[Thork]

Do we have to have names at all. Can't we have '3402 members and counting'? If we allow people to put in names of any sort we are going to end up with "you are all idiots" and "It's flat morans" etc.

the national trust have members but I can't view their membership list.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/membership/

Just because Daniel made a list, doesn't mean we have to follow suit by making ours publically available. Let's just fill membership with as many free perks as possible so you feel like a member. I think that should include a quarterly newsletter/eshot every now and again, but of course it does mean someone has to write one. Could be an issue but would remind people to come back and visit us.

[Tom Bishop]

Do we have to have names at all. Can't we have '3402 members and counting'? If we allow people to put in names of any sort we are going to end up with "you are all idiots" and "It's flat morans" etc.

the national trust have members but I can't view their membership list.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/membership/

Just because Daniel made a list, doesn't mean we have to follow suit by making ours publically available. Let's just fill membership with as many free perks as possible so you feel like a member. I think that should include a quarterly newsletter/eshot every now and again, but of course it does mean someone has to write one. Could be an issue but would remind people to come back and visit us.

After some thought, I agree. We don't need a list. We can just have a count for now.

[Pete Svarrior]

If we allow people to put in names of any sort we are going to end up with "you are all idiots" and "It's flat morans" etc.

I'm not saying I'm advocating for a list (frankly, I don't mind either way), but I just wanted to point out that joke names can be easily sorted out by just having someone approve names before they appear on the list.

[Misero]

I know this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, but perhaps the person who donates more gets higher on this list? I mean, if someone pays $150 to say "you suck", would you care too much?

[Tau]

I know this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, but perhaps the person who donates more gets higher on this list? I mean, if someone pays $150 to say "you suck", would you care too much?

I see where you're coming from, but I'd be against that. We're not for profit, and I'd hate to be pressuring people to give more

[Pete Svarrior]

If we're accepting donations (as opposed to just covering the cost of whatever we'd be sending the members' way), we'd have to agree on where said donations go before we discuss anything else.

Assuming Parsifal hasn't changed his mind on the matter, the administration of this site is strongly opposed to monetising this website in any way. We're not in this for profit.

I wouldn't personally be opposed to transferring all proceeds to a worthwhile charity. Arguably, this would lead to us doing The Right Thing™, and it could potentially help PR. That said, it's Parsifal who owns the site, not me, so his word is more important here than mine by far.

[xasop]

My view is that proceeds from any donations, if they are accepted, should go towards day-to-day expenses of the society (as opposed to the website, which is run on a not-for-profit basis on behalf of the society). The way this would ideally work is that there would be a treasurer who chooses how to spend the money and is responsible to the society's membership.

That said, given that there is currently nobody (to my knowledge) doing any work for the society which involves expenses of any kind, pizaaplanet's suggestion of donating all proceeds to charity seems like the least bad option, if we are going to accept donations. Ideally, though, I'd like to see a membership model where any costs simply cover the membership pack, and donations treated as a separate issue (outside this thread).

[Tom Bishop]

I know this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, but perhaps the person who donates more gets higher on this list? I mean, if someone pays $150 to say "you suck", would you care too much?

I see where you're coming from, but I'd be against that. We're not for profit, and I'd hate to be pressuring people to give more

Perhaps we could offer a free membership level, and then offer some membership packages with an increasing amount of swag and perks at higher price points with some built-in profit. It could be like a kickstarter.

[Tau]

I know this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, but perhaps the person who donates more gets higher on this list? I mean, if someone pays $150 to say "you suck", would you care too much?

I see where you're coming from, but I'd be against that. We're not for profit, and I'd hate to be pressuring people to give more

Perhaps we could offer a free membership level, and then offer some membership packages with an increasing amount of swag and perks at higher price points with some built-in profit. It could be like a kickstarter.

What would we do with the money?

[Tom Bishop]

I know this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, but perhaps the person who donates more gets higher on this list? I mean, if someone pays $150 to say "you suck", would you care too much?

I see where you're coming from, but I'd be against that. We're not for profit, and I'd hate to be pressuring people to give more

Perhaps we could offer a free membership level, and then offer some membership packages with an increasing amount of swag and perks at higher price points with some built-in profit. It could be like a kickstarter.

What would we do with the money?

It likely won't be a lot of money. We can use it to fund equipment costs for any telescope, laser or high altitude air balloon experiments we want to try through the year. Maybe we can print and pass out educational materials about the flat earth to school children, inciting the media to do a news story over the controversy. There are a lot of things we can do if we had a small equipment and materials income.

[Tom Bishop]

What CMS system is the front page of the site using? Maybe we can find a wordpress plugin for it for membership signups.

[xasop]

What CMS system is the front page of the site using? Maybe we can find a wordpress plugin for it for membership signups.

We're not using a CMS. The front page was adapted to a custom PHP site by pizaaplanet from our theme for BlazeBlogger, the CMS we used to use.

How we manage membership from a technical point of view would need to depend on whether or not we're accepting money for it. If we are, then doing e-commerce ourselves really isn't a beast I'd like to tackle; we should find a third-party provider to handle the transaction. If we aren't, then it should be fairly straightforward to design a form that people can submit to sign up.

[Tom Bishop]

Are there any objections to a kickstarter-type method of membership packages?

[Benjamin Franklin]

Are there any objections to a kickstarter-type method of membership packages?

I believe the success and support of such a project is highly dependent on who is administering the operation. But I like the idea of getting more FES swag.

[Tom Bishop]

Perhaps we should just start with the free version and do paid membership packages later when we find a good vendor that can send the items direct.

[Pete Svarrior]

Is any progress being made on this?

[Tom Bishop]

I am unable to find an appropriate vendor willing to send off custom orders to members.

[Tom Bishop]

Are there any opposed to starting with free membership until suitable vendors can be found?

[Thork]

Not sure what the point is though. They can register here already. They can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. What does registering as a member do for them?

Maybe we could just allow a change to user profiles for the time being. If you want to be an official member, you get a little badge for your profile or something until we can sort out certificates etc. Then when we are organised, we can send out messages or emails inviting people to download their certificate or whatever.

Is work for the admins though. 

[Tom Bishop]

Not sure what the point is though. They can register here already. They can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. What does registering as a member do for them?

Maybe we could just allow a change to user profiles for the time being. If you want to be an official member, you get a little badge for your profile or something until we can sort out certificates etc. Then when we are organised, we can send out messages or emails inviting people to download their certificate or whatever.

Is work for the admins though. 

They will be able to vote in the Zetetic Council forums and will self motivate themselves to take the reigns of the society:

I've been kicking ideas around in my head for how we can make the Zetetic Council better. I had a few ideas. My conclusion is as follows:

1. We open up Flat Earth Society membership to all who want it. As a member of the Flat Earth Society your name goes onto a roster, you agree to fight globularist heresy in all its forms, and you will receive a certificate reflecting this (virtual or printed TBD).

2. As a official member of the Flat Earth Society you receive standing recognition and access to in the Zetetic Council Board

3. Zeteic Council members are elected and are tasked with creating and putting proposals to a vote. Zetetic Council members provide organizational guidance, but are not considered the workhorses.

4. Official members of the Flat Earth Society vote and comment on the proposals, and in doing so self motivate themselves to begin the project and see it to completion.

We may want to rename the Zetetic Council Board to another name, but I believe this idea has a lot of merit. I welcome comments on this idea.

Public comments may go here.