Forum Search

[JesperS]

Gents ...

Before this deteriorates into too much of a trench warfare ... I believe people are simply stating their concern for the future of the forum rather than bickering over petty money.

Advanced search being a privilege for paying members seems fair and understandable, but not having even a simple search feature for "standard" members could very well lead to members leaving the forum and thus eventually killing it. I am seriously considering becoming a paying member - Not to gain access to the search function but to help make the search function available again for those who don't pay. The issue is that I don't know what I am buying as there is no guarantee my contribution will make that happen.

I DO fully understand the issue seen from the forum owners perspective, and I don't have the answer - But please don't disregard my concern as unwillingness to pay.

[ATK]

Besides all the other things, there is no way for me to join WRF Club just because the paypal was banned years ago here, in Türkiye. So there is no way for me to search in forum even if I want to pay for membership.

[Danmark]

Like many others, I am an early member ( well, joining the next year of its commencement, late in 2009 ) and have been a paid 'Pink' member for many of the 13 years since.

I'm sure we all have reasons for not continuing with paid membership, mine is retirement and ceasing collecting - but I still enjoy seeing the endeavours of others who ARE still collecting and hate to see / read the negative writings of some ( even though I can certainly appreciate the frustration that prompts them to put "pen to paper" .... as it were ).

Personally I feel that my contributions ( such as they are ) over the years have given as much as I have taken from this knowledge bank of ww2 history and have no guilt in stepping back from that.

I do hope the forum remains valid and viable for those that remain.......

[AndyM35]

Besides all the other things, there is no way for me to join WRF Club just because the paypal was banned years ago here, in Türkiye. So there is no way for me to search in forum even if I want to pay for membership.

Sorry to hear that ATK. That really *****. I hope perhaps at some point in the future things change with regards to PayPal in Turkey.

Andy

[AndyM35]

Like many others, I am an early member ( well, joining the next year of its commencement, late in 2009 ) and have been a paid 'Pink' member for many of the 13 years since.

I'm sure we all have reasons for not continuing with paid membership, mine is retirement and ceasing collecting - but I still enjoy seeing the endeavours of others who ARE still collecting and hate to see / read the negative writings of some ( even though I can certainly appreciate the frustration that prompts them to put "pen to paper" .... as it were ).

Personally I feel that my contributions ( such as they are ) over the years have given as much as I have taken from this knowledge bank of ww2 history and have no guilt in stepping back from that.

I do hope the forum remains valid and viable for those that remain.......

Hope this isn’t a sign off post Dan! You have contributed so much and I’m sure still have much to contribute….not to mention you’re part of the furniture now!

Andy

[Danmark]

No Andy, still here....
And still have a few cents to add now and then ....

[BlackCat1982]

Glad to hear you are not going anywhere soon Danmark as I respect your input here. I'm in a similar position as yourself, now retired although still in the hunt for new additions as and when.

[thecyclist64]

Let me give you an insight into why I, and possibly others, choose not to subscribe. It has nothing to do with being mean or stingy; $30 is good value for money based on the information I have received from expert members. It does however have everything to do with cyber security, or rather lack of, as there really is no such thing.

Firstly, having checked the IP address, this site is based in Dallas, Texas- nothing wrong with that, but let me elaborate.
The USA has different laws governing data protection to those we have in the European Union, basically, less stringent. From the .eu domain name, you would think that the site is based somewhere in the EU – it isn’t and therefore we in England and the rest of the EU don’t benefit from the GDPR rules which don’t apply in the USA. As we have seen recently, this site does come under regular attack from spammers and botnets.

Secondly, to subscribe to this site, you can only do so in US Dollars. Not a huge problem, but it does involve transaction and conversion costs.

Thirdly, the only way I can subscribe is to use my bank card (I don’t have pay-pal or a credit card). This means that my true identity will be revealed to the site and any potential hackers leaving me open to cyber fraud/ crime.
Fourthly, although not a problem to me, some members who chose anonymity do so because they don’t want the wider world to know that they collect Nazi memorabilia or guns (more of a problem in the UK than in the USA). If hackers were to release that sort of information into the public domain, some people would be devastated if their work colleagues found out what they really do in their spare time.
And finally, as someone else has previously mentioned, there are paid-up members who contribute very little in terms of shared knowledge and others who are non-paying members who contribute a great deal.
I am not the type of person who just moans about a problem and leaves it at that; I also like to propose solutions to those problems – so here goes.
1. Why not allow members to subscribe in their own local currency. The site might increase its revenue.
2. Allow members to subscribe anonymously through, for example, Paysafecard, or equivalents in other countries.
3. Allow one member to subscribe on behalf of another member who is known to him and can reimburse him in cash if he doesn’t want to put his bank details into the internet.