April 4, 2008 12:18 PM BST
Hi Sarah and thanks for all that input. Some very useful stuff there, some of which can be done and some which can't. I'll go thru it bit by bit...
> I know you set up an auction site ages ago why not make one of the forum topics Clothes for sale/swap/ seeking item of clothing etc ???? sure you can create a better catagory than my pathetic suggestions.
Unfortunately Trannybay was a dismal mistake. However, I will ask Sarah Conor about this. Sounds like a good idea but Sarah runs the forums so it's up to her.
> As was mentioned earlier Video would be a waste of money as those wishing to video each other can use MSN, Yahoo,Skype etc etc.
Video is the way the whole internet is going and we don't intend to be left behind. Our next software upgrade will include video capability at no extra cost to us (which is what we like) and so we will suddenly be able to offer a video service without even trying. This means that you'll be able to put video clips in your galleries along with your photos and also use video clips in your profile. This is a different service to that which MSN and Yahoo offer.
> Now I have no idea how much a small business company like TW would be charged but is a paypal account feasable ? I have used it countless times...
We used to use Paypal in the early days but they nearly put us under when they suddenly dropped us. The excuse they gave at the time was that they had found two rude photos in among our personal ads, which had been uploaded by a member, contravening their acceptable use policy. However, their refusal to show any flexibility and the fact that several other tranny sites were also dropped around the same time made me suspect that they simply wanted rid of trannies.
Anyway, they are gone for good. We now use a different payment service called Metacharge.
> The Idea of a guest speaker in chat is an interesting notion though I think the topics that could be covered would be limited for instance talking about applying using make up is not the same as a live demonstration.
This is still a great idea and we have done it successfully in the past. I remember that one of our first celebrity chats was my old pal, Angie Bowie and we've also had very successful make-up classes with Cyanne from TransFabulous in Sydney. We also still regularly have cheese and wine parties in the chat room.
I think we should have more themed chat evenings but the problem is that we need someone to organise them. I can't do everything on my own. Anybody interested in volunteering to organise some themed chat sessions?
> Having a guide to venues TG friendly places could again be facilitated by creating a forum topic my experience over the years is that many venues come and go so that landscape is an ever changing one.
I don't think the forums are the right place for this but we could easily make a new page (or pages) for it. The difficult bit is finding a volunteer to collate the information. Once again, if you're interested in helping please let me know.
> Remember way back when in its early days we did have regional girls arranging TW nights in Local areas for those who couldn't travel far that could be easily arranged as a quarterly meet/ half yearly...
We still have monthly nights out in Milton Keynes and Manchester and the occasional shopping trip in London, although they're not always very well advertised. However, we've had nothing in the US, Canada, Australia or elsewhere outside the UK for some time and that worries me.
We really need to find some volunteers in their own countries who can organise regular evenings out in their own cities. The same goes for other parts of the UK. If you'd like to organise a night out, please let me know and we'll get the wheels moving.
> I have a radical suggestion but suspect it would require major reprogramming of the site and thus be a non starter as well as being an unusual thing for a site on the internet.
what about a scale such as bronze, silver and gold membership with poss a platinum for the few super rich girls here ( whos pointing their fingers at me ??? ) giving a progressive access to features...
Way back when we first introduced paid membership levels, they were called silver, gold and platinum. In addition we also had basic free membership. At that time the main criticism was that the system was far too complicated and so we changed it so that we had only two levels - Basic Membership and Full Membership and that has certainly made things much more simple.
I do see where you're coming from but it would be very expensive for us to change it again and I think it would be a return to the bad old days when, like with mobile phone tariffs, people were mystified by our pricing structure. Simplicity is always best.
> If you had a member of TW you knew you could trust people could pay that member via paypay or bankers orders cheques etc and they act as an agent and relay the funds through to TW just a way around paying banks fees.
The beauty of the internet is that things like membership systems can be automated which is a boon to tiny organisations like us who have hardly any staff. Using a real person or persons to launder membership subs into the system would be a logistical nightmare and I suspect, highly illegal too.
Thanks for all of your suggestions girls. As you can see from my replies, the two main reasons we have trouble moving forward on them are lack of money and lack of volunteers to implement them.
If anyone wants to make a donation to help us survive then please go here:
http://gendersociety.com/[...]e.shtml
If you would like to organise nights out anywhere in the world, or themed chat evenings in the chat room or to help put together information pages on tranny venues or whatever, please get in touch. I just can’t do all this stuff on my own.
Thanks and Huggies,
Katie x