RMweb Gold - a new premium membership

[AY Mod]

7 minutes ago, phil gollin said:

Do you not see the contradiction in that statement ?

 

There's no contradiction whatsoever there. It's an explanation to give balance to your hyperbole.

 

After the week I've had I'm not in the mood for debating semantics.

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, phil gollin said:

I do not understand the logic of these pop-up annoyances

Many of us also ignore them but they do work for a large proportion of society who are convinced they will get a bargain offer. 
They pay for the forum because those companies do very well from the revenue and will pay BRM to have that access to us. That gives us the forum for free. I just close them and get on with it, the big internet providers hooked us in with access for free but running it does cost money and as we are all posting big photos from our shiny new smartphones all the time the cost of data storage is rising fast. 
There’s a simple fact someone has to pay those hosts to run that and they’ve upped the prices as our use of data has increased. BRM could make the forum subs only but then they and we miss out on the content of those who don’t want to pay for it. The forum is richer for that diversity and if anyone can store the huge databank of Rmweb for free I’m sure Andy would love to hear from you. Unfortunately the reality is the costs are rising and BRM is just the forum host and have to pay the other company for software and storage. The ads are paying for that even if a majority of us find them superfluous. 
Rather than moaning at Andy why don’t people suggest a cheap alternative solution and include the link? Is it because it doesn’t exist or the computer expert moaning can’t post a link? Or do we just want something for nothing? 

Edited October 1, 2021 by PaulRhB

[AY Mod]

17 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Or do we just want something for nothing? 

 

I couldn't possibly comment. 

 

However, I do recognise a significant number of people do get and care about the bigger picture. If they didn't I wouldn't do as much.

 

On the subject of alternatives and VFM I pushed for a move to Dediserve years ago and we had excellent performance and service. They're not as good as they were (there's reasons there I won't go into) but several times our IT department have looked to move the hosting to other providers they use but haven't, yet, been able to source a better solution at fair pricing.

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, MarkSG said:

 

Dolphins? All I'm getting is ships and pastry.

 

Given the variety of subjects, I suppose one of us is probably lucky enough to get trains!

As a “Gold member”, I feel I am missing out.

 

And yet, at the same time, glad to be…

[Regularity]

19 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

On the subject of alternatives and VFM I pushed for a move to Dediserve years ago and we had excellent performance and service. They're not as good as they were (there's reasons there I won't go into) but several times our IT department have looked to move the hosting to other providers they use but haven't, yet, been able to source a better solution at fair pricing.

Look, it’s your own bl00dy fault for making a success of the forum!

[AY Mod]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Look, it’s your own bl00dy fault for making a success of the forum!

 

6,045 days since we started.

 

[Barnaby]

1 hour ago, russ p said:

Got sick of daffodils dolphins and god knows what else so signed up!

 

I was just thinking the very same.  

If I become a GOLD member will that rid me of all the adverts ....................... but wait a little, what if all do the same who then will the advertisers advertise too ...... surely not us GOLD members?  AAAAAAAAAAH 

[AY Mod]

1 minute ago, Barnaby said:

I was just thinking the very same.  

If I become a GOLD member will that rid me of all the adverts ....................... but wait a little, what if all do the same who then will the advertisers advertise too ...... surely not us GOLD members?  AAAAAAAAAAH 

 

Gold users do not and will not get Google ads.

[Chris M]

1 hour ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

Do you not see the contradiction in that statement ?

 

.

I can’t see any contradiction. The cost of running any forum has to be paid somehow.  Advertising is a bit of a pain but, maybe because I’m a tight old bu&&er, I think it’s better than having to pay a subscription. We can’t expect Warner’s to pay for this forum unless they can see value from having a BRM presence here which is greater than the cost of running the forum.

 

For me this forum has kept BRM in my mind more than it would have been without the forum. It’s hard to quantify but the forum has encouraged me to buy the odd copy of BRM that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise. Also I have certainly been to an admittedly small number of National Festival of Railway Modelling  shows that I would not have gone to of it wasn’t for this forum.  So Warner’s do get some return on their investment in the forum but only they will know if it is enough.

 

I would like to thank Andy and Phil for all the work they do. It is appreciated. 

[Barnaby]

 

Barnaby is going looking how to become a GOLD member to rid me of all the google adverts ......  YAAAAAAAAAAH 

 

EDIT: well I would be signing up but not yet found the way in online?  I have my tea then come back for a play.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Barnaby

[slow8dirty]

We partake of a hobby that you can splash out half a grand on a RTR loco if you so desire. An average is probably £150 for a OO loco. And yet the vitriol and miserly b#£@hing for a few quid a month towards the running of a resource (and it is) we all enjoy is almost comedic( probably not for some). 

The last 24hrs has demonstrated very well what it takes to keep the old girl in steam, I'm happy to bung a few quid towards that, if I wasn't I'd be patient and let the ads settle down happy to get in for nowt.

[autocoach]

Just a question....I am still stuck with a Pocketmags subscription to BRM as the last time I looked there was no Windows/browser electronic subscription available from Warners.  I love 24-28 inch monitors for viewing and reading. 

 

Has this situation improved or am I condemned to continue with Pocketmags or do you now have an alternative for BRM.  

 

Also living through your North American counterpart (MRH) forum upgrade problems.  Joe Fugate said he couldn't afford the software used for RMWEB. 

[AY Mod]

13 minutes ago, autocoach said:

I love 24-28 inch monitors for viewing and reading. 

 

Gold gives access via Exact Editions to BRM plus our other railway monthlies which I use on 27" monitors day in, day out (Win 10). One of its best features is the search facility.

[Mikkel]

 

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

6,045 days since we started.

 

 

Well Andy, if you're looking for a more quite life... 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by Mikkel
typo

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Well Andy, if you're looking for a more quite life

 

They added 'personable' to the attributes to make sure I didn't get through any application sifting. 

[MarkSG]

16 minutes ago, autocoach said:

Also living through your North American counterpart (MRH) forum upgrade problems.  Joe Fugate said he couldn't afford the software used for RMWEB. 

 

Invision Community can be quite pricy if you go for the full-featured hosted version. But if you can host it on your own equipment (which, as far as I can tell, RMweb is doing) it's a lot cheaper. The most expensive self-hosted version is $850 setup and $300 a year thereafter, which is not unreasonable. And you can reduce that stll further by excluding the components you don't use, and only paying a renewal fee when you need to (the software doesn't stop working if you don't renew, it just won't auto-upgrade until you do). The hardware requirements for running it aren't particularly onerous - just out of curiousity, I downloaded and installed their compatibility checker on one of my servers and it meets them without any difficulty. That server costs me £60 a month to run, which gives a ballpark figure for comparison. Add in the cost of Invision, and it's around £70 to £90 a month depending on feature set and exchange rates. And that's easily covered by advertising - I have four sites which, according to the Alexa website rankings, are less popular than RMweb and yet comfortably exceed £100 a month in advertising revenue.

 

MRH certainly ought to be able to afford it; according to Alexa they're in the top 500k of global websites and therefore capable pulling in ad revenue running well into four figures a month. But they're not really monetising the website, it carries very little advertising and that which it does carry isn't likely to be particularly lucrative. Maybe they should take another look at their ad strategy.

 

But, as I've said before, it isn't the hosting costs which matter. If RMweb was one of my sites then I'm confident it would generate an operating profit on advertising alone. But I couldn't live off that. Nor could anybody. From an organisational perspective, something which generates a net profit of maybe £50 to £100 a month isn't paying for very many hours of staff time looking after it. If you want to earn a living wage from a mid-ranking website (which RMweb is), then you need more than just advertising to do it. Which is where we came in.

[autocoach]

"MRH certainly ought to be able to afford it; according to Alexa they're in the top 500k of global websites and therefore capable pulling in ad revenue running well into four figures a month. But they're not really monetizing the website"

 

Most of the MRH forum subscribers are very skinflint (cheap) model railroaders. Not an easy way to make a living in advertising to them. The advertisers are likewise cheap (aka highly economical except Rapido North America.)  Many topics are looking for cheaper products and solutions to high price model railroad products.    The forum is not the prime advertising revenue source for the publisher (though he would like it to be a bigger contributor.)  MRH publishes a free downloadable  PDF MRH monthly magazine  which is heavily advertising supported (the links work) and Running Extra a pay for access, no advertisement,  downloadable MRH Extra that has highly detailed extended articles.  If you subscribe to Running Extra, your download includes the regular MRH magazine with adds.  Running Extra is not available as a separate download. MRH also sells video downloads of extended model railroad clinics and layout tours on  a subscription or one off access basis.  Running Extra is only about $20-25 a year for a subscription.  Such a deal but of course there is no coverage outside North American railroading. Which is why I am a member of RMWEB and subscribe to BRM.  My interests span the Atlantic but don't cross the Channel. 

 

There is no hardcopy printed version of MRH magazine/Running Extra unless you wish to print the PDF's as a subscriber on your own printer. With no regular print version there is a bit of a paradigm shift.  MRH is a child of the digital age and had no old fashioned paper magazine past to to meld into a combined digital/paper format and satisfy generations of paper only subscribers. 

[autocoach]

3 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

Gold gives access via Exact Editions to BRM plus our other railway monthlies which I use on 27" monitors day in, day out (Win 10). One of its best features is the search facility.

I used to use Exact Editions for my BRM subscription until they withdrew support for Windows platforms around 2010-2013. The  EE site mentions only IOS, Android and Unix platforms.  I guess they have moved on since then. Windows 11 will be in discovery model soon.

 

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

Do you not see the contradiction in that statement ?

 

.

No.

[Barnaby]

Hello, is there a way to have gold membership but without signing up to all the world of railways stuff all I'm interested in is the RMWeb side of the deal.

 

[Phil Parker]

1 hour ago, Barnaby said:

Hello, is there a way to have gold membership but without signing up to all the world of railways stuff all I'm interested in is the RMWeb side of the deal.

 

 

No one forces you to use all the WoR stuff, so you could sign up for Gold and just ignore it. 

 

If you mean "Can I have a cheaper Gold membership" then that's a different product, which is what is being worked on. 

[polybear]

It's a little-known fact that the RMWGold price is to cover the costs of AndY's Valium bill as a result of running the site..........

[47137]

5 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

No one forces you to use all the WoR stuff, so you could sign up for Gold and just ignore it. 

 

If you mean "Can I have a cheaper Gold membership" then that's a different product, which is what is being worked on. 

 

I want to see the RMweb survive (and not collapse under the weight of its popularity) but I thoroughly dislike advertisements. I have only ever had one "subscription TV service" (I don't like TV much either!) and this is for YouTube, to cut out their advertisements.

 

I would be happy to pay my £50/year for RMweb to host my blog. I want to put it somewhere, I don't have the skill set to use a Pi and my ISP would want about £50 for their entry-level hosting package. Using RMweb lets me integrate my blog with related topics and searches and you do the indexing for search engines too. I would be happy for you to limit me to (say) 200kB per image and one entry a week too.

 

I can lose the WoR stuff - I logged onto Exact Editions a week ago so you can see how often I look at it.

 

- Richard.

[5BarVT]

7 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

No one forces you to use all the WoR stuff, so you could sign up for Gold and just ignore it. 

 

If you mean "Can I have a cheaper Gold membership" then that's a different product, which is what is being worked on. 

I too want to see RMWeb succeed and will happily pay for Gold membership.  If I go for WoR now, will I be able to ‘downgrade’ later?  And related to that, how far away (approx and without guarantee) is your ‘new Gold only’ product?

Paul.

[AY Mod]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

If I go for WoR now, will I be able to ‘downgrade’ later?  And related to that, how far away (approx and without guarantee) is your ‘new Gold only’ product?

 

On the first point I've been told it should be possible but I'd like to see how that ties in with any payment options before giving a proper answer.

 

I'll find out during the week whether it's got any closer than my conversations last week. I would hope it's less than a month.