Subscription Membership Option

[Little Wing]

Jackson,

Let me start by saying that you have managed to create a uniquely useful and pleasant forum. I have not been here for long, but whenever I’ve asked for advice I’ve always had good, polite, feedback (even to my naive questions). It’s so much better than some of the competitors that I could name. The strength of the forum is the membership base, and the rules that you have had in place have given them an incentive to behave sensibly. Because it is a pleasant place, the members stay, and contribute.

I hope that the changes do not lead to any degradation of the membership base. Continuing the PM and Photo privileges of current Senior Members is a smart move, of course. But will there enough incentive for current Regular Members and Subscribers to contribute wisely? Of course, you could argue that Senior Members don’t have much incentive, but most of them seem to have been “trained” by the process, at least in my experience.

I have a few specific questions:

1. Will the current differentiation between Regular and Senior remain (posts from Regulars being moderated)?
2. Will Subscribers have to go through the same process, or will they be unmoderated immediately? If the latter, are there other incentives to induce Subscribers to make sensible contributions?
3. Would you consider giving PM and photo privileges to NEW Senior Members? This would provide an incentive to stick around and contribute to those who didn’t want to become Subscribers.

Anyway, congratulations again on an excellent Forum.

Little Wing

Hi Little Wing,

I can answer your first two questions like this:

As the Forum's software is currently written, reports are either displayed immediately OR placed in the Admin moderation queue, depending upon the setting for the poster's membership group.

I have paid to have developed a modification to the Forum's software that will allow all reports to be immediately displayed in the Forum and simultaneously listed in the Admin moderation queue. This would mean that everyone's reports would be visible immediately, but I would still have a systemized method for reviewing the reports and edit or delete the SPAM.

This software modification is being tested on the Argentina forum where it has performed perfectly, and thus I expect to install it here in the next several days. This new function will essentially eliminate the current distinction between the Regular and Senior Members.

Of course, I'm always reluctant to advertise upcoming software improvements because if, for one reason or another, the implementation is delayed, I find myself the receiptant of numerous emails complaining that I haven't made the improvement.

Regarding your 3rd question, as existing Regular Members who qualify for Senior membership are now automatically upgrade to Senior Membership, they will have the same privileges as existing Senior Members, including photo viewing and PM access.

Thanks,

Jackson

[JuiceSpike]

Jackson,

Thanks. It makes sense. 10 bucks its a good deal despite all the hard work we "Senior" members do reporting. BTW, nice business move for you ....

juice

[JuiceSpike]

Jackson,

I'm not clear if I understood your policy regarding Senior members: A Senior member will have complementary (free) subscription for life with access to PMs and Photo Galleries?

Thanks for all the hard work and I completely understand your need to start charging for the service.

juicer

Hi Juice Spike,

I had to be careful with my wording there. The Senior Members will continue to enjoy all the features that they currently have, without charge, including the ability to download the photos and the PM system. However, they would need to purchase a subscription if they wanted to access to the NEW features such as the Photo Gallery browser or the alternate "Stealth Mode" view. That's why I didn't use the words "complementary subscription".

Remember, we're only talking $10 dollars.

Thanks,

Jackson

[Admin]

Please use this thread to voice your opinions regarding the new Subscription Membership Option.

Thanks,

Jackson