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Important Changes - please read! - Page 2

post #31 of 55
5/13/04 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 
And just to clarify - there is no advertising revenue from chat rooms, hence it would have to be paid by the participating members and so would only be available to paying members.
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post #32 of 55
5/13/04 at 5:38pm
I guess I dont understand whats the connection between VB ( vBulletin ) is and the pay pal monthly subscriptions is , is it that you want the money sent directly to VB ?

it doesnt matter to me how its done I just dont understand the connection , if the funds are for the server costs what does VB have to do with it.
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post #33 of 55
5/13/04 at 7:11pm
vBulletin is the program that runs the forums. There isn't really a connection between the program and the payment options, it is that the forums themselves take up so much space on the server.
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post #34 of 55
5/14/04 at 1:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dana
I guess I dont understand whats the connection between VB ( vBulletin ) is and the pay pal monthly subscriptions is , is it that you want the money sent directly to VB ?

it doesnt matter to me how its done I just dont understand the connection , if the funds are for the server costs what does VB have to do with it.
VB3 now has the built in option to collect money for subscriptions through paypal. That's the connection. The money doesn't go to Vbulletin.com but to TheCatSite.com. The money goes to offset the costs or running these boards and website. The costs are getting higher not because of the price of the application (VB3) but because of server loads getting bigger.

Hope that clarifies it a bit.
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post #35 of 55
5/14/04 at 1:20am
Not sure how it would work in terms of additional admin for Anne, but what if a part of the subscription fee went to a cat charity . . . so the majority would go to fund additional features on TCS, but a percentage would go to helping someting close to our hearts . . . cats.

Just a thought to maybe getting those not motivated by the additional features to join up.
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post #36 of 55
5/14/04 at 2:49am
Do you mean you are keeping the old forum posts on the server indefinitely? If so, maybe you should remove the ones which have had no activity and archive them on CD. Why not remove the closed threads as well, since no one can post on them anymore?
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post #37 of 55
5/14/04 at 6:01am
Anne, I'm wondering if it would be beneficial and/or an option to delete very old threads that although are nice at the moment that they are posted, they are not necessarily informational. Such as "Happy Birthday, I've reached 1000 posts, Sally, empty your PM box" and other threads such as this? Those are the kind of posts that more then likely wouldn't be searched for 6 months later. But the other thought is, would that make everyone's posting numbers go down? Which wouldn't be good, especially for some who don't post as often (but post very meaningful things). I was wondering if that would free up some space but not be too much of a problem.
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post #38 of 55
5/14/04 at 8:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mzjazz2u
Anne, I'm wondering if it would be beneficial and/or an option to delete very old threads that although are nice at the moment that they are posted, they are not necessarily informational. Such as "Happy Birthday, I've reached 1000 posts, Sally, empty your PM box" and other threads such as this? Those are the kind of posts that more then likely wouldn't be searched for 6 months later. But the other thought is, would that make everyone's posting numbers go down? Which wouldn't be good, especially for some who don't post as often (but post very meaningful things). I was wondering if that would free up some space but not be too much of a problem.
We are going to cut down on the numbers of old threads and posts. Basically, some of the forums are intended as a database "for future generations" so to speak , so that someone can come here in a year's time and find all the threads about cats going outside the litter box and maybe find that one thread that would help his specific problem. Even on the lounge, there are threads that people often look back on and read - just to follow up with the history of this community. I realize that you don't mean those kind of threads, but then we have to manually prune the threads and going over literally tens of thousands of threads to see which ones can be deleted. We are at the process of trimming the database in that way (in face hissy is doing that) and yes some people may lose on their post count. But again this is a long and tedious process and we're very careful with what we're sending to the bin (it's no recycle bin -it's deleted forever). I guess and hope that we will have to move to a better server - this community is growing at a great rate and at some day we will just have to

Yola - I am reluctant to mix cat charity into this. It would be too difficult to track and proved "proof". I can let you know that %5 of all profits from our sites (TCS and Meowhoo) in fact go to cat charity, but it's not directly from the subscriptions only.

Just to share some more with you guys. We have no problem of disk space. We already rent a dedicated server, this is no $8 a month hosting plan . The problem is with the processor and its ability to handle a large work load such as when we do the daily backup of the forums. It's going to be mighty difficult to cut down on that but we are doing our best.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I really appreciate the fact that everyone's trying to help!
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post #39 of 55
5/14/04 at 9:39pm
Anne and Mary Anne,
Have ya'll ever thought of putting a Paypal Donation Button on the front page of the forums or on a sticky thread where people can randomly make donations to The Cat Site? I would be more than happy to occasionally donate money to help support TCS.
Also, since we are on the subject of donations...My bf hosts a forum about cars where they had stickers printed up. Each sticker only costs a few cents to have printed. People who donate $5.00 or more to the site get a sticker in the mail. They make alot of money this way that goes towards the upkeep of the forums.
Personally, I may have a hard time joining as a paying member. Only because I don't know from one month to the other how much money I will have to spend on things other than the bills. I however do like the options that you are giving to people who would like to join. I think that it is well worth the $.
Talk to ya'll soon, and thanks to both of you for running the best forums on the internet
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post #40 of 55
5/14/04 at 9:54pm
Donations to help with the running of the website can be made to the following paypal address listings@meowhoo.com Just on notes, put that it is for TCS. Anne did tell me that she doesn't want a donations button showing on the website.

Again the paid membership is not mandatory. It is just a way we are trying to help with the running of the website, for as Anne has said, it is not inexpensive to keep this going. Another way you can really help us is to go to the Cat Shop and look at the merchants there and support them by buying the products they have if you wish to. The same goes with the marketplace and TCS showcase and the new Cat Coupons. All can be accessed through the Cat Shop at the top of the page. The Market Place is one of the forums here.
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post #41 of 55
5/14/04 at 10:52pm
I've just arrived home trying to catch up on the days activities. I feel that a chat room would be a nice addition to TCS. I also think a special TCS sticker is a wonderful idea! Is this something that will be considered?
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post #42 of 55
5/15/04 at 5:54am
You know what else might be cool? One of those car window decals...something small, but something that gets our name out there. Something with a simple slogan, like maybe "Meow...TheCatSite.com"
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post #43 of 55
5/15/04 at 3:49pm
Just a suggestion, but would it be possible to automatically delete any thread that has been "inactive" for, say, 15, 30 or 60 days on the following forums? The Cat Lounge, New Cats on the Block, Caption This, IMO? A lot of the stuff posted is "old hat" after several days or weeks. There is of course a risk that some topics will turn up again, but that might be beneficial to new members who aren't necessarily going to browse through pages of old threads. Can that be done without changing the "status" (titles and avatars) of active members? I can visualize some people becoming irate if their status is downgraded.
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post #44 of 55
5/16/04 at 8:11am
I really like the idea of a sticker
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post #45 of 55
5/16/04 at 11:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by squirtle
I really like the idea of a sticker
I do, too. It wouldn't have to be a bumper sticker, either - how about one alerting emergency personnel to the presence of pets that we could put in our windows?
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post #46 of 55
5/16/04 at 12:22pm
I love the sticker idea. I have a Petfinder sticker and a Alley Cat Allies sticker on my car.

Katie
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post #47 of 55
5/16/04 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcat
I do, too. It wouldn't have to be a bumper sticker, either - how about one alerting emergency personnel to the presence of pets that we could put in our windows?
Ya or a sticker that says "Hello My Name is _________ , I am a member of The Cat Site" to put on the carriers

Or one that says "TCS cat lives here", like you said, to notify the fire dparatment in case of eemergency.

There are so many different stickers TCS could make.
Maybe we are making this too complicated, maybe just a The Cat Site sticker would be easier to manage for hissy and Anne. Or use just the new slogan that we all voted on, what was that again? I forget which one won?
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post #48 of 55
6/4/04 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anne
Just to clarify - non-paying members will still have their posting rights same as always. We don't plan on any "private forums" for paying members only. The difference will be that paying members will have the option to turn ads off, a much larger PM box and more space available for attachments. They will also be making a significant contribution towards the financial keep of the forums.

As for members from outside the US. You should have no problem paying via Paypal. I have used Paypal several times in the past and had no problem with it whatsoever. People who don't wish to use their CC online can send the money in by check, but of course it will take a bit longer for their payments to be accepted and their paying member status activated. Please don't hesitate to PM me or hissy with any questions about this.

Thank you all!
I just subscribed using Paypal from Germany, and it seems to have worked (Anne, please let me know if it didn't; Visa is sometimes funny about okaying Internet payments). $5 a month is not a huge sum, so I hope there will be a lot of subscribers - just think how much invaluable support and info is made available here!
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post #49 of 55
6/5/04 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Looks like it did! Thank you so much for subscribing!
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post #50 of 55
6/6/04 at 11:59am
I just sign up as a paying member

Question , how long does it take to show up as a paying member . I really like to download some pics . It may have bin already said, I did not re read all what was said in here again . Sorry about that
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post #51 of 55
6/6/04 at 2:26pm
Hedi, if you click on "paid subscriptions", there should be a box at the top with "subscription title", showing your subscription.
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post #52 of 55
6/6/04 at 3:02pm
Thanks jcat , it does show . But my attachment for uploading pics has not changed yet I was hoping I get more space to upload pics
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post #53 of 55
6/6/04 at 3:13pm
Mine just shows "attachment statistics". Do you have an account at "Photobucket.com", for remote linking? It's free (though donations are appreciated) and very easy to use. After you upload your pictures, all you have to do is double click the "image" line (the third line), and paste it in your post.
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post #54 of 55
6/6/04 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcat
Mine just shows "attachment statistics". Do you have an account at "Photobucket.com", for remote linking? It's free (though donations are appreciated) and very easy to use. After you upload your pictures, all you have to do is double click the "image" line (the third line), and paste it in your post.
I don't have a acount with "Photobucket.com . I may have to look into it , thanks
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post #55 of 55
6/6/04 at 6:13pm
Thanks jcat I alread post some pics , I wish I known that a way back .
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