Just to make things clear in case anyone was wondering...Mods have
never gotten
anything "free" nor even discounted from Petflytrap or from Andrew. The people who moderate these forums do so out of the kindness of their hearts...for the CP COMMUNITY. Its a
donation of our time. And trust me, its more time and effort than you think. You only see the "surface" stuff Mods do, not the behind-the-scenes work.
Even if there were some "free" feature or benefit, I don't know how anyone could begrudge that to a Mod. I don't expect any such thing--this is basically like a part-time job that you don't get paid for. You take a modship knowing that...and not expecting any kind of "payment", or you don't do it.
Good thing we like you people.
I wanna pay for the membership to help Andrew out. He works VERY hard on this forum. And you don't
make money running a discussion forum; it
costs money. This is a
community SERVICE. And therefore, it would be nice if the COMMUNITY helped out a little. Its been free for 6 years...
and will remain FREE. Premium membership will be TOTALLY
OPTIONAL. Nothing will change about the forums. There will just be a few additional features for anyone who WANTS them.
As has been stated before, MANY discussion forums offer premium memberships for a slight fee. Its not a new idea and in all cases the money goes to running the boards...not for going out for filet mignon dinners once a week. Geocaching.com and nikon.com both offer paying memberships.
I think its a cool idea and I'm glad Andrew is offering it.