Subject:
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Some thoughts...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.finance
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Date:
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Thu, 4 Apr 2002 05:25:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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1407 times
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Hello,
My membership to lugnet is fairly recent. So far, I've enjoyed a great many
things from this community. I've been here long enough to watch the fall of
"Cool Lego Site of The Week". Also, I've read the transcript from BrickWest
(several times).
Certainly, I can appreciate the number of hours it must take to keep this
site functioning on all it's levels -- especially the administrative side of
it, regardless of if it's from a "hobby" or "business" standpoint. Kudos to
Tom and Suzanne for their relentless dedication to their creation.
Personally, I don't think many people could juggle everything as well as it
appears they have.
However, it seems a decision is fast approching: business or hobby. Sadly,
hobbies don't tend to flourish when finances dwindle.
I don't know anything about the LUGNET costs particulars such as ISP service
(and what that service provides), how many (wo)man-hours of work it actually
takes to maintain the site, how many active members their are, membership
growth per year (and per quarter) since the site started, etc. Without a
doubt, these are some of the key issues to help find answers to the
financial questions.
Regardless, this is a club of sorts, and as such, their should be (IMO) some
form of "membership dues". I'd be more than willing to pay a yearly
subscription fee. If I can afford to regularly spend $50 or $100 on Lego
sets, I can surely find a way to squeeze out $10 to $25 a year (which is
less than most magazine subscriptions) for a LUGNET membership. It would
seem that my rate of purchases is substantially less than many of the
"masters" here, so clearly this community can "afford" to support what it
holds dear.
Lego didn't ask for this online community to occur, whether they benefit
from it or not. Any comments regarding Lego to voluntarily contribute
financial support probably won't be taken seriously. Personally, I think
that as a community, we're all much better than that (for reasons stated
above), anyway. Lego's business presence should have nothing to do with the
existence of this site. Yes, one resulted from the other, but they are
disjoint. If Lego bellies up, this site should continue, and vice-versa.
But... the fact of the matter is that Lego DOES benefit greatly from this
site. This is a 24/7 "focus group" session for them to help find ideas for
things we as consumers will purchase. This shouldn't be ignored. Lego
isn't the only company browsing this site... I'm sure the makers of
Megablocks spend a fair amount of time here as well. Probably K-Nex and the
other building system manufacturers, too.
What would be great is if Lego could work with LUGNET and set something up
similar to Amazon's referral program--Allow Lego to post items here with a
referral link, giving a small percentage of the sale to LUGNET. While we
may not receive any discounts (as consumers), I know I'd be more willing to
spend the extra $5 or $10 for a new Lego set from Lego if a percentage of
that total sale went to LUGNET.
Sorry for the length of the post... but thanks for your time,
Rob
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Some thoughts...
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| In lugnet.admin.finance, Rob Limbaugh writes: ... (...) ... I think this is a great idea, but why limit it to participation from LEGO? Wouldn't it be great if every BrickLink vendor, every eBay LEGO seller, every GoB member could include a GIF on (...) (23 years ago, 4-Apr-02, to lugnet.admin.finance)
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