Membership

[hotpony891]

Why is it that I am already a member and paid to be one...that I have to pay $25 to become a Team Member to advertise?

[Riverratt]

Why is it that I am already a member and paid to be one...that I have to pay $25 to become a Team Member to advertise?

If you already paid the $25 to become a team member as it shows in your avatar then you are good to go. You do not have to pay again until the year membership you paid for expires.

[michael_m]

they just changed it cause earlier it just said member so i think they got him straight now

[hotpony891]

Is this an annual fee if you want to advertise?

[transomstand]

Is this an annual fee if you want to advertise?

The purpose of team membership is to support the best boating site on the internet.

An additional benefit of team membership is the opportunity to advertise for sale, items you own, and wish to sell. These items should be owned by you, and have been for your personal use. Commercial sales and advertising of any sort, require vendor status.

[Raceman]

Why is it that I am already a member and paid to be one...that I have to pay $25 to become a Team Member to advertise?

I don't understand your question because of the "already a member and paid to be one...that I have to pay $25 to become a Team Member to advertise". According to the records, your first Team Membership, which you just did a couple of days ago is the only payment you've ever made. The already paid to be one part is confusing.


There are several SEPERATE issues here:

Team membership gives people who enjoy the website the ability to contribute toward the overhead which most likely now exceeds even the wildest imagination of the average person who's unfamiliar with associated costs of websites of this size.............. servers with backups, multiple data lines, etc, etc.

Most websites with any real level of traffic have gone to mandatory fees for ALL ads, and this includes many that are significantly smaller in membership AND activity than S & F. Greg has continued to allow free ads with the following restrictions:

1. Regular participation: we had an onslaught (and growing daily) of people who just want to use S & F for free internet access to a large pool of buyers without any regular website participation. In an effort to keep free access for those who truly want to participate in the Scream and Fly community and have a way to buy or sell items for their own PERSONAL USE, the number of 100 posts outside the buy/sell forums for free advertising was required, OR Team Member upgrade. This has gone a long way toward slowing the growth of the freeloaders who pop in, post an ad or ten and never post outside buy/sell.

2. NO reselling, trading for resale or any type of profiteering on the forums unless the members register as Supporting Vendor. Pick something up somewhere with the intention of throwing it on the internet and makin' a buck, SV registration required. Buy something for your own use, don't like it and want to get rid of it for something else, OR just get tired or outgrow something you've already got, then that's what the buy/sell forums were intended for.

So, back to the point, the Team Membership requirement isn't a "fee to advertise", but rather an alternative to making EVERYONE pay before placing an ad and trying to curb the activity of those who would try and turn S & F into their own personal Craig's List or E Bay.

In a nutshell, if someone wants to play here regularly AND is NOT trying to make a buck flipping stuff, then the listings are free. Limited participation OR profiteering require different upgrades, and ALL flips or resales require Supporting Vendor registration.

[tux974]

hotpony, It is the best $25 you have ever spent!! This site and the people here are awesome!!

[Frank Molé]

hotpony, It is the best $25 you have ever spent!! This site and the people here are awesome!!

[hotpony891]

The fee is really not a big deal. I was just surprised because last year I paid to advertise and this year was the same. So I was just inquiring about an annual fee. I originally thought I was a "member" last year and this year it was "team member". And yes I do agree that this is a good site.