Dine and Dash

About 2 weeks ago a I remember Lifetime17 answering a question for a new member and mentioning that this is a great forum with lots of info and nice friendly people willing to help and hoping that this new member wasnt here to solve a problem and disappear. Well its looking like that has happened. Just scrolling down the posts of the past few days it looks like about 10 or so new members have gone after getting or not getting what they need. Ive seen you vets help countless of times by going out of your way to give a link or advice all the while resisting temptation to scold them for not doing thier homework first, without even a thankyou or a smiley. Some new members come in claiming they have $200 to spend and what is the best (blah blah) laser to buy and some not much to spend. Heck I remember one new member giving the na saying he bought the laser anyway after a member adviced him of its bad duty cycle. Again he is nowhere to be seen after countless of questions. I guess what im getting at is why cant new members be charged a tiny fee to join for the sake of donations. This has to have been brought up before:undecided:

Asking a small fee to join the forum is only going give us less new members. The biggest issue with new members is that most of them don't think of a laser like we do. Usually people join, ask either how to repair their laser or where to get a cheap mass produced laser, get an answer and leave. These people rarely, if ever read stickies before signing up and asking a question, and then get pointed towards the stickies or search bar because we get the very same question on a daily basis. Eventually they leave because they notice how expensive a decent laser can be, or simply because they lack interest.

Most people that stay are people that already have a higher quality laser, or even own more than one laser and are interested in doing a build.

The forum is a little dead lately though, and most threads started are by new members that have left by the time you answer their question.

I see where you are coming from and agree with most everything you said but I do not think a membership fee will be good. I think it would be a road block to new members or a large deterrent at best.
I know many times I am in a store and ask about a certain item/product and I really have no intent to go by it. Just curious or getting a feel for it.
Many of us members and vets have time to grind on and on in certain threads. We certainly can take a moment to help a new member and be pleasant to them.

LaserChick, Gozert, I can see a new member fee scaring of people. I wanted to join a forum a while back and was scared off by them when they wanted way to much info. The thing is I followed this forum for quite some time before joining and by being on it im on the other side now so I see it from the good side(If that makes sense) I guess I have to get used to it an not let it bother me. Gozert how many members left by the time I wrote this post!lol

:tsk:Asking a fee would result in probably no new members. Shame on you for even suggesting such a thing.:twak:

Alan

Pi R Squared said:

:tsk:Asking a fee would result in probably no new members. Shame on you for even suggesting such a thing.:twak:

Alan

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Oh boy, im a bad boy if it means anything I said tiny:cryyy: I just cant that guy doing the tongue thing out of my mind and he spent $200 this was months ago. Pi im going to bed with no dinner is that enough punishment

Yes that will be adequate.

Alan

I would say that there should be a way to program the stickies to be required. Kinda like when you try to accept those terms of service on some programs when you install them... but it won't let you hit continue untill you scroll down. Something like that but for Safety, then for Diodes, Then Drivers, etc you get the idea. Or maybe a "test" before you can make a post. You can sign up, You can Read, but you can even post a reply, but cannot start a new thread until you have passed the test.

I think when i finally understand drivers im going to write a full guide that explains everything in simple terms. We have all the info here, its just fragmented in different sections. Its sort of what i aimed to do with laserpointerwiki, its just hard getting started.

joeybab3 said:

I think when i finally understand drivers im going to write a full guide that explains everything in simple terms. We have all the info here, its just fragmented in different sections. Its sort of what i aimed to do with laserpointerwiki, its just hard getting started.

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It'd certainly help if everything was in the one place. Even as a vet it's not always easy finding these resources.

Bookmark everything my friend^^

Hmm, when I first came here the first thing I did was ask a stupid question before I posted in the welcome section a few hours later I think (shame on me :shh. Even then I got good replies. And I don't have a credit card or anything, there would've been no way I would pay a small fee to join.

@ Blackwolf that is a good idea :gj:
I myself fired up a notepad and put all the links in there that interest me or I think will be helpful to others in the future.

Blackwolf said:

Bookmark everything my friend^^

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Laser Chick said:

@ Blackwolf that is a good idea :gj:
I myself fired up a notepad and put all the links in there that interest me or I think will be helpful to others in the future.

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I have so many laser related bookmarks that I sometimes can't find what I am looking for and end up searching for it. I need to somehow get them organized into subgroups.

Alan

@ Pi R Squared

Your signature just threw me for a loop!!

I saw the approximate color of 473nm and then saw 3.7W so I thought you had a 3.7W 473nm laser for a moment. I was like WOAH!!!!! Now I'm bummed as 473nm is my second favorite WL and thought that there was a hand held available. It sure would be a large laser

Laser Chick said:

@ Pi R Squared

Your signature just threw me for a loop!!

I saw the approximate color of 473nm and then saw 3.7W so I thought you had a 3.7W 473nm laser for a moment. I was like WOAH!!!!! Now I'm bummed as 473nm is my second favorite WL and thought that there was a hand held available. It sure would be a large laser

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Have you read about the 07e yet? (I mean sure its not exactly "rated" for 473 but...)