Ad-Free Apolyton: THE POLL

[vondrack]

I would gladly pay around $20-$30 a year (one payment per year preferred, though I can see that a monthly subscription would be a good idea for other posters here). Mastercard payment possible & easy, PayPal not available where I live.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Markos, the glorious communist

i'm also a fascist and a capitalist you know

[self biased]

YES!!!!!.

[Gatekeeper]

Lay your cards out on the table and I'd go from there.

As it is right now, I don't get pop-up ads due to the style I've selected, and $60 a year is steep (that's roughly the price of two magazine subscriptions [TIME and Newsweek come to mind]).

Plus, if you're going to get into the business of charging, then there's the responsibility of ensuring that people's CC numbers and other assorted financial info doesn't fall into unexpected hands ... which, to me, is the biggest reason to avoid getting into charging at all. Legal ramifications and all that fun stuff, y'know.

But, hell, if you can find 10 or so 'Polyites like Lefty — each donating $1,000 apiece — who cares about the rest of us?

Gatekeeper

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
As it is right now, I don't get pop-up ads due to the style I've selected

cant be right
which style is that?

Plus, if you're going to get into the business of charging, then there's the responsibility of ensuring that people's CC numbers and other assorted financial info doesn't fall into unexpected hands ...

CC charging will be handled by Paypal

But, hell, if you can find 10 or so 'Polyites like Lefty — each donating $1,000 apiece — who cares about the rest of us?

if we had 10 lefty's we'd drop ads for everyone

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by MarkG
due to real life issues for both me and dan, that's not very easy during this period

Perhaps find a sucker.. ahem, a community member you both trust to handle that? In exchange of waiving the membership fee?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
$60 a year is steep

where did you see me mention any number, let alone the specific one?

[monkspider]

I would be willing to pay $10-20 per year if the package included at least a majority of the following benefits. The aforementioned benefits of bigger avatar and PM space are really quite boring to be perfectly frank.

+No ads
+OT posts give +1
+Custom Titles
+One get out of Mingapulco free card (for anything but major offenses)
+One risk-free DL
+Possibly removing the swear filter for Apolyton Plus members (This one might be a bit more iffy though)

If you could offer at least the first three for sure, and one of the others, I would pledge Apolyton my patronage.

[Drake Tungsten]

But our OT posts should start counting if we subscribe!

Amen to that.

[Ben Kenobi]

to ban Ming one day per year on a whim.

I'd pay 150$ for that.

[MrWhereItsAt]

*Sigh

Silly OTers....

I would certainly pay, and I have a credit card too, but I'm not so sure it's worth it just to get rid of ads. Instead of this, or as well as, are there many other options you are thinking of, that could come as a result of the extra money, Mark?

I have read your ideas of extra PM space and avatar size, and although I guess these would be nice (certainly the PM space), at the same time having larger avatars means even longer load times for those of us stuck with dial-up. Is there anything more radical you were considering?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Instead of this, or as well as, are there many other options you are thinking of, that could come as a result of the extra money, Mark?

given that the fundamental idea is tha the "established service" shall always be free, our options are to
a) extend limits of current services
b) provide new services for subscribers

since this is the begining of a subscription effort, we're sticking to the basics, to also keep the initial development faster. beyond that, we're open to suggestions for the future

at the same time having larger avatars means even longer load times for those of us stuck with dial-up

the avatar filesize wont be dramatically increased and you'd have to lots of subscribers in one thread in order to see some notable increase in thread size

[MarkG]

and "b" mentioned above doesnt mean that we'll stop doing stuff for non-subscribers. in fact Gramphos is on the edge of finishing up something cool

[MrWhereItsAt]

Good points Mark, thank you.

I will have to go and look at other sites for ideas.

Don't kill me! I'll always be back...

[DrSpike]

MWIA:

There is no good way I can think of to make something 'worthwhile' available when Mark and Dan wish to keep content free. All they can offer are nice bonuses. Ultimately it will be about contributing to the site we all enjoy I think, not getting real value for money.

Mark/Dan:

Going on from that, I don't think you will have a huge take up of such an offer. However, I commend the decision to keep content free, and probably in the long run it is the correct decision.

Since I have no idea how much ads bring in from one average poster over 1 year I can't say exactly how much the subscription with benefits 1 to 2b should cost. However, since IMO it will mainly be taken up as a contribution to the site I suggest it is set at around $30 per year in order to attract as many contributors as possible.

I would pay that, and pay it glady for the benefits discussed, even though I don't think they are worth that much. That's why I think you need to re-emphasise supporting the site a little more at this stage, and de-emphasise thinking of benefits worth a higher price, since IMO there are not any whilst the content remains free, as it should.

Ok that's much too long a post for A/C, can I have +2?