Hi all,

Similiar to Miki, I joind the community to get ideas, chat and access to manuals etc, not for the prize draw, which I found out later and saw as an exiting bonus!

As long as I have an interest in old B&O equipment (wich unfortunaltely is a new and small niche of my interest for other older electronics) I will support and hang on as long as possible by being a Gold Member (with or without the draws).

Thanks for all your hard work behind the curtains of BeoWorld!

Best wishes and regards,
Thomas (just a newborn kid with regards to all oldtimers here ;))

The economics have to balance. If the books cannot be made to balance, we'll be looking at site closure - maybe not tomorrow, but soon. If subscriptions don't cover the cost of the draws, then we need to increase income, or reduce the cost of the draws.

On increasing income: I became a gold member because I wanted to support the good work that Lee and the team were doing. To me, the small difference between the cost of Silver and Gold made the latter the obvious choice. Whether the cost is £30 or £35 would not make any difference. However a move to £40 might have caused me (if I'd just arrived at the site for the first time) to pause, and ask whether I really needed to pay that much. My guess is that those members who currently pay £30 are unlikely to baulk at £35.

On reducing the cost of the draws: We need to consider why the draws exist. I see this as two-fold: they are an exciting point in the year to look forward to, and they bring the Beoworld family together. They are good for the former, but not really so good for the latter. I think that the move from monthly to quarterly was a big change. A change from quarterly to annually (a Christmas draw) would have much less impact. A quarterly draw I often miss, but a once-per-year Christmas one would be special.

So as a minimum, I suggest £35 and an annual draw.

However it's also worth looking at the issue from the other end - why someone might want to be a Gold member. Perhaps Silver could offer a limited number of downloads, whereas Gold is unlimited. Perhaps Gold could be marketed as the "true enthusiast" membership - same as Silver, but with a donation of £5, £10 or £15 (minimum £5) towards the work of Beoworld.

Similarly, if we look at the draw from the other end - it's unlikely that someone would join Gold *just* to participate in the draw. It's more the icing on the cake. Would it be possible to replace this icing with something else? I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that there was a meeting at the Kensington Roof Gardens. I have no idea how successful (or otherwise) that was, but it was thinking outside the box. How about an annual Gold meeting, funded by attendees, not by the membership fee. In addition to simply meet & chat, we could run a handful of tutorials - I'd be happy to run one on basic electronics, basic electronic fault finding, or even how to solder. I'm not necessarily recommending an annual meet as the right way forward, but more about not constraining ourselves to an undue focus on the draw.

Mark

I'll keep this short and focused because there's lots to read above, and some great ideas and thoughts! I support Option 1: a Bi-Annual Draw with the current Membership rates. Other comments:

• Main effort should be towards keeping the forum going, maintaining and building on current level of interest, tempting back old members and encouraging new.
• For me, content, format and usability of the Forum are much bigger factors that the Prize Draw, which I too see as a 'bonus' (and I have been lucky enough to win great prizes four times since joining in 2007).
• Whatever is decided, I do think that both current members and new visitors need a more obvious indication of the levels of Membership and the benefits of each of these levels - perhaps a clickable banner that encourages site visitors to explore these membership options further.

I would also like to echo the thanks of other Users for the unflinching support of both Lee and Keith - I know that some great work goes on behind the scenes to keep the site running smoothly and I am eternally grateful! EDIT:  And big thanks also to Steve for continuing to sponsor and support my favourite forum! ?

Hi Lee,

First off, Thanks for all you and Keith for all you continue to do. Like most, the Gold membership was worth more to me than the Prize draw, which I never paid attention to due to formerly been based in the US. The knowledge base, advice, manuals, connections and conversations have always paid for my investment in membership. I have often saved so much money from paying for consultation time to troubleshoot challenges B&O equipment that even some new dealer employees had no clue how to resolve.

I personally would continue to support the annual fee but as suggested it may be worth revisiting the membership types fee structures with possibly lower membership with lower fees and gold for those like myself who value the Gold benefits. I would also consider allowing members to donate above and beyond the gold fee of £30 if they wish. I personally would do so within my budget.

Cheers,

Ola

Hi Lee,
Difficult. I suspect that many who buy new high end B&O don’t come here these days.

The site is useful for repair or compatibility issues for older products.

The old humour - camaraderie has gone from the site, due to members who haven't renewed, but also from a period when any off-topic humour seemed not to be tolerated….. which was overcome by the old Wednesday evening Wedthred. Present day 'Wokeness' probably now makes much comment even less tolerable.

Keep the forum going. Seek out dealer sponsorship, or small commission fees for dealer links. Make the draw only once a year around Christmas.

And why not invite all old members back to a formal site relaunch with a discount offer for gold or silver subscriptions (direct debit or continuing credit card renewing automatically after one year at the full rate?)

Graham

Hi Lee

The draw is of no importance to me as the value in having access to such a rich resource of information is worth the annual £30 fee.

Thank you for the work you have put in this invaluable forum over the years.

 

Hello Beoworlders

I will also take this as an occasion to thank Lee, Keith and all others on the Beoworld Team for all the heart, energy and effort they invest to keep this site up running. As someone who is a bit of a numpty with IT-stuff, I have no idea with of all that comes with running a site like Beoworld, but it surely it a lot and also costly.

Yes, I do always hope to win at a draw (who wouldn't?) an I won't deny that I was very happy when I won something and I do enjoy my prizes.... but like many others the prize draw and the chance of winning was always a nice extra to the main motivation of supporting the site with the membership fee and would continue my support even if there was no prize draw.

I would go for the Bi-annual draw option and personally I would also have no problem with an slight raise of the membership prize (like 35 or 40 GBP).

Regarding doubleola's suggestion of allowing to donate more tha the gold fee: This possibility already exits via the "Donation to Beoworld" item in the sites Gift Shop, but this option is a bit hidden. Maybe a "make a donation" button that links to this item might make this a bit more visible for members who want to use this option.... just a thought.

Whatever descision is made I will keep up my support and I hope that Beoworld community will last.

Cheers
Foxtrott

Hi Lee,

On the Prize Draw, I confess I stopped following this regularly when it went from monthly to quarterly. It's gob-smackingly nice to win something but really it's just the icing on the cake. I'd say do it just for Christmas. As for the prizes themselves, maybe go a little cheaper?

On Keith Saunders, I have run mail and web services on a rack of ThinkPads in the corner of my living room so I know how much work it entails - way more than anyone understands. On top of that is the pressure of something that runs in public, not to mention the electric bills. There also comes a point when techie enthusiasm gets ground down by the sheer weight of bad actors on the Internet. I gave up in the end and put it all on Google Workspace, got my life back, and never regretted it for a second.

On membership in general and Gold in particular, I joined up when I was building my collection and needed the advice and manuals. These days, not so much but I figure it's like an insurance policy - if something breaks down I'm not left high and dry. I won't be leaving the site and I might even weather a small price increase.

Steve

Just a thought, but how about encouraging donations by adding a "Buy Lee and Keith a coffee" button at the top of every page?

Mark

Hello Lee,

I love being part of this forum. The support and discussions are worth a fee alone.

I would be happy to pay £35 per year - a bi-annual prize draw would be nice. Or a Christmas one. I'm easy on that.

Someone earlier on in the thread mentioned a 'club night' somewhere to meet face to face and chat B&O.
This sounds fun!

It's tricky to suggest ways to generate revenue. Do we know how many members we have who would buy full membership? And do we know how much additional non-member traffic we have?

The donation button is a good idea.

The beauty of this forum is in the technical knowledge we all share (to varying levels).

Is there any benefit to starting to keep 'chat' to general posts but maybe add a fee to access the workbench or a dedicated solutions area?

Julian