James-
Hard to say for sure, because (checking right now) I can't find a link that explains what is available to members and what is not. I know of one example that I mentioned before: I can't post an item for sale. That one doesn't make sense to me, since it seems like having a robust marketplace with more items to sell would actually benefit all your members too, especially given the obvious eBay competition. So that's one.
Another I remember is that there is a limitation on how you can post images, but that one was easy to work around using inline linking. I understand that's to save on hosting costs, and that makes sense to me to charge someone if they want to host here as opposed to linking elsewhere.
I seem to recall in the past that I've run into issues limiting the number of private messages I can send or receive and limitations on posting images, but I haven't run into any restrictions lately. Partly that's because I stopped posting images for the most part. I am not a professional, so I tend to do all my photo stuff in batches of time. While I understand the posting restrictions, the fact is that it would easier for people like me to be able to post several at once as opposed to one a day in any forum.
At the end of the day, it's a business decision for Art and the people who run the forum, and I respect their right to run it however they want. As I said a couple of times before, the membership fee actually did deter me from signing up initially. It was only the second time I came back and realized that the fee only prevented certain features that I signed up. So, perhaps the issue is that the membership benefits aren't well-explained. Maybe if you make clearer that the forum is free but membership has extra benefits? Just thinking out loud.
Originally Posted by Dave Mills
