Flow2706 wrote:I only registered just now, but I have been following this forum for a long time now (I think I first looked at airliners.net around 2002 or so, when I was just a kid enthusiastic about aviation - since quite a few years airliners.net is one of the few websites that I visit daily, I has proven to be a valuable source of information). I rarely felt the urge to post something and back in the days when you needed to pay for a membership I thought that it would not really be worth it for just a few posts in a year. I think that if you re-introduce a paid membership it will drive a few people off (especially that would only post rarely anyway), some of which might add valuable contributions to discussions.
I do however agree that a paid membership would probably reduce the "signal-to-noise" ratio when looking for information (f.e. its very hard to follow discussions about aircraft accidents, even though the summaries provided by some users in those threads are helpful in finding relevant information in those very long threads).
Has the quality of the forum really deteriorated since the free membership was introduced? I didn't notice a major change in quality, but obviously I am not reading everything that's being posted on the forum...
By the way, as this is my first post, I will take this opportunity to introduce myself (I don't think there is a dedicated forum area for introductions of new members). I am Florian, 27 years old, and at present I am working as a First Officer on the A320 for an European airline. Before my current job I was working (also as an A320 FO) in Indonesia.
I have also looked at this website for a year or so. I only joind a couple of weeks ago. I have used this website as a valuable source of aviation information. I am still a kid, I am sort of the typical steareotype kid, I like videogames (Pokemon Zelda and Geofs) but I only know one person who likes aeroplanes like me. My fav plane is the DC 10, 777, 787, 747, 727 A350, DC 9/MD80/MD90/717 Family, 737, A320, A321, A330 Lockheed Tristar, 707, DC 8.