how much would be willing to pya for an apolyton without ads?

[Bkeela]

I wouldn't pay one red cent for access to this site. Not that I don't think it's a great site, but I'm an absolute cheapskate. I don't even pay for Internet access. I would rather go without, than ever pay a subscription fee to any site. I can tolerate the ebay advert.

Bkeela.

[Solver]

Bkeela, that's pretty fun.
I'd pay for not seeint the pop-up windows, but I don't care for the normal banners that much to pay for it. I'd better pay not to have server donwtime .

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[Jaakko]

Well, as long as ole 'Poly doesn't become a subscription-only site, I'm happy (yeah, I know you guys don't plan to do it, I'm just ranting ) . That's cuz doing the subscription thing will destroy Apolyton as we know it.
Combatsim.com went that way, and now almost all the interesting international discussion is gone (or so I hear), with only the American hardcore sim-crowd left.

But I would contribute some dong, if ever manage to get a credit card...

[Alexander's Horse]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by MarkG on 03-13-2001 08:15 AM</font>

thanks for the suggestions and the ideas everyone



<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

No problem




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Chaos, panic and disorder - My work here is done.

[John-SJ]

Mark,

If I'm not mistaken, UBB supports icons right? I mean a small graphic that appears under the posters name when he posts. If so, then here's an idea.

Ask Firaxis for some kind of graphics from Civ III that could be used as icons, 3-5 different ones, with varying degrees of desirability. Then, set it up so paid members get an icon by their name. A simple on for a $5 donation, a nicer one for $10, ... and the best one for a $50? donation. Of course the amounts could be anything.

And, in addition paying members could get the ad-free service as well.

John-SJ

[yin26]

See, now there's some creative thinking! Of course, the icons should only last a year...

[ACOLKitty]

Since many of us post both places and I was asked to do this.


Here is what ACOL says on the matter.

http://www.an.i-dentity.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/013969.html

[East Street Trader]

The ads don't bug me but if you ever have to go over to asking for contributions I'd willingly chip in.

The bridge club of which I am a member fulfills something of the same function for the community of central London (and not so central) bridge players. It is a proprietary club too but the owners have a committee of members which assists them with stuff like ethical and disciplinary matters. And the ethos of the place, like here, is influenced by both the members and the owners.

No one thinks anything of paying an annual membership fee in connection with clubs like that and it is easy enough to arrange for discounts or exemptions to be available for the young or un-waged and to say that the first period is free (to let people find out if they like the place).

So if you need to do this I am pretty sure you could. Maybe you could copy my bridge club and ask the posters to elect a small members committee and ask them to devise and operate the membership fee arrangements?

As to how much a full annual membership should be, well anything from $40 to $80 would strike me as unexceptional. You could run it for 6 months to see how many names accumulated on the fee paying membership list, killing the ads only if and when it became possible to be confident that the membership fees would indeed cover the site's running costs.

[OldWarrior_42]

Henrik...thats very different.

I understand now what you are saying. You have made it more clear to me. Sorry for the wrong interpretation on my part. :O

[Urban Ranger]

I don't mind making a donation either.

And along the vein of DaveV and John-SJ, anybody who donoates more than a certain amount, USD50 perhaps, gets to choose his own title. Anybody who makes a donation gets the "donor" label.

[Dis]

It would have to be less than $1 a month. And that is a serious answer.

This is a great site, but if I'm going to pay anything more than $1 a month you need to add some pornographic pictures first

[Sean]

I would have to get a credit card first.....
So I wouldn't be keen to pay anything to be honest.
I don't mind the banner ads.

[Dis]

ahh yes the credit card is the major issue here as many of our regulars are young. can't we just say the check is in the mail?

[Alexander's Horse]

http://geekvillage.com/ubb/Ultimate.cgi

[yin26]

I'd suggest this: Simply buy your games from this site (some any way). I just bought EU and Poly got 10%! ($3.90). Now, if Markos can track these purchases to a specific user (I guess that's nearly impossible, though they must track IPs), then we can make our contributions by buying games we want anyway (or just make a straight donation with the title/icon idea).

For the record, I've bought perhaps 15 games from Chips and Bits (all delivered to me overseas in Korea), and I've never had even ONE problem! Not a single problem.