Vostok 7 Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 I had an idea... I'm a member of a huge Subaru club on the internet, http://www.impreza.net It's about 10x the size of what this place used to be... 30-40k members. Now, what they do, is for sales, you can have private sales, and then they have vendor sales. To do any serious kind of selling, and to do mass selling in any forums other than "private for sale" or small "I have this..." replies to other threads, you have to sign up as a vendor. It costs $100 a mo. (less depending on how many months you sign up for in advance) and allows you sell your product. You get a title under the screen name that shows you are an official vendor. I know that Macrossworld is a smaller site, and there's less "fly by night" vendors trying to sell things, but I still think it would be a good idea. It would be a way for Shawn to make some money for the site, and keep down any possiblity of fraud on the part of people coming on and saying their vendors. Any thoughts on this? Vostok 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent ONE Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 I don't think Shawn would have a problem with as VEX is already advertising on the home page of the site... I guess it would be more upto the vendors as in if they could pay. I don't want to see Kevin selling pencils on the dock to pay for his MW advertising. I like the idea. You have good Ju-Ju today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vostok 7 Posted October 2, 2003 Author Share Posted October 2, 2003 I don't think Shawn would have a problem with as VEX is already advertising on the home page of the site... I guess it would be more upto the vendors as in if they could pay. I don't want to see Kevin selling pencils on the dock to pay for his MW advertising. I like the idea. You have good Ju-Ju today! hey, I don't wanna put Kevin or anyone out either. And of course, I wouldn't figure Shawn would ask for $100 a mo. either... We're talking about a much smaller site here. As I said, I just think it's a good way to 1) get Shawn money for the site and 2) keep out any unwanted business (more security). It would take a small reorganization of the forums, the addition of a "Vendor Sales" forum and a change of the regular sale forum to a "Private sale" forum, but even that isn't 100% necessary. I still think though, that even if this was implemented, some form of general member donations would still be necessary. They wouldn't be AS necessary though. Maybe the vendor who signs up would get special perks for doing so, besides an "official MW vendor" title below his name. Vostok 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fulcy Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 It would take a small reorganization of the forums, the addition of a "Vendor Sales" forum and a change of the regular sale forum to a "Private sale" forum, but even that isn't 100% necessary. Actually, there already is a forum just for Vendors... http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=SF&f=14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent ONE Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 It would take a small reorganization of the forums, the addition of a "Vendor Sales" forum and a change of the regular sale forum to a "Private sale" forum, but even that isn't 100% necessary. Actually, there already is a forum just for Vendors... http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=SF&f=14 Yes. But at any other place that is a venue of sale on the internet vendors are charged... Why not here as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fulcy Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 It would take a small reorganization of the forums, the addition of a "Vendor Sales" forum and a change of the regular sale forum to a "Private sale" forum, but even that isn't 100% necessary. Actually, there already is a forum just for Vendors... http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=SF&f=14 Yes. But at any other place that is a venue of sale on the internet vendors are charged... Why not here as well? I didn't say they shouldn't be charged - I was just pointing out to Vostok that there was a place for vendors to sell already (since it was one of his points, that it would require a small bit of reorganization). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JsARCLIGHT Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 I understand Vostok's points. I also hang around some other message boards that do things like that. The boards I hang around though offer perks to the vendors for their "contributions" like letting them list unlimited for sale ads, allowing them to have Boldface titles in their posts for sale and giving them the custom member titles of "Vendor". In the long run it basically just means the people are paying for a "rep", i.e. someone sees the word "Vendor" in their member level and automatically assumes they are on the level... after all, someone who is registered with the admins as a vendor must be an upright guy, right? MW is still too small for a feature like this to work effectively IMHO. Most of the true vendors on this board are well known anyway and have their own websites already... and why pay for a "title" when they can just put a link to their site in their sig? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicronianDevil Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 I think the easiest way is just donations through Paypal. I've been to other message boards that do this. I'd be more than happy to contribute to MW. (Not alot, but whatever I could.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Togo Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Have Graham sell off all of the free Yamato toys he gets for doing nothing around here. Give that money to Shawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent ONE Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Have Graham sell off all of the free Yamato toys he gets for doing nothing around here. Give that money to Shawn. Graham DOES do reviews on those toys, and besides they are usually pre release so they are full of imperfections, I don't think they are worth much. Besides Shawn did make money in the past selling tons of Macross books. He hasn't done that in a while though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muswp1 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 I think this idea popped up before on the old boards in a thread about the costs of running the board. I know Shawn vetoed the idea, but I can't remember why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLoneWolf Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 I don't believe Shawn ever gave an explanation. But from the way he made it sound, he just doesn't want other people's money involved with MW. Either that, or his pride won't allow him to accept donations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vostok 7 Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 It's obvious shawn needs help/money for the site. Not many sites I know have lasted this long and gotten as big as this has before being forced to ask for donations. On the Subaru site I mentioned, this is one way they've gotten around begging users for donations... for now anyway (they are planning on setting up a donation dealie soon). IIRC, shawn was opposed to popups on his sites and advertisements to make money. That's not what we're talking about here. Vostok 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muswp1 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 (edited) The idea of a Macross exclusive VF-1 toy came up a few times, including getting to the point of actually voting on a paint scheme. I never heard a final disposition to that idea. EDIT: Grammer Edited October 7, 2003 by muswp1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent ONE Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 The idea of a Macross exclusive VF-1 toy came up a few times, including getting to the point of actually voting on a paint scheme. I never a final disposition to that idea. The call on that issue was "no" because MW is website that caters to the world, and Yamato only has liscence to sell Macross stuff in Japan. There is currently this legal thing going on invloving who has the rights to distribute Macross stuff. I think there may be a thread about it somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Togo Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Easiest thing to do would be to create a MacrossWorld Paypal account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurricane29 Posted October 9, 2003 Share Posted October 9, 2003 One problem would be that while the core members would donate, many would probably not, due to finacial or other reasons. Then the whole I paided you didn't, I'm better then you stuff would happen. I doubt it would , but it could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicronianDevil Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 Well those who donate can remain anonymous (sp?). Also the amount they donate. That way no one can say "I am better than you because I donated more." Also, think about it this way, I believe I read somewhere here that there are 600 or so active members. If these active members donated even as little as $5 it would help out Shawn alot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robokochan Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 I'm down for it. I love this place and yes I have made money from it buy selling items. If Shawn wants (or needs) dontations to keep this place running let's just do it. Paypal is a good idea as most people do have a Paypal account, and if he charged like $20.00 for a year membership or something for the 1123 registered members...that would be $22460.00. which i think would be more than enough to run the site and possible hold conventions and such. MW T-Shirts ect. I also wouldn't mind paying a vendors fee. I think it would be very acceptable. I also think most of the other major sellers would agree. Rob MN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vostok 7 Posted October 13, 2003 Author Share Posted October 13, 2003 GEEZ! I could seriously use $22k... Vostok 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent ONE Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Money for membership will never happen. That has been addressed before. Imagine how much trouble some a-hole would cause if he or she got banned and was out $20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLoneWolf Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Sigh, money and macrossworld don't mix. The instant Shawn starts accepting money (be it in the form of memberships, seller fees, donations, etc), MW runs the risk of becoming a commercial site instead of a fan site. One of the ramifications of MW being deemed a commercial site is that all of the copyrighted images on here must be taken down. Besides, can anyone tell me the last time Shawn griped about money issues? The last time I heard him mention that, it must've been last year. Old news folks. Bottom line: if Shawn needs help, he'll let us know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UN Spacy Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 I was expecting to read some scary responses......but I think the Paypal idea is a great one. I'd be willing to donate a few dollars. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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