Paid membership only forums?

[MrDawn]

what are your thoughts on paid membership only forums?

Are they worth it? Would you pay to join one? Why or why not?

 

[MamaFrankie]

No, I wouldn't. It's just elitism.

 

[passenger]

I usta, but no more.

 

[Dead2009]

I wouldnt pay to get into one, but I feel the ones that require an invitation, paid or not, just to get into the forum in general are a waste of time.

 

[Jay™]

I would have to pass on a forum like that.

 

[Kyng]

I'm not against other people trying, but it'd have to be *really* good to convince me it was worth the money!

 

[Cpvr]

what are your thoughts on paid membership only forums?

Are they worth it? Would you pay to join one? Why or why not?

I wouldn’t pay to join one.

 

[DrLeftover]

Ages ago I signed up at ForumGarden.

I just went and checked, many of my posts are still there, from 15 years ago!, but I have no interest in renewing with them.

I have no idea if it is still pay only or not, and I really don't care to find out.

 

[Gizmo]

What if you are led to believe that it's an active forum JUST to pay and then find out that the last post was a couple years ago? And then no refunds.

Just seems too risky to me.

 

[Dee]

Hell no. It's never worth it. Save your cash. Maybe donate it to a good cause instead.

 

[Reddington]

What makes me smile is knowing paid membership forums are rarely successful. It's such a stupid concept, forum memberships should be free.

 

[KO896]

What would they give to me in return? If I pay money to someone, they better provide a useful service, or have information that I just can't get anywhere else on the internet for free. If it's just a busy forum, no thanks because if the forum is too big, sometimes it's really hard to keep up with some threads.

 

[ElegantAura]

I have to agree with everyone here, it's not for me either.

I use forums to enjoy a bit of a break from other things. If I had to pay, I'd rather spend it on something else, like going on a trip for a day or two or something similar.

 

[Capt.Dan]

naaa, not me...

 

[Bawse]

I wouldn't pay to be on a forum. Its already difficult to grow a forum with free memberships.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

what are your thoughts on paid membership only forums?

Are they worth it? Would you pay to join one? Why or why not?

I'm a Community Manager for a company called Copyblogger. It's been around for a long time.

Our community is paid. It's several hundred a year, too.

We have over 1,200 active members who are reoccurring.

I saw someone say it's elitism. I can't agree with that at all. It's business. There is plenty of free out there, but you get what you pay for so it it's not up to your standards, don't complain because you didn't pay for it. It's as bad as homeless people who won't take free food but demand money.

When running a paid forum, the ones who are against it are really not the audience you should be targeting. Target those willing to pay for what you have to offer which needs to be worth the cost.

I pay for a few forum memberships as long as I get something out of it.