The end of free service.

[Carl Anderton]

Looks like the end of free service here is July 20th.  What shall we do?  I haven't done anything yet.

[Trapdoor2]

Is there an account we can donate to? I know we went over this sometime back...how much are the yearly fees, etc.,?

Ok, answered my own questions. $20 per m0nth for the mid-level service. I think we talked about monthly sponsorship...a good idea to me. I would be happy to sponsor a month. We need to establish a method of payment (like paypal) and then establish a 'sticky' page that lists all the monthly sponsors, etc.

[Adam]

Count me in for paying for a month's fees.

[Carl Anderton]

No videos at the $20 per month level? Am I reading that right?

[thereallyniceman]

I will sponsor a month or two at a push!

I agree that a Paypal account is most convenient for us here in the UK to transfer $ funds to the USA.
We need to see a promise list and I am sure that we can trust Carl to be the fund holder to see how many promises are fulfilled before a decision is made.

If we don't get a MP3 player there must be some way that we can link to Youtube or the equivalent etc. and if we get enough sponsors we may get the $500 needed for the same as we have now.


I have been only lurking for a while but still find the group informative and inspiring!

Ian, thereallyniceman, in the UK

[Trapdoor2]

While it is nice to have video, it is easy to get it direct from youtube...audio can be done that way too.

Alternatively, we can always go back to the yahoo group (which is still working and costs nothing). Video links work and mp3s can be uploaded...it just isn't a graphic forum like this one.

I do prefer this type of forum and will support it as much as possible. I get a lot of enjoyment out of this site. I think it is worth $20/yr (assuming 11 other members pony up). I dunno about $50/yr...I don't recall paying that much for a single year's magazine subscription...but the signal:noise ratio is comparitively high here.

[Sylvia]

Last time this subject came up I said I would contribute $20 per year. I will increase that amount to £20 per year, that works out at less than 50p per week ( I will let others work it out in $ ) and over here 50p wouldn't by a bar of chocolate let alone a magazine or newspaper. I would hate to see the site close, since joining here and Minstrel I have become quite addicted to my little banjo. ( my garden has become a jungle and there is 6" of dust over everything in the house because I spend every spare minute in it's company ) . Joking aside, we must be able to get enough people to contribute. Do people know it is being discussed again ? there was nothing in my email box to indicate that it was being discussed again.

And by the way the only moan I have about the site is that I havn't heard any other female voices, I cannot be the only female who is interested in Classic Banjo ,Can I ?

The offer of £20 also applies to the Minstrel site.

[Adam]

My understanding is that you can't upload videos *directly* to Ning ... But embedded videos are available at that price level.

Carl Anderton said:

No videos at the $20 per month level? Am I reading that right?

[David Wade]

Think I mention it earlier too- I'm happy to pitch in.

[Carl Anderton]

Okay then, I think it's agreed that we should go ahead and pay these greedy Ning people for their mid-level service at $20 dollars a month. Now how should we handle the transfer of funds? I don't have a pay-pal account that I know of--my wife usually handles that sort of thing for me.

Any suggestions of an orderly and efficient system for handing over the money will be gratefully received.

[Trapdoor2]

Got my pointer hovering over the paypal button...

The Cafepress idea is one I've seen on other sites. So they set it up where a % of the sale goes back to defer the ning account cost? Cool. I need a good "Classic Banjo" coffee mug!

[Jim Mize]

Hey, Folks,

I just joined up after having lurked for about a year here and on the minstrel site. You can count on me for $50 -- if $500 gets us all the bells and whistles for a year, it's worth it. (I wouldn't have delved into the classic banjo without this site, either.)

Of course, for my $50, I'd LOVE to have someone walk me through the steps of posting videos. I'm completely clueless.

Rob MacKillop said:

We wouldn't get the mp3 player with the mid-level service. We need 500 dollars per annum to replicate what we have here. Truth is, I can't imagine many of the subscribers here donating what is needed. I might be wrong, of course, but there only seems to be about a dozen regulars at most. I personally think we are doomed. I would happily sponsor a month at the mid-level service. But is it enough? And how often would the regulars be called upon to repeat the donation?

Sorry I'm not feeling positive about this, but since we've been discussing it I haven't seen a rush of posts supporting Carl, and he is the guy who will be called upon to provide the money. So unless there are lot of posts over the next week offering money, I think Carl would be perfectly entitled to fold the site. The question then is whether to open up another somewhere else, or not bother at all.

This site turned me on to the CB in the first place. I definitely wouldn't be playing CB without it. I would give more than a month's money, but I really would be looking to a lot more members stepping up. Where are you?

[Chris Jones]

Jim Mize said:

Hey, Folks,

I just joined up after having lurked for about a year here and on the minstrel site. You can count on me for $50 -- if $500 gets us all the bells and whistles for a year, it's worth it. (I wouldn't have delved into the classic banjo without this site, either.)

Of course, for my $50, I'd LOVE to have someone walk me through the steps of posting videos. I'm completely clueless.

Rob MacKillop said:

We wouldn't get the mp3 player with the mid-level service. We need 500 dollars per annum to replicate what we have here. Truth is, I can't imagine many of the subscribers here donating what is needed. I might be wrong, of course, but there only seems to be about a dozen regulars at most. I personally think we are doomed. I would happily sponsor a month at the mid-level service. But is it enough? And how often would the regulars be called upon to repeat the donation?

Sorry I'm not feeling positive about this, but since we've been discussing it I haven't seen a rush of posts supporting Carl, and he is the guy who will be called upon to provide the money. So unless there are lot of posts over the next week offering money, I think Carl would be perfectly entitled to fold the site. The question then is whether to open up another somewhere else, or not bother at all.

This site turned me on to the CB in the first place. I definitely wouldn't be playing CB without it. I would give more than a month's money, but I really would be looking to a lot more members stepping up. Where are you?