Ad-Free Apolyton: THE POLL

[MarkG]

Originally posted by The Slayer
If this come true, we the "poor" ones that can't be able to afford 25-30$ will be attacked with a ton of pop-ups?. What will be the pop up system for the "non-suscribers" ?

in the long run, we might actually be able to reduce the ammount of ads if subscriptions are succesfull

[BigFree]

Plato: I bought a lousy T-shirt from this site. I've done my 'support' deed. Plus I contribute to the content of the site instead of just 'lurking'

The reason I say 'lousy' is that the print/iron-on transfer started falling off at the first wash. Not just small pieces but like 25% of it. The next wash knocked it down to 50%. Now it looks like there's a little bit of red, white and blue confetti on it!

I'm not mad about the shirt at all. I just don't like being harrased with pop-ups. And asking me to pay for something I can accomplish, along with million's of other consumers, for free, doesn't make sense. Why would I elect to pay for it? And when I say "I", I'm refering to the majority of the members here as well.

I need more than just "no pop-ups" to entice the $$ in my wallet into joining Apolyton's wallet.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Dan-mark, could you please remove those "Admin" badges? They're distracting

it was a test of the "badge" thing i mentioned. they will be gone

[MarkG]

Originally posted by yaroslav
#4 - What is the cost of an internal shipment of a CD? 1€ or so?

on the issue of puting stuff on a cd, we'd have to clear up the legal issues with the creators. e.g. the provide their work for postng on a site for a free, but what about distributing a cd to subscribers? most would probably not have a problem with it, but i dont think we can just assume it that way...

[MarkG]

Originally posted by DanS
This seems like a good idea, if the price roughly matches a magazine subscription. Something you can justify to your wife as about the same as a Newsweek subscription.

i believe there is a way to customize what is printed on the credit card bill

If you want to give more than a party favor, I have seen other sites that have integrated a classifieds forum for people who want to buy/sell related stuff. They integrated this service into paypal/v-bulletin and its seemed to be automated.

sounds complicated(an eutomated system integrating paypal and vbulletin and a classifieds system)
got links?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by BigFree
The reason I say 'lousy' is that the print/iron-on transfer started falling off at the first wash. Not just small pieces but like 25% of it. The next wash knocked it down to 50%. Now it looks like there's a little bit of red, white and blue confetti on it!

my apolyton t-shirt looks fine after lots of washes. are you sure you followed the instructions on the label? it is also recommended to turn it inside-out before washing it....

[MarkG]

Originally posted by BigFree
Pay for the right to browse Apolyton sans advertising....Are we talking about pop-ups here? Are we talking about the re-driects when downloading and attachment or files made available by Apolyton? Or is it all advertising period?

all. everything. pop-ups, top, bottom, side, re-directs, the whole package.

I already employ a pop-up blocker that works very well. I wouldn't pay more for someting I can already bypass myself.

how reasonable

[Frozzy]

I confess that I used to use a pop-up blocker when I used Opera. This was mainly due to the fact that I couldn't find how to allow apolyton.net ads if that option existed at all.

Now, I use the Mozilla pop-up blocker, allowing Apolyton ads.

I agree with Markos. Blocking Apolyton ads is akin to stealing from a corner shop.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by BigFree

Also, what about being able to host other files that are not Civ related but are not offensive or illegal either? I might be willing to pay a small fee for that.

An idea I would certainly agree with. I wouldn't start using Poly wholesale for all my research data, but certainly to be able to include banners for various Democracy Game newspapers et al. in upload space (that have got posters in trouble in the recent past) without risk is something that would be worth it.

[LDiCesare]

I voted yes but I'd just donate money. I got 3 T-shirts after all (which are still fine after many washes) and the price of transport probably exceeded what I paid for the shirts themselves.
Anyway, a lifetime or per year subscribtion would be fine for me. I don't care much for additional features, though blocking ads would be great.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Yes indeed, I would have bought a t or something by now were it not for the fact that postage would hurt a LOT this side of the world, even with the US dollar as bad as it is.

Thus if I can contribute through some way that doesn't involve large amounts of money going to the international post system, I will.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Once a payment mechnaism is is place, that would be no reason not to have a option for additional voluntary contributions to the general fund that could be used for whatever, such as : general reduction of ads for unsubscribed members or capital acquisitions funds.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
Once a payment mechnaism is is place, that would be no reason not to have a option for additional voluntary contributions to the general fund that could be used for whatever, such as : general reduction of ads for unsubscribed members or capital acquisitions funds.

I believe that Dan addressed that issue and has said no to straight donations. These things must be fee for service. Perhaps a sponsored membership for another poster? Let's just see if we can get this working first.


BTW, I want to reitirate the proposition here:

IF YOU DON'T SUBSCRIBE TO "AD FREE" THEN NOTHING CHANGES FOR YOU.

Why would anyone object to that kind of system?

[Rasputin]

never pay for internet....

[BigFree]

Originally posted by MarkG
my apolyton t-shirt looks fine after lots of washes. are you sure you followed the instructions on the label? it is also recommended to turn it inside-out before washing it....

I followed the directions. But, I think I just got a 'bad' one. No biggie, really. I only bought it because I enjoy visiting the site and wanted to help support it in some small way.

I have to sort of agree with Rasputin in the premise of keeping the internet free. Once people start paying for things, it opens the door for increases and more sites asking for money to visit/use their site.

Bill Gates recently advocated charging $0.01 per email as postage. I'm afraid this is the tip of the iceberg.