I’ve kept exacting track of hosting cost vs. income - including Dealer Forum, Forum and Classified donations - and last year and definitely for this year, I’m in the hole. (Actually I’ve been in the hole with them for 20 years, but when I was a dealer for Dillon Precision, I didn’t care.)

The Forum Dealer’s renewal date is August 1st. Last August, only half of my Dealers renewed for this year. That hurt. And I would not be surprised if half of them do not renew this August.

And the Donations… when we started it, it worked well, but as is always the case with “donations” - they fizzle out after a while. 

Okay, back to a possible solution. The Mods overwhelmingly objected to shutting down the Forums, and offered a variety of ideas to bring some $ in to cover the hosting costs and keep them up and running.

So I am considering, at this point, in changing the Classifieds Forum from being n/c to members with 50+ posts, to charging a reasonable monthly fee to sell stuff in the Classifieds. Say for maybe $15/month, you could sell any amount or dollar value of items.

I’d also open up the Paid Classifieds to any member (regardless of post count).

NOTE: All paid Classified subscribers must have their Name and Location in their Profile. 

Updates to follow as our discussion ensues.

And comments are welcome.

Now that I am no longer a Dillon Precision dealer, the monthly expense of hosting and maintaining the forums - with zero revenue generated from them - is significant, and becoming prohibitive. 

To keep the forums alive, and in the "no advertising in the general forums" format that they have been in since their inception, each month I'd like to ask members to make a small donation to help keep the forums up and running, ad-free.

Here's the link my store's Donate page:

http://brianenos.com/shop/shopdonate/

NOTE: The Password to access that page is:  runtime

And there is a "Donate" button at the top of the forum's home page - it accepts credit card or PayPal payments.

For you old-school types, for check donations:

Brian Enos
303 W. 10th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281

I noticed in the Forum Control Panel, a lot of credit card donations were not completed / still in pending status. So if you made a donation please double check your member account section to complete the donation.  Thank you!

A HUGE THANK YOU to all the forum members, who, day after day, make this a such great place to hang out and learn.

Recently there has been an uptick in potential scammers here on the forum. We try to catch them early and remove them, but we can't catch them all. This is just a reminder to do your due diligence when making a classifieds deal. 

If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you have a WTB ad up, and someone contacts you saying they have what you want for sale, and they have zero (0) posts on the forum, it is probably a scam.

When in doubt of the authenticity of a forum member, contact a moderator.

Do your research. 

http://brianenos.com/shop/

And, all Slide-Glide is already 25% off retail.

But wait there’s more… My book is priced at 50% off retail, and Steve Anderson’s Refinement and Repetition is priced at $19.95 ($7 off retail).

Thank you,

BE

If we suspect your account has been hijacked, you will be moved to the Scam Likely member group and have extremely limited forum access until you convince the staff that you are legit.

Likewise, if the person you are in a WTB transaction suddenly has 'Scam Likely' in their profile, best not sent that Zelle to a sketchy Elbonian bank. 

If you think somebody is suddenly acting hinky or an account may have been hijacked, let the mods know.  Especially if they haven't been on the site or posted in years before popping back up.

Thanks and sorry for the hassle.

As some of you may have noticed, there are now some banner ads from

outside vendors on the forum.

We are thinking of changing that somewhat. 

We are thinking of making a sub forum of the classifieds, sort of a "Mini Dealer Forum", where our members with more than 500 posts, for a fee, could sell their made items. The Mini Dealer accounts would run from month to month, at $50 a month, for our members to test the waters, before buying a yearly forum, or for just a limited run of items. 

We are thinking of running the Mini Dealer forum payment from month to month, due on the 1st of the month, to run through the end of the month. There would be no pro-rating of accounts, each and every Mini Dealer account would begin and end at the same time. Only Mini Dealers would be allowed to start threads in the new forum.

Since this would be Mini Dealer forum, the classifieds rules, as far as contributing to the main forum discussions, would be suspended for the duration of your Mini Dealer account.

A Mini Dealer forum would also fit if you have many items to sell, whether you made them or not. In other words, those that sell a lot in the classifieds here, may consider becoming a Mini Dealer and not have to worry about their posting in the main forum, for their Mini Dealer account duration.

All monies generated by this proposal would go directly to forum hosting costs, so, you would be helping the forum stay alive.

Based on member input on this poll, we will either move forward with making the Mini Dealer forum or scrap the idea. 

Comments and suggestions are encouraged.

Thank you!

Benos Forum Team

Do you want Tapatalk back, Yes or No?

With that being said, we (the moderator group) took it like an unexpected gut punch, but, it set certain things in motion. None of us (the mods) wanted to lose this place, as I'm sure most of you do not want to lose it either. After talking to Brian, he agreed to let us (the moderators) take over all aspects of the forum instead of shutting it down...running of the forum, dealing with IT for the forum, paying the hosting for the forum, the whole thing. So, for the past several months, we have been working behind the scenes, trying to figure out exactly what we needed to do to keep this fantastic forum alive and viable.

Several weeks back, the transfer of the forum ownership from Brian to us was completed, so we had to change a few things. We had to change payment methods for donations and Dealer forums, set up accounts for those monies to go into, set up auto pay of the forum hosting, and integrate all of that into the forum. All of that should be complete now.

Right now, we are not anticipating any major changes to the way the forum operates or any change to any rules...We want to keep this place almost exactly as is. All current forum guidelines and rules will remain in effect, as if nothing has changed.

That being said, the forum hosting costs are now on us to pay...So, there may be some slight changes to the forum to help pay the costs. Some of you may have noticed the new banner ads at the top of the forum. These were a test run using our dealer forums for the "client", to see if it would work, and to gather raw data as to how many views and clicks they would get. We are considering running several ads (along with the current dealer ads) to get some income to help pay for the forum. We are NOT looking to spam the site with hundreds of ads, merely enough to help cover the cost of hosting. We are NOT looking to make any money off of this.

This will always be Brian's forum, even if we are doing the daily grunt work of keeping it going. That will never change. We will keep his core values and principles like we have always done.

We sincerely hope for and encourage his continuing participation. Hell, he might even learn to enjoy an occasional visit as a guest, without the headaches of running the forum.

Brian, we all wish you a long and happy retirement. You cannot possibly imagine the vast number of lives you have touched and changed with the forum you created, and we will forever be in your debt for it. Thank you seems like too little to say.

Brian Enos Moderating Team

We searched and searched, read page after page, about how to correct this...and finally, last week, we (I should say the hosting company) found the fix. So, now all topics are now unarchived and searchable. 

After I started that thread in November, members kicked in and did some nice donating, which covered the forum's hosting fees for a five months. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that donated for that.

But as it goes with donation drives, they eventually fizzle out. So I'm thinking, to keep this a wonderful place to hang out and stay alive and ad-free year round, we can do quarterly donation drives with a goal. 

The forum's hosting fee for 3 months is $990.00. There is a "Quarterly Hosting Donations" button to the top of the forum's home page and it accepts credit card or PayPal payments.

Also, my store's Donate page.

NOTE: The Password to access that page is: runtime

For you old-school types, for check donations:

Brian Enos

303 W. 10th Street

Tempe, AZ 85281

Thank you!

Brian 

Each Monday, I’ll post a new topic in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living, or: “how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.” (That's not totally true but it sounds more fun.)

I started with an Intro and Bio (Who am I?) post. On Monday, November 4, I'll add the first "On Living" post.

If you have a request for a specific topic, add it to this Topic.

Me;  "How about sending a photo of inventory"

That's not happening but they were willing to let me pay half up front and half after they delivered.

Then mail me a check with the total (n/c for shipping) to:

Brian Enos

303 W 10th St

Tempe, AZ  85281

-> Then email your shipping address to orders@brianenos.com.

=======

Instinct Shooting, by Mike Jennings - $45.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007E4HNK?ref=myi_title_dp

History of Smith & Wesson, by Roy Jinks - $90.00

This book is signed by Roy Jinks to me, in 1986, the year I won the Masters.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSK2B3F?ref=myi_title_dp

Shooting, by J. Henry FitzGerald - $25.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/194000120X?ref=myi_title_dp

Sporting Clays: An Orvis Guide by Lionel Atwill - $50.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K3H95F0?ref=myi_title_dp

The Pistol Shooter’s Treasury, by Gil Hebard - $50.00

This book is signed by Bill Blankenship to me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EK91SW?ref=myi_title_dp

Hatcher’s Notebook, by Julian Hatcher - $50.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000EGL4C?ref=myi_title_dp

Ed McGivern's Book of Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting - $19.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MBAS2W?ref=myi_title_dp

Experiments of a Handgunner by J. Roper - $100.00

This super rare book is in perfect condition.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WQWEWI?ref=myi_title_dp

Successful Shooting by Bill Pullum & Frank Hanenkrat - $25.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019EWQRJ2?ref=myi_title_dp

The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns by Jack O’Connor

Since this on is only $5, it is n/c to whoever wants it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060713518?ref=myi_title_dp

And this last super rare one I jacked from my High School’s library. It fueled my teenage local boxing career.

Boxing, by Edwin Haislet - $50.00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I2F7CG?ref=myi_title_dp

Home | NRA Annual Meeting (nraam.org)

I've been trying to order a SPS Vista and have been emailing Eagle Imports for months. All of a sudden their email address doesn't work and I can't get a hold of them. Did they go under?

thanks

N