forum make over

Sounds great, I m sure it will be Awsome. Eli

@dominiquer60 39221 wrote:

I like how by everyone donating (at least a tiny bit) to register we will be able to sort out the hundreds of spammers and hopefully a makeover will solve the problems we’ve been having with real people not being able to register successfully.

I agree, those are very good points. Has anyone done an informal poll of the newest members to see if they would have donated $1 or more when they joined? Will you be rotating ads in from the existing DAPNet.org Sponsorship Circle and Business Directory or will advertising be separate, with the forum ads being much more narrow in scope?

It’s important for the people reading this to either state your opinion here or let Donn and Andy know what it is. I recently became a member because of what I get from the forum and I wanted to support that. I think we can maintain certain types of ads that will not detract from the forum and that is very important.

*Edit – Recently became a paying member of DAPNet to support the forum. I’m in Washington so I won’t be making it to many meetings back east.

I don’t think I would have donated anything to join. I would have figured it was a scam. I wouldn’t have a problem now with a small donation I under stand things cost money. Also a foaling thread or just more pictures and stories of horses would interest me I know this is not a big pet sight but I think many of us think of our animals as more than just work animals. Keep up the good work and good luck. Eli

Great news about the retreat! You all are to be praised for putting in the time to keep this going. I thank you all. In regards to Eli’s concern I wonder if there is a way to time tag a membership so somebody could view forums, then photos for a short period of time and then have to chip in? Sort of like a free app that lets you do a few things for a while then if you like it you can get the full monty. It was never an issue to me to join when-ever I did and seems I donated before that. But that was in the old days when it was such a find to have a place to go where other serious horse loggers lurked.
Great work all.

That was the tone and intent of the discussion, we will continue to refine our approach to make sure any changes are consistent with our mission and add value to the overall network. The overall effort is to weave a tighter web and to continue to find ways to refine all our activities including the web site, field days and events, etc. and make sure they complement and strengthen each other. Part of this process hinges on the ability to hire a part time administrator to take care of many of the details so we can harness the creative energy of the board of directors and other interested contributors. We are very confident that there is great value in the content and activities that DAPNet creates and are equally confident that our supporters will help keep it active and moving forward.

I think this is all a great idea and I am fully in support of this organization making a way to fund bigger and better projects. I myself was lurker on the sight for a while before finally jumping into the discussion, and what I have gotten out of it is worth more than any amount of money than I could donate, and so I joined up. I wonder if having to input a credit card number will discourage more lurkers from joining. It is a big step to go from watching, to writting, and then into paying. I am glad that everybody is putting in the nessecary time and energy to make this work because the information and community here is invaluable. Keep up the good work.

The advertising sound good, but what about people such as myself that do not have any credit cards? I have notice the last while that there seems to be less activity. How would that be effected by having to pay to join? Just some thoughts.