I signed up for the premium member status without a 2nd thought, but I'm a little concerned about the future of this forum under this new payment plan.
Like it or not, to the total newbie or random surfer, anything that requires a membership fee to post is a BIG turnoff, no matter how small the fee. And so I think that while the forum will go on for a while after the initial shock of December 1st wears off, I fear it might stagnate for lack of new blood coming in.
I'm sure (and/or I hope) that it's already been looked into, but I think if this site wants to keep alive we're going to have to let new people experience Interference w/out restrictions if we want to attract new members...so that leads to the possibility of an introductory offer.
For 2 or 3 months, newbies get full access to interference - all the priviledges of a full member, for free, so they can get a feel for the place and also get used to the people and (hopefully) get comfortable. If they like it, then they can sign up for a full year's worth of Interference, or choose the month by month. If they decide not to, well then, they haven't taken up too much bandwidth and we'll wish them on their merry way . It would look good if this introductory offer was advertised prominently on the home page of the forum (and interference.com) so upon visiting the first thing they see isn't "You must be a member to read and post in this forum" but something more inviting like "Like what you see? Sign up for our introductory offer and get unrestricted access for the first 3 months - FREE!"
Of course, I think it still might be a hard sell if the only feature we really have besides the forum is a (sparsely populated) chat room, so maybe Elvis and the mods could cook up some specials of some sort or another that would go beyond your typical vbb board.
Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Like it or not, to the total newbie or random surfer, anything that requires a membership fee to post is a BIG turnoff, no matter how small the fee. And so I think that while the forum will go on for a while after the initial shock of December 1st wears off, I fear it might stagnate for lack of new blood coming in.
I'm sure (and/or I hope) that it's already been looked into, but I think if this site wants to keep alive we're going to have to let new people experience Interference w/out restrictions if we want to attract new members...so that leads to the possibility of an introductory offer.
For 2 or 3 months, newbies get full access to interference - all the priviledges of a full member, for free, so they can get a feel for the place and also get used to the people and (hopefully) get comfortable. If they like it, then they can sign up for a full year's worth of Interference, or choose the month by month. If they decide not to, well then, they haven't taken up too much bandwidth and we'll wish them on their merry way . It would look good if this introductory offer was advertised prominently on the home page of the forum (and interference.com) so upon visiting the first thing they see isn't "You must be a member to read and post in this forum" but something more inviting like "Like what you see? Sign up for our introductory offer and get unrestricted access for the first 3 months - FREE!"
Of course, I think it still might be a hard sell if the only feature we really have besides the forum is a (sparsely populated) chat room, so maybe Elvis and the mods could cook up some specials of some sort or another that would go beyond your typical vbb board.
Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?