Mike,
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More and more there are times, while surfing the net, that I come across sites that requires me to whip my credit card and pay a fee for entry or membership. There may well be some wealth of knowlege just on the other side of the gate, but, how would I know? My tendency is to say "have a nice day."
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Prospective new members would be given a free trial period.
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When I became a member of the forum, as best I can recall, all I did was type my name and give a few other innocuous details about myself. It required no interview, no vetting of my work, no time expended on anyone's part. I would ask today, what was wrong with that method? Who are we trying to keep out and why?
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You say "no time expended on anyone's part" - but that's not true. All forums require overseeing and maintenance - questions have to be answered from members - how to log on, how to post an image, trying to make sure no members are tearing each other apart and so on.
The focus of the Forum has always been traditional portraiture only and was never intended to be open to everyone who wanted to be a painter of faces and figures in any style. This keeps the Forum in alignment with the main site. It was never intended as a stand-alone thing for everyone, but instead an offshoot of the main site. "If you like want you see on our main site and that's aligned with your pursuits as an artist, then join our Forum."
Over time as the membership grew and especially since the critiques area opened, time demands have increased significantly, but the number of qualified members who are active and can give a good critique has not really increased correspondingly. Additionally, the level of accomplishment of new applicants is all over the place, often the artist needing simple basics, which is beyond the scope of this Forum. It was just becoming too much to handle to let everyone join who wanted to, so the Board decided to require approval for new members.
You also don't know that there are tons of artist who have applied, submitted their two images and been approved and never posted a single time. Each of those approvals cost myself and the Board time and energy. I doubt that anyone would apply and not participate if they had to pay a feee.
But, the original concept I had for the Forum is that it would be a place for those who are members of the main site to come and communicate about their art and career - it was mostly intended as a benefit for them. I decided to also open it to non-members since, in general, I have an interest in helping portrait painters. Little did I dream that there would be far more Forum joinees who are not SOG main site members. I also never counted on the amount of work, bandwidth and storage space involved.
Hybrid Mode
