BirdPhotographers.Net - I't Ain't Just Birds! - BPN Newsletter 3, 30 May 2015

BPN Newsletter 3, 30 May 2015

BPN Limited Membership Changes
BPN Membership Changes
Recurring Payments and Subscriptions and BPN Subscriptions
Forum Story Sequences Rocks
Publisher's Favorite
Our Sponsor
Previous Newletter
Q&A and BPN Support
Unsubscribe

Latest Avian Image of the week

Click on the image to be directed to the post on BPN

BPN Limited Membership Changes

This weekend all members of the 'BPN Limited Membership' group will be moved to the 'BPN Viewer' group. This change was announced on 1 March, see the chapter below for details. What this means to you, also read on to the following chapter.

BPN Membership Changes

BPN is changing how participation to the forums will be managed and who can actively participate. As of 1 March all current 'Forum Participants' (non-paying members) will be granted limited BPN memberships (BPN Limited Membership group). On 1 June their limited memberships will expire and they will become 'BPN Viewers'; they will no longer be able to start threads or to comment on threads started by others. BPN will become read-only for this group.

Similarly, participants who register after 1 March will be granted granted limited BPN memberships (BPN Limited Member group) for exactly 90 days. After that time, they will automatically be moved to the 'BPN Viewer' group, limited to read-only privileges.

Folks who become 'BPN Viewers' will need to sign up for 'BPN Membership' to continue BPN Member privileges. Note that the BPN Member group has more privileges than the Limited Member groups: see the table below for a detailed overview.

The table below show the detailed rights of the different usergroups:

Feature	BPN Member or Lifetime Member	Forum Participant	BPN Limited Member(ship)	BPN Viewer
Number of threads	1 per day per forum	1 per week per forum	1 per day per forum, for 90 days	none
Number of posts	unlimited	20 per month	unlimited, for 90 days	none
Image Hosting	by BPN	external	by BPN	n/a
Used Gear Forum Access	yes	no	no	n/a
Two-line selfpromotional signature	yes	no	no	no
Feature in Publisher's Favorite	yes	no	yes	n/a
Access to Workshop and Lectures	yes	no	yes	no
Eligible for Image of the Week	yes	no	no	n/a
Personal Album hosted on BPN	yes	no	no	no
Thread Thumbnail	yes	no	yes	n/a

Become a member by clicking on this link: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/payments.php. This page lists all membership benefits in detail.

Recurring Payments and Subscriptions and BPN Subscriptions

As of 1 January 2015, BPN’s annual subscription fee was raised to $40. Why?

Despite ever-increasing operational and maintenance costs during our seven years in existence, we have never had a rate increase.
When we tried to raise funds by introducing ads, there was lot of resistance. We, as owners, agree that BPN should not be flooded by advertisements

Please help us keep our new low rate in place by supporting our main sponsors, B&H, Outdoor Photo Gear, and the BIRDS AS ART Online Store by using the logo links on the site.

For new members, the price increase will be straightforward. Their first payment will be $40 and will get them into the new scheme.

Existing members with an automatic Paypal renewal who wind up paying the old fee of $20, will receive a mail from staffbaa@att.net with detailed instructions as to how to proceed.

Existing members who currently have automatic Paypal renewals set up for the old fee of $20 are asked to follow the somewhat complex directions immediately below carefully just before their next recurring payment is due. Many of those are scheduled in mid-January through February so now is as good a time as any. Though most will have not trouble canceling their old $20 recurring payment, we do apologize for any inconvenience that we my have caused.

First log into your Paypal account and cancel the current $20 recurring payment. Yes, please cancel your existing $20 recurring payment.

Do this by going to Profile -> My Money -> My Pre-Approved Payments. Click on the Update button. Now Identify the line for BPN/BIRDS AS ART and then click on the active hyper link for Merchant. A new Billing details screen for BPN will pop up. Then click on Cancel.

Folks that do not see an active link for the word Profile should click on the gear icon (upper right). Then they will need to click on Preapproved payments. To cancel the $20.00 preapproved payment, click on the merchant name, in this case, Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Now comes the tricky part: in the upper left of this screen, below the words "Subscription details" and "active" you will see links for Cancel and View history. Click on the Cancel button and then hit the button that says Cancel Profile. No worries. You will not be making any changes to your Paypal profile, you will simply be canceling the Recurring payment.

If you have trouble canceling your $20 recurring payment , please let us know with an e-mail to us at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net and we can take care of it.

Next, please set up a new Recurring payment to BPN by going here http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/payments.php and then selecting your correct currency from the drop down menu at the top of the page just to the left of the order button. Then click on the Order Using Paypal box, enter your password, and click the Login box. On the next screen check all of the details and then click on the Agree and Pay box.

Go to Activity and you should see your payment.

Once we receive your $40 payment BAA/BPN will issue a $20 refund to your Paypal account. If you run into any problems along the way you can e-mail us at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net or call us at 863-692-0906 during weekday business hours or on Fridays before 2pm.

It took us about 8 hours of work to figure out how to implement these changes in a relatively seamless manner.

Forum Story Sequences Rocks

Gabriela Plesea started the Story Sequences by the end of February. The stories told, the images displayed are amazing.
If you have a story sequence, please visit this new, exciting forum.

Have a look at the latest post by Marina Scarr, where a couple of Swallowtailed Kites exchange food (a frog):

Click on the image to be directed to the post on BPN

The forum can be found at the following link: Story Sequences.

Publisher's Favorite

When you visit BPN, the home page features two side bars. The sidebar on the left, lists the current selection of 'Image of the Week', managed by Daniel Cadieux. The right sidebar represents a selection of striking images from all categories that drew special attention. The newsletter will select a special image that stood out, selected outside the voted IOTW. At present, the image displayed here shows a scene of the Mara River where large number of animals gather to get water.

Click on the image to be directed to the post on BPN

Our Sponsor

Our main sponsor is B&H Photo Video. Support our site by clicking on the link below. Using the BPN affiliate link will not cost you a penny but will be greatly appreciated.

Previous Newletter

The previous newsletter can be found on the BPN Help forum: BPN Newsletter 2, 28 February 2015.

Topics covered were:

Image of the Year selection
New Forum: Story Sequences
BPN Membership Changes
Recurring Payments and Subscriptions and BPN Subscriptions
Publisher's Favorite
Our Sponsor
Previous Newletter
Q&A and BPN Support
Unsubscribe

Q&A and BPN Support

In case of user, posting or other BPN problems, contact me on my BPN email address: peterkes@birdphotographers.net.

Subscription and payment problems: staffbaa@att.net.