Premium Membership Suggestions

[rage2]

OK, I think both kenny and I are gonna cave in and offer premium memberships. Since we've never done this before, we'll get some feedback from our members to figure things out. We wanna put together something that makes everyone happy.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

No advertisements except for local banner ad at the top of the page. No intellitxt, no google ads, nothing. Just a non-intrusive banner at the top. This is so we don't piss off the advertisers that have already paid here.
Bigger PM box. Right now it's set to 300, I'll probably knock it back down to 20 for standard users, 300 for premium.
Private Message Tracking
Custom user title
Premium Members Lounge
file hosting, for your sigs, videos, and other crap (this will take some time to finish coding). Probably size limited to 100mb or something.
Cost: Is $5/month too much? Too little? Please be honest with this one, I know it's tough lol.
Discount for yearly membership (say $10 off), as well as instant access to marketplace for new members

There's also some confusion going on in the thread. I want to reiterate the fact that this is just a suggestions thread for now, nothing is being implemented yet. Also, the ideas in this thread will continue with our site philosophy, and NOTHING will change if you don't want to be a premium member. You will have full access to the site, marketplace, everything. The only exception will be the Premium Members' Lounge.

[bluetek]

$5 a month sounds pretty reasonable. How would we pay: Paypal, CC, online debit, other...

Maybe im alone on this one but i would like premium members to not have to wait the 45 seconds for PM's, and the 10 second search rule.

-Another thing could maybe be the implementation of different skins for the layout of beyond instead of the white and blue, you could choose green and black or whatever I dont know if you can do this.

-On the PM messages, see if the the pm you sent was read, replied, or new by the guy you sent it to. So the status of your PM's.

-More avatars to choose from.

Lol well im just naming a bunch of stuff. Im sure some of it is not possible but maybe. Anyway if i thinki of some more Ill be sure to add.

[DC2]

^^ those are some pretty good ideas

But 50 bucks for the year is pretty good.

[The Cosworth]

If I paid $45 a year on CC then I think the rest of that is perfect.

I know some places (groundpilots) allow premium members to post in the market place, so that is an idea to curb random joining to sell stuff too

[dooman24]

i don't know.. i love this forum and all.. i like the way it is..

[rage2]

And nothing is changing really for non-paying members. Well except for # of PM's.

[1-Bar]

customer user title for $5/month, I'm in...!!! I've been wanting one for so long now...lol

I think this is a great idea....considering how large this site is growing.

Maybe you can add a membership deal vs. non-member rate for the sponsors, or even have better rates for members for beyond.ca gear (just an idea)

[A790]

Originally posted by rage2
And nothing is changing really for non-paying members. Well except for # of PM's.

Hey Rage;

The premium membership thing is a pretty iffy proposition. Not that it will hurt your member base but it will be hard to get your members to go premium.

I like the custom user title, PM box, etc.

Removal of the time limits would be awesome, and new skins would rock my socks as well.

Maybe you could work up a deal where premium beyond members get a discount at local or online shops? Maybe talk to the sponsors about it...

I think a price of $50 a year is perfect. Divide that by 12 and you got a monthly recurring membership. PayPal makes that SO easy to do.

Bet your ass I'll go premium.

[Canmorite]

A lot of Forums are doing this. A great way to generate some cash flow for running the site/give back to the 'community'.

[Toms-SC]

Need something for OG status dude. :thumbsup:

[JAYMEZ]

How about the banning of a premium , hows that work lol

[962 kid]

I'm down for this, the new google ads are really pissing me off. Everytime you experiment with a new format for them, it's just after I got used to the old one :thumbsdow

[theken]

how bout the guys that have been here since 02?

[Talies R]

I think all members that registered in '02 should be eligible for free premium membership because without them alot of us would never have heard about Beyond.

[benyl]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ_STi
How about the banning of a premium , hows that work lol

No refund! Incentive not to be a loser if you pay for premium.

[BigMass]

webspace for pictures, movies, etc. would be sweet. I hate using my telus account lol

[AllGoNoShow]

I'm all for the premium memberships.

Put as of right now I have a hard time keeping my PM box to 300, so maybe premium like 500 or so and the regular users whatever, would probably still be the same amount of space taken on the server as right now but were also paying to help upgrade space if needed as the premium memberships grow.

[kaput]

.

[JVR1]

Originally posted by Talies R
I think all members that registered in '02 should be eligible for free premium membership because without them alot of us would never have heard about Beyond.

:werd: how about the first 1000 members get free premium.. i'm not much of poster but been reading for a long time..

[962 kid]

Originally posted by Talies R
I think all members that registered in '02 should be eligible for free premium membership because without them alot of us would never have heard about Beyond.


Originally posted by JVR1


:werd: how about the first 1000 members get free premium.. i'm not much of poster but been reading for a long time..

you jews ;) sounds like a good idea hehe

[benyl]

Originally posted by JVR1


:werd: how about the first 1000 members get free premium.. i'm not much of poster but been reading for a long time..

sweet, I made the cut!

[EK 2.0]

Originally posted by benyl

sweet, I made the cut!



haha just barely...

[Thaco]

i think $5 a month is a bit excessive, maybe like $20 a year is fair, but that's the most I'd pay.

Maybe make different membership levels. like bronze silver gold

bronze being free with all ads, silver being $20 a year with a bigger pm box say 250, and get rid of that stupid telus ad, and gold having a custom user title, no ads except the locals, and like 400 pm box for $50 a year.

[ricefarmer]

I don't know...... I think $50 is a little steep for a website offering no real services/info other than what its members contribute for free I understand the cost of running a large website, especially after the barage of bone heads joining specifically for the purpose of participating in our new famed thread.

I don't want to lose any of the capabilities and freedoms I have now on beyond after it goes premium and I don't mind limited pm space or whatever.

the one suggestion i have: how about different levels of paid subscription.... i.e. $10, $20, or $50(for those willing to pay) I'd pay $20 for all premium access but without the hosting and storage capacity for pics and pm's that $50 would get you???. I could part with $20 a year, probably not $50 because I still want access to the whole site.

edit: damn he beat me to it^^ haha

[HRD2PLZ]

Originally posted by JVR1


:werd: how about the first 1000 members get free premium..

:werd: :rofl:

I do think the premium membership is a good idea. I would imagine the cost of running a forum like this would be pretty substantial. Lot's of other forums do have it. I would pay for a premium membership, but I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than $50/yr.

[justincalgary]

Originally posted by Thaco
i think $5 a month is a bit excessive, maybe like $20 a year is fair, but that's the most I'd pay.

Maybe make different membership levels. like bronze silver gold

bronze being free with all ads, silver being $20 a year with a bigger pm box say 250, and get rid of that stupid telus ad, and gold having a custom user title, no ads except the locals, and like 400 pm box for $50 a year.

Not really sure how $5 is excessive, considering that for us that smoke, it's less than half a pack, for those that have a xbox 360 that you probably use less than beyond is $60 a year. Considering this site has been free for 5 years, and I have been using it freely for the last year and a half myself, I would have no problem sending the guys $5 a month or $50 a year. This site keeps me entertained at work 6 days a week.

Sorry for the run on sentence.

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by kaput
More payment options than just paypal.

I'm sure they would organize someone to collect payment in CASH at Beyond meets starting up spring time...am I correct Rage?

20 Msgs for inbox/outbox? That's pretty small for non-paying; i'd recommend around 40-50 if that includes outbox (sent PM) storage for non-payers...

And for custom user titles, i'm all for it as well...but certain ones like: Admin, Administrator, Mod, Moderator, etc. should be kept for "official" actual person's in those positions to avoid mix-up/abuse of that name IMO

Otherwise... :thumbsup:

[Sharpie]

Im down also, maybe make the marketplace premium members only.

[Godfuader]

The price seems fair for the amount of time most of us spend on here. I don't think any of the new "features" would appeal to me personally, but i would dish out $20-$50 / year.

We need to ensure that the free option is available, cuz beyond wouldn't have its appeal without all of its oddballs.

[finboy]

even if it was the first 500 members it would be fine :D

$5 a month sounds fine, could you make the attatchments appear under the poster's post instead of having to click to view the beyond hosted image?

[Redlyne_mr2]

Man the custom user titles were a novelty ..now everyone will have one...cancel that feature.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by Talies R
I think all members that registered in '02 should be eligible for free premium membership because without them alot of us would never have heard about Beyond.

I think that's more reason to give, the guys who have been the backbone of the site should feel like they HAVE to pay for premium membership.

I think $50/yr sounds reasonable.

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by Sharpie
Im down also, maybe make the marketplace premium members only.

Nah, marketplace open to all = more exposure....

i'm for keeping that one IMO

[kenny]

beyond track day subsidy :)

[TEAMFaint]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2
Man the custom user titles were a novelty ..now everyone will have one...cancel that feature.

Agreed.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by toyboy88


Nah, marketplace open to all = more exposure....

i'm for keeping that one IMO

I agree, I don't think that would be a good idea at all.

Custom user title is probably the only thing that I'm interested in, nothing else would effect me at all.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by TEAMFaint


Agreed.

How many people do you guys think will actually pick up premium membership?

Ohh, and not that I endorse anyone getting free premium, if anybody does it should be the top posters.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ_STi
How about the banning of a premium , hows that work lol

Yeah, this is something that I'm concerned about too. I'd hate to have people sign up for premium account just cause they know they can get away with shit without being banned. Maybe as an alternative, premium members can be suspended for like 3-7 days? Or we can just make it a rule, signing up for a premium account doesn't give you an excuse to be a douche bag and you're just as likely to get banned as a regular member! Put your money on the counter and get out!


Originally posted by Sharpie
Im down also, maybe make the marketplace premium members only.

I'm very keen on this idea too. It'll be a good way to help curb useless, off topic postings that I'm getting tired of seeing (and cleaning up).

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2
Man the custom user titles were a novelty ..now everyone will have one...cancel that feature.

Agreed. Users should have to earn the title, and they shouldn't be able to choose it, either.

$5/mo sounds reasonable, maybe with a discount for buying a full year, that sort of thing.

[turbotrip]

giving the first 1000 users free memberships would be stupid, since those 1000 probably make up a large percent of the people who would even consider buying memberships.

[HIDStop]

Sponsors have premium included in advertising cost?

[Zephyr]

Zilvia.net does prenium too, they have quite a lot of people buying it too.




Taken from Zilvia.net:

Access to Members Rides section. Ability to upload two cars with ten 1MB Images each car
Access to Premium Member's Exclusive Forum
Google Ads Removed on Forum Threads
Maximum PM Storage is set to 500 Stored Messages
Attachment size is increased to 1500000 Bytes
Avatar Size is increased to 50000 Bytes
Profile pix can be 200x200 and 250000 Bytes
Show edited by note on edited messages is Disabled
Can Deny Private Message Read Receipt Request
Can Use Message Tracking
Can Set Self to Invisible Mode
Can 'See' Users Who Have Chosen to be Invisible While Online
Can Use Custom Title
Can Delete Own Posts
Can Open / Close Own Threads
Can Delete Own Threads
Can Post Events
Can Edit Own Events
Can Delete Own Events


http://www.zilvia.net/index.php?page=premium

[dooman24]

you know what.. i'm not really for paying.. but if i have to i would..
but.. i think monthly fee's useless.. annual fee would be alot better.. i mean pay $5 for a month.. then next time what.. you're not a prenium member no more.. then 2 months later you are again.. then after you're not.. i mean.. that's such a hassle.. why not just make a flat fee of 20$ a year! cause that's as much as i'd pay to.. then.. you'll just have to pay once a year.. instead of paying every month.. i don't know if you guys understand what i'm saying.. i'm kinda tired don't really wanna explain.. but basicly i think monthly payments would be a hassle.. for the website/user

[bluetek]

Well to keep everyone happy like rage said in the original post he could have like a certain time subscriptions that people can sign up for. ie- 1 month=5, 3month:15, 6 month:30, 1 year:50. This way you can pick what is most convienent for you!

I like some of what Zilvia has. Im really a fan of message tracking as well as deleting posts/threads and what not.

As far as all the talk goes on the fee well for me anyways it all depends on the services that are being offered. If alot of changes are made and you can do most of the suggestions that were made then yah i'd probably pay the 50$/year. If only a few minor details were added like user title, premium members forum, and being ad free i'd most likely only pay like 20$ a year or opt out of it entirely.

just looked and zilvia members get everything what zephyr posted for $10/year. Pretty good deal.

[2BLUE]

What does it cost to be a moderator on this site?

[sneek]

I saw this kind of thing on an Explorer forum. You could pay $35 a year or something like that, or you could contribute to the beyond community through a thread Eg. CalgaryDave

[buh_buh]

Maybe the shit disturbing premium members (the ones that are supposed to be receiving a banning) will just forfeit their premium membership for 1 year with no refund. Then if you get banned again, then your gone for good. Not sure if that would encourage people to "buy" another life though.

I don't really like the idea of having custom user titles too. It belittles those of us who do have one haha.

[rage2]

Originally posted by ricefarmer
I don't know...... I think $50 is a little steep for a website offering no real services/info other than what its members contribute for free I understand the cost of running a large website, especially after the barage of bone heads joining specifically for the purpose of participating in our new famed thread.

I don't want to lose any of the capabilities and freedoms I have now on beyond after it goes premium and I don't mind limited pm space or whatever.
The premium membership is just for ppl that want MORE stuff than they have now, with the exception of large PM box. So if you want to continue having everything you have now, you pay nothing, it's still free for you.

Really, this whole premium membership thing isn't to make money, it's to please the folks who do not like the ads and would rather contribute to the site in a more direct manner.

[EK 2.0]

Originally posted by 2BLUE
What does it cost to be a moderator on this site?


see this thread here...It will give you the breakdowns on Moderators. (http://forums.beyond.ca/st/123319/moderators/)

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz


Yeah, this is something that I'm concerned about too. I'd hate to have people sign up for premium account just cause they know they can get away with shit without being banned. Maybe as an alternative, premium members can be suspended for like 3-7 days? Or we can just make it a rule, signing up for a premium account doesn't give you an excuse to be a douche bag and you're just as likely to get banned as a regular member! Put your money on the counter and get out!



I'm very keen on this idea too. It'll be a good way to help curb useless, off topic postings that I'm getting tired of seeing (and cleaning up).

Yea if we do make the marketplace premium, make it so that free users can still create original marketplace threads themselves and view ALL threads made by anyone, but only premium users can post in someone else's marketplace thread....otherwise take it to private PM to keep the marketplace free of useless posts...

i think that will work no? :dunno:

[QuasarCav]

$5 a month and $50 a year sounds pretty reasonable, god knows how much money I've saved using the marketplace.

I would be hesitant to restrict the marketplace to only premium members. I would be worried that alot of traffic would be lost although the idea of no curbing and selling 1980's era TV's would be nice.

Maybe a 160x160 avatar as well.....

[Crymson]

+1 for the hosting
+1 for 500 messagne pm box, and no waiting for searches and pms
+1 for no intellitext and google ads.
+1 for "if your'e banned, as a premium member, you're still banned" -- However, if people are going to be paid, mods have to be more accountable.


-1 for the custom titles

It would be cool to see some kind of discount at sponsor's shops for premium members.

I also think if you sign up for a year, you should get a t-shirt, or a beer mug, or some stickers. Something material.

[bbcustoms]

I like the forums the way they are now
If we have to see a few more ads or banners to keep it going I dont mind at all
The fee for premium membership might also drive away new members especially if there is no use of the marketplace for them
I tend to shy away from sites that charge just to access all the features
For instance a couple years ago I registered on groundpilots, spent two days on the forums and never went back. I remember thinking that if they had it free like beyond they would probally have a lot more members
If you do have to set it up with premium memberships though I would suggest leaving it the way it is for basic members and premium memberships get a custom user title, no wait time for pm and search, etc.

[googe]

I think its backwards, you should pay me for being such an awesome member. $5 a month is fine.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Crymson
mods have to be more accountable.


THAT's a good idea. On every other forum I'm a member, if a mods modifies or deletes your post, you get a PM stating why. :thumbsup:

Maybe paid members could get a discount on the "premium" marketplace (the photo ones at the top of the page) Instead of $25/month, only $15 or $20.

[R-Audi]

I havent been here from the start.. but certainly not new. (Ok, so 7 months after it started)
To me $50 a year does sound a little steep... broken down to $5/month doesnt sound as bad.. but personally I dont think I would be interested. The differences you would get on the actual forum dont hold a ton of value, maybe if the price was lowered, or something else was thrown in. T-Shirt perhaps? Discount Card with Sponsors? (Something else to create value)

And not to start shit, but where would this money go? I realize it costs a lot to support (isnt that why its covered with adds?) but if the money was going to some charity I would certainly feel better about paying... rather then to someones Pho/beer/mods... No offense Rage.

[rage2]

Originally posted by bbcustoms
The fee for premium membership might also drive away new members especially if there is no use of the marketplace for them
I tend to shy away from sites that charge just to access all the features
We won't be restricting the marketplace to non-premium. The marketplace as well as the rest of the forums was built by everyone here, and will continue on being free. All features will be available for free users, except the premium members lounge.


Originally posted by R-Audi
To me $50 a year does sound a little steep... broken down to $5/month doesnt sound as bad.. but personally I dont think I would be interested. The differences you would get on the actual forum dont hold a ton of value
I agree that it doesn't hold a ton of value for the end user. I'm really not expecting too many people to sign on to it. The primary purpose of the premium membership is really to stop the complaining of the ads lol.

We need ads to help pay for servers and bandwidth. That's a no brainer. We're trying our best to make the ads non-intrusive, and thus far, I think it's not bad compared to other forums... the first post ad is a little much even for me, but that's it.

The $ amount I came up with is an estimation of how much revenue one member would generate if they had ads on the screen, regardless if it was legitimate clicks, accidental clicks, or just impressions. I took that number, rounded it up slightly and came up with $5/month. So in essence, it's just redirecting revenue from advertisers to us directly. So for those that don't want to see the ads, we've presented them an option. In my opinion, I don't care if 0 people buy premium memberships, it would make no difference to us.


Originally posted by R-Audi
And not to start shit, but where would this money go? I realize it costs a lot to support (isnt that why its covered with adds?) but if the money was going to some charity I would certainly feel better about paying... rather then to someones Pho/beer/mods... No offense ........
My Pho/beer/mods money is already going into the forums haha. We pay out of our own pockets to fund this stuff. The ads just make the pain a little less painful ;).

[BigShow]

Is all of the current advertising necessary to compensate running the site?

[R-Audi]

I don't know the financials of the site, and I certainly dont expect Rage and Kenny to do this for free... but this does come off as somewhat of a money grub. Like I said above, if there was some added value, or it went to Charity I would certainly feel better about a paid membership. (Probably better with the Charity thing, and that way you could continue with positive publicity)

<edit>Rage, if you are still paying for the forum out of pocket, I would be happy to pay for a membership...

[googe]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


THAT's a good idea. On every other forum I'm a member, if a mods modifies or deletes your post, you get a PM stating why. :thumbsup:


this is the wrong line of thinking. why do the mods owe you anything? the board as a whole is an entirely private system, and just because it happens to be fairly large, members suddenly feel that they are entitled to "rights". its a free-for-all, you arent paying the mods to babysit, and they arent getting paid to do anything.

some of them spend hours a day pruning crap because people cant follow simple rules, i think expecting them to waste even more time on them by hand-holding is asking a bit much :)

[rage2]

Originally posted by BigShow
Is all of the current advertising necessary to compensate running the site?
As I've mentioned many times, all of the current advertising doesn't cover the costs of running the site. We've been paying out of our own pockets.

As an idea of the usage from the RSX story, I explained how much data we moved here:

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/168434/performance-problems/

1750GB of data. We pay $1.41/GB, which is partially subsidized by my work since we use beyond as a scalability model for our products here. So it's been an expensive 2 days even with the reduced rate.

[civiclvr]

Ok, I've read through this and I feel somewhat obligated to give my opinion.

I've been on here since 03 and have used beyond as a huge resource. I was starting to get into cars at the time and this place helped alot. Sometimes in direct help, and sometimes in making me research properly (hey you can only believe so much)

However, I do only rarely contribute. In part due to my limited knowledge, i don't want to give advice that may be wrong and partly because I do not want to contribute in what most threads degrade into (nor do i want to start the hosility).

For this reason I have become a basic troll on this site. the Marketplace being the most important of areas for me. I have bought and sold several things in there and met some good people. Yes, the marketplace does degenerate often, but the more people there the more chance I have of finding things I need/want

That being said, this site was a general information site on autos that has since ballooned into now a social site that includes everything from local events to the latest "i'm mad at my girlfriend" personal thread. I understand the amount of work put in to maintaining and streamlining this site (thanks btw) I know this site likes to cater to all, but the general populace will most likely leave to other free sites to talk about working out or food reviews etc. This place first and foremost is a car site... but the car people are becoming outnumbered (or so it seems)

Our member base has grown incredibly, yes, but I think even that needs to be looked at. after just clicking the "members" link the first 4 people there have NEVER posted. I think there should be a "you need to post x amount in x amount of days" clause.. and if they only post crap, they get banned. a useless user gone.

This site is based purely on peoples opinions, and peoples experiences.. that is available readily anywhere for free. I'd be interested to see how many people who actually contribute information stay with the new fee system.

All this being said, I do agree somewhat with a fee system. though I do not like the actual fee. Maybe some information about why. why now? Is the site losing money? is it becoming more of a chore than fun?

This site is not what it used to be, and by that I mean it's not as nice (read: people being helpful rather than condesending) as it used to be. I have found myself searching out a nicer more helpful site rather than coming here for the "it's just a civic" or "it's still a neon/sunfire/cav" comments

My suggestions for the site would be:

a smaller fee - knowing I can come here rather than search the net for a small piece of information does have it's benifits. I would gladly pay $20 to have that access.. and it's more than enough to turn away the casual viewer.

a stricter banning rule. I don't care if they are premium or not a douchebag is a douchebag is a douchebag

the x amount of posts in x amount of days rule (the member base would thin... fast) either than or we need to just go through the members and delete them if they haven't posted in 6 months... they are taking up space.

a DIY forum: to actually give people something for signing up.

That's all i can think of at the moment.. the actual benefits of being a premium member don't concern me.. i'll still use beyond the same.. i have no sig or avatar.. it's not nessesary to learn/buy something/help someone

if the fee does have to be higher, people are going to want an explaination.. and they generally want something in return. You may actually lose members. though I highly doubt that our 60,000+ members contribute..I maybe see about 200 or so people continually take part. So either 50,000+ trolls/spammers/people who signed up cause they signed up for everything or I'm missing a lot of posts.

If the fee is $50 and I lose marketplace, i'll probably go elsewhere. maybe not a loss to you guys, but as a casual viewer/poster/seller & buyer, others will lose out.

But anyways, thanks for the time and info so far. I think i've done babbling for now (another reason I post so rarely)

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. I better start cleaning out the inbox to prep for this....

edit: i was writing this as rage2 posted the money out of his own pocket thing-y.. makes a bit more sense.. still the majority of my post still stands... Is it the size of the site that costs so much? maybe some streamlining? (getting rid of stuff)

[BigShow]

To me the biggest value of Beyond has been the free classifeds, I would subscribe just to maintain access to marketplace.

Also, that Telus commercial ad in the top right corner of threads is a definate eyesore.

[kenny]

Just wanted to clarify something, and this is the #1 reason why I've been against offering premium memberships in the past.

The site is NOT going to change even if we introduced a premium membership option.

It is OPTIONAL, which means if you don't do opt for it, the site remains fully accessible. The marketplace will still be there for all users, and everyone (without even registering) will still have access browse the site.

This thread is a suggestion thread, which means not everything will be implemented here for premium members. I vote that NOTHING changes for existing users including PM inbox sizes.

I repeat, beyond.ca is NOT going to a paid service. It is remaining 100% free and always will be.

[rage2]

Originally posted by civiclvr
This site is based purely on peoples opinions, and peoples experiences.. that is available readily anywhere for free. I'd be interested to see how many people who actually contribute information stay with the new fee system.

All this being said, I do agree somewhat with a fee system. though I do not like the actual fee. Maybe some information about why. why now? Is the site losing money? is it becoming more of a chore than fun?

If the fee is $50 and I lose marketplace, i'll probably go elsewhere. maybe not a loss to you guys, but as a casual viewer/poster/seller &amp; buyer, others will lose out.
The getting rid of marketplace for free ppl was a suggestion that's not done by us. I replied to the idea turning it down completely.

As for why now? Because people are complaining about the ads. We've been slowly tweaking the ads to we can make up for some of our losses. Don't get me wrong, I love running the site, which is why I continue to pour personal $ into the site. It's a great technical challenge for me, excellent learning experience, so my financial contribution to this site is like tuition. I get to be better at my real job by maintaining this site.

Like I said earlier, we're only doing this because some members are asking for it because they don't like the ads. If you don't feel like this site is worth the membership fee, you lose nothing in continuing to use this site and all the services offered, for free. We know that the site is built on the members here, and we will continue to offer everything that we have in the past, that's what made us successful. But we do have to listen to what members want, and we're trying to put together something just for those people.

Honestly, if people feel that this fee system is bad, I'll just scrap the entire idea and continue with our ads, because it's going to take a lot of work for me to add some features that we came up with in this thread. Much easier for me, but I would be ignoring the users that actually want this.

[Nate]

I dont post much. But I am on here alot reading. I really enjoy the site. I hate all the ads that are on here now. I would be up for paying for premium membership. I would suggest 5/month, 25 for 6 months, and 30-45 for a year.

Is thier anyway we could get a template to be filled out for the marketplace. Kinda like for the cell phones. Especially for for the cars for sale.

Rage2 and Mods. Thanks for keeping this site up and running aswell as it does.

[rage2]

Originally posted by kenny
Just wanted to clarify something, and this is the #1 reason why I've been against offering premium memberships in the past.
haha it's funny, I've been trying to convince kenny to have an optional premium membership because some ppl hate the ads, and he's said no for the last 2 years. He predicted the backlash that would occur, even tho nothing will change for free members, and just extra stuff offered for paying members. I disagreed... and well... I guess I was wrong lol.

So ya, I guess you win this one :rofl:.

At this point really, I will go either way... I can scrap the entire idea completely with no probs.

[rage2]

Originally posted by Nate
Is thier anyway we could get a template to be filled out for the marketplace. Kinda like for the cell phones. Especially for for the cars for sale.
Sure, think up of a template, and I'll add it in. Fairly easy to do.

[Ogpogo]

I have no problems with the ads, but Im curious as to how much clearer the pages will look without them.

I just think the whole "Premium Membership" idea is missing something though, because all I can picture is paying $50 a year just to have "Super G-Thug" etc written under my username. Maybe if there was a little perk, like pay your $50 subscription, or subscribe for two years for $100 and get a beyond t-shirt and lanyard or something - just something to spice it up a bit. Just my $0.02, but even just out of my thanks for building and maintaining this site Id pay the $50. Its really one of the greatest forums I've seen.


Edit: I cant remember who said it, but I also agree that a monthly subscription base might be too hectic for mods to handle, unless it was all automated. I just think year amounts would be easier to handle.

[rage2]

Yea, we've learned our lesson with some of the other services here... so anything we do going forward would be a self maintained automated service.

[D'z Nutz]

It's amazing how some of you still don't get it.

Don't think of it as a "I gotta pay to use Beyond" fee, which it isn't.

It's more like a "You've been great to me Beyond, I'd like to help where I can so here's my contribution which is completely optional and doesn't effect anything as a me being a member. Oh, extra perks? Thanks again" donation.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2
Man the custom user titles were a novelty ..now everyone will have one...cancel that feature.

:werd: , those are awesome and should be earned not bought!

Edit - and now after continuing to read the whole thread.....I can't believe people that don't want to pay are all worked up - YOU AREN'T LOSING ANYTHING, YOU CAN KEEP STUFFING PENNIES INTO YOUR JAR AND MONEY IN YOUR MATRESSES!!!!

Those of us who would pay, can and will, and the rest of you can keep shopping out of discount bins and dumpster diving to keep your cost of living down. It's A-O.K.

[topher91]

Hmm... this board has done lots for me, so I'd be willing to pay some $$ for a premium membership.

GIVE ME A T-SHIRT!! and some Stickers!! My cats play with the Beyond lanyard that kooky got. haha

[2BLUE]

Originally posted by EK 2.0



see this thread here...It will give you the breakdowns on Moderators. (http://forums.beyond.ca/st/123319/moderators/)

Thanks. Next question what does a website of this size already bring in ?

[benyl]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE

Edit - and now after continuing to read the whole thread.....I can't believe people that don't want to pay are all worked up - YOU AREN'T LOSING ANYTHING, YOU CAN KEEP STUFFING PENNIES INTO YOUR JAR AND MONEY IN YOUR MATRESSES!!!!


PM box size is decreasing for non premium members according some of the posts.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by benyl


PM box size is decreasing for non premium members according some of the posts.

but if you read Kenny's post he said he would be against that.

[ninjak84]

Give us webspace, like DTM used to do. Then I'd be happy to upgrade...
Even if it wasn't much. Maybe 3-5mb per person. At least it's enough for a few good pictures.
Except please don't tag the pictures with a beyond logo. That ruins the feature.

[kenny]

Originally posted by Thaco


but if you read Kenny's post he said he would be against that.

:thumbsup: I might be a newbie but hopefully I'll have some voting power :rofl:

[turbotrip]

i dont think decreasing the number of PM's non paying members have is a good idea, i dont think anything should change for those who dont wanna pay. But then again the whole idea sounds like its not gonna work very well to me.

[rage2]

The reason I suggested cutting down on # of PM's is that we initially set 300 as a maximum because we didn't think that people would keep more than 100 in their PM boxes (ideally). I did some database profiling and noticed that whenever a user with lots of PM browses beyond, it eats up a lot of CPU, which kills performance for other users, or requires us to buy more hardware to handle the load.

So here's some Private Message Box stats that I pulled. I'm only counting active PM users, which means if you've never used PM, it's not counted in these statistics.

# of PMs Average: 22.81 PM's per user
# of PMs Mode : 10063 users (with 1 PM in their PM box)

Here's a distribution of # of users (left) vs # of PM's in their PM box (bottom). I set the # of users max to 500 for display so the data is at least viewable.

http://www.virgeweb.com/rage2/misc/pm.jpg

Breaking down this graph...

~80% of users have less than 18 PM's in their box.
~90% of users have less than 58 PM's in their box.
~95% of users have less than 113 PM's in their box.

Now, in terms of setting a cutoff...

20 PM cutoff, 21% of PM users will need to delete PM's.
100 PM cutoff, 8% of PM users will need to delete PM's.
150 PM cutoff, 5% of PM users will need to delete PM's.
200 PM cutoff, 3% of PM users will need to delete PM's.

I came up with 20 initially before pulling these stats, and the number came from amount of CPU usage vs # of PM's, with 20 being very little and giving us a lot more CPU room back. But looking at these stats, I think a more realistic cutoff would be 100 or 150, which would still help reduce CPU time, just not as much as setting it down to 20. That way, we have a lot less affected users. Who really needs more than 100 PM's in their box anyways? ;)

In anycase, we DO have to reduce the # of PM's in the system because it's eating up way too much CPU time, regardless if we implement a premium membership or not. The question is how much should we reduce it by?

[dino_martini]

Maybe have an option instead of paying monthly, you can pay at once for 1, 2 or 3 years?

Maybe I should bid to become a mod here LOL

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by rage2
The reason I suggested cutting down on # of PM's

<snip>



Kenny made reference to a new feature a long while back about being able to download PMs onto your computer, but I'm sure that idea got backlogged. How about putting in such a feature now that it's more important? Then you can have it such that PMs expire of X amount of days, ie: 30, so that it'll be the member's responsibilty to archive important messages.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

I think the ability to offload PM's would be a key asset for premium members, instead of the larger inbox.

[max_boost]

I'm willing to donate no questions asked regardless of what the perks are. Only problem is with the custom user title, like others have said, that shit has to be earned yo. :rofl: :thumbsup:

[buh_buh]

to the guys that are pissed off/too much of cheapskates to pay: ITS OPTIONAL!! Not everyone has to pay $50 a month, so if you don't want to pay $50, then don't. The site will stay exactly the same for you. Its mainly for the people who want to pay the $50 and don't see any more ads. So instead of you paying the $50, you'll be paying the $50 by putting up with the ads.

[kenny]

Originally posted by max_boost
I'm willing to donate no questions asked regardless of what the perks are. Only problem is with the custom user title, like others have said, that shit has to be earned yo. :rofl: :thumbsup:

Hey you haven't been picking on the what car to buy thread posters lately... hmm.... ;)

[toyboy88]

Thanks for the stats on the PM stuff rage!

I personally think either 100 max limit, or at least 50 bare minimum for free user inbox size (sent/recieved)...and maybe 250-300 for premium users?

And pricing based on some of the suggestions
1 month - $5
3 months - $13
6 months - $25
1 year - $45

:dunno:

[Redlyne_mr2]

Originally posted by toyboy88
Thanks for the stats on the PM stuff rage!

I personally think either 100 max limit, or at least 50 bare minimum for free user inbox size (sent/recieved)...and maybe 250-300 for premium users?

And pricing based on some of the suggestions
1 month - $5
3 months - $13
6 months - $25
1 year - $45

:dunno:
Its not worth the hassle and additional paypal fees to pay here and there. One flat yearly fee would be the only way.

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2

Its not worth the hassle and additional paypal fees to pay here and there. One flat yearly fee would be the only way.

Take out the 3 month option then put 2 (for people who want to "Try" it ou), 6, and yearly?

[Sharpie]

Originally posted by max_boost
I'm willing to donate no questions asked regardless of what the perks are. Only problem is with the custom user title, like others have said, that shit has to be earned yo. :rofl: :thumbsup:
Shit, I need to start asking for pics of little girls... I want that pedophile tag haha.


Originally posted by buh_buh
to the guys that are pissed off/too much of cheapskates to pay: ITS OPTIONAL!! Not everyone has to pay $50 a month, so if you don't want to pay $50, then don't. The site will stay exactly the same for you. Its mainly for the people who want to pay the $50 and don't see any more ads. So instead of you paying the $50, you'll be paying the $50 by putting up with the ads.
I am getting confused... I dont think it is $50 a month, but rather like $50 a year. Regardless how much it is, I am down for paying for the premium membership. Some people are just to cheap...

[5hift]

I'm so used to getting bombarded with ads everywhere I go, so I'm not sure what the big deal is with all the people whining about the ads here on Beyond. They are not that intrusive. That said, I dont get how Beyond's operating costs can be high enough that charging for memberships would be warranted, especially considering the number of other ads and paid sponsers there are here. There so are many sites out there that are much larger with a lot more traffic, yet they have less advertising and no charged membership, so there has to be some other way around it.

That said, with the custom user title issue, everything should stay the way it is. Move up the gears after being a contributing member for a while, and become a Mod over time if you become liked, or get a car that all the other mods really like.;)

[kenny]

Originally posted by 5hift
That said, I dont get how Beyond's operating costs can be high enough that charging for memberships would be warranted, especially considering the number of other ads and paid sponsers there are here.

There is no need for premium memberships in terms of offsetting costs, thats what the ads are there for. The only reason it is being brought up was because some people are complaining about the ads and don't want to see them.

I've been against the premium membership idea from day 1, but it appears some members are being vocal about us not offering one so we're looking for suggestions on what we should offer in the premium package IF we were to offer it.

[buh_buh]

Originally posted by Sharpie

Shit, I need to start asking for pics of little girls... I want that pedophile tag haha.


I am getting confused... I dont think it is $50 a month, but rather like $50 a year. Regardless how much it is, I am down for paying for the premium membership. Some people are just to cheap... yea my bad $50 a year, not a month.

[banned3x]

how much would it cost to put banned under my name?

[AllGoNoShow]

Just for mentioning it you probably won't be able to login tomorrow ;)

Any updates on if its actually going to happen or not?

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by turbotrip
giving the first 1000 users free memberships would be stupid, since those 1000 probably make up a large percent of the people who would even consider buying memberships. :werd: I wouldn't make any use of the additional features, but may contribute only since I've been a member since 2002. I have also seen forums in the past that simply had a paypal 'donation' link that still seemed to generate quite a bit of revenue. Perhaps beyond should just take a percentage of every sale in the marketplace. :rofl:

[kenny]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz
Kenny made reference to a new feature a long while back about being able to download PMs onto your computer, but I'm sure that idea got backlogged. How about putting in such a feature now that it's more important? Then you can have it such that PMs expire of X amount of days, ie: 30, so that it'll be the member's responsibilty to archive important messages.

Its been brought up from the super backlog and is now on the to-figure-out-how-to-do-it list :)

[Team_Mclaren]

Originally posted by CLiVE
. Perhaps beyond should just take a percentage of every sale in the marketplace. :rofl:

man we're gonna be fricking loaded if we take any amount of transaction out of the marketplace haha

[Redlyne_mr2]

Looks like the telus ads are gone that was really the only big issue I had.

[rc2002]

Originally posted by Team_Mclaren


man we're gonna be fricking loaded if we take any amount of transaction out of the marketplace haha

That'd be some pretty good coin. I'd be all for it - I love Beyond's marketplace. :love: There's a lot of cheap asses would be against though - I'm sure marketplace traffic would ebb if something like that was imposed.