Hello everyone.

As mentioned in the recent thread we've just updated the forum software to the latest version, if you have any problems please make a note in the thread here and we/I will look into them.

Announcement

We have also have some changes we would like to announce re the Trade/Sell sub forum.

There are a couple of reasons for this, one is the current system of only being able to post when you've made 30 posts or more is working overall but it does seem to confuse new members and we also do get some new members flooding either the chatbox, because they don't understand where the 30 posts should go, or else the forums with posts of no real value in order to post things. Another is the constant monitoring of the 30 posts per member means the forum software is monitoring this and checking every time a member goes into that forum, in fact its changing members statuses so they can post, and I wonder if this is one of the problems with the forum lag some people are receiving.

Finally we've had a couple of requests form members who either want to offer things for sale or else promote their online shop. We've never put a policy in place for this kind of thing and as such the forum has just ticked along on it own.

We've had a discussion about what could work best and what is going to be fair across everyone's needs. We have come up with the following plan.

As of next Monday in order to offer an item for sale or trade on this forum be it in the Trade/Sell forum or if you have a link in your signature that links to a commercial site you will need to be a Forum Supporter

What is a Supporter?

A supporter is someone who helps towards the running costs of the website, the cost is currently $10/£6 a year (thats 50 pence a month or, if you will less than 2 pence a day.).

If you are planning to sell or trade items on the forum then you Have to be a supporter in order to do this - only Supporters can post new threads in the Trade/Sell forum and threads posted by not supporters of a For Sale nature will be deleted.

We may look at bringing in new areas of the site open to Supporters in the future and also hope that any monies raised by this change in the forum rules will both help to pay for the continued hosting of the site and also allow us to spend more time working on the site. Currently not only is the forum costing up money to host(Not that much) but we are also loosing money(Quite a bit) every time we spend some time to update and administer the forum.

We hope you all continue to enjoy the website.

Payment

PayPal is the preferred payment option and can be made via the link below. Please do remember to enter your forum name.

Your forum username:

Alternatively send a UK cheque for £6 to:

Zookx Ltd (cheques payable to this please)
57 High Street
Bromsgrove
Worcestershire
B61 8AJ

& write your username on the back of the cheque.

Once we have received your payment we will activate your Subscriber status on the next working day. If your account has not been upgraded and its neither a weekend or 48 hours have passed please send us a pm at Zookx and we will look into it.

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We have added this information to the forum registration rules;

Selling items on these forums;

1). In order to sell items on these forums you must first be a supporter. Details can be found here. Selling on behalf of others is not allowed.

2). Items must NOT be advertised or offered for sale outside the Trade/Sell forum.
Supporter pricing. Supporter membership is $10 (£6 €7 AU$10)

This sounds really fair to me.

Just one question: so often members offer charts for free. Do you think you can keep this option open? This is usually an act of kindness from the person, and more often than not it costs them money to post the items and they don't want anything in exchange.

Thanks, its something we've discussed a lot and I think this is a good all round solution.

Yes, someone sending free charts to other members is fine, thats not a problem. If no money is changing hands then its not an issue.

Yes I think that is fair about not charging the people that offer free charts etc.

Yes, that seems like a fair solution. I have two questions, though -- where would the people offering free charts do so? Still in the Trade/Sell section? And if it is a case of swapping rather than selling (e.g. "I have a shade of fabric I won't use, would someone like it and send me an equivalent piece of fabric in white"), would that also come under the Supporter Rule?

Also, would it be possible, if people wanted to, to become a Supporter even if they didn't want to sell things but just wanted to support the forum?

Re the second point YES, of course. Anyone can/will be able to support the forum. It was an idea we had before but it just made sense to add it now, and to drop in this other issue.

As I say we'd like to be able to add other features for suporters in the future. But we will see how it takes off for now.

Regards swaps and such, I would sugest the Exchange Section for such things maybe?

Just out of curiosity, maybe I'm dense, but is it a 1 off payment or does the "subscriber" feature need to be topped up every month?

As far as I understood it's an annual thing -- I signed up and PayPal called it "annual subscription" or something like that. *goes to look at the email she got* Yes, it says "1 year supporter status".

Hi, Yes we have set it up as a simple payment button, for simplicity's sake.

Its a yearly subscription. So if you became a subscriber today it would run untill 20th Jan 2012.

I'll hopefully get the time to write up a full faq later today but realisticly I think it may be a job for Monday.

There are subscription payments that can be set up in PayPal however once you've made a payment with one of these you are then signed up and payments are taken until you cancel the subscription. We didn't want to do that as its not that obvious within PayPal itself and we didn't want money being taken out of anyone's account in, a years time, that they hadn't wanted to give.

A big thank you for all those who have subscribed I've spoke to Alex and I know he's pleased too. As stated it gives us/me more time to devote to the forum, upgrades and fixes so we should be able to keep things ticking along for quite some time.

This sounds really fair to me.

Just one question: so often members offer charts for free. Do you think you can keep this option open? ???

The option of members offering free chart that they no longer desire has always been open. That is as long as they are the original chart and NO copies have been made or kept.