Should POLY go to subscriptions

[TCO]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
It is with that attitude

Don't give em money, they have no-one to provide a server for. Ergo, they accept anyhting they can get. If that is minute ad money, so be it. Screw em.

The market is contracting. It's getting harder and harder to get hosted or to get any ad revenue whatsoever. At a certain point, the ads don't cover the cost of the service (not sure if we're there...but it's in that range.)

I read all about this at the secret Webmasters forum that AH gave me the link for...

[MOBIUS]

I think all new users should have to buy something from the store as a stipulation for joining, or donate $10 whichever they prefer...

Personally I think you should reinstate post count on the OT, and then set it up so that everyone gets say 150 free posts a month and then has to pay a small amount for every 250 posts thereafter.

That would be an average of about 5 posts a day free - which is more than enough IMO! A side effect would be the cutting down of needless spamming as excessive spamming would cost the poster money!

You'd have to have a roll-over though, as otherwise people would spam at the end of the month to avoid the 'use-it-or-lose-it' implications...

One potential drawback could be an increasing prevalence of 'MtG type' posts of Encyclopediac proportions as people try to cram as much as possible on each post!

I also expect an increase in DL's as people attempt to artificially bump up their quotas with more than one log in...

Being caught in possesion of a DL would then become an even greater crime than it is already (could it be any worse!?!?! ), as it would then almost be tantamount to attempted fraud...

Lastly the same could be done for smilie usage with a quota and the use of bold or italic type, as it all counts towards the ultimate cost of server usage!

Of course, if that last one ever gets implemented I'd be bankrupt within a week and thrown on the streets destitute!

[Rasputin]

Perhaps Mark should setup his own server rather than using gamestats.. With modrn technology not so hard to do and therefore any money that did come in to poly would be going direct to mark and dan to improve the service instead of to a third party....

But as for subscritpions, i come becuase it is free...

[Hoek]

How about this instead: each user should sign up for specific forums. I know, for instance, that I pretty much only use Apolyton/Community, Civ 3 General and Civ 3 Creation and OT. How about charging just for OT. That seems reasonable since the OT accounts for a huge amount of the bandwith, and is really peripheral to Civ.

[TCO]

Hoek, but what's the point of your suggestions? How would they add revenue?

[The Mad Monk]

What about my subscription for no ads idea? That's all there is to it.

[Urban Ranger]

You have the right idea, Mad Monk Also Mobius' idea can be implemented, with us freeloaders as "regular" members who have a limited ability to post, while paid members can post an unlimited number of messages


Mobius,

The solution is to put a limit on number of posts and size of each post.


GP,

I don't think subscription is the way to go. Providing extra features for a fee, though, should work well.

[Urban Ranger]

Other ideas

1. Paid-for special titles. For a small fee each month a member can choose his or her own special title.

2. Paid-for custom avatars: freeloaders can only use regular avatars.

[Colonâ„¢]

A like the idea of forming some sort of association to sponsor poly but I’ve several thoughts.
Firstly, I think donators should get some sort of recognition on poly, to cajole them. (maybe a page on poly with a list of sponsors?)
Secondly, do Markos and Dan need any cash themselves to support poly (I’ve only a very vague idea of the costs of running a site) and to which ends is the money supposed to be used? I doubt it will bring in enough for their own server and all the associated costs.
And thirdly, not that I want to sound distrustful there’s the problem that Apolyton does not have a legal entity and if I’m correct any donation will go to Markos and Dan directly without guarantee they’ll use it for the site.

[MarkG]

thanks for the suggestions. we're not planing to do any subcriptions, certainly not for viewing or posting on the forums

for the moment i will close this discussion. of course GP(or anyone else) is free to write a column about it if he likes....