Paid subscriptions

[Jambi]

NetDoc,
Have you ever considered setting up a paid subscription option for users? I frequent other sites that use this option and it seems to work well. They way that it is usually set up is you pay yearly fee of $20/year (average) and in return you see no ads and you get to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Everyone else may join and participate as usual but they see the ads. What do you think? It would be worth it to me, especialy becuase it is in the same range as a magazine subscription and because of SB I no longer need magazines. BTW the ads are not annoying.



Jambi

 

[Ted S]

Paid subscription are something I have thought about before and with our new forum software, something we may think about doing in the future. When SB started this idea was new to the market and not so well recieved but things have changed so I'll bring it up agian. Thanks for the idea.

 

[RICHinNC]

What ads?? Not for charging....if you take a poll.

 

[Ted S]

What ads?? Not for charging....if you take a poll.

RICHinNC,
Could you please clarrify your post, I can't figure out what you mean? :confused2

 

[cleant]

There is a Computer board I use that changed hands and upgraded.It was all between friends but the startup and upgrade costs were considerable.
A moderator asked members who thought the board was important to them if they could donate something to help.The response was so big they set up a PayPal account as well as a snail mail address.
Once a year they have a single post asking anyone that can afford something to contribute.ALL voluntary.
I don't know about anyone else but reading this site every day is pretty important to me ,certainly worth ten or twenty dollars a year.
Tom

NetDoc,
Have you ever considered setting up a paid subscription option for users? I frequent other sites that use this option and it seems to work well. They way that it is usually set up is you pay yearly fee of $20/year (average) and in return you see no ads and you get to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Everyone else may join and participate as usual but they see the ads. What do you think? It would be worth it to me, especialy becuase it is in the same range as a magazine subscription and because of SB I no longer need magazines. BTW the ads are not annoying.



Jambi

 

[Ted S]

ScubaBoard is doing just fine financially, the banners and other advertising cover the hosting costs so don't worry about the doors being shut tomorrow. I think Jambi's intent was to give us another idea to help revenue and site stability while giving loyal users a way to help out and also get some extras in return.

 

[MikeS]

Have you ever considered setting up a paid subscription option for users?

Before requiring subscriptions, how about making support voluntary, like NPR? If you wanted to you could contribute and it would be indicated in some fashion on your user ID. Those that couldn’t afford to, or new divers just checking it out wouldn’t have to.

Mike

 

[Dive Source]

NetDoc,
Have you ever considered setting up a paid subscription option for users? I frequent other sites that use this option and it seems to work well.
Jambi

Banner ads are likely the only feasible option - start charging and this place will be a ghost town.

IMO

 

[Jambi]

MikeS, Divesource,
I never said subscription only. Perhaps I should have said Donation. I was merely suggesting a possiblity that could be offered to users if they felt inclined to contribute directly to SB. And in return they get to avoid banner ads if the so choose. Perhaps even a contributing members only forum. So everybody just relax, no one said anything about mandatory fees or subscriptions. As suggested it would all be voluntary. TechAdmin summed it up with what I exactly had in mind.


Jambi

 

[The Chairman]

Hmnnn... donate and be free of banner ads? Now thats a possibility to consider. Thanks for the suggestion!

However, we will never require a fee to access this board, just as we will never sell any information about our users. I took over this board for no other reason but to ensure that it continued to provide the awesome content that it has always been known for.