[Suggestion] Premium Membership - Page 9

Quoting Insanity Prevails's post would get very long so I'll simply sum it up here.

Yes, access to my.post history would add strain to the servers, but remember, people are paying for it, and only those who pay for it get access. This would be the server strain wouldn't be as intense, and those who were causing the strain would be paying for it (keep in mind, some of the money could go towards new servers).

You'd be surprised at how many members have their inboxes full, and would more than likely love to have plenty of extra room to store their PM's.

By slight increase, I was thinking about 5kb for avatars and 20kb for banners, but those numbers are completely up in the air. Even numbers that small (especially with the avatars) can make a fair difference. The sig weight feature would simply allow you to put more things in your sig, so that wouldn't exactly be too taxing on those with 56k connections.

I realize that many members don't use custom smilies too much, but why not throw it in as an option anyways? Besides, if I had the extra space, I'd probably use them, just because I could (and they'd add some variety).

I already use an ad-blocker, and I've never seen a single ad on here, but I've seen from people's screenshots that not everybody has an ad-blocker, and not everybody can be bothered to get one. I'm sure that there are a fair amount of members that'd love for an easy way to get rid of the ads here (or at least reduce them).

quote Insanity Prevails

Basically I don't see the need for a Premium Membership system. There's nothing in your suggested list that would convince me to fork over any money.

That's just the thing, there is no need for it, but there's obviously a want for it (by some). Assuming that Redemption came up with a decent list of features, at least a few people would buy it, and that's money that Neoseeker didn't have before. Even without it though, Neo's still a great site and there's nothing to complain about, so that means that people wouldn't feel like they had to get a premium membership just to keep up. It'd simply be a nice bonus for those willing to pay Neoseeker for it.

The main problem I see with this is the Moderator thing. Say you have a forum that qualifies to have a moderator, and someone who is a premium member and someone who isn't a premium member both apply. During the review, Moderator Requests decides that the non-premium member is more qualified, and that person is promoted. This would bring up arguments from the premium member, saying that they should have been promoted because they pay money to the site. This and other problems are why I don't support this idea.

quote pyroguy56011

I already use an ad-blocker, and I've never seen a single ad on here, but I've seen from people's screenshots that not everybody has an ad-blocker, and not everybody can be bothered to get one. I'm sure that there are a fair amount of members that'd love for an easy way to get rid of the ads here (or at least reduce them).

If these members are too lazy to get a downloadable ad-blocker, what makes you think they would be any more bothered going through the process of sending money to Neoseeker for a privilege they could get for free?

You do make some other valid points though, like the custom smilies and PM thing.

quote Enhance

If the price was ten dollars a year then they would get around 1000 dollars. If it was like I suggested awhile back a yearly ten dollars then they could gain 1000+ dollars a year.

Where'd you get that figure from? I suppose the number of people willing to pay would depend entirely on what is offered, but this brings up the point of division. Too little and it won't be worth it; too much and members who can't pay might leave in disgust.

quote Wo Daddy Wo

One thing you need to remember that under the current structure everything is free. There are zero unhappy customers. Once you begin offering services for a fee you open up a can of worms with people not getting what they thought they were going to get or asking for their money back if they get banned and similar situations. Not to mention the added paperwork of someone handling the 10 bucks that comes into the office a dozen different ways.

You dont understand how things work do you? If someone pays the fee for more features and they break the rules, then guess what? Tought shit. They lose. If they pay and dont get what they want, tough shit, since it would be laid out on the page advertising the fee. It could be set up on a monthly basis, so if you dont get what you thought you got, then dont sign up the next month.

Sites like deviantArt and lastfm offer subscriber fees with more features for paying users and I doubt they get many complaints. There is no hostility between paying members and regular members.

And since when doesnt anyone care about the hassle of collecting money in 5158 ways?

This is an awful Suggestion in my opinion, its another way to segregate the members of the site. It would make people dislike Neoseeker and in the long run would not help very much.

I support it. I won't use it, but others will.

It won't cause a split in the members. Many of us are content with what we have now. But maybe if you add in something like

- music in your profile
- double your number of saved PM's
- Threads Created History

And a handful of other benefits then people will pay and it'll work out quite nicely. Yeah they'll get more benefits than those of us not paying, but who cares? Remember, WE'RE NOT PAYING, we're not supposed to get those same benefits.

Is there any word on anything like this happening any time soon? I now have the means and the money to donate, but I'd rather not donate this week if next week donating will enlarge my organ and make me $$$ in my spare time.