Pledge your support - The Gold Forum. Limited membership seats available. Up to 82% discounted for TSF members. Waitlist.🔥

ChrisSilver · October 23, 2024

Pledge your support - The Gold Forum. Limited membership seats available. Up to 82% discounted for TSF members. Waitlist.🔥

A maximum of 500 to 600 discounted founding member seats are up for grabs. No payment needed until launch.

Estimated launch early (Jan) 2025 🙏

TGF FEATURES

Extremely sleek native IOS and Android Apps, with push notifications, supported app updates.
NBS Gold - LIVE instant chat room
Various forum sections and live chat room sections.
Instant messaging - just like Telegram or Whatsapp, but on our native app, directly message other members with push notifications. No telephone numbers are shared, only forum usernames, maintains your privacy.
Desktop web version of our community
Trading section for Gold.
TSF username authenticated badge to confirm the same member you are directly messaging on TGF is indeed the same member on TSF.
Member Reviews - similar to trading feedback on TSF
Exclusive member only platform - limited by membership seats

Why an additional platform?

Over the last several years I have been tirelessly searching through the different software options available in the market to see what the available options are for adding a native IOS and native Android app to the forum would be. We had originally wanted to introduce our own custom app for TSF and integrate it with the TSF messaging feature, but due to limitations on the current platform messaging system a separate software/platform is needed.

As well as looking at already existing software to build upon, both open source options and paid software, we have also been looking at complete/semi custom work either built as a standalone solution or on top of already existing software, up until now nothing has seemed to provide what I envisaged. We have however eventually found a solution that is able to provide the sleekest most user friendly experience along with what we need at the back end in terms of instantaneous messaging and other community features, this does come at a large financial cost though, specifically an ongoing contractual commitment with the software/development company.

In developing ideas for The Gold Forum, I looked at both chatroom based software solutions, similar to discord, specific forum software that also provided chat and instant messaging, and other team collaboration software. I also looked at the various open source options available, as well as premium software options and complete self builds. There are several free open source options that do exist, but they just do not feel right or provide a high level of premium experience and/or a trusted secure enough platform. They would also require a lot of continual development and even then the developer may not be able to match the UI experience that I would like for members. Some of these projects have also moved away from open source, so meaning that there would be no updates to the core underlying software and therefore it would not future proof the project.

I wanted the TGF community platform to be a mix of both forum feed style posts, and an emphasis on real time live chat messaging and I believe that the solution we have with this company is the best fit even though it comes at quite a financial cost. The benefit of this is that we will continue to maintain a high premium community with software updates year after year, we do not like to cut corners or sacrifice on the experience for members. TGF will be a very premium user experience, unmatched in the precious metals industry other than on TSF.

Our starting business costs

$21,000 to $30,000 estimated initial costs, and $21-30k+ per year ongoing contractual costs. (This is just development/software licence, and some of the direct ongoing costs of the business such as business registration costs but excluding accountancy costs, this also does not include any salary or payment for any work I do for the project. I would not be planning to take any form of salary or payment until the the platform is well grounded financially (estimated 5-10 years after initial launch, at which time I may decide to draw a small salary if I believe it is fair to do so)

We will build a community platform focusing on a high level of user experience like we have built on TSF but with a community app and other additional benefits such as instantaneous chat messaging, to be useful alongside TSF and to provide an additional choice for members of the precious metals community.

I didn’t really want to spend as high of an initial software licensing and development cost of this, particularly as with this particular company it is an ongoing yearly contractual committed cost. However looking for several years at all of what I could find that is possible I do believe this solution with these particular developers offers the best user experience, and I do think it is important not to spare expenses here. When choosing software for TSF we also chose to go a more premium route rather than cutting corners on expenses on free open source but clunky and dated forum software.

Initially limited to 600 maximum members. Please put your name on the waitlist below.

Pledge your support, no payment is needed now, we just need to see if we have enough support to get this project off of the ground. Spaces are limited

Join the Waitlist - special ‘Founding Member’ pricing

Note that all founding membership subscriptions are charged quarterly (every 3 months) the effective monthly costs are below.

TSF Premium Members
Discounted subscription prices:

Providing your TSF Premium Membership remains active you will enjoy this same low discounted rate every month:

£2.99 + VAT per month for first 500-600 members who join the waitlist, comment in this topic (must also hold and continue to hold Premium Membership on TSF for this discounted rate) should there be more uptake than space at the time of setting up, seats will be offered on a first come first basis.

For UK customers £2.99 + VAT = £3.59 including VAT, effective monthly price. Pricing will also be available in USD + applicable taxes. This rate will always remain fixed for founding members.

Due to our high initial and ongoing costs this is the minimum price we are able to introduce a founding members rate at, and we wanted to make it as affordable as possible. Luckily this is a very affordable discounted rate, the rest of the remaining funds we need can hopefully be as a director loan from myself personally (which will have separate funding). To compare this founding member rate to the full standard rate please see the standard rate section further down below.

This is for the 'Active' membership, members can optionally upgrade to the PRO level should they wish. The 'Active' membership is already heavily packed with features.

TSF Non Premium Members

Can still pledge their support at a reduced rate of only £7.99 + VAT per month during this founding members period, for an ‘Active Account’, discounted rate remains as long as they are subscribed to TGF without any breaks in payments. This makes it JUST £9.59 per month including VAT.

TSF Platinum PLUS Premium Members

TSF Platinum PLUS Premium Members pay around £19.99 per month, as a token of our appreciation all current Platinum PLUS Premium Members will have complimentary membership to TGF in their package. They may still wish to make a contribution to help us going but access is included in their TSF membership. Note: We have not yet decided if Platinum PLUS Premium Memberships purchased after the Founding Membership period will or will not include TGF complimentary access as standard yet.

If you cancel your TSF Premium Membership but wanted to see your TGF Membership we can move you to a £7.99 + VAT price, instead of the full price of £20 per month (as that is the rate we have offered to TSF non-premium members above.

What if I cancel my TSF Premium Membership in the future?

The £3.59 per month price (inclusive of VAT) is on the condition that you continue your TSF Premium Membership. If however you decided you wanted to cancel your TSF Premium Membership in the future, you can private message us and we can move you to the £7.99 + VAT price, instead of the full price of £20 per month price (as that is the rate we have offered to TSF non-premium members above.

Account Types

Some changes to the packages slightly. TSF Founding Members will receive the £20 package as standard.

We have changed this slightly, there will be 3 packages. These are the expected full prices
🚗 Starter £15 per month
🪙 Active £20 per month
🚀 PRO (available to both individuals and businesses) £45 per month

Full details of each package will be revelled at/before launch.

Those subscribing as ‘Founding Members’ on the £2.99 + VAT rate (for TSF Premium Members) or £7.99 + VAT for non-premium members, will be given an ‘Active’ account.

Can non private individuals get the PRO account?

Yes, all members can optionally get the PRO account (which is open for both individuals and businesses) for the same low rate of £13.59 including VAT as a PRO Founding Member (instead of the full price of £45 per month)

Full details of what is included in each package will be given at launch and before you decide to buy a Founding Member account, no payment taken until launch.

TSF Business Account Members
Businesses operating on TSF currently, may also join TGF with a Business Account allowing Gold to be purchased and sold commercially. Those who have and maintain an active TSF Business Account may also join as Business Founding Members, there is an optional additional discounted surcharge of £10 per month, inclusive of tax for businesses for access to the TGF trade section. This makes the total founding membership fee for businesses just £13.59 including any applicable VAT/Tax. Making it a 64% discount to the full business account rate.

Businesses may also join as ‘Founding Member’ Business Account and optionally add on the trade section add on at a later date if they wish. Meaning just £3.59 per month inclusive of VAT founding membership fee (as long as TSF Business Account remains concurrent) excluding access to the trade section.

Business Accounts include ‘Business Account’ badges

To keep this simple, businesses that wish to join as Founding Members can purchase a PRO account, for £13.59 per month (including VAT) instead of the full price of £45, this is a 69.8% discount.

All members who purchase PRO at the special discount rate during this Founding Member period will get a ‘PRO Founding Member’ badge.

Full Standard Rate (Joining after founding member period has ended)

Any member who joins within the founding member period (right now) will be able to get the discounted rates mentioned above and get full access. If joining afterwards, if and when membership seats become available, the standard membership rates are below:

~~Standard full price for a full account will be $15.49 USD + applicable TAX per month. For UK residents this would work out at about £14.99 total per month including VAT.~~

This means that TSF Premium Members can currently save a massive 76% to the full standard rate, by joining the waitlist to be founding members. And TSF non Premium Members can still currently pledge their support and save a 36% discount to full standard rate.

(Full rate if you do not join at a discounted 'Founding Member' rate)
🚗 Starter £15 per month
🪙 Active £20 per month
🚀 PRO (available to both individuals and businesses) £45 per month

This means that TSF Premium Members can currently save a massive 82% to the full standard rate of Active, by joining the waitlist to be founding members. And TSF non Premium Members can still currently pledge their support and save a 36% discount to full standard rate.

Full Business Account Rate

For businesses who join after the founding member period and if there are open seats at the time of joining:

~~Full price $49 USD per month, inclusive of any applicable taxes. (About £37.79 GBP at time of writing)~~

Update: Full price for PRO account (suitable for businesses) is £45

Founding Membership

As well as all of the featured listed at the top of this topic. Founding Members will get:

Badges: Membership Includes TSF username verification/badge and founding member badge.

Exclusive ‘Founding Member’ area on TGF. Join the waitlist now to get access at launch.

No annual contract/commitment from you needed. You can pledge to join the waitlist and and if after the first payment you are not satisfied with our TGF platform you can of course cancel your TGF membership and not renew it. We are confident that you will love our new platform just as much if not more than TSF.

Note that all founding membership subscriptions are charged quarterly (every 3 months)

Any members can also pledge a one off payment in addition to membership at launch. And receive additional badge/s 🌟

How the communities will differ:
TSF will continue to maintain a FREE standard membership option for those who wish to use TSF free of charge, along with optional low cost Premium Membership with additional benefits for those who wish to help out with out running costs of TSF. Members can continue to buy and sell Gold and Silver and other precious metals such as Platinum on TSF just how they have done so in the past, all with 0% commission still. Our investment in improving TSF will continue as usual.

TGF will be a more premium offering with paid membership only, and with more of a focus on Gold as well as separate non PM sections, membership will be limited by membership seats, this is also due to the way we set up new accounts. Gold will be able to be traded on TGF between members, with 0% commission. (Silver listings, at least for the moment, will be directed to TSF to list) there will be more of an emphasis and focus on live chatrooms and instant messaging, both PM and non PM, and more of a focus towards Gold.

We have a specific marketing campaign idea for TGF and believe that marketing either platform is ultimately beneficial for both of our platforms and our members. It also creates choice for members depending on how their prefer to communicate, more forum topic focused topics or more live messaging style.

Both communities can be used in conjunction with each other, or independently.

TGF will be ran by me also, but will be set up as a separate business with separate running costs.

Initial membership will be limited to a maximum of just 600 active members initially. Limited space available for waitlist.

More about TGF features

My commitment to you, deploy a fully functioning community platform with features including live chat rooms, direct messaging and native IOS and Android apps with push notifications. Along with all of the benefits listed in at the top of this forum post.

Usernames will show with validation mark so you can be assured the same member you are messaging directly on TGF is indeed the same member with the same username on TSF.

There will be an NBS GOLD live chat room, an upgraded real time chat version of the same NBS on TSF, with hopefully not too many naughty members. (Not interested in the NBS style posts? Don’t worry, they won’t show in your feed unless you are following that section)

Various instant messaging chat rooms, including specialised country live chat rooms to help encourage more members from specific regions. E.g an American 🇺🇸 group (as America represents a huge amount of members within this industry) as well as a UK specific chat room 🇬🇧 other specialised chat rooms, such as Down Under 🇦🇺 we will be launched in the future when there is enough demand.

Trading section for Gold to be sold. Trade section with instant push notifications of new trade listings and instant notifications of replies to your listings. These settings can be enabled/disabled for each sections as you desire. Following the Gold section and a brand new sovereign at bullion prices has just been listed? You will get an instant notification.

By joining the waitlist now you will get the opportunity to join at a discounted founding membership rate.

I have another call with the company on Monday 28th October to see how our proposal to TSF members went and to see if we think we know when will be near a position to go over the contract. The more support there is here, the earlier we can try to launch. Please remember these founding member spaces are limited.

Would you like to go on the space limited waitlist for Founding Membership?

If you have any questions please let me know Thank you in advance for all members who pledge they support below.

That’s it for now, apologies for a long winded message and also for repeating myself in several places There may need to be some small minor changes before launch, if so we will keep you updated

Can you pledge your support in exchange for discounted limited edition founding membership pricing and status? 🙏 Please let us know below

Updates

Some updated included in the above information, has been edited in. Other updates include:

Contract signed with software development company. ✅🚀

Some things may change slightly before launch as we improve different aspects. The £3.59 (including VAT) price for Founding Members has been fixed at this price, and will now be for the £20 Active package. There is an optional PRO package available now to both Individuals & Businesses. Further updates due near or before launch, and/or included in the onboarding process and before any payment is needed. There might be some small changes before launch so better to wait until nearer the time.

A huge thank you to the great amount of support so far. And congratulations for securing your 'Founding Member' rate. 🙌