Speaking of support, I have a request from all of you folks out there.

I chatted with our esteemed administrator a few days ago and asked some technical questions about this website and I was intrigued as to what it all entails.

Not going into all the details, but it costs Ahmed a pretty penny each month to keep this site going and that made me wonder why some of you, are not upper deck members? Gee, it costs so little to get so much and by the looks of it, some folks are on this site quite a bit and IMHO taking advantage of the 'free' opinions, suggestions, requests and so on. SO, I recommend that you guests out there climb on board, spend a couple of bucks to support the site and feel good in the whole process!

Tom

I´m Upper Deck, but I´ll be happy to support this great site again. Ahmed, let me know where I can send some hundreds of my devaluated mexican pesos.

Tom, you are absolutely right, just completed my upgrade.

Kurt

It looks cool seeing all those 747 upper deck areas. Thanks guys. It was easy and reasonably priced...........Can we get somemore "guests" to join? There are abou 80+ logged in right now..........

Hi All,

Thank you very much to all of you who have signed up in the past couple of days, and to Tom for opening this thread, it's a very nice gesture Tom - thanks!

It's true, running airlinercafe costs quite a bit every month in hosting fees, and no, before you ask, you can't run a site like this on one of those $ 6.95/month hosting plans. We use up a lot of resources not only in bandwith, but database and cpu power as well, and it's all needed to keep the site running fast and smooth.

I've been pretty much paying for most of the costs because of my love for the hobby, it's purely a labor of love, but as you can see, on an annual basis it can add up to be quite a bit of money. We don't have too many sponsors and the Google for some reason don't generate any substantial amount of money, I guess people have simply come to ignore them after a while. That's why we need new members and for people to upgrade their accounts. A lot of people have signed up for the Upper Deck membership plan but have failed to re-new on an annual basis. If you are one of those people, please renew your subscription at http://www.airlinercafe.com/page=upgrade . Please renew as soon as you can, every bit helps.

I've been getting a few complaints lately because of the pop-up ads, so I have turned them off for now, hoping that more of you will sign up for the Upper Deck Membership to make up for the loss of revenue from the pop-ups. I know they are annoying and intrusive, but they bring in almost half the revenue from all the banner advertising. But, like I said, I have turned them off for now, so please sign up.

P.S. There is one pop-up coming from the member galleries, I haven't been able to turn it off yet, still working on it.

WOW! This is fantastic! Many thanks to all of you carrying on this! Ahmed, it is my pleasure man. Your dedication to this is well founded and much appreciated!

Ruben, could you e-mail me at Airmodeler at cox dot net? I have a couple of questions for you! Love the new scheme!

I tend to ignore how much I spend on the hobby as it is also somewhat a business cost to me. But to donate is much better than nothing, and Ruben has a great idea. But to donate thirty bucks IMHO is not really that much when you think about it. Most of those charities, here in the states, state that it's less than a cup of coffee per day, or they state that you really ought to support this and that and the other. Well, I believe that thirty bucks a YEAR is a lot better than thirty bucks a month and in the long run, you really get a lot more bang for your buck. Besides, most of us are professionals or retired and we may have a little "mad" money to throw at something that really pays all of us in return in a BIG way.

Tom

PS Ahmed, thanks for turning the pop ups off! I love it man! Even temporary is better than permanent, and besides, I understand!

I also wanted to upgrade but I don't have a credit card. Too bad there is no Paypal option.

This is the one site I check every day. I love it. I am just going to check to make sure my membersip has been upgraded. The donation idea is a great one, and another one would be to offer more than one years membership in one hit.

I'm an Airliner Cafe Junkie. This is cheaper than dope and better for me! Just upgraded. Tom, you should be somebody's compaign manager!

This is great! Thanks guys! I for one appreciate your support.

Being in Vegas, and yes, I do bet occasionally, I'm willing to wager that everyone spends at least ten times the membership amount related to this hobby per year. It adds up my friends! So those that look at this and think, yea, I'll get to it, can afford the 35 bucks a year.

I would like to see this topic at the top of the list of the forums so that those that visit once in a while, will see this and say, heck yea, I’ll do it.

Oh, just in case anyone is thinking why am I pushing this issue? There is absolutely nothing that I am gaining from this campaign. I just want to support this wonderful site and help Ahmed offset the monthly fees for its operation. Besides, if it were not for Ahmed, this site would be just a vivid dream!

Thanks

Tom

I'm a upperdeck member right from the beginning, and never regret that I did so. And I will continue to do so, this site is absolutely the best for Airliner freaks. Information nowhere else to find, but Airlinercafe has it all.
Please continue this site, so I will be able to improve my skills .

Thanks Philippe, much appreciated! Anyone else?

Thank you very much for all your support and generous donations everyone. We're now at 27 Upper Deck members. We need 50 members subscribed and renewing annually to cover our hosting costs for the year. Anything over that will go towards site improvements and enhancements.

No please no advertisement!!!
I know I was at fault as well for not upgrading to upper deck once my last membership expired but
I am up to date now.
No advertisement and funky pop ups please!!!!
Now, do the math, there are 1571 register user/members on the site.
Ahmed said he need 50 members to update to Upper class, not even 5% right.

$35 is the price of you average 1/144 scale model, once a year!!!!

And, the guys with the most posts on the site are not even upper deck?
What is up with that?

I am just saying...

Walter

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waltmertins :
No please no advertisement!!!

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I think you understand me wrong, I mean advertisement for that Site! If we got more people here, maybe more will going to the Upper Class.

Marco

I am so glad you can sleep in peace now Cable! I was loosing sleep over the fact you were unable to get a few zzzzz's at night! Whew! See? That wasn't so painful huh!

In reference to advertisements MC84, I thought the same as Walter, and I am glad you clarified your intention!! When I converse via e-mail or by phone I ask folks have you heard or seen Airliner Cafe, and when they say NO, I suggest they check it out. That's all it takes. I for one hang with most airliner enthusiasts and that little 'plug', can help the cause.

I still see a lot of guests! It's amazing they out number us members. Gee, come on. It take a couple of minutes and is painless!

Tom
KLAS

My apologies Marco,
I did understand it the wrong way.
Yes you are right; more advertisement for the site will do great!

Walter

Just upgraded my membership again (I let it lapse a while ago).

I'm on a few other airliner modelling-related forums but, IMHO, none compare with Airlinercafe when it comes to sharing information and advice.

I haven't touched a kit in ages (3 years maybe) but, having started to sell a load of my "stock', I'm getting the urge to start fondling some plastic again!

Roy

Tom, you have done a fantastic job of playing the "Pied Piper"

Come on guys and gals....Please join the Upper Deck team. The view from here is fantastic.

For those that have not upgraded to the "Upper Deck".....

What in the world is keeping you?

Hello all,

It has been brought to my attention that I may have criticized or ostracized a certain site, namely AMD.

Airliner Modelling Digest was the first site I joined many years ago and have met many people that I still communicate with. It is an excellent site and I would like to extend my sincere apology to any of you that may have interpreted my comment as offensive or demeaning. That was NOT my intention, but a joke, and a very poor one at that.

I have written a personal apology to the individual that communicated this subject and I feel that he was within his rights to do so and I want to publicly state that it will never happen again and I would also like to say, that I will commit my comments to the subject at hand, namely, airline modeling.

Please refrain your comments about this as it is a detraction to the overall theme of this and other airliner sites and subjects, I would like to bring this particular issue to a final close. Thank you all.

Now back to the task at hand, get more folks to become upper deck members!

Tom

That is a very good idea !

I will be one of the next ones to upgrade, I mean... it is just the NUMBER ONE airliner website! Period. Just like said "huh"

Great idea Marco! This is an excellent way to let people know that we are hear!

A few years ago I suggested T-shirts for the AI show when I was on AMD and it was really cool to hook up with folks that were there by easily identifying each other with our bright yellow shirts! Perhaps we should do the same one day here?

Welcome back Boeing Bob! Good to have you back! I am sure Ahmed will address your concerns about making the membership issues easier.

Keep up the great support everybody.

Tom

WOW! Marco! That is so cool! I applaud you for not only your advertising, but for the cool models too! WTG and thanks for your support!

Tom

Thank you very much Marco, it looks great. Fantastic models too!

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Jetson :
Hello Everyone- I tried to post a message before but got bumped off line. Still trying to figure out how this works...
Been browsing the site for some time, one of those guests mentioned above. Time to connect. I was amazed right off: Wow, there's a whole, worldwide community of Airliner Freaks like me! Built all manner of kits as a kid/teenager. After a 35 or so year hiatus wandered into a hobby shop and came upon a Minicraft 737 in Continental markings. This might be fun, I thought. Ten years later, and there's tools, books, a display case full of completed models, a closet shelf full of kits in waiting, and I Finally got my hands on a couple of Airfix DC9s.
I'm looking forward to connecting with other airliner modellers.
Jetson

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Welcome aboard Jetson! Thank you for sharing your story. Like you, I ventured off to other "pastures" only to return recently. When ready, up-grade your account and join us on the "Upper Deck".