Posted by Xeleven
O.K. so I registered only a week ago, but I've been monitoring this site for a long time. I think Esato is great, but when I see other sites where U have to pay 1 dollar to download the same images that I find on this site for free I kinda wonder how long U guys ( laffen & crew )are gonna keep the site free ( as in no charge ) A lot of work, no doubt? Hope I'm not giving U ideas now, but do U have plans to start charging us or is this just about... passion?
Posted by Eric's Son
Shh h h h h!!!
Posted by ewap8
shaddap!
dont utter even a word about charges.
Keep ur money-making thoughts to urself!!!
Posted by kevin81
I think that they should keep the site free. Partly because it's their passion, but also if they begin to charge ppl, then another T68 site would pop up and be as good and of course free. Then there would be fewer visitors to Esato. It's the same logic as when Netscape started to charge ppl for the once-free webbrowser, everyone went to OPERA or IE.
Then again, Esato crew can put in banners, which is in my opinion, kind of a middle way to this "dilemma". We who love this site wouldn't mind clicking a banner or two everytime we are in here (as long as we don't get 100 popups thrown in our face). I mean, let's face it.. those dedicated guys at Esato shouldn't pay for the "esato.com" hosting fee right? They are doing a great job, and a few banners to cover the cost of the hosting fee is utterly reasonable.
Posted by mixin
Laffen is really rich anyway, he wouldnt need anymore money...
Posted by ewap8
agreed, laffen is toooo rich and we are too pooor
and he would would find it to be unethical to charge us poor people !!
but i dont think banners on the bottom will do any harm to the surfers...
Posted by mixin
http://esato.com/phones/
these are all the phones he owns, its a nice list!
but i dont think adverts would be good on this site, it would ruin the whole nature of the site.
Maybe some pop up window ads, that dont pop up!
Posted by cadcad
he surely doesn't own all those phones LOL , does he?!?!
:P
Posted by arroyootje
Laffen's too nice to ever do anything like that!!!! (hihi, all of you write something like this!!!!
)
Posted by johanch
I actually asked laffen about this in a private message a couple of weeks ago. I will post his answer here later today.
Posted by mhorton
This site is wicked. We really need to keep it like it is.
There are some really nice people in this forum and that the way it should be. We are like family that you don't see
Please Laffen keep it as it is.
Posted by lor
yes, laffen rules
Posted by Eamonn
_________________
[ This Message was edited by: Eamonn on 2008-04-28 00:56 ]
Posted by jns
We all love laffen and i think he likes that this site is so popular :-)
Posted by masu
Praise laffen!
Posted by wizard
Hell yes, dont make this another pay-site.. The only thing that will do, is I or somebody else will create a page just as great, for free.. That was not a joke.. I would also be interested in working for this site as a designer/programmer, if you need people.. As long as it stays free.. Free software forever!
Posted by johanch
This is what Laffen told me the 5th of March in a private message (In Norwegian):
" Pr. i dag tjener jeg ikke fem flate øre på dette. Jeg har en avtale med SE-Norge om at det skal sende meg alle nye modeller som kommer på markedet, men man blir jo ikke rik av det. Jeg må nok gå til det skritt å legge ut annonsering i en eller annen form senere. Har snakket med en del aktører i SMS-/logomarkedet i Norge, og alle lurer på hvorfor jeg gjør dette gratis.
Hvis det går ann å lage en MMS tjeneste som gir inntekt, vil jeg vurdere det. Problemet med salg av logoer og ringetoner er at man kun kan ta betalt for skandinaviske/UK/Spania hvor SMS- og WAP billing er teknisk gjennomførbart.
Selv foretrekker jeg tjenester som betales av annonsører, og ikke av brukeren direkte. Vi får se hva som skjer.. "
In English:
"Today I'm not making a cent on my site. I have a deal with SE-Norway that they will send me all their newest phones, but I'm not getting rich because of that... I'll have to put on some ads here on the site in the near feauture. I have talked with some SMS and logo-companies here in Norway, and they are all wondering about why I give you all these services for free... If it is possible to make an MMS-service that I can make som money on, I will do that. The problem is selling logos and ringtones, where it is only techincally possible to charge users from Scandinavia/UK/Spain... I personally prefer services that are paid and sponsered by advertisers. I have not made up my mind yet... You'll have to wait and see"
I think Laffen is really a good webmaster
Keep up the good work!!!
Johan
Posted by laffen
The thing is that the Esato site is very expensive to run. If I don't start to make some revenues soon, the site will die. It's as simple as that. It's better for me to have a few paying users than millions of non-paying users. Money talks..
The forum will always be free, but I do consider charging for some of the added logo features in the future. The new image-to-logo tool is such a service. People have been paying for Nokia logos for years even if you could download LogoManager and make your own logo.
If you know about anyone that's willing to sponsor (read: advertising banners) the site, please let me know.
[ This Message was edited by: laffen on 2002-03-18 17:16 ]
Posted by xmob
Just as a matter of interest, which sites charge for access? They must be barmy!
Posted by Linkinpark17UK
I suppose if the worse happens i.e. this site shuts down we could always run different aspects of this site from places such as geocities.
If u wanna keep this site free you could apply to places such as jungle.com and Amazon, they offer banners to put on ur site and if they get a sale u get money. You could always sell our details to certain companies i.e mobile phone shops that have accerories etc for our particular phones.
Although some people might not be too happy that ur selling their details to people.
Posted by john74
well i hope things will not change to much,i am happy with what we already have here thats what makes this forum the best
Posted by eznug
Well i think this site is the best here we all can read about and discuss the phones from SE
i hope we can find some advertisor for laffen so it wont cost him to much to run this site
good work laffen
Posted by fizzbitt
To be honest, I'm new to this site and amazed that it's servics are free, and i for 1 would not mind clicking on a few banners to keep the site free. And i think that Laffen has a valid point about charging for new services and add-on's..
I'm a regular at a site called www.supercars.net which is a free site with pics and info for the latest cars and it has a very similar forum to this. They have now got a premium membership offer which give those member extras that the free users dont get. At the same time, the non-paying users are not loosing anything they had before.
Just a thought, Let me know what you think mate...
Posted by mhorton
What ever Laffen decides to do with the site I will support you. I think most of us would as well