Dive Shops on Board

[TCDiver1]

socaldiver once bubbled...

I especially find no problem with Natasha doing what she is doing, other than the bad timing on her scheduled events vs my available time.

I see a problem with anyone, regulator or otherwise, commercially profitting from this board, if the board is advertised as "not being that kind of forum." If you want to be fair, one person, or a group of persons, can not pick and choose who they think will treat people fair & who will not. If you give everyone the same chance, you will get some less than honest people in the mix. You could give these people the boot once they have been found to be less than honest but someone will have to get screwed for you to find that out.

I don't know if anyone currently on the board is profitting from it and i personally don't care but if you want to be fair and provide equal opportunity to all, IMO you can not exclude anyone, you don't have previous knowledge of dishonest behavior on, from the board. Since the people running this board seem to be people with integrity, i'm sure they have discussed this may times.

Since i'm a use tax kinda guy, and i suspect this won't be a popular opinion, i think the best way to pay for this board, without letting the commercial sharks take it over, would be to charge an annual use fee to each member. :boom: (now in my best duck & cover position, so fire away all!)

Seriously, we all derive some benefit from this board, knowledge, entertainment, etc, so why not? I realize the creators of the board probably want to provide a no cost service but i for one would rather pay an annual fee than get bombed with scuba spam and dive advertising.

 

[metridium]

landlocked wrote...
... it is obvious that you have something you would like to sell.

Maybe he wants to make us a fantastic deal on a HUB?

That oughtta liven things up around here!

 

[Scubaroo]

gedunk once bubbled...
...i think the best way to pay for this board, without letting the commercial sharks take it over, would be to charge an annual use fee to each member...

Ask any former dotcom CEO - users won't pay for website access.

And if anyone is wondering if I'm profiting from the spring strap kits I've been making up for other users of this board - the answer is no. I lost money on the first round, made about $4-6 a parcel on the second round, which put me roughly breakeven. And I still have about $100 worth of stuff sitting at home that I bought for people who never bothered paying for the ones they requested.

 

[TCDiver1]

bengiddins once bubbled...
Ask any former dotcom CEO - users won't pay for website access.

And if anyone is wondering if I'm profiting from the spring strap kits I've been making up for other users of this board - the answer is no. I lost money on the first round, made about $4-6 a parcel on the second round, which put me roughly breakeven. And I still have about $100 worth of stuff sitting at home that I bought for people who never bothered paying for the ones they requested.

Does this really fall into the catagory as the "many" dotcoms that are no more? I'm not sure it does. Even if it does i guess i would rather pay, then get bombed with bull. Never said i followed the pack.

As i said i wasn't dissing anyone. I trust what your saying until proof exists that it's not the truth. Problem is, you sell with integrity, the next guy, who is a scam artist, does not. The fact that you have products that were requested and not paid for, point to the integrity problem of some people. How is that controllable?

 

[raviepoo]

Yes Natasha gets a lot of business from this board. However, she is not the only person who posts organized trips on the board. I've seen all kinds of posts by people who have arranged a charter and need a few extra folks to fill it. I have also seen posts about specific operators and trips, and trip dates provided by those operators. Natasha doesn't jump up and down and stomp all over those posts.

I think that Natasha gets a lot of people going on her trips because the people who go on them have a good time and talk them up on the board when they return.


But, even though I have nothing to sell myself, I would still like to be able to post, "Hey does anyone want to sell me a (fill in the blank) and get an IM from a shop owner offerring me a deal.

gedunk once bubbled...


I see a problem with anyone, regulator or otherwise, commercially profitting from this board, if the board is advertised as "not being that kind of forum." If you want to be fair, one person, or a group of persons, can not pick and choose who they think will treat people fair & who will not.

 

[KEV49]

I to have nothing to sell, but I do believe that if one or a couple of people can sell what ever on the board it's a wide open field. If someone is found to be dishonest than they can be dealt with at that time, after all competition is healthy for any business.
As for user fees for using forums such as this I believe alot of members would just go away if they had to pay. I for one do not want a big commercial board there are enough of them out there,
but it has to be a level playing field.

 

[TCDiver1]

raviepoo once bubbled...
Yes Natasha gets a lot of business from this board. However, she is not the only person who posts organized trips on the board. I've seen all kinds of posts by people who have arranged a charter and need a few extra folks to fill it. I have also seen posts about specific operators and trips, and trip dates provided by those operators. Natasha doesn't jump up and down and stomp all over those posts.

I think that Natasha gets a lot of people going on her trips because the people who go on them have a good time and talk them up on the board when they return.


But, even though I have nothing to sell myself, I would still like to be able to post, "Hey does anyone want to sell me a (fill in the blank) and get an IM from a shop owner offerring me a deal.

I think Natasha is providing a great service from i've read on this board. To extend that thought if she is doing such a good job people should not have a problem paying her to do it. I wouldn't have a problem with it.

My point is and i suspect a large part of the Scubaboards discussion is, how do you control the quality of the people with something to sell without degrading the intent of the board? I suppose they could start an Ebay type seller rating system but i for one would hate to see this board turn into an Ebay type site.

What so wrong about paying something to be here to keep it basically commercial free?

 

[TCDiver1]

gedunk once bubbled...


What so wrong about paying something to be here to keep it basically commercial free?

Okay i get it now, most people would just go away if there was an annual fee. I don't understand that, but it seems obvious many feel that way

 

[Jarhead]

No one has a "right" to read or post on this board. We're allowed to through the good graces of KN and LD.
They paid for it. They get to make the rules.
If we don't like it, we can pay for and create our own somewhere else. They've put alot of money, time and effort into it and

I APPRECIATE IT!

Thanks for all yall do. This includes the regulators and moderators, too.

bengiddins: PM me about those spring straps.

Philip (Jarhead) Alexander

 

[Jarhead]

Got something you want/need to sell?
Look all the way down at the bottom of this page and click on "Scuba Classifieds".