We also add "Thanks" buttons so members can give each other some positive karma by thanking them for certain posts.
You have some great ideas, but I don't like this one. It turns into a popularity contest, or people posting crap just to get karma. See: Reddit.
All of the above take a considerable investment (time, new software licenses, etc) which is hard to justify when members are suggesting to each other to not show their support and to simply use ad blockers.
Whoa, this is kind of an unfair dig. It's not like ad blockers are this novel, little known thing that I'm urging people to use to prevent you from getting income from the site. All of the browsers that aren't Explorer have them, and they're generally the first extension that anyone adds to their browser. Ads are super annoying, plus, as I mentioned to Martha earlier, they can be unsafe, infecting computers with malware. Between ad blockers and a good anti-virus program, my computers have been infection-free for years. Also, I've had an ad blocker for many years, and I've still paid you guys for all of those years till now, so that certainly isn't my main motivation for the pricing issue.
We could look into pulling up the work we did on a new theme and getting some improvements made but we would need but I don't have an ETA on when we could get the work done. We could probably leave a blue crack option available for choosing but we normally refrain from this because it can be harder to manage. We recently started trying to find a way to use sub-styles to inherit properties from the parent which mitigates some of the extra work if done right.
I actually think you guys have done a great job with the site, overall. I remember the Elvis years, and the frequent down times, and that doesn't happen nearly as much. I also appreciate that Janet posts when there is a planned down time. I still think though that when you're talking about adding more to the site, things that will potentially add more expense, that you should tread carefully. A quick google tells me that the current U2.com subscription fee is $40 for returning members, $50 for new members who want the gift package, or $85 who want the super-epic gift package. Plus, the ticket benefits come tour time. Correct me if I'm wrong, maybe google found an old pricing page, but that's what I found.
When I first joined here, it was $12 per year, or $2 per month. After a year or two, it went up to $16 or $3 per month (which, when you listed Elvis's fees, you said $16 or $32, which, while true, is kind of unfair. The monthly fee would either be for kids who couldn't fork over the whole annual amount at once (in which case, get off my internet, children!
) or for people trying it out. So let's just say it was $16 per year, because that's what it actually was. So then you added some games, which went over like a ton of bricks, upped the PM allowance, and made a few other upgrades, but nothing big enough to make anyone but the most hardcore to say "I'm good with paying $25 with absolutely no other benefit!" I don't know about anyone else, but there is this mental block for me where $12 or $16 for a website that I use frequently doesn't seem so bad, but when you're at near or over half of what U2.com charges with their benefits, I'm like "whatever, I can get this content from numerous other places for free, I can keep in touch with my Interference friends on Facebook and Twitter, etc." As you mentioned with yourself, I'm also a lot busier these days, and have considerably less time to spend on here. I wish I had enough cash to just throw around to every organization that was important to me or that I wanted to show my support to, but I don't. That's the bottom line for me, and I suspect others. $12 - $16 seems like pocket change, $25 seems like more support than I can offer for content that is free, otherwise.
Something I noticed is that when I first started lurking in '04 and then joined in '05, there were a lot of people around from the era of the previous tour in '01 around. Most of those people seem to have faded away. I doubt this is solely due to the cost, it's probably a combination in life getting in the way, and dwindling interest in the band. But it seems like in '04/'05, there were enough new members from that era to make up for them. As Ashley mentioned, there didn't seem to be an influx of new members from the last album and tour to make up for those numbers. Maybe the next album will capture people's interest, or maybe U2 will take their place in dad band status. I don't think that sort of thing can be predicted.
I obviously do still feel an attachment to this place, or I wouldn't have even started this thread.
Also, before I finish my manifesto (holy crap, didn't intend for it to be this long!) I want to talk about Sicy and her dedication. Over the years, she's had a revolving door of helpers (props to them, too!) as their time and ability to commit permits, but I think we all know that without her, this site would be dead and gone. And honestly, if I knew that any of the $25 fee were going to her, I probably wouldn't blink an eye in paying it. Thanks for all your hard work over the years, Sicy. We might not say it enough, but we do appreciate it.
