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It must be an annual thing but the ads are back.

Elroy

Thanks for the alert. As we said before, part of the problem is that the Admin team cant see the pesky blighters. I will let Kev know.

fiona wrote:You're lucky. I just get ads for wrinkle cream and Tena Lady.

What a coincidence! So do I!

Sorry for the delay in removing the ads folks. I've been a bit busy administering a will and clearing a house. They should be gone now, if you are a signed up member.

We still have enough credits left for two more years ad free and I have a pot here for auction. If anyone has other ideas for swelling the coffers, perhaps you could add them on this post, for discussion/consideration.

as i suggested in the past... create a "for sale" section and ask that someone selling something thru this site donate 10% of the sale price to the "coffers" via a paypal account that could be easily set up strictly for that purpose...

of course it would be on the "honor system" but i think most of us are "honorable"

btw - i can't seem to find the pot for auction

Way too many problems in that and quite frankly if we did that then I suspect in a short time we'd be inundated with less than scrupulous people selling dodgy stuff. I for one am not prepared to police that.

Hard to get to internet bonsai club from google search now. Any relation to banner removal?

David - why not set up IBC as a "tab" or a "favourite"? That way you need not search or keep logging in. Or were you just asking out of interest? Cheers. Rick.

fiona wrote:Way too many problems in that and quite frankly if we did that then I suspect in a short time we'd be inundated with less than scrupulous people selling dodgy stuff. I for one am not prepared to police that.

doesnt much matter to me (except that i really like this forum and the folks that frequent it)
but i dont see the need for any policing of the for sale section...

a "what this section is for" statement re: "admin/mods are not responsible, etc etc" is all it would take.

and re: dodgy items for sale - as in any market - buyer beware...
after all, we all have the power to walk into walmart (or your choice of big-box crap store)
and purchase any piece of crap they offer...
...or not.

and for the few times i have checked out the bonsai nut site (including just now for verivication),
i do not see them being inundated with a bunch of crap for sale...
matter of fact i only see what appear to be legitimate items for sale...

like i said though, doesnt matter to me and kev asked for suggestions and so far thats the only one being thrown on the table.

Rick(and all), I sit at any of dozens of pc's in my workday, so often find myself typing 'internet bonsai club' into google during downtime. It always comes up first, except yesterday- google didn't find it at all. Just checked today, and all is normal again , so as Gilda Radner would say... nevermind.

and re: dodgy items for sale - as in any market - buyer beware...

I think we think more highly of the IBC than that.

JimLewis wrote:

and re: dodgy items for sale - as in any market - buyer beware...

I think we think more highly of the IBC than that.  

as do i (and i believe most others who use this forum as opposed to the alternatives),
which is exactly why i dont think there would be any policing or sketchy items to worry about...

again though, just offering up a suggestion and KB can take it or leave it...

or maybe rather than nay-saying, someone can yea-say with a different suggestion  

Considering that bnut is essentially unmoderated, and the "for sale" section there works pretty well (no spam or junk that I've noticed), it would probably work fine here too. But I can understand the administrators not wanting to go that route.

We have 2 more years on the clock, that is good to know. I guess we can have an auction or fund-drive in another year or so.

Thanks for giving it some thought guys. We have done various things in the past. T shirt sales, pot auctions plain donations through a Paypal button on the site. All of these worked well and could be repeated. I was just wondering if any other appealing methods would surface, if I threw a request out.

I agree that a sales section would detract from the site and introduce an element of worry that I also would not be happy to take on. If you want to buy/sell there are plenty of other ways to do it online.

i would purchase a t-shirt.

i would purchase a t-shirt.

If I recall, I had 200 T-shirts made for the IBC in 1997 or 8.  They sold quickly ($15  or  $20 plus postage), but we were not anywhere near as international back in those days and most of the shirts went to U.S. members. I can recall sending a couple to the UK and one to Australia, after a long puzzle over payment and postage rates (this was WAY pre Pay-Pal.  I still have at least one of each (and they still fit!!!!!).

I did it once more the next year, then others took it up for a few years more.  2002 or 3 was the last, I think.  It was a LOT of work and bookkeeping.  It would be worse now with members on all sides  of the equator and the International Date Line.

That first batch of shirts were of my design and quite simple.  The cry for "democracy" complicated the design stage significantly in later years and may have been the major reason the shirt sale ended.

Shirts are always good, I think, because more people will be able to buy them (better than A pot, or tools, etc.), and serve to advertise the IBC at conventions and seminars, etc.  (We also used them as admission passes to the annual IBC meeting at the bar at several consecutive ABS meetings.  Any member who showed up w/o a T-shirt bought a round.)

BUT, for anyone who would volunteer to take this on, IT IS A LOT OF WORK figuring on getting back your cost, sending on the IBC's cut and handling payments in general (though I have no idea how much easier P-P may make it).

i do believe there are websites out there now-a-days that take on all that burden for you...

in other words, you upload the design and they take care of the rest; printing, shipping, payment, billing etc

of course for all that work, they most likely take the lions share of the profit, but if its hassle free, so what ?

just a thought that might be worth looking into...

JimLewis wrote:I still have at least one of each (and they still fit!!!!!).

You just had to throw that in there.