Jackie - that's the idea. Some people have said that standard members have too much access, but they have less now than when you joined.
The idea of this forum topic is to help me establish what should be available to standard members and what should not.
JP - All flights are grounded at the moment, that's my excuse. Plus there's some people on here that need to be given a very wide berth haha. I also have a day job, so seriously can't be going to the UK every week.
Glad to hear you all like the site and are here for life. Maybe I'll put the price up then haha (only kidding!!)
FWIW, the price hasn't gone up in 3 years of being online! Only thing that changed was the 99p /week became a minimum of one month (cos the banks were blocking the small payments)
Its always a tricky question and a flippin good balancing act to decide what to give as standard. Maybe a short say 2 week access to all areas type of thing then back to you can only read and not interact. Think once most folk have joined in properly they then realise what they will miss and in all fairness its not mega expensive to join, just an idea.
wide berth .......... hope thats not a reference to my butt !!!!!
no, people then just create a new account each week.
I've gotta give enough access to get people interested, but not restrict it so much that they dont get a taste.
Also need for standard members to be able to reply to full members, because that's something that paying members have already made clear they want - for standard members to be able to reply to them
FYI
i joined strait in as a payin member, so don't know what goes with free membership. used search and PMs to start now into forums, PM's and events . will keep membership going as have made a whole new network ,which was the reason for joinin in first instance.
(would like to take this opportunity to express my grateful thanks to you Matt for this, and hope you can work out a way to keep it financially viable.)
anneka - but WHY? What made you pay in October? That's what I need to know. What makes folks decide to upgrade?
Clarissa, thanks. I too hope I can figure it out :-) Just seems I'm spending so much money on Facebook and Google advertising to keep new members coming in, that it's outweighting the income from subs (And the google ads shown on BM pay almost nothing!).
BM, like all biking activities, goes quiet every winter and kicks off again in summer. But last summer we didn't get the boost to financially provide for the winter (probably cos of the credit crisis), so I spent the winter paying out from my own pocket to keep the site going. It also turned out to be a LONG winter which has really hit me. I'm hoping this summer turns out to be good for the site though.
Don't shout at me hehehe ....I sat here reading the forums and realised i wanted to be a part of it, ie; thinking these seem to be my kind of people so paid for month to see how it went , had access to the chatroom and the malarky that goes on in there so i have stayed !I don't get home from work till 9:30 pm so too late to call and visit people but i always know there will be someone to have a laugh with on here.......
I joined as a full member straight away. Didn't seem any point having limited access. I had already googled alternatives and BM was the only one that appealed.
Incidentally, I joined in Octber, expecting to take a few months to get to know folk, before the following summer.
In fact it took 3 days to contact someone worth getting to know better and less than a month before my first BM event.
Fully expect to renew membership tho.
I had planned to stay a standard member for a wee while, however, I wanted to be able to send PMS - so I ungraded straight away. It is certainly the insentive to join in fully. Good luck.......... :- )
Dont remove the forums from the standard member Matt you would end up with >>> given to you by yourself.
The forums drew me in and so did the chat, thought would give it a try for 6 months, think a few people think like that.
Maybe look back 12/24 months ago and see what the topics were around that time against what is on now?
Matt, I found the site by chance.
After a couple of days looking realised that to get the full benefit I would need to upgrade, so I did for the year.
Since then I have found it quite addictive and have meet a few people already after just a few weeks and planning to meet a lot more over the coming months.
Good luck to your elbow, a lot of people would miss it if you don't carry on.
Well I wasn't gonna stop access to the forums, just someone else suggested that (she knows who she is! lol).
I need to let Google index as much of the site as possible, but cunning standard members can find ways around the whole system by sending strategic nods etc at the moment. That needs to stop
Same here Matt... a couple of days watching the forums as a non member to guage the site and a couple of days as a standard member is what did it for me...
I have noticed quite a few standard members who's profiles say something along the line of "PM me cuz I'm only a standard member"
![Why did you upgrade your BM account? (2) - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![Why did you upgrade your BM account? (2) - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
