Membership

I did not know that this site charged a fee to belong, very disheartening. I don't understand to bad I will be deleting my account or info per say. And please no emailings

Hello and welcome to meet an ostomate. The site charges a fee only for Full Membership, you can still interact with members here via the forums and the public chat room with free membership. The site charges a fee since it has expenses ... as do all websites, people have to spend their time to run and maintain the site, buy bandwith, servers, and other things. I am a life member here, it cost me 56$....about the price of 1 cup of coffee a week for a year. I think that is a very small charge for such a big reward. In my opinion this site is the best ostomy-related web site on the net. I hope you will stick around awhile and see for yourself. I do not own or am I in any manner connected to this site except as a member. regards. mmsh

Hello hatlady.

I am not a member - but I still correspond regularly with the people who post on here.

MMSH is absolutely right about the overheads that need covering. However, what is more important is that the administrators recognise that not all people can afford to pay membership fees or want to but they still encourage them to stay.

The admin. keep telling me that I have free membership each month because I correspond a lot. I keep thinking -'I don't need full membership' so it would probably be good if they gave it to someone else.

If you were to answer lots of  the forum posts and chat a lot, then I feel sure that you would also be offered free membership

I do hope you don't leave the site jsut because they arrange for different types of contributers.

Best wishes

Bill 

agreed

I'm a paying member and don't mind the fee but many of the profiles on this site are years old and the person hasn't been around in a long time.

Seems like padding the membership list by keeping profiles From 3,4 years ago or longer. At least move them to inactive after that lenght of  time. it's a waste of time scrolling thru profiles of folks that haven't been here in years.

Hi Hatlady and all,

I've had my ostomy for over 50 years, since I was a kid, and didn't think I really needed to be part of the ostomy site. But once active, I came to realize, that although I may not need help at the time, I was able to reach out and  help others in need. Back in the day, before stoma therapists, I use to visit new patients in the hospital or homes ... While professionals are great, it is also good to be able to speak with people with personal experience. I was a free member for awhile, but after writing often, I was given free months. I then started paying, and decided to just take lifetime membership. After all, I was going to have my ostomy for the rest of my life. I'm one of those people who can disappear for a few months at a time, but I'm always glad that the site is here, I can return and reconnect with old friends, and make new ones. This is an excellent site ... Best regards to all ... and Best wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Hello Gravity.

I can quite understand your sentiments on this one but it might be a bit trickier than assuming these people haven't been on the site for years.

Judging by the number of 'views' on blogs, compared to the numbers of written contributers, there are obviously far more people who watch, read, observe and don't reply than those who do. On a very personal basis, I value their passive contributions highly and it gives me great delight when one of them will share with me that they enjoy my writing. In these cases, I usually look up their profiles as I like to know a little bit about the people who correspond. Sometimes, these are possibly the people to whom you are referring, as their profiles indicate how often (or not) they have posted. However, in order to follow my rhyming verses, they presumably come on here regularly, even if there is no way of knowing whether it is the same people other than them implying that they have read many more blogs than the one they are commenting on.  

When they do reply in this way, I envisage and hope that they may be speaking for the majority who prefer to stay silent, yet still appreciate the active correspondence that goes on between those of us who are willing to document our thoughts and feelings.

I would not like to think that people who only come on here to observe are thought to be any less important than those who actively participate. Would that not be equivalent to thinking that the spectators and supporters iare not important in other activities?

Best wishes

Bill

You have such a great attitude.  Just thought I would tell you that today.  it's refreshing to see.  Keep up the good work:)

It's possible that those people who have not posted for three or four years have a lifetime membership and have already paid for it.  No big deal really to me.  I can read somebody's post from ten years ago and it will still contain information that helps me today.  The pouch problems don't change much over the years.  I'm not sure what you mean by 'padding the membership'.  What purpose would that serve and for whom?

 My post was referring to profiles only...some of the profiles on this site are years old with not activety from that person in years. If a PAYING member is seaching thru profiles why wasre their time on profiles that are one, two, three or more years old??

if it was interested in a forum there is a huge very active crohns IBD forum that is free.

I'm strickly speaking about profiles when searching friendship or dating.

Hello Gravity.

The problem you outline does not affect me as I tend to randomly pick photos to see what the corresponding profiles say. However, you post did prompt me to have a look on the friendship and dating sections to see if this would help in identifying active people rather than those who have been inactive for years. I can inform you that by the side of each name, there is a note to say when the people were last active on the site.

I hope this helps you in your search for folks that are more relevant to your requirements

Best wishes

Bill

I suppose that by padding you mean that the higher the number of members seems to help in the site status when you search the internet for a ostomy forum. More members means a higher placement in the search. And yes, this site is totally free except for private messaging or email unless you have a paying membership.

Have only been paying member for couple of days. It's already paid for itself. Steve