GPUG to become a pay-site ??

[tommy]

Quoting the document http://www.gpug.org/files/EngagementGuidelines.pdf



it reads:

Basic membership is available at no charge and includes full voting rights in GPUG Board elections. A membership upgrade to "Gold Member" is available fo $75 per year per individual. This entitles the user to the exclusive online newsgroups and members-only web page communication tools.

When I signed up to GPUG it was not mentioned anywhere that the access would eventually cost a yearly fee!



I don't know about anybody else but I am not going to pay anything to get something that I can get elsewhere for free or that are covered by the Peregrine maintenance fee.



I have asked GPUG about what contents the "Gold Member" membership will have. I have not received a response yet.



What do You think?

[harn145]

Based on requests to the GPUG, they are developing additional functionality, such as a searchable database of all mailinglist issues, etc.



If you can get the info else where, no prob, as the "basic" membership is still free of charge...



However, if you want more from the GPUG - activities that are not "core" for them - you'll have to chip in... seems logical to me.



So I see no tricks, as GPUG is still f.o.c. and find it logical that additional info/activities/etc. should be supported by the GPUG members - after all, it's officially independent of PRGN - and are "for the users by the users".

[tommy]

Problem is that it seems to be impossible to get information about what is included in the socalled "Gold Member" section.



I have been waiting for a response on that since 13/4.





But I don't agree that it should cost money. They are a non-profit organisation and volounteer their work so I assume that nobody gets paid for the work they do. And as far as I can see the hosting is done by AT&T[1], the listserver is provided by Peregrine so what should the $105.000 a year be used for ($75*1500 members)?



[1] Actually they have removed the information on the site that said it was hosted by AT&T.



A few numbers on the cost of hosting a web site.



A web-hosting with 100 MB diskspace and unlimitied bandwith can be obtained for less than $5 a month in Denmark ( http://www.cliche.dk )! I know this is an extreme example but its just to illustrate that $105.000 a year is a lot of money.





[Edited by admin on 24-04-2002 at 15:24 GMT]

[kobear]

Tommy,

I think that I saw somewhere out there that there is a mod that allows you to automatically post newsgroup postings to phpBB 2.x builletin boards.

That would replicate alot of what GPUG is selling with their $75 / year subscription.

I'll search around for it. If I cannot find it, I am sure that it would not be too difficult to write.

[tommy]

I have it, I have not tested it yet. I have to get the autor to translate some french or spanish texts to english.

[tommy]

I have it, I have not tested it yet. I have to get the autor to translate some french or spanish texts to english.

I just took a short look at the script and can see that it rely on unix to work.

[kobear]

All the more reason to convert to linux, my friend. :wink: