Important: Free, Fee, or Gone --- Feedback!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Please read my post below, then vote on which option you support:

  • Shutdown the forum (ultimately, the last resort)

    Votes: 20 11.0%
  • Charge a mandatory $1.50-2.00 (suggested) per month/per member

    Votes: 22 12.1%
  • Have both free and 'Premium' memberships (detailed below)

    Votes: 140 76.9%

  • Total voters
    182
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Elvis

Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Joined
May 22, 2000
Messages
4,007
Location
Orange County, CA
As many of you know, there have been and currently are issues dealing with the financial support of this site/forum. I am no longer able to give as much of my free time to the site, nor am I willing to spend anymore out of pocket money on it. While I have no wish to shut it down, I have attempted to find sources of money for the site by both taking donations and having affiliate links - both of these have proven unsuccessful for the long term. Over the last 6 years, I've spent enough money on the site to equal a VERY nice/large downpayment on a house here, in Southern California. Let's face it, the forum is growing, and personally I don't want the constant stress of worrying about how it will be paid for on a month to month basis, without it being paid for by myself. There is no such thing as a free ride, someone has to pay for all the bandwidth and servers.

I see three options:

1) Shutdown the forum (ultimately, the last resort)

2) Charge a mandatory $1.50-2.00 (suggested) per month/per member

3) Have both free and 'Premium' memberships (detailed below):


These are suggested 'Premium Member' fees (they are not final yet):
$1.50 for one month
$6 for six months
$10 for a year

-------------------
'Premium Member' benefits (things MAY be added to this list)
(FREE members will not have these features)
-------------------

User Status: Premium Member
*(will link to information page about Premium Memberships, stating the 'this member' supports the site)

Can view members info: Yes

Can download attachments: Yes

Can Search: Yes

Can use 'email to friend' feature: Yes

Can post attachments: Yes

Can post polls: Yes

Can use Private Messaging: Yes

Can use Message Tracking: Yes

Can View Who's Online: Yes

Of course, the success of opiton 2 or 3 depends on the amount of people that participate. I am aware that some users may turn their heads at any or all of the above, but something has to give.

I really don't want to charge fellow U2 fans for this place, but unless someone kicks in some stable funding for the community, I see no other way. Some people have asked 'wont the band pay for it?' or 'wont the record label pay for it?', well honestly, I see this as a futile path, I've let the contacts I have know my position in recent months, and I have not heard a peep from anyone on the topic - not even a comment like "Sorry, we can't help".

Please vote in the poll, and let your comments be heard.

Joel
 
I just voted for the Premium Service option.
As someone who has donated multiple times, I would actually rather just pay monthly....
Could it be set up to automatically deduct from a credit card? That would be great.

I don't want to see this place shut down.

:no:
 
oops I voted for manadatory but actually think you should have both free and premium but the Free should be View Only.

I know I havent posted in a while but I've been elsewhere on the net and in real life (I workout 4 x a week now its insane). Just been busy with all sorts of things, few of them U2 related.

If you want to post you have to pay $1.50 or whatever a month. I like the $6 memebership idea I'm a member of uh em some other pay sites where I am billed quarterly or monthly alot more than this ($1.50-$2) and now that I'm working I can afford it. And we've all heard the starving college student excuse but come on, you drink $6 in a weekend, $6 for 6 months is a great price. I lvoe that $2 a month or $6 semi-annual membership, which will it be? Yeah I hate the idea of paying but I have worked in internet industry and I know that alot of stuff is not free anymore, it's harder to run a site (I pay $25 a month to keep the 3 sites I have up and they get nowhere near the traffic this place does).

Sometimes, you just got to pay.
 
I voted for premium membership....10 bucks a year is not a bad thing.
However membership only is a good thing too....we have "over 11,000" members but there is only a core of about 100 or so that actually post on a regular basis.

I :heart: this place too much to lose it
 
Joel,

The cost options you've listed are more than reasonable, and anyone could afford them. Do what it takes to keep this place going. Most of the 11,000+ members don't post anyway, so they won't miss it.

Martha
 
I voted to shut down, here's why...

As much as I do enjoy reading posts here, I voted to shut it down. I will explain why. Earlier this year I went through the same crisis on another board I visited regularly, this time it was very passionate sports fans. When the same financial crisis hit, the list owner went pay-for-read and pay-for-post. No matter how "reasonable" the fees seem to some, they aren't to all; not everyone felt like paying anything for the old site, most just went and found other (read: free) places to post on the same subject, we all emigrated there and the pay list ended up with about 30 people out of 2000, none of whom are thrilled that the action they paid up for is gone. Unless a majority of the people who post stay here, "it just won't be the same"...trust me.

While I appreciate what Elvis has done here, his post sounds like he won't be around as much to keep this the success that it is, so if it's going to change fundamentally in addition to becoming a pay site, I'd rather euthanize it now and go out in a blaze of glory.

That's just my experience and my opinion, for what it's worth.
 
Premium is good, but I don't think stuff like the ability to post polls and see if others are online should cost money. If it did, it would just discourage newcomers from posting here. I think a good idea for a Premium Membership would be possibly to allow people to use Sicy's ftp. Not sure what she'd think of the issue and such, but I'm sure there'd be lots that would fork the dough over for easy access to U2 concerts and such :drool:

Another part of the premium membership could obviously be the @interference.com e-mail addresses and such.

Finally, my third suggestion would be some sort of secret password access site with stuff like rare photos and U2 tabs and such. It's features such as these that could probably keep the site aloft.
 
Re: I voted to shut down, here's why...

amybatt said:
As No matter how "reasonable" the fees seem to some, they aren't to all; not everyone felt like paying anything for the old site, most just went and found other (read: free) places to post on the same subject, we all emigrated there and the pay list ended up with about 30 people out of 2000, none of whom are thrilled that the action they paid up for is gone. Unless a majority of the people who post stay here, "it just won't be the same"...trust me.


I agree (posted in other thread, but oh well am gonna in this one too)
I think some other things can happen before it gets to be a question of paying like -
getting rid of some of the thousands of users who don't do anything, not keep such a huge back log, eliminating the ability to put pictures in signatures, lowering size of avatars, getting rid of the "attach picture" option, getting ppl to upload the things they want to post to a free uploading site such as boomspeed, really would save on the bandwidth here.

These are things that were done to other vBulletin sites I have had experience with and it cuts down a huge amount.
 
BigMacPhisto said:
Premium is good, but I don't think stuff like the ability to post polls and see if others are online should cost money. If it did, it would just discourage newcomers from posting here.
this is just my opinion of course, but there are several sites that already do offer special priviledges to paying members. i don't think it's a bad thing. this way, if (for example, as we have some younger fans here), a 14 year old member here doesn't have a job and probably can't use a credit card, so it wouldn't be fair to cut them off from posting here.

the only problem (again, this is only my opinion, elvis may think your idea is great) is that it involves adding more options for premium members. i know things like posting attachments and such can take up a lot of bandwidth, which is why many forums only give priviledges to paying members.
 
hmmmmm..........$5,000 needed per year............$10 per premium member............that would mean 500 members would need to become premium members. I don't even think there's 200 continually posting members here as it is.........I guess if donations continued to trickle in, maybe............


I know this may sound a bit hard to swallow, people, but I think this site might be well off if it had some sort of ad support behind it. A few sponsors perhaps, or maybe even moving the site to a free message board server if any exist. Things obviously wouldn't be as good as they are now, BUT the site would still be around with most of its members, which is what matters the most. :yes:
 
BigMacPhisto said:
I know this may sound a bit hard to swallow, people, but I think this site might be well off if it had some sort of ad support behind it.
:yes: this would be a good idea, imo. some choice advertising placed according to demographics. another forum i go to just has a couple small banners at the top of the page. one of the ones is comedy central, who's advertising south park. maybe if some music sites or something were to advertise here or something, it could be a good thing. especially if they required on people viewing their site or something, i wouldn't mind clicking on and visiting a couple sites if it meant the site would be able to stay up longer.
 
KhanadaRhodes said:

:yes: this would be a good idea, imo. some choice advertising placed according to demographics. another forum i go to just has a couple small banners at the top of the page. one of the ones is comedy central, who's advertising south park. maybe if some music sites or something were to advertise here or something, it could be a good thing. especially if they required on people viewing their site or something, i wouldn't mind clicking on and visiting a couple sites if it meant the site would be able to stay up longer.

Unfortunately, the banner ad market collapsed sometime ago.... it is no longer effective as a means for a large site like this to support itself. I've worked in the 'net industry now for 8 yrs... I'm very aware of the options, where and how the bandwidth is used, and exactly how many active lurkers and posters there are here. The (3) options I've stated are direct, with direct results... I've explored other options, and have determined they are not viable (atleast at this time).

Joel
 
daisybean said:
How about "trimming the fat" in a sense....condense similar, smaller forums together (i.e. Gatherings and Discotheque).

This would accomplish nothing... atleast nothing that would solve any problems.

Thanks
 
why don't you ask u2 to sponsor this site.

it's better than u2.com anyway.:mac:
 
i voted for the membership fees. i'll pay $10.00 a year. i love this place.
 
I voted for premium and free (view only). You can get alot of news here, before @U2 has it.

fritz
 
I think it's a good idea to offer premium memberships. I'd definitely pay for that.

I don't think the site should become pay only...I hope it doesn't come to that. I think that potential members would be turned off. The only option to alleviate that problem would be to allow trial periods. However...there would probably be people who would attempt to just keep using trial periods back to back (which would be possible to do by using computers at different locations and different email addresses and stuff).

I :heart: this site and hope that it can continue on!
 
I know I'm just a newbie, but I'd be willing to pay $10 or more even to keep this place going. I love it here, and if something could be set up that I could pay the money from my debit card, I'd be more than willing to do it.:yes:
 
premium.


and for those of you that whine about cost. well, $10 is not a lot. take one night that you've spent at interference and that's a night you didn't go out and spend WAY over $10.


My life is far richer for being here and I am beyond willing to pay $10 to keep it up.
 
Re: I voted to shut down, here's why...

amybatt said:
As much as I do enjoy reading posts here, I voted to shut it down. I will explain why. Earlier this year I went through the same crisis on another board I visited regularly, this time it was very passionate sports fans. When the same financial crisis hit, the list owner went pay-for-read and pay-for-post. No matter how "reasonable" the fees seem to some, they aren't to all; not everyone felt like paying anything for the old site, most just went and found other (read: free) places to post on the same subject, we all emigrated there and the pay list ended up with about 30 people out of 2000, none of whom are thrilled that the action they paid up for is gone. Unless a majority of the people who post stay here, "it just won't be the same"...trust me.

This isnt some sports site.. this is the largest U2 forum in the world.. and the best one there is. I cant see how any other board could compare to it.. U2 or otherwise, and I dont think $10 a year is much to pay to be able to enjoy it as most of us do everyday. We seem to go round and round on this subject.. but if people would just stop a moment and think of all the things they spend $10 a year on and compare it to not having this site, I personally would pay more than $10 a year to keep it running. Shit, the charms on my new bracelet cost $18 each. I'm talking about the things you enjoy in life.. what you do everyday, and this is part of it.

Dunno if I'm making any sense.. it makes sense in my thoughts.
 
BigMacPhisto said:
I think a good idea for a Premium Membership would be possibly to allow people to use Sicy's ftp. Not sure what she'd think of the issue and such, but I'm sure there'd be lots that would fork the dough over for easy access to U2 concerts and such :drool:

That's a good idea but I wouldnt feel right not allowing access to people who dont pay.

My site is for any U2 fan.
 
Re: Re: I voted to shut down, here's why...

Sicy said:


This isnt some sports site.. this is the largest U2 forum in the world.. and the best one there is. I cant see how any other board could compare to it.. U2 or otherwise, and I dont think $10 a year is much to pay to be able to enjoy it as most of us do everyday. We seem to go round and round on this subject.. but if people would just stop a moment and think of all the things they spend $10 a year on and compare it to not having this site, I personally would pay more than $10 a year to keep it running. Shit, the charms on my new bracelet cost $18 each. I'm talking about the things you enjoy in life.. what you do everyday, and this is part of it.

Dunno if I'm making any sense.. it makes sense in my thoughts.

Great post!

I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday and spent almost $10 for two magazines. $10 for a year of entertainment with great friends who love U2 is nothin'!
 
I voted for premium and free, option 3. I understand what happened with the sports forum, and maybe I'm just being naive, but interference has got something real here. I think there are enough of us "regulars" to keep things going if it becomes a pay site. Members come and go, but many of us have been here daily for a long time, and many of us have met each other. We're like family.

Do what you've got to, Elvis. I'm willing to pay if I have to.

:sad: at the thought of losing my home on the 'net.
 
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