Chiming in late, here. Work has kept me out of the loop of the recent changes at FPN and I'm getting caught up.
First, IMHO, most of the rationale provided by the powers that be at FPN about covering expenses is pure BS.
As David Isaacson said earlier in this thread, the cost of software (IP.Board) and hosting is only a few hundred per year for a board like his (FPB or mine at FPC). Sure, FPN has many more members, but hosting simply is NOT that expensive. And the classifieds software they use is a plugin purchased for about $35 per year.
As for the antagonism toward sellers, this has been an ongoing trend from FPN for years. The FPN owners (Wim, whoever) are quick to accuse sellers of using FPN to line their own pockets with profits (yeah, like selling fountain pens has made us sellers rich).
However, they neglect to recognize that the people posting reviews, answering newbie questions, sharing knowledge and research, etc., are providing an enormously valuable asset to FPN for frakkin FREE! Does FPN compensate them for this content?
NO.
Sure, some FPN members might have ulterior motives with their posts on FPN, like generating traffic to their own websites and blogs. But this is the cost of doing business, and FPN is far ahead of the game in benefiting from the gigabytes of free content provided by their users.
Plus, even their classifieds provide content that attracts new members.
I can attest to that. My site is nothing but classifieds. The classifieds themselves are usually the entry pages by which new members find my website.
I can go on, but I've said enough. I expect to be banned from FPN soon, if not already. Wim took great offense when I launched FPC and accused me of "betraying" FPN by not coming to him first with my grievances about the changes to their classifieds nearly two years ago.
But nothing I say here is going to change the minds of the diehard FPN faithful who understand neither business nor the realities of the online world.
I suspect their draconian policies will cost them a few members, but there are plenty more willing to drink the ink-colored Koolaid.
Bookmarks