This site was not intended for anyone to provide customer service. Vendors should pay their own bandwidth fees to deal with customers. Since enough participants of this site indicated they liked interacting with vendors here, this is how the staff chose to compromise. If a vendor wants to interact with customers here, they can help support the site. If a user wants to interact with vendors here, it is another perk of supporting the site.
I think this site has a reputation of listening to its entire user base and acting in the interest of Saddle Hunters (not Saddle Hunter vendors).
I wasn't going to post on this anymore but want to clarify something. My point of what I was saying is that I think requiring members (non-vendors) to pay money in order to post in the vendor area is shooting yourself in the foot. When people google saddle hunting it usually has this forum near the top of the results if not the top. So a new saddle hunter finds a thread about whatever product and clicks on the link that brings him here. He reads a little and has some questions so he registers. Then he finds out that he has to pay $15 to ask a question. They are likely to go elesewhere then as they have nothing invested in this board. They will likely never come back to the board.
As far as vendors, I said before that I wasn't sure why vendors aren't charged a good fee for advertising. Alot more than the $15 membership fee in my opinion. Every hunting board that I have has some paid sponsors that usually have a banner at the top of the page. Most have some google ads along the side or bottom. Those ads in no way are a pain in the butt. I am not talking about pop-up ads or ads that you have to click thru to get to the board. These advertisements cover the costs instead of charging a fee for users to post in the certain areas. For the record I have no issue with charging a fee to post in the classifieds as that is a little different and the people posting are getting a monetary benefit.
Case in point of something that causes confusion .Tnbowhunter posted the thread "DIY “PhantoMantis” or sell my Mantis and buy a Phantom?" This thread got moved at some point last night or today and now he can't even respond to it since he isn't a member. Now he has to start a new thread if he has further questions or wants to comment.
I am not saying this as bashing of the site as I enjoy coming here. Not bashing the moderation or the owner either. It doesn't even matter to me as I know some of the vendor rep people on other sites so I can post there or simply PM them here if I have a question. I think the new membership requirements can likely turn off potential new members here and probably some of the experienced ones. Simply my opinion.