alaskaman said:
It would appear that way that the intent is to make money if we are to take stock in the comments made here. That is a step up or a step down depending on how one feels about making money from something that has been without cost. happens all the time. be a little edgy and sad to see it go here........but in the absence of cost posted one can only assume that. to bad. this site has a lot of good members who I think will exit should that be proven to be the case IMHO.
I would agree that Thai's use of the words "Capitalistic Society" more than once in the two threads on this subject appear to support a "profit motive" behind this whole "fee" discussion.
I also agree with someone else who posted that if this is not an April Fools joke, the joke may be on the owner of this forum.
What Thai & the owner might be failing to take into account is how a certain VERY LARGE automotive corporation may react to this capitalistic attitide.
That corporation may look at a site/forum one way when it is being run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts with no fees involved (ie live and let live)
and a totally different way when it is being run as a for profit business venture (ie, call the lawyers and quash the little company) .
That is especially true when the web site/forum uses the corporation's name and the name of it's products (both of which are trademarked) and is making money from that use.
Hey, I could be wrong. The owner of this forum could have a legal agreement with the corporation that permits it to become a for profit business venture.
If so that is great. If that is not the case however, the owner should not be shocked should he be contacted by the large corporation's legal counsel.
BTW, what I have said in this post is just some very friendly advice from someone who has witnessed the legal ramifications of a business that used the trademarked names and images of another corporation. Without exception, every single one of those money making ventures either ceased to exist or had to drastically alter their business because another internationally know automaker (ie NOT the maker of the vehicles we drive) chose to enforce their legal rights.
Obviously, it is up to the owner of this forum to run it as he sees fit. He started it and he and the moderators keep it going.
I just sincerely hope he realizes the HUGE DOWNSIDE in taking a site from "free" to "fee".
The internet landscape is littered with any number of sites that attempted to make this transition and failed. Heck, I personally know of a few myself that did not survive.
I personally hope that if the site does go to a mandatory "fee" setup that it survives. Unfortunately, the history of such transitions far from insures success and/or simple survival.
FYI, I did not vote for any of the choices in the poll because I fully support the Donation option that was not included in the poll for what appears to be obvious "Capitalistic" reasons.
