Charter Member vs. Free Member

[jazz]

I was just wondering if there will be better support if I pay for the Charter Membership.  I love SMF, so I don't mind paying for the membership.  The only reason that I ask is that it seems like my support ended from the developers.  For a long time I could post a question, and one of the developers would be right on it.  Is there a limit to the amount of free support someone can receive with SMF?

I apologize if this question is inappropriate.  If it is, feel free to delete the post and pm me your response.

Thanks for everything!

[[Unknown]]

Sigh, I'm just stretched...

-[Unknown]

[Midgard]

I was just wondering if there will be better support if I pay for the Charter Membership.  I love SMF, so I don't mind paying for the membership.  The only reason that I ask is that it seems like my support ended from the developers.  For a long time I could post a question, and one of the developers would be right on it.  Is there a limit to the amount of free support someone can receive with SMF?

I apologize if this question is inappropriate.  If it is, feel free to delete the post and pm me your response.

Thanks for everything!

in my opinion, you're right...

[NoRad]

I decided to become a charter member not because I expected more support, but because I wanted to thank SMF and those dedicated individuals behind it for their wonderful product and support they had already provided for free.

I don't think it should be approached in a manner such as "I am paying so I deserve more support", even though that seems logical. I look at the support as completely optional. There is also a "VIP" area for charter members where you are supposed to be able to request special support. I haven't tried to seek support in this area yet, but I know that something along those lines is set up already.

In the end, donate/sign up becaus you want to support SMF. That's just my opinion. 

[Grudge]

I concur with all of the above. I sincerly believe that you should only become a Charter Member if you actually are doing so (In part) to support SMF. Charter Members do get priority support, but it's also a way to help SMF move forward.

As for support here, I've been very inactive on the support boards just because:
1) I'm so very busy with work, having a normal "Outside" life, and also trying to do my actual role (i.e coding) here and elsewhere.
2) Since 1.0 has come out there are more and more support threads than ever before - making it impossible to get to them all (For me).

Basically, you probably shouldn't necessarily expect developer responses to all your questions - but that is why we do have a support team here. However, I do know that developer support is important in certain circumstances, and do try my best to help out whenever possible.

Cheers,
Grudge

[[Unknown]]

You'd definitely get 1.1. sooner....

-[Unknown]

[Trekkie101]

Darn Paypal and not taking Visa Electron

woo PayPall UK take it, hehe, if I can convince my parent to let me use it elsewhere than Play.com (They dont undertsnad ssl and bbb and such and it would be useless trying to get them to put there details in) so if all goes well hoepfully soon.

[nave]

there are many benefits to becoming a charter member, additional support is only one of the minor ones. i, however, looked at what i could give back to smf with my charter donation, rather than what i could get from it. we all get a fantastic free message board system, created by a group of developers who takes our needs and desires into account when designing it. they've created this incredible board where we're not only fortunate enough to be able to speak directly to them (think you can do that at microsoft?), but also get assistance from other users who may have more experience and skills than we do.

charter membership gives support to those who are working hard at making this available to us, provides additional support to us as members, and gives the opportunity to preview new releases before non-charter members.

in addition, charter members can test the new releases and report back bugs, thereby giving the opportunity for them to be fixed before released to non-charter members.

its a win win situation for everyone.

[redone]

Well, I became a charter member to give back to the project. I think SMF is a wonderful product and deserves the financial support.

I think if you sign up for Charter Membership expecting "support" then your missing the point. Support is offered and I think its useful but part of the whole idea of SMF is the learning that comes with using SMF.

Personally, I don't know a whole lot and I certainly cannot code in PHP but by trial and error I have been able to work out a lot of the common problems.

My view is that you should use the support as a last resort as most questions can be worked out by some research in these forums.

[Jeff Lewis]

There is no restrictions on free support but as the forums get busier and more people start asking for help, it becomes harder to keep up and therefore seems as though the team isn't on the ball but that is hardly the case.

[NoRad]

I think I donated money and then a few months later signed up as a charter member. I totally forgot about that. If the charter membership is too much you can always just donate what you're comfortable with to help out.

[weekend camper]

I got a Charter Membership because I wanted to stick it to Invision.   



In addition to everything above, help seems to come more quickly and easily if you make your question clear and concise.. ie, make new threads instead of lumping a couple problems together.


YMMV.

[NoRad]

In addition to everything above, help seems to come more quickly and easily if you make your question clear and concise.. ie, make new threads instead of lumping a couple problems together.
YMMV.

Agreed. I've been guilty of it before, but it's amazing how many people ask questions when the answer is already somewhere on the website. I think that my problem in this situation has been that I may not know exactly what's causing a problem, so I'm not sure of what terms to search for in order to get the best results. I think some of the sticky posts that people have made (Mambo + SMF integration combined is a great example) help a lot.

[jazz]

Thanks for your replies.  I do plan on becoming a charter member once I finally recover from Christmas.  Been a little tough this year.  Another thing that I didn't realize is that when I first started posting I was new and the answers I needed were probably a lot simpler to answer than the questions I ask now.

[Cloudbringer]

We've had really good help and support from the team and from other members of the board here. 

This is my second year as a Charter member and I think of it in terms of helping to support the people who have done( and are doing) so much for us by developing smf , making it available at no charge and improving it on a regular basis.  Our support has been excellent and very prompt!  I think we've only had to wait a few days at most for any question to be answered or at least discussed. 

[Tristan Perry]

I'm planning on becoming a charter member within the next month or two.   I don't really care about getting support about my board or the free upgrades although the advanced releases and the fact that I'd be supporting SMF is what is appealing to me.