Trail Talk Plus

“This is just an outloud brainstorm, so bear with me.

In addition to the regular TT page, what if I made a text only/ad free page called TT Plus and then charged a small monthly fee ($2-5) to use it? Would anyone pay for something like this? The regular TT page would still be available and free for all to use, but if you want a slightly faster load time or hate the ads, then you could pay to use the TT+ page. What other features would justify a pay service? I'm just trying to think of some ways to turn this whole Internet thing into a full-time job and leave corporate America behind.”

“THat sounds interesting.”

“my wife wants to shoot me already. if i paid to do this i'd be a dead man for sure.....”

“Matt the ads don't bother me as much as it does some of the others. I'm using a older broswer with dial-up I don't know how much faster loading would be for me. I like that you do this for us and from my understanding some of it is out of pocket, I guess.

Couldn't you just ask for donations till the required mark was met freeing you of any 'out-of-pocket' expenses and possible do away with ads all together, PBS style.

What's it take,,, $$$ wise, a year to keep this up for us? I'm sure others would be willing to fork over a few bucks a year to free it of ads. You got the flock for it.

Donation to keep it commercial free!!!”

“I would be willing to pay up to 20 bucks for the year. I would not want to pay monthly.”

“yeah briar......a TT-a-thon!



tilt can be the MC(ala jerry lewis)”

“we can call it....MATT'S KIDS”

“A 30 day free trail run for trolls and newbies then if they want to keep that 'handle and password' a one time yearly donation would be reguired in order to keep it.”

“I don't think the two board thing would work. I think everyone would end up sticking with the free one. I would be willing to pay to suport the board if it had a better format like the EZ Board format. The people are great here and the topics lively but the format is arcane and outdated.”

“can we get the Tree Family Discount?”

“I like the way TT is now. I don't mind the ads, as long as there notthe kind like that suitcase thing. I have a fast service and computer, so TT runs smooth fer me. That being said, I can understand you wanting to make this full time for you. I would be willing to chip in donation style. There has to be a way to make this site pay for ya.”

“I tend to not pay for online content (read: I don't pay), but out of all the online content I make use of, TT is the one thing I would pay for.

I don't know how many users would be lost if you charged for what we get now, but I do believe that any new content that you charged for would get little traffic. Could be wrong, but that's what I think.”

“Where do I send the check?”

“i maybe wouldn't mind a one time pay for a screen name deal. Making it real interesting to be a troll then.”

“i think you people should pay ME to hang out here.”

“but for real, i wouldn't pay the monthly fee if i could still use TT like it is, because the ads or whatever don't bother me. if you charged for regular TT, though, i would pay yearly, like $20 or something. but i still think i should be paid!!
;-)”

“I'll send you some Blueberry Harvest Bars and Monkey Chow, lyra!”

“now that's more like it! happy friday, Aero. :-)”

“I guess I'd pay something like $20 per year. Could I just send you a nickle a day?”

“Sure, aero, mail Matt a nickel every day...”

“HA!

Yeah, you'd have to be independently wealthy to run even a small stable of trolls.


Hey, I wonder what the writers union would say? Would Matt pay union scale for all these killer ad libs?”

“A yearly fee sounds better than a monthly fee. The ads don't bother me, other than the freaky flying suitcase. In fact, I found offroute.com and Sierra Trading Post through the ads. But this is almost like a second home, so anything that would improve it or allow more features would be good.

Generally, I like the format well enough. I'd suggest adding the screen name of whoever started the tread.”

“Hey, how about keeping TT board free, but update and charge for the information sections. We are always saying to newbies - geeezzz, we've covered this before, go check the inforamtion area --”

“How about grandfather all of us in for free and charge the Newbies? It'll be our little secret!”

“No. This board would die very quickly if fees are introduced.
Rarely have fees worked on the internet.”

“aero for TT president!!”

“...going along with my above suggestion, you could get in the "charged" area for free, once you have contributed 10 gear reviews.....”

“stovestomper is obviously overlooking the billion dollar porn site industry”

“TT porn? hmmmmm.....”

“Webshots seems to have the recipe; free use for limited service and a fee for unlimited use.”

“maybe we could combine the two....”

“Maybe if you had the free service, you could only enter 24 characters per message.”

“Thanks Maple. If elected, I promise to push for fee-cuts!”

“lmao chili, you obviously haven't been......do they have a hooters site?”

“If you want to offer a pay service, you must allow nekkid pitchers, and lots of 'em.”

“No, strat, Hooter's still leaves a little for the imagination.”

“Only if they are nekkid rotting toes and left feet a la Violin.

Matt I would pay an annual fee and put up with the ads so that you could work this board fulltime and backpack the group trips more.”

“TT porn would scare people away. LOL! ;-) yeah, i think that if you charged for regular use, you would have to at least have a free trial period, otherwise newbies would never sign up. wait a minute, who needs freakin' newbies??

can i be the VP, Aero? my moto: Monkeys All Around!”

“I'm happy with things now, but I'd pay a yearly subscription rate for TT.”

“You could be VP, lyra, and the monkeys could be the Cabinet.
Close the borders! Tax the Newbies!”

“lol aero”

“woo hoo!! :-)”

“are Trolls allowed?”

“If they pay why not, Troll money no good around here?”

“Perhaps you could do links that give a referral fee. I'll bet there is enough TT loyalty that you'd get a lot of clicks - I'd certainly use them and would buy through them if the price was competitive.”

“Sorry, not interested in paying.

Lurking here is a good escape from work now and again, but I certainly would not be interested in paying for the banter of this evergrowing dysfunctional family.

The ads don't bother me that much.

(I hope you're not accidentally exposing a shortness of operating funds for this website!!)”

“You could be VP, lyra, and the monkeys could be the Cabinet.
Close the borders! Tax the Newbies!"
aero
09:41:12 AM
06/27/03

what about me damnit!

I voted you in as Pres....”

“A football board I read lets anyone read the messages, but only paying members to post. I'm not a member of that board, but it's a nice intermediate way to do things.”

“uummm did you just tell Matt that he has a dysfunctional family?”

“that's a good idea, dayhiker!

hey maple, the monkeys will need someone to pick the bugs off them. hee hee!!”