Keeping the forum running

[pirks]

I am unable to post in the forum announcement section of the forum so have to reply here.

Could the members on here not be asked to contribute a minimal amount of money per year as well as those who are selling to keep the forum going?

£200 isn’t a vast amount of money and wouldn’t require a huge amount from the members who do use the forum.

[Tropfrog]

I could not post eigther. I think the thread is for members in the british CP society only.

I agree with you. This forum is very valuable to me. Lots of searchable good information and my only source for plants. I would be happy to pay a pound per sales add or maybe 10 pounds a year? I think this forum have the potential to draw profit to the society indtead of beeing a cost. Maybe not the aim for the society, but still a shame to close.

[Marcel van den Broek]

My fault guys, sorry.

I didn't notice that it was posted as an announcement, so you can't reply normaly.

As I'm a moderator I could reply.

Nothing to do with being a member or not, just a sleepy moderator causing confusion.

Happy that the subject is taken up by the forum members though.

[daveq]

Hi folks

Apologies, this is my error - I hadn't realised that you wouldn't be able to reply to the announcement and although I'd watched that post for replies, I missed the new thread here.

Thanks for your suggestions also, we will definitely take these into account before deciding on any next steps.

Best

Dave

[Christian]

Hello,

i am not sure if i am the right one to comment on this. But as i am the vice President of the german society that is running a similar (still quite active) forum let me just give some thoughts about this.

The worst option is to delete everything. Even if there are not many new posts recently, the forum has lots of information that should not get lost. One of the goal of every society should be to spread and preserve knowledge about carnivorous plants. To me it would be a step back if all the information here got lost.

Actually, i would love to see this forum being online and usuable. I admit i did not often post here in the last years, but i have read through it from time time to see if there is anything interesting happening. As Marcel said in the other post it is still a good place to announce meetings like an EEE or ICPS-Conference or whatever might be intersting to a more international audience. Also, the Sales and Wants are still used well.

I don't know about the financial background of the CPS but £200 doesn't sound that much to me. I would have to check but i think that's about the same amount we pay for our forum (i will find out if that's of interest for the CPS). As i have been a moderator of our forum for years i think it will be hard to get money from those that sell plants here. I am not sure if this could be done automatically, so i am afraid someone has to write lots of PMs explaining that selling is not free. You will most likely have some that will not pay and so on. This could cause a lot of work and trouble. I am not sure if £200 is worth all that.

What i imagine could work is to ask for free plants that are auctioned on the forum for the purpose of covering the costs of running this forum. I am almost sure there are people out there that would be willing to donate a plant to be auctioned here. It's probably less work and maybe you even get more money at the end. This could be done for UK, EU und USA for example. Payments through Paypal to the CPS work from almost everywhere. Maybe that's another option to consider and at least try out before closing the forum.

Our german forum is still quite active and i actually think such forums can still survive Facebook, Instagram and so on, especially if the language is english. It is a pain to search Facebook and Instagram for older post and information you remember. That's much easier in a forum like that one and something many people prefer over other social media channels (that's what i often hear from our members). We are lucky to have more than 1100 members at the moment, many from them use the forum. That number of members might be a great help to keep a forum running, though. Maybe we are just lucky with that.

We have recently started an Instagram channel. Since we started this we have close to 50 new members in a very short time. Some of them are now active in our forum. If not already happening, it might also be worth a try to promote the society and forum more in other social media channels to raise the number of members and as a result also raise the number of active people in the forum.

Maybe i don't know the background well enough. Isn't this here the forum of the CPS (that seems to pay for it)?  I just checked and the forum is not linked from the Homeapge of the CPS (or am i just blind?). If that's true i would definitely link and promote it there.

That's what just came to my mind when reading the posts about the future of this forum. Whatever you do, i really hope you don't delete everything.

Regards

Christian

[Martin Ravn]

I hate FB. I use it, beacuse thats where the main activity is. But I sure wish we could move all CP activity over to a forum like this. Much easier to find the informations again and often the discussions and share of information have been of a much better quality than most posts on FB. Also I like the idea that the community owns the info and not FB.

I have no problem to even pay a small amount in order to be here, if I were sure that this was where the CP activity is. It could even be in the form of a donation so that it wont exclude any.

Martin Ravn

[Turo]

" I use it, beacuse thats where the main activity is. "

There. The problem and the solution.

IF you really think this forum is far better - and I do think so - then make your posts here. If you are contacted over FB, take the conversation to here. 

Just use FB - if you really can't let it go - only as a hook. And not only for carnivorous plants.

It's a matter of freedom, and that is worth a bit of effort. The price to pay for any easy app is high.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Turo

[Martin Ravn]

22 minutes ago, Turo said:

 

"IF you really think this forum is far better - and I do think so - then make your posts here".

I think I do participate, but we need more people to do so. I dont see much response. If we agree and here I also think about the owners of the forum, that this is the way forward then lets give it a go!