UKAPS has passed 20,000 members.

[Tim Harrison]

UKAPS has passed 20,000 members. That’s quite a landmark achievement and a strong indication that the forum remains as popular as ever. A very big thank you to all of you for making the forum what it is today, an informative, friendly, and safe space to hang out with likeminded folk 🙂

 

[John q]

. A very big thank you to all of you for making the forum what it is today

A very big thanks to you and all the other moderators that make the forum tick me thinks. 🙂

 

[bazz]

A very big thanks to you and all the other moderators that make the forum tick me thinks. 🙂

I'll go along with that!

 

[Zeus.]

A very big thanks to you and all the other moderators that make the forum tick me thinks.

Policing the members posts making sure posts are friendly, PC and don't contain any clickbait etc plus posts need to be following the UKAPS posting guidelines, plus allowing for multi languages is a critical part in its success. A forum which is friendly, informative and relatively Advert free keeps folk coming back IMO

 

[_Maq_]

I wonder what's the share of non-British members?

 

[foxfish]

This is a very good forum, many of the massive 50-100k membership forums from the early 2000s dont even exist anymore but we keep going…….

 

[Tim Harrison]

I wonder what's the share of non-British members?

Despite its name UKAPS is a truly international community with members and visitors from all 4 corners of the globe. In terms of active membership and visitors, the English speaking nations like the US, NZ, and Australia account for a growing number, and at times account for nearly half of folk online.

Similarly, the Scandinavian and Western European countries often account for a large percentage of folk online. But there are more and more joining in from other countries in Asia, South East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and South America etc.

Either way it’s great to be a part of such a diverse community and one that attracts international attention. All are welcome 🙂

 

[hypnogogia]

Now, if every member donated just £1 per year, how big a difference would that make?

 

[castle]

What does the money go towards? I say that to be devils advocate, instagram, facebook, Reddit etc are free.

If money is neede, I’d suggest doing something like:

Ukaps memberships;
⚫️ Allows for unlimited trading on forum (limits non members to one item a month)
⚫️ Monthly aquascaping sessions where someone shares their tank and teaches .. @George Farmer

Cost £1 👍

 

[LondonDragon]

What does the money go towards?

Primarily keeping the forum online and on a decent server/service. (host costs, software licensing costs, add-on costs).
Then whatever is left we leave a contingency, and if that grows we can then look at a competition or host an event.

Donations from member are actually very low, we do rely more on the sponsorship to cover the costs.

Sponsors actually miss the mark quite a bit, as they could use the platform more to promote services and products, also they could sponsor UKAPS to organize events together with a single or more sponsors to have better engement of the members, but that is something that will take a lot of work from UKAPS Team also and usually there is only a handful of people that are willing to put in the time to make such events a success.

 

[castle]

I know this site won’t be the cheapest to run, I really only (devils advocate) asked as I can’t imagine your costs aren’t any different from other sites 👍 I think you should be more open with costs, if you’re running at a loss, shout about it.

I also agree re:sponsors! I know it’s a bit tight atm, but a sponsor offering n% discount to ukaps members (or double points etc) is a no brainer. I don’t think sponsors engage much at all 😞 I’d certainly buy from X if they did weekly hardscape videos on their sub forum…

 

[seedoubleyou]

I’d happily pay a fee monthly if it meant it aided forum upkeep, events, competitions etc…..
But I appreciate that this would be difficult for international members, as they would barely see any benefit.

 

[LondonDragon]

I think you should be more open with costs, if you’re running at a loss, shout about it.

At the moment with the current level of sponsors we are well-balanced, we keep a reserve to support us for a year, if that reserve starts to decline then we will have to be more open about it, I just don't like asking for money from members and we make the best effort in the background to secure sponsors, the members donations help to keep that safety buffer alive
No one takes any money from the pot, whatever is there its all to maintain the site active, if I charged by the hour UKAPS would be bankrupt long time ago hahaha

 

[SulaimanASK]

Congratulations, it is such an honour to every one.