Grandfathered in life membership ended

[Brock Graves]

So before the membership subscription system was restructured I purchased an annual membership. (Last year) I recieved an email that said the membership system was being restructured but, th,at I was being grandfathered in as a life member. My annual membership expired and I could no longer post in the forums without buying another membership. I don't understand. Did this happen to anyone else?

[Greg Mihalik]

"I was being grandfathered in as a life member."

Did you ever see the MLife identifier next to your name?

[Justin Baker]

Brock is talking about having a lifetime membership as a poster, not an mlife (articles and such).
I was here before they started charging for posting. I too thought I had a lifetime membership for posting (I kinda remember being told that) until it disappeared. Pretty ticked off about that to be honest.
I can't believe this place charges for you to post. A $5 fee will all but kill this forum. Whoever is running this is just being greedy. I understand the spam issue but it was originally a $1 fee and that solved the problem. This is just pathetic.

[Ken Thompson]

http://support.backpackinglight.com/support/solutions/articles/150472-i-thought-i-was-being-grandfathered-in-with-a-forum-membership-back-in-2012-i-don-t-have-one-now-why-

[Jerry Adams]

The reason given to charge for posting was to minimize spam posts

Before this change, there were a lot of spam posts. Sometimes there were 10 spam posts for every real post. After they started charging, I don't remember any spam posts

Not that there aren't other ways to minimize spam

[Marc Eldridge]

Hi Ken.

[Misfit Mystic]

Greed? Really? I really doubt Ryan is lining his pockets off the forums here. Let's not forget, it does cost him money to run and maintain the site. Why should this be free? I can understand and sympathize with some of the MLife member complaints, but this just seems petulant.

[Greg Mihalik]

"…lifetime membership as a poster…"

Back in 2008 I thought there were only Annual Memberships. I don't recall any "lifetime" catagories until MLife came along.

Am I mistaken?

[Brock Graves]

Hmm this heps, this is actually what I am talking about. Who do I contact? Thanks

[Greg Mihalik]

Brock,
What helps?

The link posted above by Ken?

Or learning about different memberships?

[BlackHatGuy]

"Who do I contact?"

http://support.backpackinglight.com/support/home

[Brock Graves]

The link posted above by ken, I sent an email to customer support several months ago before renewing my membership but never recieved anything back. The link ken posted says that if you did not recieve your grandfathered in membership but, you recieved an email saying you would gf in to contact them, but there is no contact info. Upon further investigation there is a ticket system p, so I filled out a ticket. Hope that helps.

[Jim Sweeney]

Not sure what membership costs now, but feel like the fee I paid for life membership was one of the best backpacking purchases I've made. Have easily had that much value in information learned, things bought, mistakes avoided, horizons expanded, inspiration gained. What does basic memberships cost now?

[Jake D]

you need an F "membership" to post in any forum.

anyone that was already signed up before the spam attacks was given one of these. they are now $5 or something. I don't know why Brocks has run out.. seems weird.

[Stuart .]

There's no program that runs to convert expired Annual Members to Forum Members. You have to request it be switched over. And it seems Ryan doesn't delegate that responsibility to anyone. So if he's in the backcountry for a few weeks when your M status is up, you're SOL. That's what happened to me last summer. I emailed, I logged a support ticket, I contacted Roger (who replied within hours, but lacked the authorization to help), and after a week's non-response from Ryan I re-upped my Annual Membership so I could get an item in Gear Swap out of hock. I've never received a reply to my support ticket or the original email. Does it irk me? A little. But not enough to leave the site. I'll take this inconvenience over the spam we had prior to the F memberships any day.

[Brock Graves]

Stuart I am in the exact same boat as you. I Di all those steps several months ago and finally gave in and bought another membership. If I can still get grandfathered in then I would like to be.

[Justin Baker]

"Why should it be free?"

Because almost every other forum does not charge you to post. Ads are supposed to take care of administration costs.

[Misfit Mystic]

Interesting. I have no idea what BPL makes in ad revenue. I have no idea what it costs to run the site. I have no idea what value Ryan places on his time. Nor does anyone else here. What "almost every other forum" does is irrelevant; it's Ryan's business. As a small business owner myself, I pay close attention to the opinions of my paying customers. Non-customers with an opinion, not so much…

[Greg Mihalik]

"Why should it be free?"

>> Because almost every other forum does not charge you to post. <<

Ask yourself why you are Here and not at "every other forum"….

Maybe because you find Value here that you don't get elsewhere?
Maybe because you find Something here that you don't find elsewhere?

BPL is what it is. And the door is always open.

[Justin Baker]

The only value in this forum is the members and the words that the members type. The website itself is terrible and outdated and the articles don't go into the depth that they used to.
Every other forum site gets along fine with ad revenue and optional supporter memberships. By "every other forum" I don't mean every other ultralight backpacking forum, I'm talking about forums that discuss other subjects, and this is THE ultralight backpacking forum.

It's not about the money, it's that having a fee required to post will stop new people from contributing. It will eventually kill off this forum. They are screwing with the most popular ultralight backpacking forum.

[Nick Gatel]

Justin,

Without adequate revenue, there will be no forums and no website.

It seems that members here who own a business grasp the concept.

[Jim Sweeney]

If the cost to post here is as nominal as $5.00 for a Friend's membership, I'd hardly call that screwing with the forum. That's the cost of a fancy beer, and not even the price of a movie ticket. Kill off the forum? I kind of f..in doubt it — take a look at the posters in this thread and do the math.

[Dave T]

"I sent an email to customer support several months ago before renewing my membership but never recieved anything back."

I am stunned by this news.

[Justin Baker]

Then how does every other forum pull it off?
I understand needing revenue but charging people just to post is the worst possible way.
I have no problem paying $5 to support the forum but I know that if I was surfing the web and came across an interesting forum site and they were charging $5 to post I would probably leave and never come back.

$5 for a site with inadequate support for it's members.

[Marko Botsaris]

" Kill off the forum? I kind of f..in doubt it "

I am shocked! Shocked, I say, to find that hyperbole has been going on in these forums.

Actually, I'd pay *more* money to get rid of some of the adds? But even they don't bother me much.

At any rate $5 keeps out some of the riff-raff ;-)

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