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Old 06-05-21, 10:55 AM  
Vintage VFer
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Got the notice to renew my VF dues/subscription...

For many, many years, renewing my VF dues was a no-brainer. I was happy to do it as VF is my online home.

Despite the longtime neglect of the forum, last year I hesitated to renew, but then chose to do it.

It's sad that I feel hesitant to pay money to support VF. I mean, where does it go? Have any "real" new members been able to join? Are there any active Mods other than for the Exchange? Some of the listed Moderators haven't even visited VF in probably ten years or more.

Wendy was on here the other day and did some maintenance. But, no, "Hello, guys, great to see you all still here" or anything like that.

It's a dilemma.
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Old 06-05-21, 11:45 AM  
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Won't speak to the rest of it but the money probably goes towards server costs to keep the site running in it's current state. The site is hosted on private servers. And all those old threads, that's a lot of storage - storage costs money.

So many 'free' services by giant corporations (supported by ads and data harvesting/selling) have made people think infrastructure is free...or maybe people are not aware of back-end costs. I've hosted sites so I know that end.
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Old 06-05-21, 12:34 PM  
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Tangerine, thanks for the info!

I'm a dunce when it comes to IT and web-hosting.
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Old 06-05-21, 10:31 PM  
Pam61
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My DH maintains a website that is visited by thousands of people from all over the world, but gets very few donations. Most years, the donations don't pay for the server costs or count for the time he spends to update and add new content to the site. He treats it as a "hobby" but I know how much of a perfectionist he is and also know the hours he spends each year keeping the site running.

With that being said, I have not renewed my subscription here.
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Old 06-06-21, 12:29 AM  
lizh
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I wasn't able to post until I renewed my subscription.

I don't post very often, but I go through phases where I like to check-in to keep myself accountable. In addition, I'll occasionally throw out a question to the whole group, so it was worth it to me.
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Old 06-06-21, 10:20 AM  
Karla25
 
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I will renew my membership. Wendy probably supports this forum at a cost to herself both in time and money. In other words, she's a volunteer spending her own resources to help others.

I am grateful for Wendy's forum. I've met some wonderful people and learned so much about fitness.

Many people here take Wendy for granted and don't appreciate any of her efforts to keep this forum going for us to enjoy. I haven't seen anyone volunteer to start a forum that is ad free and also free to use.

People worry about this forum going away, but are unwilling to pay less than $2 a month to support the forum. It's ridiculous.

Most, if not all, people that post here regularly can afford the $20 a year to help Wendy out. We should all be kind to Wendy and not be so self-centered.

A $20 yearly fee is not a huge sacrifice for anyone.
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Old 06-06-21, 10:25 AM  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tangerine View Post
Won't speak to the rest of it but the money probably goes towards server costs to keep the site running in it's current state. The site is hosted on private servers. And all those old threads, that's a lot of storage - storage costs money.

So many 'free' services by giant corporations (supported by ads and data harvesting/selling) have made people think infrastructure is free...or maybe people are not aware of back-end costs. I've hosted sites so I know that end.
Hey Tangerine, thanks for sharing this.

I'm wondering something else...what ballpark figure do you think it costs to run what we have going on here?
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Old 06-06-21, 12:00 PM  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
I will renew my membership. Wendy probably supports this forum at a cost to herself both in time and money. In other words, she's a volunteer spending her own resources to help others.
How could anyone know that if we never hear from her?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
I am grateful for Wendy's forum. I've met some wonderful people and learned so much about fitness.
I've learned so much about fitness and just about everything else!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
Many people here take Wendy for granted and don't appreciate any of her efforts to keep this forum going for us to enjoy. I haven't seen anyone volunteer to start a forum that is ad free and also free to use.
Is VF ad-free for non-supporters? I've been a supporter for so long I don't even know.

A VFer did start the VF Roost as a a back-up/alternative to VF. That took some time, care and effort. It is free, and an ad-blocker can remove most of the ads.

There have been several VFers who have generously volunteered to help Wendy with VF over the years. They have offered to be Mods and do assorted forum maintenance tasks. They offered their time and effort for free and have never been acknowledged as far as I know.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
People worry about this forum going away, but are unwilling to pay less than $2 a month to support the forum. It's ridiculous.
I don't have an answer for that issue.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
Most, if not all, people that post here regularly can afford the $20 a year to help Wendy out. We should all be kind to Wendy and not be so self-centered.
I resemble that remark!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Karla25 View Post
A $20 yearly fee is not a huge sacrifice for anyone.
The yearly fee depends on your Supporter Level. We can't judge what amount of money a person feels able to spend on anything.

.
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Old 06-06-21, 04:42 PM  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage VFer View Post

A VFer did start the VF Roost as a a back-up/alternative to VF. That took some time, care and effort. It is free, and an ad-blocker can remove most of the ads.

There have been several VFers who have generously volunteered to help Wendy with VF over the years. They have offered to be Mods and do assorted forum maintenance tasks. They offered their time and effort for free and have never been acknowledged as far as I know.

I've known several people who have tried to be either a mod or help out or even take over the board if Wendy was unable to do it all by herself anymore. Nothing, not even a response from Wendy. Which hey, that's rude, to not even say "No I've got this" to the people who are volunteering to help.

Its much easier to donate my hard earned money to something if I think its being used for upkeep and such, rather than not knowing where its going and what its being used for. I mean Wendy doesn't even stop by once a year to say Thank you for donating to the board.
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Old 06-07-21, 03:12 PM  
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Originally Posted by Vintage VFer View Post
Is VF ad-free for non-supporters? I've been a supporter for so long I don't even know.
VF is ad-free for non-supporters. I've been around here for quite a long time but never paid a subscription. One of the benefits that supporters get that I don't is an avatar. I didn't subscribe in the past because when I first joined I was a starving graduate student and didn't have the extra money. Now that I'm a starving college professor, I could afford to kick in that fee but I won't if we are getting closer and closer to indeed being abandonware. It was nice that Wendy came and fixed some things recently, however, which is a good sign. Still, I don't get the sense that this forum is a priority for anyone except its members.
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