Tender forum

[Alice3537]

No Alice, I didn't miss the rest of your comment. It's just that I can make certain business decisions instantly.

Anyone can make a decision instantly - you are hardly alone on that one!

 

[RayB]

Anyone can make a decision instantly - you are hardly alone on that one!

Good for you. So why are there endless useless debates about paying £36 to be a member here then?

 

[Alice3537]

Good for you. So why are there endless useless debates about paying £36 to be a member here then?

How the hell do I know?? Normally, I don;t join in those too much!

S-d it, you join or you don't.

However, I can see why people object to a forum they have been able to post on for 6 months or more being removed.

Hope you enjoy your discussion about this altercation on the private forum I don't pay to be a member of!

I have NO objection to those forums - just see it as a shame that there is so much 'us and them going on' - That kind of segregation makes for a forum which is not a community. I'm not prepared to pay £36 just for the privilege of making that point in a private area!

 

[Alice3537]

I'm out of this - I see that I am contributing to the very thing I initially made a point against!

 

[maria102]

ANY member can post a tender. If you wanna bid for that tender it's £36 per annum for the privilege. That seems to be perfectly reasonable to me.

I think it's brilliant and stops all the cowboy's who only join to quote on stuff, and never add anything to the community

This is a long post, but I've read this far and I concur......one other reason I paid up was that it felt like the right thing to do, to contribute after all the great advice I've had

 

[RayB]

I'm out of this - I see that I am contributing to the very thing I initially made a point against!

I could only reply in private

 

[spooks]

To pay or not to pay, that is the question !!! lol

I reckon its cost me more than £36 just to read all this , who can I invoice for that!!

My view, if your business is of a type where you would be likely to get work from the tender section, you need to be in it, if like mine you wouldn't then don't.

A valid point some have raised, they seem quite happy to pay , tender section or not, just for the quality of advice they get here, and of course all the banter -

Maybe they should think about "pay per post " - some of you are gonna be in big trouble then!!

 

[Fuzzy]

To pay or not to pay, that is the question !!! lol

I reckon its cost me more than £36 just to read all this , who can I invoice for that!!

My view, if your business is of a type where you would be likely to get work from the tender section, you need to be in it, if like mine you wouldn't then don't.

A valid point some have raised, they seem quite happy to pay , tender section or not, just for the quality of advice they get here, and of course all the banter -

Maybe they should think about "pay per post " - some of you are gonna be in big trouble then!!

Crikey I'd be in trouble then
It will be interesting actually because a few weeks ago I posted a job in Tenders and was inundated - over 100 replies, sad to say mostly from one-hit wonders. I am about to post another job in there next week..........let's see what happens

 

[RayB]

It will be interesting actually because a few weeks ago I posted a job in Tenders and was inundated - over 100 replies, sad to say mostly from one-hit wonders.

Restricting the cowboys and one hit wonders was precisely why it was changed.

 

[Interconnect IT]

I'm going to stump up the £36. Just being incredibly mean right now until cashflow recovers to where it should be.

 

[KreativeJuice]

Crikey I'd be in trouble then
It will be interesting actually because a few weeks ago I posted a job in Tenders and was inundated - over 100 replies, sad to say mostly from one-hit wonders. I am about to post another job in there next week..........let's see what happens

Let me get in first, whats the job Fuzzy

 

[Fuzzy]

Let me get in first, whats the job Fuzzy

Watch the tenders section

 

[Paula Barrett]

I've moved this to the Feedback and Help as it's a discussion about an issue on the forum.

Cheers,
Paula

 

[richardmyers]

I'm going to stump up the £36. Just being incredibly mean right now until cashflow recovers to where it should be.

Same here, this forum alone is worth it but the tenders section has been quite useful to me so far. I'll be paying asap!

 

[ken_uk]

I've moved this to the Feedback and Help as it's a discussion about an issue on the forum.

Cheers,
Paula

Not that the tenders section is an area I bother with, so any decision made on it does not affect me, but why have a discussion about all this in the public area's AFTER the decision was made in PRIVATE by a handful of people?

You may as well do just lock the thread and just say look, we dont care at all how non paid members feel, if you dont have access to the paid forum, then your views will not count, so tough luck.

Then you could save everyone the bother of this thread, the decision was made in private, totally excluding all the other members from the discussion, so why bother moving the thread, and claiming its a issue about the forum, when its blatent sift does not care about the community as a whole, or it would be acting in a more open manner?

 

[richardmyers]

To one of the paid up members - Out of interest, has the Tenders forum seen a drop in activity since this rule was put in place?

 

[andysv1k]

Not that the tenders section is an area I bother with, so any decision made on it does not affect me, but why have a discussion about all this in the public area's AFTER the decision was made in PRIVATE by a handful of people?

You may as well do just lock the thread and just say look, we dont care at all how non paid members feel, if you dont have access to the paid forum, then your views will not count, so tough luck.

Then you could save everyone the bother of this thread, the decision was made in private, totally excluding all the other members from the discussion, so why bother moving the thread, and claiming its a issue about the forum, when its blatent sift does not care about the community as a whole, or it would be acting in a more open manner?

Unfortunately i tend to agree with Ken's post (not unfortunate that i agree with you, just unfortunate about the content! )

For me, its not about paying the money or not paying the money, Its £36 thats a drop in the ocean compared to the money i spend on advertising and marketing throughout the year, Ray said earlier about being able to make business decisions, no problem, easy, i cant see the return on the £36 so wont be spending it, i make those decisions everyday, if i said its only £** to everyone that wanted a slice of my turnover i'd be broke and out of business, therefore i choose to pay for those i see will offer benefit. The beauty of online business forums, is that its a free resource, just asking of your time, the more you put in, the more you are likely to get back. when you start to make it a paid resource, regardless of the level of cost, it just joins the long lines of other forms of paid business generation.

I know some keep saying that its only £36, you would be mad not to join, crazy...crazy i tell you!

But to be fair, look back at the tenders forum (i know you actually cant now if you are a humble 'standard' member) and it was rammed full of requests for website builds, seo work, print work, and design. I along with many other members dont offer any of these, Those that do, WOULD be mad not to sign up, its probably a great business generator. but for the rest of us where opportunities are only occasional, its less attractive.

My point? Im not really too sure now!

er... tender area for all = good
taking tender area away for paid members, decided by paid members without consulting the majority group of members (members being the be all and end all of a forum, without us, paid or otherwise there is no UKBF) = bad

Andy.

 

[INDIZINE]

I agree ken, whilst I voted to have tenders in private forum, my choice was clicked on a bit of a whim as I thought it was just another random poll on views, set by a member. It didnt say "if we get enough votes we will move it". It never actually occured to me that sift would actually take a motion of 24 private members over the whole forum, and move it to private! Whislt it has cured one problem it has created another. Your supposed to identify all consequences in decison-making and tha didnt happen here from what I can see.

As a result it has nose-dived with hardly any tenders being posted. And it isnt helped because of a forum technicality that wasnt identified before the decision was made to move it. Its been left at suck it and see.

On another note, another public thread (ie not in private forum) was locked down on yet private member poll despite me saying it was not fair to exclude the whole forum membership in a decision which again, was a poll by a member to gain veiws, and not sift saying "if we get enough votes (and PMs) we will lock it down". And so it did.

 

[Gavin Harris]

Hi,

I've just recommended someone here who approached me for web design to put a tender into the tenders section.

He says he can't view the tenders section, so I'm guessing it's because he's not a fully paid up member yet. However, he's reluctant to pay when he can't see what other tenders are in there and the sort of responses to them, which is understandable.

What's the best thing for him to do?

Can I suggest that there's a sample of say the last 3 tenders posted for non-paid up members to view (and not post), with maybe the details of the user posting removed, just so they can see what the quality is like in there?

 

[INDIZINE]

why would he want to see other posts on tenders? most quibble over stuff or say "PM sent"!! He doesn t have to pay so there is nothing to lose by posting and viewing his own replies, which is free.

 

[alex4orne]

Restricting the cowboys and one hit wonders was precisely why it was changed.

I resent being called a cowboy, just because I havent paid

 

[glencooley.com]

I resent being called a cowboy, just because I havent paid

That wasnt the insinuation. The thing is if you value the forum and tenders section and you are serious in your business then paying the joining fee should be a no brainer.

I like the tenders private it means that I can post my rates and be more open than you would be on a public forum with pricing and advice etc as although I have competition it feels more like an organisation than a work "meat" market and there is a common mutual ground and respect I feel personally.

 

[RayB]

I resent being called a cowboy, just because I havent paid

Please read my posts in full, or at least quote me in context.

 

I thought the point was to restrict it to full members just to avoid the amount of PM spam that OP's receive - but if it is excluding a load of good members too, then maybe some sort of compromise needs to be looked at?

What about that idea of you have to have so many posts, etc?

 

[alex4orne]

I do like to fire people up lol

The mail reason I havent paid is, as I have just closed down one venture and am in the process of setting up my prefered one, finances are tight. Plus when it was open to all I never saw anything that was relevant to my ocupation.

I am not a printer or internet wizz, or anything like that, so most tenders were irelevant.
If you need a chauffeur for your car on a special occasion then I am your man

 

[maria102]

I do like to fire people up lol

The mail reason I havent paid is, as I have just closed down one venture and am in the process of setting up my prefered one, finances are tight. Plus when it was open to all I never saw anything that was relevant to my ocupation.

I am not a printer or internet wizz, or anything like that, so most tenders were irelevant.
If you need a chauffeur for your car on a special occasion then I am your man

Yep, I agree, there are lots of printers. SEO guys etc; maybe what's missing is a cowboy or two...you don't courier your stuff on a "hoss" do you?!

 

[alex4orne]

Yep, I agree, there are lots of printers. SEO guys etc; maybe what's missing is a cowboy or two...you don't courier your stuff on a "hoss" do you?!

Don't do courier stuff anymore (Hoss died ) But I could wear a stetson if that helps

Just people now, which is worse, a parcel doesn't moan if you go too fast or cut a corner etc. People do

 

[sabian1982]

15 pages long... and still going... is this going to rival 'knowing the mind of god'?

 

[adventurelife]

I could not be further from a printer or SEO guy.

If a business person off any type of business cannot see the value that is avalabile on these boards they should not be in business.

I felt obiliged to pay the money due to the solid advice I got from total strangers. If I was the owner of this place I would allow everyone so much time/post etc then they would have to pay. Then everyone could see the tenders again!

 

[andysv1k]

This thread is about the tenders forum though, not about whether to pay £36 or not in general.

It cant be denied that most of the tenders threads were split between just a few types of business, so would have much more value to those businesses than to others who still had good input to the forum, but who could maybe only get business from the forum rarely.

Andy.

 

[glencooley.com]

Irrespective of the fee. Tenders aside, this is a hell off a lot cheaper knowledeagble and funnier than other "breakfast" clubs etc.

Its also a place to give back and as a soap boc too.

The issue to me personally is about the confidence i had in joining and giving/getting advice and finding a community that struggle with the same problems i face (earl struggles with everything so ignore him) and can relate to.

This is like a professional pub to me and worth more than bingo if you use the search area of the forum.

Now looking at it with my capitalist hat on......ever customer that you get should be worth more over a year than a nominal joining fee.

If its not then you need to really look at your business and customer base and figure out where you need to be. For me i am a B2B business but other businesses are different so need different areas to focus on to maximise input and output but mostly i just like to here myself type