ADMIN: tips for dealing with TECHWR-L list changes

[Jeff ALLEN <jeff -at- ELDA -dot- FR>]

1. With regard to suspending list member activity for inappropriate
behavior of paying list subscribers ---  Please note that all of the
Internet service providers that I am aware of (AOL, Compuserve, Juno, etc)
have a paying service, but they also have a "code of conduct" agreement
form that must be clicked "Yes" on in order to access the service.  This is
especially important for the service providers that have to deal with their
subscribing members who love to spam everyone else.  I started receiving so
much spam mail last year, that I started deal proactively against it by
forwarding the spams directly to the service providers.  For 75% of the
cases, I receive a message within a couple of days indicating that the
spamming offender's account has been suspended or closed.  From what I
remember, paying memberships allow 3 offenses and then you are out.  So,
since the code of conduct agreement in fact does work for paying members of
other services, it can be adapted to the issue at hand for TECHWR-L.

2. With regard to payment options -- this is always a tough one.  Most
people have credit cards, so this can be set up.  Keep in mind banking fees
for the credit card payment service.  It might raise the 5 or 10 US Dollar
fee by 2 to 3 percent, so plan for it.

There is also a possible option that I can discuss with Ray off-line on how
to receive non-US checks (in major world currencies like French francs,
German marks, Euros, etc) and deposit them without paying conversion fees
(it doesn't work for the lesser used currencies like Haitian gourdes).
This way most of the rest of the non-credit-card folks can send checks in
their local currencies.
(Please Note: this appears to be a restricted option for special cases, so
I ask everyone to please NOT write me on how to set up such an account.   I
do not want to go into the business of banking consultancy this month and
get flooded with 2000+ messages.  I don't have time for it.  However, I am
more than willing to help out the TECHWR-L list as an entity in efforts to
possibly set up an account that will allow it to cater to paying members
from many different countries.)

3. cost --  I would highly suggest that you consider a $US 15 - 20/year
cost, at minimum.  The 5/year idea is inherently good, but not necessarily
practical when setting up such a major effort with somewhere between 1000 -
5000 members.  Dealing with such a volume of banking transactions could
cause banks to charge you more, and if you are already running on a tight
budget, the additional charges could sink the ship.  Let's face it, most of
us are probably paying the equivalent of 15 - 20 / month just for Internet
access through a public provider. Some certainly pay more.   If so many
people are benefitting from the list on a daily or weekly basis, they will
pay 20 dollars / year as easily as they would pay 5 dollars / year.  The
last thing you want to deal is set too low a price, and then 3 months later
come back again to everyone with a request for more donations.  It is
better to set a reasonable amount per year (like 20 US dollars) for this
service that has been successful as a free service for several years, and
that now must become autonomous in order to survive.   Such an amount would
probably keep you from going into the red on the administrative overhead
side of things.
You can also consider an institution membership fee structure as well as
individual membership fees (kind of like an individual vs. family
membership or a individual vs. site license).   The goal isn't necessarily
to make a big profit, but at least to receive enough for setting up the
infrastructure that will keep the whole thing from falling apart.

Jeff

=================================================
Jeff ALLEN - Technical Manager/Directeur Technique
European Language Resources Association (ELRA)  &
European Language resources - Distribution Agency (ELDA)
(Agence Europe'enne de Distribution des Ressources Linguistiques)
55, rue Brillat-Savarin
75013   Paris   FRANCE
Tel: (+33) 1.43.13.33.33 - Fax: (+33) 1.43.13.33.30
mailto:jeff -at- elda -dot- fr
http://www.icp.grenet.fr/ELRA/home.html

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