Folks-

Okay, running a board like this costs money--software licences, server fees, etc.

Running a well-managed community takes time and effort--sure you can get volunteers, and people do things for the love of it. But people gotta eat and pay rent and such, and eventually making money becomes an issue.

I believe that ad revenues are not (and becomeing even less) a viable business model for opedrations smaller than ebay and yahoo.

So, think of your favorite board (that you don't run)... How much is it worth to you to participate there?

A. If it ain't free, I'm gone.
B. $5-10/year
C. $5-10/mo
D. $5-10/week

Does your answer differ if the forum is about professional or recreational topics?

--don

Depends on the community, but definetly not more then $5-$10 a year. For less then that you can get your own hosting...

Also, I would be more inclined to pay if it was about professional topics.

to get people to pay your gonna have to have a giant userbase before hand.....

Silly question, as the answer is that it's worth different things to different members of the community.

For some it's trivial and frivolous, for others it's the essence of their internet existence and everything to them.

Those who fall into the first group will never pay for your forum... though they might pay for others.

Those that fall into the latter will do whatever they can to help you... though they may never give to anyone else.

And in between those two, are many strata of other users who value it differently.

Example: I have many users who would never pay a penny to help my site... yet I have others who have donated over £100 a year to keep it in existence.

Thankfully I have enough people close to the latter group that we are able to self-fund a dedicated server... but don't think it was easy... it took 5+ years of me paying to reach that point, and it was only when the choice was close or donate that we could reach this point. I wouldn't have dreamt of asking for a thing if it wasn't needed to keep it alive, and we've done lots on our site to ensure that the finances of the server don't tarnish the community or experience in any way.

On offtopic.com I paid a small fee for having a signature and avatar.
I think up to $25 per year is a nice amount to have extras on a forum, if the forum is big enough.

On offtopic.com I paid a small fee for having a signature and avatar.
I think up to $25 per year is a nice amount to have extras on a forum, if the forum is big enough.
That too, but as mentioned before, a relativley dedicated (and/or big) userbase is somewhat necessary (and nice :)).

For a forum like vB.nl I probably would have paid to be a member (approx $25-30 a year), but for general discussion/chat it's easier to find a new one.

the answer is that it's worth different things to different members of the community. While that's true, I think there are some general trends that one can discern.

For instance, from the mid-eighties through the early nineties, I new many people who paid $50 - 200/month in fees and connect-time charges) to participate in online communities (1200 baud dial up was $12/hr.)

By the mid-nineties, the world wide web had reached people's conciousness, and AOL had introduced flat pricing. People would pay $25 for access--but then expected *all* content to be free.

10 years later, I think this is changing again. people realize that the web is full of drek and are more willing to pay for good content. What I don't know is how much.

--don

I would only pay around $5-10 a year to participate in a community. There are so many well run free boards that charging is a difficult option.

Having said that, for Boards I do like and spend time on, I do donate as I appreciate the hard work involved and costs.

Couch-

thanks for responding. Are the boards you frequent primarily of social or proffessional interest?

--don

when i ran a small community <300 people (which i recently closed down) there was an option to donate 25/yr which you got an avatar more forum access which others who didnt donate couldnt see and the ability to sell items + a few other benifits that were able to be alloted as the forum expanded