Want to get rid of the popups??

[MarkG]

banners ads and redirects are a small part of our income, compared to pop-ups

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Oerdin
EvC raises a valid issue. If someone has paid for a service and he gets banned then wouldn't MarkG be honor bound to at least refund the remained of the service fee in a timely manner?

i'm certain this can all be settled by a disclaimer that you agree to on the subscription page

no matter what you pay, the existing agreement of use of the forums and the rest of the site stands

[Inverse Icarus]

make the OT pay only.

leave the civ forums free and without popups.

i'd bet that the OT is a large portion of the drain on bandwidth, and the majority of people with popups visit here, as opposed to newbie teenagers joining to talk in Civ3 - General.

[Dinner]

That would kill the OT for sure and along with it most of Mark & Dan's ad profits.

BTW how much money do they make per year off of the ads? I seem to remember one of Dan's state of apolyton articles saying something about gross revenues of something liek $300k per year. IF that is correct then even after expenses the place remains very profitable indeed.

[Inverse Icarus]

yeah but that $300k barely covers the annual cost of running markos' luxurious marble mansion, spanning several mountain tops, or DanQ's Canadian Ice Fortress, let alone the leer jets needed to get the two to their hoe train.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Uber KruX
yeah but that $300k barely covers the annual cost of running markos' luxurious marble mansion,

I've got one of those. They are so passe.

Now if only I could get the septic tank fixed...

[MarkG]

$300K/year??????????



sorry Oerdin, but that's just hillarious

(edit: we need a rofl smiley)

[Inverse Icarus]

yeah, he definaly misplaced the decimal place.

$30,000,000/yr is far more reasonable

[Dinner]

Originally posted by MarkG
$300K/year??????????

sorry Oerdin, but that's just hillarious

(edit: we need a rofl smiley)

That's why it's phrased as a question. Like it was a vague memory from an article I read several months ago.

Out of curiosity how profitable is poly per year and how many how many hours do you put into the place?

[The Templar]

Sure, I'd pay for a subscription (let's say I would pay about half as much as I do for Salon for the basic Apolyton service without adds, not counting any specific pay content).

However, after being banned during a drunken argument with Ming, I would want a different rule for paying customers.

Come to think of it, I bet you could make a bit of money by selling moderator immunity (assuming that the people who purchase it didn't drive off everyone else).

[PLATO]

Originally posted by The Templar
However, after being banned during a drunken argument with Ming, I would want a different rule for paying customers.

Come to think of it, I bet you could make a bit of money by selling moderator immunity (assuming that the people who purchase it didn't drive off everyone else).

Someone has already suggested a price of $150 for being able to ban Ming on one random day!

Seriously though, I can't imagine a system where the rules would be suspended just because you subscribe for ad free. Mark has already said that the rules will remain the rules.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by PLATO
Seriously though, I can't imagine a system where the rules would be suspended just because you subscribe for ad free. Mark has already said that the rules will remain the rules.

Oh, I don't think suspending the rules is an option. The price range I'm thinking of wouldn't warrant the havoc that would result. Besides, the value of the subscription would be in blocking the pop-ups, which would work whether you are banned from posting or not (I would assume).

My point was more that when you move from guest to customer, things change.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by The Templar
My point was more that when you move from guest to customer, things change.

I am sure that the obligations of poster and administration will be covered in a subscription sign up form. Unfortunately, in today's world, things will probably be spelled out in legal mumbo-jumbo. The net result will most likely be that you will waive your right to any refund if you are banned for breaking rules.

That being said, perhaps it is time to update and clarify the rules.

[MarkG]

the way things are being done technically, subscribers that are banned will loose their benefits (including ad disablement) while they are banned

currently i dont see me doing extra work to change that

[The Templar]

Originally posted by MarkG
the way things are being done technically, subscribers that are banned will loose their benefits (including ad disablement) while they are banned

In that case, I just lost interest.