Can anyone give me some insight about whether or not it is worth the price of $36 a month to join the AOG and gain access to webguy photos. Do they just post scores of random shots and you have to fish through them to find your cadet? Do they filter the shots of your cadet for you and archive an album of photos for you? How does it work and is it worth the monthly membership dues?
I'm going to speak for my mom here. As a parent she said it is highly worth it!!! It was the greatest money spent so far at the academy and I enjoyed seeing the pictures too even if it was tears/snot from the gas chamber. It is just randomly shot so parents are known to spend hours on the site going through the pictures looking for their son or daughter. I believe you get a username and password then when going through the pictures you can save ones you want to keep to your personal album to download. Hopefully that explains it.
Thanks for the clarification Hodge.
Blueblood1
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- Mar 23, 2015
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Definitely worth it. Web guy keeps improving. Last year, they started sorting pics by squad, so it cut down on the random searching a bit. If you join AOG, certain of the memberships (if not all) include web guy, and get you discounts on merchandise, etc., and is overall a good value.
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It is worth the cost.
Stealth_81
Stealth_81
USAFA83GradWife
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Definitely worth it. Just a warning - you will happily spend hours each night going through those pictures!
A suggestion: I took the best pictures from BCT and created a photobook with each event - Obstacle course, Assault course, etc. - and an little explanation. It was a well received Christmas present. She said it was better than the BCT yearbook because all the pictures had her in them! Ha!
You can get these made at Shutterfly, etc -- Groupon always has deals
A suggestion: I took the best pictures from BCT and created a photobook with each event - Obstacle course, Assault course, etc. - and an little explanation. It was a well received Christmas present. She said it was better than the BCT yearbook because all the pictures had her in them! Ha!
You can get these made at Shutterfly, etc -- Groupon always has deals
Montana Falcon
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- Mar 30, 2016
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- 16
Tommyboy. You mentioned "$36.00 a month" for membership to AOG. Just checked my latest credit card statement and was billed $20.17 for the month. It's been a few years since I joined,
so maybe there was an additional fee at the head end. Regarding its' worth? As an example, tonight is Ring Dance for the C2C's which is a big event. Webguy will be there in force, taking hundreds of pictures for such Parental "Creepers" as myself. The hardest part is being patient while they post them to the website. As someone else mentioned, you'll end up spending hours looking through pictures to find your Cadet, then download for the digital scrapbook. It's been well worth it for us.
so maybe there was an additional fee at the head end. Regarding its' worth? As an example, tonight is Ring Dance for the C2C's which is a big event. Webguy will be there in force, taking hundreds of pictures for such Parental "Creepers" as myself. The hardest part is being patient while they post them to the website. As someone else mentioned, you'll end up spending hours looking through pictures to find your Cadet, then download for the digital scrapbook. It's been well worth it for us.
jag3
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- Feb 28, 2016
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- 84
It's $36 a month now. You are paying for your family membership and your cadet's also. At least that was what was explained to me.
I was also told that if we decide to quit it, say after a year, that a portion of what we paid goes towards his life membership.
The lady I spoke with also wanted me to know that they were not going to have as much access starting this year.
I look at it like this.....our boy probably eats 300 or more in groceries a month. I will be 250+ to the good. Lol
I was also told that if we decide to quit it, say after a year, that a portion of what we paid goes towards his life membership.
The lady I spoke with also wanted me to know that they were not going to have as much access starting this year.
I look at it like this.....our boy probably eats 300 or more in groceries a month. I will be 250+ to the good. Lol
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In today's world we have been slowly trained to expect immediate gratification. Think about WWII, Korea, Vietnam Nam, and every war before. Snail mail only. Few pics if any.
Web guy is great for BCT. After that, it is slim pickins. Even during BCT you'll have to spend hours searching for your Waldo.
Is it worth it? Matter of opinion. For me, yes, but 4th class year only. Of sourse, $36 a month is nothing for many, but for others..
I am amazed by the families that go to induction, back for A day, and visit several more times during the year. The cadets go home 3 or 4 times a year too. There is much to be said for letting your child grow up. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?
Web guy is great for BCT. After that, it is slim pickins. Even during BCT you'll have to spend hours searching for your Waldo.
Is it worth it? Matter of opinion. For me, yes, but 4th class year only. Of sourse, $36 a month is nothing for many, but for others..
I am amazed by the families that go to induction, back for A day, and visit several more times during the year. The cadets go home 3 or 4 times a year too. There is much to be said for letting your child grow up. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?
I am with you on it. Nothing after BCT and even BCT was so much hassle to look through. interesting fact it appears photographers were taking several times more photos of girls than boys, especially if she appears to be cute. One girl in my son's squadron probably had 10 times more pictures than him. Whatever. We got about 70 photos total almost all from BCT and will cancel after Jump and gliders are over, in hope there will be a few more. not sure if I would do it again but wife insisted.
If you noticed, there is no easy way to cancel aog webguy even after 1 year commitment, one needs to call some number and then who knows how long it will take.
On the other hand, less publicized but IMHO way more useful service is when during BCT you can email letters to your cadet and they are printed and delivered next day. So much easier than to write by hand and then it takes so long for USPS to deliver.
For BCT pictures and for the discount on the merchandise that you are going to buy the first year, it's worth it. I have to say near the end of BCT I was getting pretty tired of playing "where's waldo" but got very good at recognizing my DD ear, back, etc in photos! Now that the first year is almost over and she sends me pictures occasionally, I am going to let my membership lapse. She can get her own membership when she graduates.
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That's right, although that discount doesn't even apply at the visitor center gift shop.
Another plus of cancelling is that your vision will get back to normal, and your carpal tunnel will feel better. Looking through literally, thousands of photos trying to figure out which skinhead is your can be a strain!
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I can't say for sure about your particular Parents Group, but I doubt it. WAFAPA (The Wisconsin Parents Group) does not include Webguy and I have not heard of any parent groups that have arrangements with the AOG like that.
Stealth_81
USAFA83GradWife
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The AZ Parent Club doesn't do this.
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I still have webguy pictures on my refrigerator from the 2nd day of BCT 1 in 2008!!!!!!! Is it worth it? Oh My Gosh! Worth every penny.
And, if you happen to have been a helicopter parent, it would be worth twice what you pay.
And, if you happen to have been a helicopter parent, it would be worth twice what you pay.
For us, I would definitely say NOT worth it. For whatever reason (luck of the draw, bad timing with illness?/injury?/whatever?, too many Basics with too few photogs) we have had very few sightings of our DS on Webguy. Our DS is Class of 2021, and the Webguy price is $36/month. Here we are in Beast 2, and we have seen (and downloaded) 80 pictures of him total. However, of those 80, each occurrence is a series of burst photos 4-6 photos at a time of the same instance, such as him marching in a column with each of those 6 photos showing him half-step, after half-step, after half-step, etc. So, maybe 20-25 different photo opportunities. And it's not just my DS--his squadron (Executioners) has far fewer pages of photos than every other squadron for the class of 2021. You may be asking if you are a bad parent for not signing up for the only chances of photos during BCT. I felt (and feel) the same way. The $432 I'm indentured to paying for the first year of photos will give me very good insight about the Class of 2021 as they enter their first year of USAFA, but it will not give me a good record of what my DS specifically went through. After the 6 weeks of BCT (where they are all relatively concentrated together), I fully expect coverage of my DS to fall off even further as he, and all of the other Cadets, are spread out through academic life on paths that are not on a day-to-day shared schedule with their squadron or overall Class of 2021. Although I am thrilled that he is pursuing his dream at USAFA, I am not happy about the $36 per month charge for Webguy (for what we have received), nor the 12 month commitment required to sign up.
1mom
5-Year Member
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- Sep 30, 2015
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I am a member of PANCA and it does not offer access to
I am a member of PANCA and it does not offer access/link to to the different galleries under the individual classes (2021 and earlier). Only paid AOG members have the access to those galleries. The free gallery is the one available for non-payment viewers.
Billberna
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- Aug 16, 2016
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KAFA (on Facebook) and cadetmedia (on Flickr) ..... is a good source of free photos, hundreds of them. If you happen to find your cadet among them, all the better, but if you don't, you will probably always wonder what WebGuy would have posted of your cadet.