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Definitely no compulsory payments. I thought the T's were a good option as you get something for your money too <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->

While we're far from compulsory payments at the moment, I wouldn't rule it out for the future.

You could, for example, have the site and forum free, but fully piad up members ( a nominal annual fee) might get, perhaps a discount on t-shirts, or on any organised events (I'm thinking for example the CAMRA N.I. festival, where members entrance fees might be subsidised).
All a bit pie-in-the-sky, I know, but never say never, eh?

By the way, are you at liberty to disclose the % of the t-shirt cost that goes towards the site? It may encourage more people to buy.

Hope I haven’t rocked the boat too much.

I agree with everything said and wasn’t suggesting membership should be compulsory to access the site more a kind of fixed fee donation

In the meantime lets all buy a T-shirt <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->

<!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> Not at all, all feedback is good.

Yes, we're very far from a fee structure right now, but yes, never say never. At the moment we are not an "organisation", and we're not close to doing something like that. As a site, we set ICB up to give you all a place to come and share thoughts and experiences with each other, and maybe get some socialising together <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> It's all about community rather than a "club" (if you know what I mean). We need this site to be as accessible as possible to encourage people in their chosen hobby/craft, and to promote good beer in general. As bigears said, we need to encourage people to join, and I'd be afraid that membership fees would make that difficult.

As stated in the FAQ, things like the ads and T-shirts are simply a way to generate small amounts of cash to offset the cost of setting this up, and to fund improvements to the site as time goes on. When I say small, I mean 1-2 euro per t-shirt sold, and the ads are a matter of a few cent per click. Basically I need to sell about 50 Ts to break even so far. If (and it's very unlikely) it actually yielded more than cost covering it'd be ploughed back into supporting the user base in some way. I'm warming to the donation idea as if people feel they are getting something out of ICB and want to support in other ways that'd be very nice. You are all already supporting the site simply by coming here and adding to the community. That's what we wanted to encourage and it's great to see it picking up! <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

Now, things like subsidising events could be covered by sponsorship if it was an ICB event (we have some thoughts on that), but for other events like the CAMRA gig I think ICB can be a useful place to get people organised into groups, but people can pay their own way. There'd be too much administration for the moment if it went beyond that (at the moment!). Unfortunately we can't give discounts on the Ts as basically a discount means 0 commission and only drops 1 to 2 euro off the price. :\ (the aprons are cool too though! <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->)

Do keep the suggestions coming though! I'll look into putting someting up for small donations after I speak with Séan, but should donators get something more in return?

I've moved this as I think it's gone way off Westbrew's original topic <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

&amp;quot;Adeptus&amp;quot; wrote: AT, I got mine in 5 days <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> There is a base price for a T, plus a cost per print and then a small commission for ICB (1-2 euro). And I thought this was already a site we could be proud of! <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt="" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->


Sorry i should have read my post <!-- s:oops: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt="" title="Embarassed" /><!-- s:oops: -->
i didn't mean it like that, the site is great a credit to you and Sean. My point was i'd rather give the price of the t shirt to the site rather than get a t shirt and the forum only get 1 or 2 euro but if the t shirt is the way ye want to go then i'll buy one