I personally think that this is a very bad business decision from the powers at Pondboss to allow this issue to continue. I just hope that this is not a lame way of turning this into a pay site.
I don't know you at all Tim so perhaps I'm miss reading what your intended point is but I think that statement is a little harsh. This forum cannot be a money making proposition. If the powers that be only wanted to derive income from a website then they would not have an attached forum, they would just have a traditional information/shopping website. Forums rarely make ANY money. Even forums that require an annual fee. Software and upgrades cost money, computers cost money and internet bandwidth cost money.
This forum has been a blessing for me and I'll bet a lot of other pond meisters as well. I have learned so much on this forum and have had access to pond gurus and industry professionals that I would probably never even known existed had it not been for this site. Not to mention meeting all of the interesting and fun folks to boot.
I have no official capacity (or unofficial for that matter) with this forum, or Pond Boss or any vendor but I gotta tell ya if it were up to me and it was either charge an annual fee or have the forum suffer as it has then I would charge an annual fee.
A car forum that I use to belong to suffered the same dilemma. Eventually they went to a voluntary contribution. No one was forced to contribute but if you did a line appeared below your name that said something like "Forum Supporter." They had Supporter, Silver Supporter and Gold Supporter depending upon your level of contribution (I suppose if you were really active you would receive an Athletic Supporter designation :). Anyway this system worked and the forum survived and thrived. And as I have stated before this lowly member would gladly pay an annual fee to have access to this great resource.
But that is just one lowly member's opinion.
