To George Spellwin, and board members!!

[PolfaJelfa]

First of all i would like to start out by saying that i love EliteFitness. I agree with you George when you say it is the best complete Bodybuilding and anabolic site on the internet. However it is much more than that, we have the best mods and vets here with an amazing amount of knowlege and helpfulness, we trully have a great bunch of Iron brothers I started coming here in the late 90's and if it were not for this site among other things i probibaly would still be asking "if i can mix test with deca in 1 pin"

The second thing i want to say is that i used to be a Platinum member. However i stoped subscribing when the customer service was not able to correct issues regarding my account being "stuck" and my inability to post.
So if i may make my 1st suggestion to you it is to, work on the technical smoothnes of the forum and to make sure peoples problems are corrected.

The third and most important point i wish to make is that i am trully dissapointed in that instead of putting a part of the platinum memberships to good use, you ask us what new crap we would like on the board, such as options for banning posts, karma crap etc. While this may be ok as a second priority, i know that a portion of membership dues should be spent on Bodybuilding related expenses. What i mean is, a certain fair ammount of our contributions should be used to fund people like Rick Collins and perhaps establish a fund and branch of EliteFitness to support our interest and drive our agenda of fair steroid laws and practices as well as protect our freedoms and health by making sure that any person can reasonably be perscribed anabolics under the supervision of a doctor. What i am proposing is nothing diferent than the NRA(which i am a member of). A group of solid hard working citizens united to defend freedom, liberty and justice.

I wish to personally let you know that i will surelly commit a monthly or yearly membership due if i knew the money was also going to support the bodybuilding community! If i am thinking this way i am sure others are too!
I hope my letter to you does not get dismissed but rather acts as a steping stone in the fight for justice.

Sincerely yours in sport,

PolfaJelfa

 

[wellbilt]

i think its a great idea bro but in reality the cost of a membership would probably need to be high and most people would not want to support it i would ,and i do agree with your cause, karma to ya bro

 

[PolfaJelfa]

Thanks bro well lets take the positive attitude, not negative we already have 2 people who are willing to chip in. I think a few dollars from each memebrs dues can go that way....Especially when this will get people to join that otherwise wouldnt!

 

[Mr.X]

Polfajelfa,

I think elite already pays Rick and other folks to protect your and my privacy. Elite not only spends money for lawyers, but also business and upkeep that no one sees. It costs money to hire IT people admins, run servers and protect your members.

I can tell you that, as a long-time mod., elite has put a LOT of money into security of the members and protection of the board as well as feature improvements almost all the time

Mr.X

 

[PolfaJelfa]

Thats cool Sir.X. i even know of one topic where George recieved a letter from the feds and he did not back down.. However Elite should do more as i am willing to give my hard earned money, and im sure others are too. If not an addition to the membership then a suplemental membership, etc. Or yearly donations for our sport, that we can trace and see where the money is going. An organization tha tnot only fights for the boards rights but for our community in general. I am confident that George will present a good idea.

Im not saying that George is doing a bad job. If i truly thought that i would not bother to post this long post or any post for that matter!

 

[PolfaJelfa]

BumpityBumperCar...im off to the dungeon..to destroy some iron

 

[SlavikHavik]

BumpityBumperCar...im off to the dungeon..to destroy some iron

@ 100.00+/year CDN it sounds like there would be money to spare to put towards those causes.
Beyond that Its easier to justify spending that sort of money for a cause they believe in rather then to get some glowing stars, and a host of other rather trivial benefits that come with being platinum. Even if George only put 10% of the funds toward that or even increased the price 10% and put that money towards a goal, it would be easier to justify the cost of membership.
Outside of the toys that platinum members get i could see justifying a membership for the sake of supporting this site. However @100.00/year It seems to me that membership covers much more than the cost of operation. While i dont know what the profit margin is, i imagine its substantial. Being that many sites close to the same size as EF manage to continue to stay online without charging for membership.
I think you may be onto something here. Of course its all up to George, and he runs a business not an association.

But Basically: There needs to be more than karma, glowing stars, bombs, and other novelteys to justify spending over 100.00 a year. Certainly a contribution to a cause as mentinoned in the above posts could be one.

 

[PolfaJelfa]

well its nice to see some people care , This thread should be at the top.

 

[George Spellwin]

Hi PolfaJelfa,

Welcome back broly. It's good to see you around again. And I appreciate your excellent comments.

Now that you're back, I think you will notice a good many changes that we made in the past months.

First, as many will remember, we had a terrible problem with pages that would hang and not fully load. To solve that issue and to speed up the site in general, we added a new $13 thousand dollar database server and a new Cisco switch. Now, the site flys at 4PM eastern - the busiest time of the day.

Second, we reworked the galleries and they are now much better integrated into the site so Platinum Members are having a much better experience in the galleries.

Third, we finally got the order system integrated with the boards so that now when you invest in a Platinum Membership, your account gets upgraded immediately. This integration took over 9 months to get right.

Fourth, we have invested in more and better customer support. I know things are not perfect yet, but we have really made great strides.

I set your account back to Platinum so that you can try it out again at no cost for a while. I would appreciate your taking the time to let me know how you experience the Platinum Features after you have tried them again now that we have made so much progress.

Please also remember, the generous support of our Platinum Members is what makes improvements and day-to-day operation possible. Indeed, every improvement we make and feature that we add costs a bundle. So I would appreciate your considering making your Platinum Membership permanent by investing in one of our memberhsip plans if you like what we have done.

Here's a link to all of our Platinum Membership packages. And here's a coupon code F4B60AFDA2 to take $10 off the price of any package. For example, if you select the $11.97 membership, your first month is only $1.97.

If anyone else wants to try a Platinum Membership for a week for free, here's a link to use for a one week free trial.

And as our members know, we frequently donate a portion of proceeds to various charities and organizations. Most recently, we ran a promotion to benefit Miracle House here in New York - a portion of some sales were donated to them.

Miracle House is an amazing charity here in the city where I volunteer personally. I help with their IT needs. Since New York is such an expensive place to live or to visit, there are hundreds of people hospitalized for treatment of advanced stages Cancer and AIDS. Often, without any family in the area, these people are completely alone during prolonged treatment for these devastating diseases and many are alone while they are dying.

Miracle House maintains communal housing in New York City for the family members of the patients who are hospitalized or dying. Without this housing, many patients would be alone since in New York, a hotel would make a prolonged stay prohibitive. They also provide support services for the family members.

I'm interested in donating to the bodybuilding community too. And I would appreciate any suggestions about worthy groups.

 

[George Spellwin]

There needs to be more than karma, glowing stars, bombs, and other novelteys to justify spending over 100.00 a year. Certainly a contribution to a cause as mentinoned in the above posts could be one.

SlavikHavik,

Good point, and I agree with you that for a long time, a Platinum Membership was not more than that. In fact, our Platinum Members supported us mainly to keep us online and not for the features.

However, now, the Platinum Membership program has really evolved and you get much more value for your investment. Today, you get features like a 5000 PM mailbox, live chat, the stealth site ExpertPCSupport.com, unrestricted search, your own discussion board, the private Platinum Boards, full size pics, no ads, bonus reports, and you still get the fun stuff like Karma, glowing stars, and bombs.

Hopefully, you will give it a try again.

 

[chyllaxyn]

TO: PolfaJelfa and George Spellwin

This is the best BB community on the web, hands down.

And it is because of the willingness of PolfaJelfa to submit constructive criticisms and the openness of George to respond in a positive way.

Keep up the Good work bros !!,




… now can someone post some more pics of Selma Hayak please ?

 

[PolfaJelfa]

George,

Thanks for the reply. Its realy good to see you took the time to honestly anwser my thread. I will be joining platinum again in the future as i want to support the site. It is good to hear what you said about that charity, shines a positive light uppon our community. However, as you said it would be nice to also Regularly fund some organization of the Bodybuilding community (to increase participation and acceptance in our sport & fight for our rights). I think that the members here should decide along with you (The Architect) of the proper way to accomplish this. What i mean is we should vote on it. Thru this type of action we will be able to 1. Better benefit our sport, 2. Defend and fight for our rights and as an indirect latent consequence increase memebrship and gross revenue to the site which i am sure will also make you happy . Let us know how we can decide!

Thanks,
Polfa/Jelfa

 

[Smurfy]

There are some good ideas on this thread. I remember once about a year back people were trying to get some stuff tested. I dont' know the legal status of that but it would be cool if there was a fund available for testing of certain products, whether they be UG lab stuff or even aother supps.

 

[wtlftr]

cliff notes version of first post..please

 

[PolfaJelfa]

cliff notes version of first post..please

No cliff notes here

 

[perp69]

I am still debating the Platinum membership. With regards to donations to Rick Collins, I have nothing but love for the man but why would we donate money to him. He is without a doubt the man to go to if you need that type of help and if you ever have to pay his fee you will understand why he does not need donations.

 

[Mr.X]

I am still debating the Platinum membership. With regards to donations to Rick Collins, I have nothing but love for the man but why would we donate money to him. He is without a doubt the man to go to if you need that type of help and if you ever have to pay his fee you will understand why he does not need donations.

Rick has cut deals to many in need - a person I heard about from the board got free advice until his trial (or discounted, I can't remember exactly) because Rick Collins is a stand up guy and FIGHTS for our community, I have nothing but respect for the man.

Mr.X

 

[Mr.X]

I am still debating the Platinum membership. With regards to donations to Rick Collins, I have nothing but love for the man but why would we donate money to him. He is without a doubt the man to go to if you need that type of help and if you ever have to pay his fee you will understand why he does not need donations.

Also, if you want my advice, I would suggest you go plat. you'll be amazed how much elite can help you learn and grow, you can't buy knowledge it can only come with wisdom and study. We need to support elitefitness all we can IMO

Mr.X

 

[PolfaJelfa]

I am still debating the Platinum membership. With regards to donations to Rick Collins, I have nothing but love for the man but why would we donate money to him. He is without a doubt the man to go to if you need that type of help and if you ever have to pay his fee you will understand why he does not need donations.

Good i am not on any hard androgens, because if i was i would not be able to respond calmly. Let me explain this notion to you. No one is proposing donating $ to mr Collins for his new car or jet ski. We are talking about a fund/organization we can use to progress our causes.

I hope you now understand.

 

[perp69]

Good i am not on any hard androgens, because if i was i would not be able to respond calmly. Let me explain this notion to you. No one is proposing donating $ to mr Collins for his new car or jet ski. We are talking about a fund/organization we can use to progress our causes.

I hope you now understand.

It sounds like you are proposing to form a lobbying organization, which is what is needed to help persuade Congress to change steroid laws, and to involve Rick or others in that respect. Hey, I am all in!! That would be a brillant idea.

 

[PolfaJelfa]

Bump!

 

[PolfaJelfa]

Lbying organization...i dont think so bro, that would hav eto be on a extremely large scale....Arnold sponsored and funded etc.....

Im going to bump this up though for more ideas...personaly i like the idea of
ESTABLISHING A FUND FOR PLATINUM MEMBERS FOR TESTING.

 

[Mr.X]

PolfaJelfa, I think with time, GS and ELITE will come up w/ new features - etc... but we need to give it some time. I think your ideas are great, but I think GS, as we speak, is working on major improvements where he does consider everyone.

Mr.X

 

[wtlftr]

I would be willing to contribut more if there weree elected officials, educational background posted and checked and the board would be visible and not only on the internet.

 

[hardrock]

Some good points made here.