the classifieds, but there is a lot more to the Premium Membership than just ads. Let's break that membership category down a little more.
What do you get for your $15 annual membership? The ones we have discussed so far are:
- Access to post for sale ads
- Custom user title
- More PM inbox space
- Private forum access
- and a few other hidden features...
Those are nice, but I am working on a plan to implement a few more too:
- Steel Soldiers Web-zine: a regular online publication with articles written by some of the great MV writers of our generation. It will come out monthly or quarterly, depending on how many folks I can get to write for us.
- Special SS Deals: Coupons and codes that will get Premium Members special deals on MV parts from some of our great vendor members
- Special Group Buys: Premium Members will have access to Group Buys also set up through our vendor members
- More to come!!
Where's the money going?
- Website upgrades: software and hardware upgrades, a much needed facelift
- SS benevolence fund: special fund run by our chaplain to support members in need
- Charitable giving: a big chunk will go out every year to support all sorts of great causes like the Wounded Warrior Project
- SS Convention: I am hoping to have a national SS convention organized within the next year
- Rallies: There will be funds available to support SS sanctioned rallies
- Insurance: SS, LLC has to keep liability insurance with all of the off-road rallies, etc... where members participate
- Staff/Expenses: CPA fees, taxes, admin, server hosting fees, etc...
I have a great vision for this website and I have been energized by the progress Patracy has made over the last couple of days. It has been so refreshing! This will be a work in progress so you will see things change one direction and then go back the other way if it doesn't work. Please excuse our mess as we go about the business of building SS back into the premier MV website in the world.
God bless and thanks for your help!
Edit:
To upgrade to the paid membership, use the resources drop down at the top banner. Or follow this link.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/payments.php
Edit:
To renew, use the same link above as well. Here's a little more info about why it's crucial to use the page.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?98783-Paid-membership-renewal
The standard FREE membership is not going away. This site has always been and will always be free to join, post, gather in fellowship, commiserate, whatever. I have no plans to change that.
With that said, I have always wanted SS to more than it has been. Bigger and better in all sorts of ways. That takes several things; money, committed staff and dedicated membership. Unfortunately, very little progress was made over the last few years and I know many of you became disenchanted with the site. Some of our really good members just walked away frustrated and disappointed. Hopefully, they will start to come back once they hear things are changing for the better.
Thanks to Patracy, things are looking up around here. We have our TM section back, we have new classifieds and the software and add-on's are being updated. I have been drawing on the very broad base of experience that Patracy has to implement these positive changes. He has seen a lot of ideas that have worked in forums and lot that have not. Personally, I struggled with what to do with the classified ads for the last couple of years. I really liked having ads out of the forums in a separate area. It seemed like that software add-on was going to be the answer to our problems, but unfortunately, the software just didn't work right. We couldn't get ads to expire, couldn't keep the spammers out, couldn't mandate prices or link locations to user accounts. It just didn't work.
So, after a long discussion with Patracy, we decided to go back to forum classifieds, but there would have to be some restrictions on them to keep them from being abused. I didn't want zero-post members or members with nothing invested in the site to take advantage of our hospitality by coming in, pawning their stuff, and then disappearing. I didn't want the spammers to be able to come in, sign up, and start selling viagra and cialis. That's where the Premium Membership comes into play. Anyone, even non-members, can view the ads, but if you want to sell in the forums, then you have to shell out for the Premium Membership. You have to be invested in the site to use the classifieds, but there is a lot more to the Premium Membership than just ads. Let's break that membership category down a little more.
What do you get for your $15 annual membership? The ones we have discussed so far are:
- Access to post for sale ads
- Custom user title
- More PM inbox space
- Private forum access
- and a few other hidden features...
Those are nice, but I am working on a plan to implement a few more too:
- Steel Soldiers Web-zine: a regular online publication with articles written by some of the great MV writers of our generation. It will come out monthly or quarterly, depending on how many folks I can get to write for us.
- Special SS Deals: Coupons and codes that will get Premium Members special deals on MV parts from some of our great vendor members
- Special Group Buys: Premium Members will have access to Group Buys also set up through our vendor members
- More to come!!
Where's the money going?
- Website upgrades: software and hardware upgrades, a much needed facelift
- SS benevolence fund: special fund run by our chaplain to support members in need
- Charitable giving: a big chunk will go out every year to support all sorts of great causes like the Wounded Warrior Project
- SS Convention: I am hoping to have a national SS convention organized within the next year
- Rallies: There will be funds available to support SS sanctioned rallies
- Insurance: SS, LLC has to keep liability insurance with all of the off-road rallies, etc... where members participate
- Staff/Expenses: CPA fees, taxes, admin, server hosting fees, etc...
I have a great vision for this website and I have been energized by the progress Patracy has made over the last couple of days. It has been so refreshing! This will be a work in progress so you will see things change one direction and then go back the other way if it doesn't work. Please excuse our mess as we go about the business of building SS back into the premier MV website in the world.
God bless and thanks for your help!
Edit:
To upgrade to the paid membership, use the resources drop down at the top banner. Or follow this link.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/payments.php
Edit:
To renew, use the same link above as well. Here's a little more info about why it's crucial to use the page.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?98783-Paid-membership-renewal
Last edited by a moderator: