What would you do?

[Aussie_Don]

Would everyone please understand that my reason for asking these questions is not that I need more money. I am not out beating the bushes for more advertisers. In fact I don't seek out advertisers at all.

I would much prefer that advertisers come here because they realize that if you are in the kilt business this is the place to be.

Thank you for the suggestions and offers to help financially with paid memberships but that is not what this thread is about either. I have never considered, and can think of no way, that paid memberships will ever be a part of X Marks.

The single best way to support this community is by being an active and participating member. Support those who advertise here when you can with your dollars, but support your fellow members with your posts.

My only reason for starting this thread is to get a better feeling for where you think the future of the forum should be.

Of course I could accept Google ads. I could also accept any of the companies that do approach me on an almost weekly basis. So I started this thread to gauge your feelings on what is important to you when it comes to accepting a new or continuing an existing advertiser.



As this forum has grown over the years it has become a 'voice' in the kilt world. I know for a fact that all of the big manufacturers and suppliers and weavers do know about us. They may not be advertisers here but almost all of them have one company representative who is a member here.
The world is listening.

I just need to know what you feel you want our voice to say.




I will have to give some more thought to a Donate button. There have been more than a few cases where a member had his kilt stolen or where a kilt was given to a member in a "Pay-it-forward" way.
There is a built in feature of the vBulletin software for this.
Perhaps a member supported program that would put aside a small "kitty" of funds to help out a fellow member would have merit. I owe it to all of you first to find a way to insure that any such 'kitty' were handled in a responsible and transparent manner.

Probably the most important thought for me is that a "Code of Ethics for X-Marks Advertisers" might
be worth thinking about. And a mechanism for enforcing the code which unfortunately gets really
messy. (How do you handle complaints? What about an appeal mechanism? Ensuring that the forum is
safe from action for libel, etc.) We, sort of, have this at the moment, but unofficially.

As some others have commented, I joined after I had bought my first kilt. I was, however happy to see
that the company that I'd bought from is an X-Marks advertiser. It is an endorsement of a company to
see other (in many cases much more knowledgeable) persons agreeing that a company does a good job
of providing a reasonable quality/price equation.

I'd like to buy from the the people who outfit the Duke of Rothesay, but my sporran is not that deep.
So I am sensitive to price, but I definitely prefer to get reasonable value at whatever price.

To sum up,

1. Keep going the way things are
2. Consider (cautiously) a code of ethics for advertisers
3. Consider mechanisms for dealing with the problem of advertisers with (a lot of) disgruntled customers

Just my tupence in the pot.

-Don