Sep 2015
2:27pm, 8 Sep 2015
6,907 posts
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SarahWoo
I'm in. Wouldn't be without this place - whether my running mojo is currently in residence or not. It has given me friends and comfort and support and advice and motivation and love and knowledge and hopefully, it's allowed me to give at least some of those things to other people too. Fetch is a top bloke. This must have been extremely difficult for him to deal with and as usual, he has been honest and sincere. I completely trust him to be doing the right thing for this special community.
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Sep 2015
2:31pm, 8 Sep 2015
2,004 posts
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Windsor Wool
I also assume that advertisers deal directly with RW but it's the same conversation. FE is effectively a small part of RW....
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Sep 2015
2:32pm, 8 Sep 2015
2,005 posts
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Windsor Wool
I never thought that I could get strong feelings about this but they welled up on my lunchtime run.....ahead of that I was just going to ignore the whole situation and carry on as a free user regardless. But......
I apologise to all those people who are now effectively going to be funding my FE use. It's hard to believe that there are folks who use this site more than me but the Addiction Thread shows that's the case. From that perspective surely I should contribute.
Maybe, but I'm a firm believer of survival of the fittest when it comes to economies & markets and I do think that there are freebie competitors to FE out there that somehow are making it work. I have to put aside my personal feelings - if FE were to go 'under' then Fetch himself would be quickly snapped up for his expertise (and by my sums probably get paid a whole lot more!).
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Sep 2015
2:47pm, 8 Sep 2015
2,688 posts
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postieboy
I'd say asking for a voluntary contribution is survival of the fittest. If you don't ask, you don't get.
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Sep 2015
3:34pm, 8 Sep 2015
1,812 posts
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IanS
Personally I think the days of getting everything for free on t'Interweb are rapidly coming to an end, and anyone who thinks otherwise will soon be getting a nasty shock as their favourite web sites either start charging or simply shut down. A lot of the content providers are now having to look to make money to survive and the two most common ways are either to flood the site with ads (and I think FE is extremely light in this respect at the moment), or to provide a paid/subscription service for premium (read "the bits that are actually useful") content. An optional/voluntary contribution relies a great deal on the goodwill of the users, of which there is plenty around here due to the fact that Fetch is a genuinely nice guy (as well as a very talented coder) who really cares about this site so I think it may well work in this case. I'll be chucking some dosh at it anyway
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Sep 2015
3:35pm, 8 Sep 2015
5,650 posts
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jiminy cricket
It must be worth a tenner if only to play Fetchpoint. It's shown me back lanes & byways unknown to folk born & bred here ....
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Sep 2015
3:36pm, 8 Sep 2015
5,651 posts
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jiminy cricket
... and then there's all the lovely people who's stories I gladly follow
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Sep 2015
4:58pm, 8 Sep 2015
77,287 posts
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GregP
I've only just heard about this (thanks Nellers) - so paid my tenner.
Now I'm slightly disoriented by the lack of adverts.
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Sep 2015
5:07pm, 8 Sep 2015
3,692 posts
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PaulaMc
I've got so much out of this site over the past few years, on both a personal and a sports/advice level, that to not contribute £XX seems unthinkable. I'd pay more in subs to a real-life running club (and have done in the past) but wouldn't get anywhere near as much out of it.
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Sep 2015
10:44pm, 8 Sep 2015
15,308 posts
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Stander
My two initial thoughts having now read up on this.
I think £50 is too much. Would love a t-shirt, but not at that price.
Point one in Fetch's blog. It costs £60K per year to run this site and advertising covers up to 25% of that cost (Ian's numbers from the blog). What happens if voluntary subscriptions don't bridge that gap enough year on year? Will the owners pull the site to save money? (You can tell I'm an accountant).
I'll probably pay the tenner when I get round to it but as honest as Ian has been about this (and previously when he sold the site), I do (only slightly) wonder about the long term for the site.
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