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Ning Going to Pay System

A message to all members of Times Past I am sure some of you know Ning has now gone to a pay service. So I am now faced with and put in a position that is entirely opposite of my philosophy of free. It is like the old game "bait and switch". I see there is basically three options to choose from. 1. Pay and keep going as we are. 2. Move to an alternative location. 3. Quit For option (1), Ning has three plans: the mini, plus, and pro. The mini is $2.95/month or $19.95/year, the plus is 19.95/month or $199.95/year, and the pro is 49.95/month or $499.95/year. The PRO plan is the only one where you can upload video and audio. So the mini and the plus plans do not seem to fit our hobby very well. For option (2) there is compatible alternatives similar to ning that will import the data from ning to their service. But as far as I can tell it is just the member profiles and no content that all of you have contributed over the past two years will be transferred. For option (3) it is just to let everything fade away in July and say it has been fun. Personally I do not like any of the options, but this is a decision that has to be made. Since TimesPast actually belongs to all its members, I would like to here your thoughts on this situation. There is well over 500 members on TimesPast and if all would contribute one dollar per year, it would keep things as they are, that is not much for all the entertainment we all enjoy. But being realistic, I do not know how may are willing to donate, or if even interested. I have set up a PAYPAL account and can put a donation button on the front page and see if we can raise the first year premium if that is what you want to do. I know that once we have the Pro Account from ning we can own the adds that are placed there and would receive any revenue generated, and that might defer the cost down the road. We have had 1,292,151 visitors over the past 12 months as of today. I will wait to hear from you and see what the majority of members would like to do regarding that. I have reviewed alternative sites and one is promising http://grou.ps/timespast/home I just did a trial to see how things worked and it is kind of similar to ning, but still reviewing it as well as a couple of more. It really comes down to what all the members want to do and I will help all I can and respect your wishes. Here is a link to the official Ning announcement: http://about.ning.com/announcement/ Sincerely Robert Brown