MunroMagic.com now charging

Quoted message said:

Another excellent free web site has gone the way of capitalism. Munro
Magic is now charging a registration fee for users to log their climbs.
The benefits of the £10 per year membership charge may well be worth
it, and the site is certainly prettier than before, but it's a shame
they've removed all the extra features registered users had before.
Good job I started logging my climbs on a wall chart before this.

That's a pretty poor show for anyone who had been using this site as
their only log.

druidh

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:36:20 GMT, druidh <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Another excellent free web site has gone the way of capitalism. Munro
Magic is now charging a registration fee for users to log their climbs.
The benefits of the £10 per year membership charge may well be worth
it, and the site is certainly prettier than before, but it's a shame
they've removed all the extra features registered users had before.
Good job I started logging my climbs on a wall chart before this.

That's a pretty poor show for anyone who had been using this site as
their only log.

Will be interesting to see the progress. What normally happens is that
these sites add more and more to the paid section. Its been kicked
off my bookmarks.

I see the idiots charge for submission of photos. The mind boggles,
one way of controlling the size of your database.

Only liked it for the Gaelic pronounciations.

Richard Webb

[email hidden] (Richard Webb) wrote in news:4316dbdc.14969265
@news.blueyonder.co.uk:

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:36:20 GMT, druidh <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Another excellent free web site has gone the way of capitalism.

Munro

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Magic is now charging a registration fee for users to log their

climbs.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The benefits of the £10 per year membership charge may well be

worth

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

it, and the site is certainly prettier than before, but it's a shame
they've removed all the extra features registered users had before.
Good job I started logging my climbs on a wall chart before this.

That's a pretty poor show for anyone who had been using this site as
their only log.

Will be interesting to see the progress. What normally happens is that
these sites add more and more to the paid section. Its been kicked
off my bookmarks.

I see the idiots charge for submission of photos. The mind boggles,
one way of controlling the size of your database.

Only liked it for the Gaelic pronounciations.

Richard Webb

Could this be time for me to resurrect MBotW and drag it kicking and
screaming into the 21st century?

I'm still the first Google entry on a Munro Bagging search but
I haven't touched the site for years.
--
Adrian

I'm happy to help here, if required.

I have a decent amount of webspace and bandwidth. Because it's a hobby, it
will always stay free.

I'm happy to host some utilities, tools, walks, photo's etc, as long as they
are not breaching copyright etc.

Regards

Antony
www.virtualwalker.com

"druidh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Another excellent free web site has gone the way of capitalism. Munro
Magic is now charging a registration fee for users to log their climbs.
The benefits of the £10 per year membership charge may well be worth
it, and the site is certainly prettier than before, but it's a shame
they've removed all the extra features registered users had before.
Good job I started logging my climbs on a wall chart before this.

That's a pretty poor show for anyone who had been using this site as
their only log.

druidh

It is true that we have started to charge for participation in our
website though all of the content is still available to read for free.

It is not true that we have simply started charging for what was free
previously. The transition from free is never one that is easy to make
but the harsh reality is that the site was too big to continue without
funding. This is a position common to many other websites that have out
grown their hobby status. We have added many features to the new site
which offers a lot more than was previously available for free.

We are not capitalists, far from it - if you think that charging a
small annual fee will allow us to retire happy then you are mistaken.
It is about securing the future of the site and developing new features
that make the site better overall.

We do intend to add more and more to the 'paid section' but not at
the expense of what is currently freely available. New features based
on Ordnance Survey data and other products will hopefully come within
our reach. We could use some of our funding to sponsor a mountain
weather forecast - is that not worthwhile?

We have not simply abandoned previous users. All are welcome to use the
new facilities free of charge for the first 28 days and even if this is
not appealing then we offer you a download of the information we have
held on your behalf.

It has since been pointed out to us that some people have interpreted
out actions as an ultimatum - pay up or push off. This is certainly not
our intention and we apologies to anyone who has interpreted our
actions as such.

We have for 4 years managed to provide a free service but it is just
not viable any longer.

Gary

I've got to say that Carn Bhac was the first Munro I've recently bagged
under the new MM paying structure.

As I have various maps, the tick-list map, books, and would have the
dvd if I could get hold of Muriel Gray's series, I will not be paying a
tenner a year for the service. So, what can't I now do?

Well, I can't submit my amateur photos or pass comments on routes. No
great loss if someone has similar problems with a route that I had. I
understand that there's costs to be covered to provide this service to
other walkers, but it seems strange that one now has to pay to be part
of the community.

A one-off membership might have tempted me, but I'm off to Flickr.com
to ost my photos and post my comments. I'll read your routes and look
at the photos on your site, but I'll be aware that comments are by
members only and not posted by all interested walker.

Duncan
(only completed 15 Munros, but only got back into the hobby earlier
this year and feel better for it...as did my waistline)

Quoted message said:

It is true that we have started to charge for participation in our
website though all of the content is still available to read for free.

It is not true that we have simply started charging for what was free
previously. The transition from free is never one that is easy to make
but the harsh reality is that the site was too big to continue without
funding. This is a position common to many other websites that have out
grown their hobby status. We have added many features to the new site
which offers a lot more than was previously available for free.

We are not capitalists, far from it - if you think that charging a
small annual fee will allow us to retire happy then you are mistaken.
It is about securing the future of the site and developing new features
that make the site better overall.

We do intend to add more and more to the 'paid section' but not at
the expense of what is currently freely available. New features based
on Ordnance Survey data and other products will hopefully come within
our reach. We could use some of our funding to sponsor a mountain
weather forecast - is that not worthwhile?

We have not simply abandoned previous users. All are welcome to use the
new facilities free of charge for the first 28 days and even if this is
not appealing then we offer you a download of the information we have
held on your behalf.

It has since been pointed out to us that some people have interpreted
out actions as an ultimatum - pay up or push off. This is certainly not
our intention and we apologies to anyone who has interpreted our
actions as such.

We have for 4 years managed to provide a free service but it is just
not viable any longer.

Gary

Quoted message said:

Well, I can't submit my amateur photos or pass comments on routes. No
great loss if someone has similar problems with a route that I had. I
understand that there's costs to be covered to provide this service to
other walkers, but it seems strange that one now has to pay to be part
of the community.

It does seem a bit strange that you have to pay in order to add value
to the site, but not if all you do is use it to get information.

I must say, in my experience of sites that have had the problem of how
to finance, those which end up charging usually fail, whereas those
who manage to get advertising are more likely to succeed. There's so
much free information available (and places you can put your photos
for free) that you need a pretty big incentive to pay.

The one exception I know if is backpackinglight.com and they're
American and so have a much larger user base.

We shall see, I hope I'm proved wrong as it's a useful site.

Simon

--
Oppose ID cards and the database state - sign the pledge at
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