The first set of changes in how the site runs, and how it funds itself.

Effective 10/6/2017 (The day I renew the server lease) I am getting out of the “safe storage” business. Files in the freight shed and albums will no longer be backed up at that time. I need to do this to cut the cost of the server lease (space + daily backups of a large amount of files). If anyone who has purchased a Freight Shed since 4/6/2017 wishes a refund, contact me back-channel. That said, the amount of extra space you get will not change. If you have your files backed up locally, and just want some space on the web to be able to share them, nothing changes.

In combination with this, in the next couple of months I will be changing the subscription plans a bit. For the first time in many years, I am falling very short of the site paying for itself, so I’m trying a few things. I am going to offer tiered subscriptions, probably something close to this:

Default Level: Free as always, nothing changes here. Complete access to the site, 50MB storage space.

Bronze Level: $25/year. Same as the existing Freight Shed. Same access as Default Level, except 500MB storage.

Silver Level: $50/year. Bronze Level access, plus some good thoughts from me for going that extra bit to support the site.

Gold Level $100/year. Silver Level access, plus even more good thoughts from me, and probably from Martha, too.

You will have some kind of badge for bronze/silver/gold.

A few of you go even beyond this, and I really appreciate it. I also wont complain if you tell all your friends to hit the donate button on the site’s front page.

For all the enjoyment I get from the use of the site I’ll ask that you send me a e-mail bill for what I owe to get the gold star, but keep the gold star as I don’t care for them.As always the check will be in the mail. And get something nice for Martha(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Will you need our subscriptions on or before 10/6, or will it be a whenever thing? Are you going to have subscription page, or do we just contact you directly?

Chris

I wont need it by the 6th. It will take a bit of time to set up. It will be through the regular subscription process (top menu, settings, subscription)

Bob, I see that the FOR SALE/TRADE forum does not have a sponsor. I’m sending you a check for $125 to sponsor that forum. Please list “The St Francis Railroad of the Colorado Rockies” at the top as the sponsor. I’ll send you a jpeg.

I’m doing this publicly so as to encourage other contributions, like Marconi and Chris have done above.

P.S.: On a note to my fellow members on the site, I use adblock plus, the program that kills ads, everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, EXCEPT on Large Scale Central. And when I have time, I’ll click on one of the ads just for the hell of it. I know it ain’t much, but every little bit helps.

John Passaro said:

Bob, I see that the FOR SALE/TRADE forum does not have a sponsor. I’m sending you a check for $125 to sponsor that forum. Please list “The St Francis Railroad of the Colorado Rockies” at the top as the sponsor. I’ll send you a jpeg.

I’m doing this publicly so as to encourage other contributions, like Marconi and Chris have done above.

P.S.: On a note to my fellow members on the site, I use adblock plus, the program that kills ads, everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, EXCEPT on Large Scale Central. And when I have time, I’ll click on one of the ads just for the hell of it. I know it ain’t much, but every little bit helps.

Heck, I even bought a T shirt from one of his advertisers!

Nice move John, best I can manage is a Silver membership, but I’m happy to help.

Bob McCown said:

The first set of changes in how the site runs, and how it funds itself.

I like the perspective plan, Bob:

"Default Level: Free as always, nothing changes here. Complete access to the site, 50MB storage space.

Bronze Level: $25/year. Same as the existing Freight Shed. Same access as Default Level, except 500MB storage.

Silver Level: $50/year. Bronze Level access, plus some good thoughts from me for going that extra bit to support the site.

Gold Level $100/year. Silver Level access, plus even more good thoughts from me, and probably from Martha, too."

However, in my mind there is one more level:

Bob Level: Priceless.

Bob: Just a question: do you intend to have individual renewal dates, or have everyone renew on the same day?

If you automate this, the first choice should be easy. I do things for our local club and our renewal is not automated, so we had to move all membership renewals to january 1 to keep our sanity.

Also, do you have the “Platinum” membership, i.e. lifetime? We had this on MLS. Just a thought.

Greg

Greg, Those paid for memberships on MLS are pretty much worthless. I think Bob is on the right track, annual memberships.

If you have your files backed up locally, and just want some space on the web to be able to share them, nothing changes.

Well, yes, but you won’t be able to share them if they get lost - the threads will turn up with empty spots where photos used to be. Having (a) deleted a freight shed folder by accident and (b) watched the troubles over on MLS, it isn’t really a problem for me but it does have ramifications.

It does screw up ‘build’ threads or other archive material if the photos go away. I think MLS used to have a ‘printable’ option for a thread which generated a PDF - which was easy to archive. Maybe that might be a useful future option?

Pete, that is why I host my build thread photos on my own web space, not here (although I pay for freighsheds), and not on some soon to be Rasnomware server somewhere. My photos are both local on my home PC, and several back up drives and are linked from my personal web space.

I do like the idea of a PDF generator for threads. Although most that I would want to PDF are destroyed by the now famous Ransombucket.

Theoretically, if you back up your pictures with the same names and directory structures, you should be able to upload them back here and not have any broken links, as long as your freight shed “address” does not change.

I do what Bob C. does, host elsewhere, and back up at my house. Even though my ISP backs up my site, I do my own backups.

Haven’t got caught with my pants down since 1975.

Greg

I am liking the sound of this.

Bob McCown said:

“In combination with this, in the next couple of months I will be changing the subscription plans a bit. For the first time in many years, I am falling very short of the site paying for itself, so I’m trying a few things. I am going to offer tiered subscriptions…”

“A few of you go even beyond this, and I really appreciate it. I also wont complain if you tell all your friends to hit the donate button on the site’s front page. :)”

Hey, Bob I believe that most LSCers, myself included, would be more than willing to contribute/donate/subsidize more if we had some idea of what kind of monetary goal needed to be achieved to in order to reach that break even point. I would much rather know ahead of time that LSC was in the red before you might make the decision to shut it down for financial reasons. What came to my mind were the goal/contribution signs that some of the organizations affiliated with the United Way utilize. They look like a thermometer with the goal being at the top. It is filled in, from the bottom to the top, as funds are collected. That way we could judge our remittance accordingly. And we would also have the ability and the opportunity to kick in some additional funds later on in the year if necessary…All in the order of keeping LSC afloat.

I have tried to be a loyal contributor to LSC on a regular basis by purchasing a freight shed but have always wondered if that amount was enough. And then the question of how much would be enough would follow. I know that you donate and unimaginable amount of time and frustration keeping the great LSC alive and well. However, I feel that you should not have to donate a penny of your personal finances to keep it going. Heck, I think that you should be compensated for all that you do. Thank you once again.

My two cents, Mark

Not to step on toes, but I would think that in this day and age all of the users of this site realize that a site of this caliber costs a bit to run. Just how much is only known to the owner of the site. I see where a fair share is requested so we can judge our contribution accordingly so that BD will break even and not have to shell out of his pocket. In the same statement it is said that BD should make a profit for his endeavor. Which one is it?

I believe BD said this site would always be free as it is his hobby, a way to share his enjoyment. I am sure there are some who can NOT afford to pay to be here and also some who can afford to pay the entire annual bill. Instead of asking to see a money goal ask yourself how much this site means to you. How much enjoyment do you get from being here and put a price on what your answer is. Maybe you will pay more than John Doe or maybe John Doe will pay for three others. If you find yourself wondering if you are contributing enough, maybe you need to contribute a little more and quit worrying if everybody paid the same $.02 worth.

Mark

I agree 110% with your last paragraph (however you “quoted it improperly” as some would call you out on and it is important on how one quotes).

NOT!

THIS IS A DAMN HOBBY for crying out loud and I really hope BD (nickname) allows us to continue on his site, in his living room with enough financial support that the man needs! Let the rest of us that have the BALLS like “Roosters do” call them out publicly on the forums and let the users decide. I believe this was BD’s (nickname) original point of the thanks and reputation system that in certain cases has been abused by the same folk.

HOWEVER this is just my opinion and opinions may vary ! Perhaps I am part of the problem but the question is "am I part of the problem for defending a great site speaking my mind openly on the forums or is better to do it privately "?

Hollywood (not his real name but a nickname clearly read my mind as I was typing) Scary

Dave, In my earlier comment about Bob’s possible tiered subscription system I was trying to tell Bob that I liked the idea and also to be complimentary to Bob (like the Visa commercials) and say his value to this site is priceless. Maybe I allowed myself to be mis-interpreted that I thought we should not be expected to pay into it. And if that is how I came across I apologize. There has to be a lot of overhead to operate this site and I thought that Bob’s four tiers (and beyond) would be an excellent way to allow people to contribute at their comfort level.

My thoughts on the goal/contribution sign were that it could serve as a way for those wishing to donate to have some idea how close or far Bob was from reaching his break even point. It could be like a thermometer, a pie or even a water tower. It wouldn’t need to have any numbers. Maybe just a space filled in as funds were received representing the percentage of progress towards reaching the goal to keep the site in the black (and in operation). That way we would know that reaching the goal was falling short before Bob had to ask for more and we could individually contribute some more until the goal was reached. This sign could be labelled as such or just be a symbol on the page somewhere that reflected the current level of achievement.

No need to apologize Mark simply expressed opinions more than likely pointed to the same end worded differently(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

I’ll wait till this is set up then go bronze, that way I can finally reload my photo archive and rebuild some of my old threads, here and there but NOT at MLS, I am done with those jackwagons running that site.