TWITTER & FB FEEDS

[Oundle Diamond #2]

Agreed! Yes times are hard for lots of people financially, but it's £20!!! That won't even pay for half a night out. If it cost a 100 quid or so for membership then I could understand. It's not some secret club or M15, it's our club and if you can't afford 20 quid over the course of a year then it's a poor show I'm afraid.

How many girls are you trying it on with if that's not half a night out? ;) :lol:

I agree 100%. £20 is an incredibly low fee (which was definitely one game watching RDFC in the Conference) for membership. That's 38p a week. I can join and will join fan-owned Exeter City's Trust for £24 a year to in effect be in the same position. AFC Wimbledon is £25. The model I would say is best is Chester City's (City Fans United). The minimum is £5 to join but fans are asked for a contribution which I'm sure many take up.

Regarding the forum I think it's a great idea to at least have some level of privacy from the open domain. Not least because you guys won't have to put up with serial trollers we've endured throughout the years. Sometimes I'd love to be a member to have a sneak peak at what's going down at the Football Club, but I guess I'll just have to contribute by buying Haydens biggest burger possible if I can ever make it games out of term time. That should be over £20 on mark-up ;)

[bozzer]

do also remember we certainly aren't a closed shop, any board members can be contacted via the website personally or asked a question at matches.
As Pigman says the more members we have the stronger we are as a club, so we have tried to make it attractive to become one with a low membership fee and benefits like the membership area and business partner discounts. Being a member doesn't mean you are a better fan than a non member at all.

[Jemfy]

I'm sorry but almost everyone can afford £20 even of times are very hard!

It's not about the £20 fee, it could be any amount... my point is WHY is it needed? So far the reasoning behind it, keeping information sensitive etc is all flawed, like I said.. anyone, AFCR&D fan or not could access that site, whether they pay or access using another method, and could 'leak' and 'sensitive' information from there without question.

I get your point, but a fee is needed for a few reasons:

- It's a revenue stream.
- It ensures that people who pay the fee and have a vote are interested, rather than having 5,000 members who signed up on a whim. We'd never reach the required numbers for votes on sensitive issues in the future (assuming there are some required voting rates, I haven't checked).
- I'll go back to the revenue stream, (£20 * 500) /1.2 (for tax) = £8.3k - money that is needed to do the things we want to do as a club, get our own ground, run the youth teams etc.
- Running a football club isn't free, despite all the time and effort people put in. You could try relying on donations, but donations don't necessarily generate income year on year. By offering services for the membership fee we make a product. This is saleable to the fans. So long as the price is fair (and it is voted on by the membership remember!). The sale of the product should cover the costs incurred in providing it in theory.
- It ensures we don't have a number of people join to make chaos! Some can of course, but how many will pay £20 to do so? Surely not enough to ever make a difference (and those who join to do so can are giving us their money).

If you have a coherent argument against a membership fee though, feel free to post it, and who knows? If it's good enough maybe the next time it is up for discussion the membership will vote to make it free....

[CountHermanDeBanker]

Ok, I never intended to open a "can of worms" debate between members/non-members here, rather wanted to ensure we had options to share relevant, funny or general linked posts on the 2 largest social media from the club official or unofficial forums. Share, spread the word, pick up some more followers, more fans, more supporters/matchday fans and members hopefully!

I understand and agree members only forum on sensitive matters etc should stay that way and see the benefits membership brings to all parties.

So, why not just have the linking buttons on this forum only?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/add-facebo ... s-website/

The link may help with setting this up?

[Three of Diamonds]

Am I the only one who is sceptical regarding the members only forum? Segregating fans of the same team is plain wrong in my eyes. The motto of the club is "One Fan, One Vote, One Community, One Club"... where as it should be "One Fan, One Vote, One Community, One Club - As long as you pay the membership fee, otherwise you're excluded from things"... Not everyone can perhaps afford the membership fee, for whatever reasons, or simply don't want to pay it as they pay their way each week to watch the games anyway. It doesn't make them less of a supporter because they don't want to or can't pay a membership fee. This is meant to be a community club, not a members exclusive club. The whole "do not tell anyone anything that goes on in members only chat" is strange too, why is it a secret? Should there be secrets between fans of the same clubs when it regards a club both people love?.

Hi Matt, it's not a case of "us and them", we're a members owned club not a members only club and as Pigman has noted you pay for certain benefits. That's how we voted to set the club up in the initial meetings. There are some things which should not be debated on open internet forums, which could damage our club, but which could mean the committee need an opinion on from it's owning members. If you want a say you'll have to do what we did and become a member.
My question is to those who can afford it but choose not to buy into it, why not ? It's our club, become an owner and have a say in how it's run. There are many issues I've voted for which got beaten in the members vote, but that's how democracy (and fan ownership) works. It's great, come and join in.

[mattreddan]

Don't get me wrong, i'm absolutely fine with the whole paid membership thing, but the separated forums is what I find wrong about it, I don't understand why they need to be included in the package. People shouldn't be expected to pay for the right to know what is going on at their club, they are just as supportive of the entire club, 1st team, youth team, etc as anyone else... plus if certain information is that "sensitive" then it shouldn't be on what is effectively a unsecured public forum anyway.

Hi Matt, it's not a case of "us and them", we're a members owned club not a members only club and as Pigman has noted you pay for certain benefits. That's how we voted to set the club up in the initial meetings. There are some things which should not be debated on open internet forums, which could damage our club, but which could mean the committee need an opinion on from it's owning members. If you want a say you'll have to do what we did and become a member.
My question is to those who can afford it but choose not to buy into it, why not ? It's our club, become an owner and have a say in how it's run. There are many issues I've voted for which got beaten in the members vote, but that's how democracy (and fan ownership) works. It's great, come and join in.

Again, the "private" forum is basically as an open forum anyway, like I said before i'm sure it can be accessed without membership details & even with membership details, anyone can get them by paying a small fee. Sure, they have paid £20 but nothing is stopping them sharing those details with 50 friends and then those people leaking all this apparent 'sensitive' info out to the general public. Having to pay a fee doesn't make a website secure and certainly doesn't make the information inside the website any more secure than having it on a public forum.

[Trek]

Again, the "private" forum is basically as an open forum anyway, like I said before i'm sure it can be accessed without membership details & even with membership details, anyone can get them by paying a small fee. Sure, they have paid £20 but nothing is stopping them sharing those details with 50 friends and then those people leaking all this apparent 'sensitive' info out to the general public. Having to pay a fee doesn't make a website secure and certainly doesn't make the information inside the website any more secure than having it on a public forum.

I think you are continuing to miss the point. Members have given an assurance not to discuss certain matters and the proof of the pudding is that this forum has been running without a problem since last January with none of issues that you highlight.
However, I'm pleased that you now understand the concept of the membership scheme which is what the the majority of our fans wanted from day 1.

[Formic]

Don't get me wrong, i'm absolutely fine with the whole paid membership thing, but the separated forums is what I find wrong about it, I don't understand why they need to be included in the package. People shouldn't be expected to pay for the right to know what is going on at their club, they are just as supportive of the entire club, 1st team, youth team, etc as anyone else... plus if certain information is that "sensitive" then it shouldn't be on what is effectively a unsecured public forum anyway.

Hi Matt, it's not a case of "us and them", we're a members owned club not a members only club and as Pigman has noted you pay for certain benefits. That's how we voted to set the club up in the initial meetings. There are some things which should not be debated on open internet forums, which could damage our club, but which could mean the committee need an opinion on from it's owning members. If you want a say you'll have to do what we did and become a member.
My question is to those who can afford it but choose not to buy into it, why not ? It's our club, become an owner and have a say in how it's run. There are many issues I've voted for which got beaten in the members vote, but that's how democracy (and fan ownership) works. It's great, come and join in.

Again, the "private" forum is basically as an open forum anyway, like I said before i'm sure it can be accessed without membership details & even with membership details, anyone can get them by paying a small fee. Sure, they have paid £20 but nothing is stopping them sharing those details with 50 friends and then those people leaking all this apparent 'sensitive' info out to the general public. Having to pay a fee doesn't make a website secure and certainly doesn't make the information inside the website any more secure than having it on a public forum.

I think you might need to stop digging ...

Clearly a random troll can't just access the information - there is significant time, trouble and expense to do so.

The website admin can monitor who logs in, from what IP address, and what pages they access (as I used to do when I was a forum moderator) and swiftly ban any username who appears to be breaking the rules.

The AFC committee will always ensure key info that needs to be seen by all fans is published on the official website - again I speak from personal experience here, as I can see what is on there, and who goes on the OWS.

[mattreddan]

Members have given an assurance not to discuss certain matters and the proof of the pudding

Yes, they have given assurances, but it isn't going to stop someone using a fake RDFC related name, signing up, paying their fee and leaking any of this apparently secretive information to the general public. There is absolutely no need what so ever to have a members only forum. Memberships with all the other benefits? that's great, a great source of income, but a private forum? It's unnecessary.

I think you might need to stop digging ...

Clearly a random troll can't just access the information - there is significant time, trouble and expense to do so.

The website admin can monitor who logs in, from what IP address, and what pages they access (as I used to do when I was a forum moderator) and swiftly ban any username who appears to be breaking the rules.

The AFC committee will always ensure key info that needs to be seen by all fans is published on the official website - again I speak from personal experience here, as I can see what is on there, and who goes on the OWS.

Is this your first time in the internet? Of course a "random troll" could access the site and information, anyone moderately skilled in computers could, and if they went through the route of paying, what stops 10 members of a rival club paying £2 for the benefit of 1 account to see what goes on in there? Absolutely nothing. The information on there is not private, it's not secure and it's not necessary. If the information was THAT sensitive it wouldn't be on the internet anyway, so whether it's on a public or private forum is irrelevant. I'm not digging for anything, just stating the obvious.

[Everyweeker]

Should not the members have access to internal issues that the general public do not?

Its not like key information is locked away and never shared with the community, but the members are part custodians of the future of the society and so need a place to communicate without having the likes of Ted etc hanging around as on public forums.

Again, if you are a fan who is not a member, nothing important is hidden because you could email a boardmember directly and I'm sure get a direct answer. Or ask them in the bar at a match.

If someone wants to club together to pay £20 to find out juicy gossip, oh well, we get £20! Again, the proof is in the pudding, the system works.

What is so offensive about a members only forum when the club works so hard to produce a product for use by the community?