Ad-Free Apolyton: THE POLL - Page 3

vondrack · February 28, 2004, 03:10

I would gladly pay around $20-$30 a year (one payment per year preferred, though I can see that a monthly subscription would be a good idea for other posters here). Mastercard payment possible & easy, PayPal not available where I live.

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 03:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Markos, the glorious communist

i'm also a fascist and a capitalist you know

self biased · February 28, 2004, 03:21

YES!!!!!.

Gatekeeper · February 28, 2004, 03:34

Lay your cards out on the table and I'd go from there.

As it is right now, I don't get pop-up ads due to the style I've selected, and $60 a year is steep (that's roughly the price of two magazine subscriptions [TIME and Newsweek come to mind]).

Plus, if you're going to get into the business of charging, then there's the responsibility of ensuring that people's CC numbers and other assorted financial info doesn't fall into unexpected hands ... which, to me, is the biggest reason to avoid getting into charging at all. Legal ramifications and all that fun stuff, y'know.

But, hell, if you can find 10 or so 'Polyites like Lefty — each donating $1,000 apiece — who cares about the rest of us?

Gatekeeper

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 03:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
As it is right now, I don't get pop-up ads due to the style I've selected

cant be right

which style is that?

Quote:

Plus, if you're going to get into the business of charging, then there's the responsibility of ensuring that people's CC numbers and other assorted financial info doesn't fall into unexpected hands ...

CC charging will be handled by Paypal

Quote:

But, hell, if you can find 10 or so 'Polyites like Lefty — each donating $1,000 apiece — who cares about the rest of us?

if we had 10 lefty's we'd drop ads for everyone

Barinthus · February 28, 2004, 03:43

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkG
due to real life issues for both me and dan, that's not very easy during this period

Perhaps find a sucker.. ahem, a community member you both trust to handle that? In exchange of waiving the membership fee?

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 03:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
$60 a year is steep

where did you see me mention any number, let alone the specific one?

monkspider · February 28, 2004, 04:05

I would be willing to pay $10-20 per year if the package included at least a majority of the following benefits. The aforementioned benefits of bigger avatar and PM space are really quite boring to be perfectly frank.

+No ads
+OT posts give +1
+Custom Titles
+One get out of Mingapulco free card (for anything but major offenses)
+One risk-free DL
+Possibly removing the swear filter for Apolyton Plus members (This one might be a bit more iffy though)

If you could offer at least the first three for sure, and one of the others, I would pledge Apolyton my patronage.

Drake Tungsten · February 28, 2004, 05:23

Quote:

But our OT posts should start counting if we subscribe!

Amen to that.

Ben Kenobi · February 28, 2004, 05:35

Quote:

to ban Ming one day per year on a whim.

I'd pay 150$ for that.

MrWhereItsAt · February 28, 2004, 08:10

*Sigh

Silly OTers....

I would certainly pay, and I have a credit card too, but I'm not so sure it's worth it just to get rid of ads. Instead of this, or as well as, are there many other options you are thinking of, that could come as a result of the extra money, Mark?

I have read your ideas of extra PM space and avatar size, and although I guess these would be nice (certainly the PM space), at the same time having larger avatars means even longer load times for those of us stuck with dial-up. Is there anything more radical you were considering?

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 08:24

Quote:

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Instead of this, or as well as, are there many other options you are thinking of, that could come as a result of the extra money, Mark?

given that the fundamental idea is tha the "established service" shall always be free, our options are to
a) extend limits of current services
b) provide new services for subscribers

since this is the begining of a subscription effort, we're sticking to the basics, to also keep the initial development faster. beyond that, we're open to suggestions for the future

Quote:

at the same time having larger avatars means even longer load times for those of us stuck with dial-up

the avatar filesize wont be dramatically increased and you'd have to lots of subscribers in one thread in order to see some notable increase in thread size

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 08:26

and "b" mentioned above doesnt mean that we'll stop doing stuff for non-subscribers. in fact Gramphos is on the edge of finishing up something cool

MrWhereItsAt · February 28, 2004, 08:27

Good points Mark, thank you.

I will have to go and look at other sites for ideas.

Don't kill me! I'll always be back...

DrSpike · February 28, 2004, 08:38

MWIA:

There is no good way I can think of to make something 'worthwhile' available when Mark and Dan wish to keep content free. All they can offer are nice bonuses. Ultimately it will be about contributing to the site we all enjoy I think, not getting real value for money.

Mark/Dan:

Going on from that, I don't think you will have a huge take up of such an offer. However, I commend the decision to keep content free, and probably in the long run it is the correct decision.

Since I have no idea how much ads bring in from one average poster over 1 year I can't say exactly how much the subscription with benefits 1 to 2b should cost. However, since IMO it will mainly be taken up as a contribution to the site I suggest it is set at around $30 per year in order to attract as many contributors as possible.

I would pay that, and pay it glady for the benefits discussed, even though I don't think they are worth that much. That's why I think you need to re-emphasise supporting the site a little more at this stage, and de-emphasise thinking of benefits worth a higher price, since IMO there are not any whilst the content remains free, as it should.

Ok that's much too long a post for A/C, can I have +2?

Zopperoni · February 28, 2004, 08:39

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ
For the moment, the "other goodies" would most likely consist of (at least to start):

(1) Increased Private Messaging space (send/received messeages);
(2a) Increased avatar size; and
(2b) The ability to have a custom avatar regardless of post count if desired.

Fair enough. These changes are not too visible, so it wouldn't result in too much differentiation.

What I want to suggest as a "goodie" is an "@apolyton.net" email forward.

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkG
i'm not sure how a fair number can be given about this. we've got users browsing one page of apolyton per month and users who browse 10000 pages

I know it's tough, but you don't want to fall short either of non-subscribers.
You could always calculate an average (pageviews/impressions per user) for one month or one quarter and then see what comes out.

Another suggestion: it could also be interesting to have an "intermediate account"; this would be a cheaper subscription that would only have one banner at the top.
Price would be something like 30-50% of the normal subscription price.

alva · February 28, 2004, 09:07

Quote:

However, since IMO it will mainly be taken up as a contribution to the site I suggest it is set at around $30 per year in order to attract as many contributors as possible.

That is after all how this got started in the first place..

dainbramage20 · February 28, 2004, 09:29

stupid idea that will destroy the site

Just make a 3rd party spyware contract or something. I think everyone understands that nothing is for free anymore.

DrSpike · February 28, 2004, 09:40

On behalf of everyone in this thread I pass on this message.

DeepO · February 28, 2004, 10:03

I'll gladly pay a moderate contribution, and don't really care if that removes the ads and popups. I've become so used to them I don't notice them anyway.

But in return, I do expect better service. The past months apolyton down time was not that bad, but I remember other months where getting into Apolyton was a job in itself. I'll gladly pay for a better server / larger bandwidth so that situations like last summer are something of the past. And if you want to give me a large avatar, fine... I'll probably won't use it though

DeepO

Jamski · February 28, 2004, 10:40

I'd happily pay whatever the cost of the adverts for one user is.

If my reading adverts would make $20 in a year for 'poly, then I'll pay $20 not to see them.

Then I'd pay a bit extra too, because 'poly deserves it. If it means faster service and more "extras" then that would be nice. But really, the aim is to remove advertising, isn't it?

I don't have a CC, but can I post Euro bank-notes to Marko in Greece?

-Jam

Skanky Burns · February 28, 2004, 10:40

Quote:

Originally posted by DrSpike
Ok that's much too long a post for A/C, can I have +2?

I see you awarded yourself this anyway.

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Originally posted by Jamski I don't have a CC, but can I post Euro bank-notes to Marko in Greece?

In a word, no. Imagine Markos having to sort through each of the 1000 members who want to send their contribution through the mail. On top of all the work he puts into the site.

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 10:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Zopperoni
Fair enough. These changes are not too visible, so it wouldn't result in too much differentiation.

well if we want to do visible stuff, other sites have given some sort of "amazing supporter of our site" badges under the username of a subscriber

Quote:

What I want to suggest as a "goodie" is an "@apolyton.net" email forward.

it's a possibility but cant be easily automated. perhaps for the future

MarkG · February 28, 2004, 10:59

Quote:

Originally posted by DeepO
But in return, I do expect better service. The past months apolyton down time was not that bad, but I remember other months where getting into Apolyton was a job in itself.

last summer was difficult due to my complete lack of internet access for vast periods of time. that's behind us now, and with the new forums search system i believe things will be more stable(specific queries and searches with the old system where were killing the server at random times)

Quote:

I'll gladly pay for a better server / larger bandwidth so that situations like last summer are something of the past.

it goes without saying that at a better financial position we'll be able to respond faster to server needs (instead of implementing in-case-of-high-load service-disabling features)

PLATO · February 28, 2004, 11:23

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkG
it goes without saying that at a better financial position we'll be able to respond faster to server needs (instead of implementing in-case-of-high-load service-disabling features)

I think that the financial health of this site is in everyone's interest. If a subscription model puts it in better shape to improve the site for everyone then why would anyone have a problem with it (considering that it is optional)?

I don't know what the start up costs would be, but have you determined the minimum number of "takers" it would need to implement this Mark? As of this moment the poll is showing 51 yes answers of one form or another. At $30 each that alone comes to $1530. Not sure what figure your looking for to make this viable.

PLATO · February 28, 2004, 11:37

Just found this image using the new search feature.

Spiffor · February 28, 2004, 12:20

I think 30 €$ a year would probably be the "right price", as a consumer. Now, it would be interesting to know how much money 'Poly needs on a yearly basis, to know if such a price would be enough to pay for it.

BTW, I hope this system will provide a steady amount of money and excesses, so that Markos and Dan get rewarded for their hard work, and so that we can also have a better bandwidth

mrmitchell · February 28, 2004, 12:35

Quote:

+No ads
+OT posts give +1
+Custom Titles
+One get out of Mingapulco free card (for anything but major offenses)
+One risk-free DL
+Possibly removing the swear filter for Apolyton Plus members (This one might be a bit more iffy though)

Monkspider I'm disappointed in you. Even though you portray yourself to be a true Communist, you want to be able to buy huge amounts of privaleges! You are nothing more than the lowest dirtiest capitalist pig!

---

Please, Mark+Dan, just keep it as it's already been described. No ads. Nothing else. Most everyone except for our "Communist" friend here have said that will be more than enough to help Apolyton anyway.

Sava · February 28, 2004, 13:10

probably not because I'm a cheap bastard... ads are fine if it keeps the site free.

Paddy · February 28, 2004, 13:33

Thanks for a great site.

I am happy to pay to play... a subscription to Apolyton is a good thing. This can only helps to keep this site at the frontier.

And I am impressed that you will keep it available for free. I have many friends that lurk through here, yet are at college and have little to no money for such luxuries... the tax on beer is bad enough

I get the feeling that there would be no pressure placed on people to have to pay. This is good as well.

There are many people using these forums that would pay in a heart beat. You provide a good, clean place to share opinions and games.

So, yes I am willing to pay to play.

How much do you want, and where do we send it to.