This gold account business is bullshit. Pirating the content is one thing, now you want to make a buck off of the backs of other peoples work too. Not cool. Either share it freely or don't share it at all.
First of all you do not have to pay if you do not want to. There are also free tutorials, but if you want a certain one you can contribute and you will earn a Gold Membership. Second, running a site has costs, so it has to generate revenue somehow.
Eh. Given that everything is hosted off site, the costs of maintaining it are negligible. If you're paying more than 10/mo, you're being fleeced. If you want to generate revenue, most people default to ads. Unless the site is using the funds acquired to purchase things which are then distributed among those contributing, the OP has a point. That said, if you were the purchaser of the tutorials to begin with, then it's fair game - up to the point you break even.
Actually the costs are higher, but I will not go into details. And yes, the tutorials here are exclusive.
I am really happy that there is another way to become a Gold Member not just by buying. Because i dont have a Credit Card and cant make any payment from my country. So its a fair game you give something back, to the community and community will also give back likes and comments to your post and you will reach a gold member by that. More than happy
I would close this forum, and invitation only. Just because users like this Quadcom. I'm against leechers and no sharers.
But the owner of the site needs enough new members coming through all the time to buy gold memberships to generate an income. In saying that I don’t see the point of purchasing a gold membership when the vast majority of tutorials can be leeched for free. Should there not be a Gold only section where new stuff is posted for a length of time to stop 1 day members being able to leech almost the entire site? I also think that all Group buys should be made available to Gold Members to encourage more people to start sharing or upgrading their memberships.
But people come here for the GM content - and if you're not willing to contribute, then you pay. I came for GM content - and paid - but stuck around beyond that point because it wasn't like other forums (for which I'm grateful) I do think GB content is being made available after a month or so - but making it immediately available to those who didn't contribute doesn't really incentivize people to chip in.