BCM Community

Here's your chance to voice your opinion!
You can only vote once!
Remember, MAK will have to make the ultimate decision on Fees!
and, I'm sure it will be a fair Decision.

Members,

Lets try to keep our votes REALISTIC, This is a busisness with expences!

In other words, your Honnest opinion

Thanks
Nick-

Even though I voted, and at the risk of having an unpopular opinion, I'll say this anyway.
Having a 'poll' in order to decide the operation of a business seems to me to be somewhat like running a ship by comittee.
Dallas

Dallas,
I concider our members just that, members!  If they were employees [or ship hands] I wouldn't ask their opinion! LOL :P
Nick-

Quote from: Dallas on April 15, 2006, 12:10:11 PM
Even though I voted, and at the risk of having an unpopular opinion, I'll say this anyway.
Having a 'poll' in order to decide the operation of a business seems to me to be somewhat like running a ship by comittee.
Dallas

Quote from: Nick Badame Refrig. Co. on April 15, 2006, 11:47:43 AM
Members,

Lets try to keep our votes REALISTIC

In other words, your Honnest opinion

Thanks
Nick-

I haven't bought or sold nor do I  expect to any time soon.......... but:

what I have always seen is.......  one member needs a part and post that on the board.
                                              another member states he has the part and to contact him. On this board that could be by private message.........

having a swap meet section gives people the place to request parts or list parts for sale.

soooooooooo I think it is a great idea and something that should happen.  :)

but it's not my board and will naturally agree to any rules the owners decide on. 

What we all have to understand is there is no " free lunch ", it cost money to host this board..........

just thinking out loud

orogle

Thank You OROGLE,

Well said!

Nick-

Quote from: orogle on April 15, 2006, 01:59:01 PM

Quote from: Nick Badame Refrig. Co. on April 15, 2006, 11:47:43 AM
Members,

Lets try to keep our votes REALISTIC

In other words, your Honnest opinion

Thanks
Nick-

I haven't bought or sold nor do I expect to any time soon.......... but:

what I have always seen is....... one member needs a part and post that on the board.
another member states he has the part and to contact him. On this board that could be by private message.........

having a swap meet section gives people the place to request parts or list parts for sale.

soooooooooo I think it is a great idea and something that should happen. :)

but it's not my board and will naturally agree to any rules the owners decide on.

What we all have to understand is there is no " free lunch ", it cost money to host this board..........

just thinking out loud

orogle

A BUY-SELL-TRADE Section would be a great idea to fully help your members. If you charge, you will drastically reduce its use and therefore its effectiveness. The more you charge, the less effective it will be and will invite competition... It is only human nature at work here.

Why do you feel you need to charge the very members that have helped this site grow and become what it is today... ? ??

Remember... A website with no visitors or members is just a blank spot on some servers hard-drive...

But, Like you said.... the ultimate decision is yours....

IMO - Steve

Quote from: Dallas on April 15, 2006, 12:10:11 PM
Even though I voted, and at the risk of having an unpopular opinion, I'll say this anyway.
Having a 'poll' in order to decide the operation of a business seems to me to be somewhat like running a ship by comittee.
Dallas

Well, my thoughts are that any business owner who doesn't listen to his customer base (or potential customer base) is a fool and will not be in business very long.

i'm not about to get into how Mike runs any aspects of his businesses, because I only see the consumer side of it, but I respect him for what he does, and compliment him for have the foresight to listen to his customers.

One of the things that makes a successful bus converter is his ability to listen to all opinions on a subject, gather all available information, and make an informed decision that fits his needs. Do it your way. There is no difference in running a business.

And I guarantee you, a good ships captain is asking his seeking information from his crew before he makes decisions. The ultimate decision is his, but he sure don't jump into that decision without following the same approach the converter or business owner does.

I for one don't see whats so wrong about paying a small amount for the ability to reach a large percentage of my target audience, to sell an item I would like to be rid off. ::)

And if that payment goes to support the organization that I use regularly(for FREE), all the better. ;D

Of course I may be just suffering from airbrakeosis

Clif,

Good point.

and very funny!

Nick-

Quote from: Floridacracker on April 15, 2006, 06:04:54 PM
I for one don't see whats so wrong about paying a small amount for the ability to reach a large percentage of my target audience, to sell an item I would like to be rid off. ::)

And if that payment goes to support the organization that I use regularly(for FREE), all the better. ;D

Of course I may be just suffering from airbrakeosis

A very successful classified paper here in South/North Carolina is the Iwanna, iwanna.com.  The way they do it, it the ads are free, as many as you want for the seller.  You can see the ad on the internet but the phone numbers are blocked out.  If you want the phone number, you have to pay a small fee, like $3.99 for 3 weeks of access to the phone numbers on the ads.  Doing it this way, you get the most stuff forsale and if someone really wants something, they pay a little to get the phone number.
-Brent

I would hate to see for sale stuff mixed in with the regular talk - HOWEVER, a separate area would be fine.  I'm not sure everyone would keep the for sale "talk" limited to the proper page..

Danny

What El Sonador said.

Ed

Seems reasonable to charge a fee that is less than Ebay would charge for the same service.  Listing and selling a bus on Ebay may cost hundreds.   Ebay does a excellent job of targeting "demographics."     
Used parts sales area won't be utilized unless free. 
New parts and services listings, and bus conversion companies may be willing to tie-in to the "free" parts pages. 
Bus and parts listings, coupled with the huge knowledge base in this website, may make this the "bus buyers" destination. 
MAK is between a rock and a hard place...however, a small percentage of a large listing may prove to be beneficial.
This website is an interesting place to peruse...invaluable to a wannabe and bus owner!
Seems as though a separate page (s) for sales would be an idea.
Maybe linkage between the sales and magazine advertisers?
My dos centavos, JR

Danny it would be in a seperate area for sure!
Nick-

Quote from: Danny on April 15, 2006, 07:10:29 PM
I would hate to see for sale stuff mixed in with the regular talk - HOWEVER, a separate area would be fine. I'm not sure everyone would keep the for sale "talk" limited to the proper page..

Danny

We get to vote in our republic/democracy.  It is part of our governmental system.  We supposedly chose what we want.

MAK's board is his, it is not government and it is not a republic or a democracy.

It the government were running this board, they would charge you to subscribe, charge you to post, charge school mitigation fees on what space we use on the board, and then charge sales tax on anything we sell.  We would need  a 'post'ing permit, a 'read'ing permit, etc.  But WE WOULD GET TO VOTE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR THESE FEES/PERMITS.

I'm not voting since I think we are better off with Mike's RULE!  I have no more right to tell him what to do in his business than he has to tell me what to do in mine. 

Let him make the decision.  Just remember that to collect $5 on a credit card, it will cost him $.50 plus staff time.  If I refuse to pay his charge on my credit card, his service provider will charge him a $25 'chargeback' fee.  And how many of these fees would it take to break him?  And that would possibly terminate this board.

I think ebay and BUSNUT on line provide the service the proponents want.  DON'T DO IT MIKE!!!!!!!!!!!! is my advice, but I won't be part of an anonymous vote instructing him on how to provide a free service to a community that loses him money every month.

TomNPat

Quote from: El-Sonador on April 15, 2006, 02:11:00 PM
A BUY-SELL-TRADE Section would be a great idea to fully help your members. If you charge, you will drastically reduce its use and therefore its effectiveness. The more you charge, the less effective it will be and will invite competition... It is only human nature at work here.
Why do you feel you need to charge the very members that have helped this site grow and become what it is today... ? ??
Remember... A website with no visitors or members is just a blank spot on some servers hard-drive...
But, Like you said.... the ultimate decision is yours....
IMO - Steve

I think a large part in offering any more constructive comments or votes is the Reason to Charge and I didn't get an answer to my question... "Why do you feel you need to charge the very members that have helped this site grow and become what it is today... ? ??"..."

This bulletin board program is a free download from Simple Machines http://www.simplemachines.org/ anyone can get it free, and it occupies space from only one directory [from 1,000's of possible ones] called bbs off of an already existing website http://www.busconversions.com/ that is and can be used for many other things...

So far the cost attributed to this BB is so very little, if anything at all.

So the next question is usage of the board... ie; bandwidth etc... I can see here that there is a direct cost that can be attributed to the use of this BB... but to create one more TOPIC within the many already existing ones here for a BUY-SALE-TRADE topic, again is virtually nothing in any ADDED cost.

So it puzzles me as to the reason for the charge at all... unless it would be in direct competition with something else going on within the other, already existing sections of http://www.busconversions.com/

Most BB's are totally free and are used by the main website as a "Lost-Leader" to generate new members and to grow in a friendly environment [Cost-Free]

So if your reason is solely based on cost to recover the Actual Added Usage this added topic would cost, [you did say that it would be fair] then there is a way to create an off-site topic just for BUY-SALE-TRADE that would not cost you a dime... not that I believe it would of cost more than a dime to allow it within here anyways... But it would certainly be far less strain and cost of any added bandwidth caused by those spammers over on your old board ever did...

IMO - Steve