What the heck?No, it is no a compromise at all. The classifieds are a mess, confusing, and a pain in the *** for the moderators to moderate. There are twice as many areas in the classifieds than there need to be. Look at every large forum that allows buying and selling, they don't have the classifieds split up the way we do, but they do force you to be a part of the community by having a minimum time of membership, minimum post count or any number of other ways including being a paid member. Forcing people who can not or will not go to meetings to pay in order to view the classifieds is TCMAS' way of getting those people involved in the club. If you pay money to the club you will want to get your money's worth so chances are you will be involved more so than if classifieds were open to everyone.
:doh: Do you know what the word compromise means? What we have currently is a compromise between those who want to limit who sees their ads, and those who want the choice to broaden the buying/selling field. I have been trolling forums for 10 years and am a current member of tens of them, every single one has open classifieds, many require a certain post count for obvious reasons. That way works best for all parties involved, limiting the classifieds to members only is a disservice to the club and the forum, period.
Try Craigslist, eBay and what ever else. Buying and selling on the forum is a perk of being a part of TCMAS, we should be glad it is allowed at all.
Correction, it is a perk of being part of the forum, without the forum there would be very little buying and selling going on. At any rate, Craigslist, Ebay, and others are not saltwater fish based communities, they don't see the amount of traffic we do for people looking for specific goods, and why are you so bent on keeping the newbies from buying stuff from members? It helps the newbies out financially, helps them get gear they know has worked in other people's tanks, and in many cases, advice on how to use the gear. I'm not a newbie in the hobby anymore but I have a perfect example. Recently I was in the market for my first external pump, another member was selling one and I was interested, after PMing him about the pump, he helped me come to the conclusion that it was too big for my tank, he then suggested a different pump, I've never seen anything like that from Ebay or Craigslist, have you? This is the kind of thing you are taking away from new forum members, people who are new to the hobby (and need this sort of thing the most) and even some veterans who have let their memberships lapse for whatever reason. It goes against what this club stands for and is downright disgusting.
The way I understand it is the expected income from membership payments will pay for the giveaways. You don't see that correlation?
I do, but once again, I don't think we will have many people buying memberships, and even if we do, how does that help? From what I understand, the club is struggling financially, giveaways do not help our financial situation by any means, and do not add to the club in any meaningful way. Save that money for a lean period like the one we just went through. If they can make it work, great, but I don't see the value in it, after all, this sort of thing was promised before, and kinda fell through the cracks for whatever reason, if it hasn't worked before, why do you think it will work now?
I have to disagree, the BOD isn't dumb. They wouldn't come up with any of this without TCMAS in their best interest.
I never said the bod was dumb, I said I don't believe these ideas were well thought out.
) )
Period? LOL, you have spoken and we shall all listen. No offense, but that is your opinion, nothing more. At the largest business meeting this club has had since I've been going, the overwhelming majority voted to limit the classifieds to members only. I wasn't on the BOD at the time, and I think I voted against it (but don't really recall anymore), but a large number of people had a different opinion than yours. For whatever reason, the previous BOD decided not to stay with what the membership voted for, a closed classifieds, and opened it back up to the split thing we have now.
No offense, but you are wrong here. TCMAS was a club for a decade or two before there was ever a forum, and the forum is a perk that was started a few years back. There was buying and selling going on quite some time before this forum, and it was plenty robust back then too. It was just more face to face and personal, and your audience was limited to TCMAS members. Many members wanted it to go back that way. Others would like it open. Fact is, those who showed up and voted voted to close it.
I went to a meeting before I ever had a tank, on my own without knowing a single person in TCMAS other than my one friend (Lurch) who referred me to the club. It's time to bring back the offline social aspect to TCMAS, and I don't mean by meeting people through the classifieds.
Being a member of the forum is a gateway to all that is TCMAS, but it in itself is not what TCMAS is. I never said I was against newbies buying from members, did I? There needs to be a greater incentive to be an active part of the club rather than simply allowing anyone and everyone to use the forum (which does not pay for itself, by the way) to buy and sell stuff without any thought of ever being a participating member.ironman said:
