Pentax User Plus member

When I initially joined this forum I was completely unaware that there was a Pentax magazine or club etc, that you could join. In fact is was quite a while before I reaslied that the forum was part of a larger Pentax PR presence.
I have never read the Pentax magazine and, whilst Johns article on the M series has me a little intregued, I probably never will, I dont use the gallery, haven't submitted anything to the PPG, No need for the discounts from retailers. I joned this forum because it is fun and informative and very, very helpful.

But now if I want to upload two images processed in a different way or shot slightly differently to ask advice as to which is the best I am forced to pay

Or if I enter more than one competition and then upload a photo again I am forced to pay.

If I want to sell my camera, Grip and a couple of lenses its gonna take me 5 days to complete the listing.

If we dont want to create an elite clique why are we identifing the "Plus" members with special logos? So is it a case of all forum members are equal but plus memebers are more equal than others !

In my opinion this forum should be free to use, but I do understand that the benifits that used to accompany the magazine (which I believe from the comments in this thread used to be charged paid for) have an associated cost.

A potentially good idea hastily decided and poorly implimented

rant over

Regards
PaulM

pnjmcc wrote, "But now if I want to upload two images processed in a different way or shot slightly differently to ask advice as to which is the best I am forced to pay

Or if I enter more than one competition and then upload a photo again I am forced to pay.

If I want to sell my camera, Grip and a couple of lenses its gonna take me 5 days to complete the listing."

Nothing has changed, you can link to images hosted elsewhere, previously you could only upload one image per day unless you paid a subscription to the magazine.

As far as I can see the only change has been changing the medium of the magazine and a reduction in subscription.

You just go to the forum section marked Classified Ads and list all the Pentax-related items you want to sell, with as many pictures as you like, for free.

One picture only for the Gallery Weekly Competition, plus as many competitions as you like in the Cometitions area of the forum. No cost.

It's the same symbol that was used for magazine subscribers and just means subscribed. Nothing different or clique-ish about it.

I get the impression Paul that you haven't explored the site or even the forum in any great depth, as you seem to be unaware of what you can do. Do have a really good look around and you'll find that evereything you're asking for is already here.

I have lost my subscribed symbol, even though I have paid until the end of December 2011 and have not claimed a refund

That happened to me as well and until I paid to be a Plus member it was gone. Once I paid, it was back.

I think the PU Plus feature has gone off a bit half cocked.

IMHO, PU Magazine subscribers should automatically become PU Plus members for the remainder of their subscription, and enjoy the same benefits that they had before.

The PU Plus feature should be introduced only when the promised features are actually available and the current ad campaign to attract new members should cease, any payments already made should be refunded.

That would return the status quo. When the promised features are available, the ad campaign should then resume, and not before.

As I've said before, if this were politics, we'd be after somebody's blood. OK, a resignation would do.

The PU team have an opportunity to correct the situation. It remains to be seen whether they'll take that opportunity.

I think you are naturally biased towards PU Admin decisions John. If you were not so close to it, I'm sure you would complain. If this were a membership subscription in which you weren't so heavily involved, I'd like to think that you'd complain very strongly.

Myself and others feel cheated and that needs to be rectified.

There are clearly 2 very different sides to this coin. No magazine subscriber wanted the mag to go away, but the revenue stream for supporting the website has.

There is no way that advertising could fully support this site - certainly not the way it currently is structured with a proprietary code base and programmers on staff. Even if actual profit wasn't a motive.

(If you - or anyone else - wants to do this on F/OSS software base then drop me a line.)

I was not a magazine subscriber. Never even seen one actually. So I have no axe to grind. But I do know some about running these type of websites.

PU probably needs paying members asap, not just for cash in the short term, but to verify that a viable revenue stream does actually exist. (Remember that the mag probably didn't close because it was too profitable!)

But nobody likes to feel that they are paying twice for anything, even if they do understand the reasons (which they don't at the moment due to lack of communication).

A suggestion:

Continue with PU Plus membership as currently implemented (but perhaps post about it - this is a discussion forum after all). And offer any past magazine subscriber with outstanding entitlement X month's worth of free PUP membership to run AFTER their 1st year subscription is up. (Or some factor, like 50% of X month's worth.)

And limit this offer for, say, the next 3 months. This will increase initial take up when you need it, and have the side benefit of spreading out the renewals processing somewhat. Plus give you 12 months to improve the website and make everyone happy.

You have some good ideas there 'Joe User'.

This thread has been running a week now, and not a word from the PU Admin team.

You do me a disservice as I have nothing whatsoever to do with PU Admin. I abandoned my original subscription as I considered it a donation instead, so that had gone. I could have asked for a refund easily enough. I actually joined as a Plus member just to see what happened after several comments had been made here. I wanted to see how it worked and finiding out cost me £9.99. I didn't have to, it was my choice.

Trust me, if I want to complain about something then I do so, but I don't generally do it in an over excited way, just calmly until the desired result is obtained.

No bias on my part I can assure you, although I can understand that sometimes people can find that hard to believe. It doesn't stop it being so though.

If there will be further magazine editions available in the future, I will probably join (however that is not made clear).

After all when I joined PU originally, the magazine didn't appear on my doormat the second I paid my subscription. In fact it was a few months!

Back issues would be nice too, but there's no rush for that... there's no 'I need to read Spring 2002's PU Mag and I need to read it NOW!!!'

I renewed my subscription to the magazine just before it was cancelled; my profile still shows 31 July as the end of my current subscription. As I never asked for a refund could this count as my membership fee for the Pentax User Plus?
I would think it’s only fair that it should as I feel reluctant to pay twice.

It was not my intention to do you any disservice John. From your reply, it seems I mistakenly believed that the PU Team had some influence with, and/or were influenced by the PU Admin team.

To help me, and perhaps others, to understand the relationship, is there no dialogue/communication between PU Team members such as yourself, and PU Admin staff?

I was a PU member the same as other people and did not ask for a refund. My profile shows 3rd March 2012, so why am I supposed to pay again?

If these "new" Plus Membership prices are on top of my existing payment, then I think that the admin team should have told us all in either a statement on the forum home page or sent us a PM about these charges and changes.

Disgruntled

I'm moderating the forum is the answer to your question. I look after the forum as a "labour of love" because I care about it. Peter Bargh asked me to do this some time ago.

I am also a freelance photographer and do work for both PU and EPZ, as you can see on both websites, but that's more to do with writing articles and reports and testing items.

Where you see what you interpret as bias it is just me being me. If I write something it's because I believe it and mean it. That makes life much simpler.

I should add that nobody is trying to influence the other moderators either.