Forum subscription ideation

[Biren78]

I'm making a thread because this topic doesn't match the other one here. Mentioned there people are willing to pay $30 for subscriptions to STH.

I'd like to support STH, but I'd want something in return. And $30 I feel is too much. $5 or $10 sure. I had some family expenses in December. I use STH and it's worth more than some things I have wasted money on last year (Candy Crush Saga).

Here's my ideas on what I'd pay for:

• Special forum title. Supporter maybe?
• Special supporter only forum. I'd like this to be focused on buying cheap hardware. It was mentioned in the other thread that something like here are good sellers and here are the % off to best offer. I don't want this in a public forum. That info just can't be
• Classified listing bold titles or pics or somethin'.

Is that too much to ask? Not enough? Is $5 not worth it? Here's the unofficial thread since @Patrick afk now on the subject.

 

[Patrick]

@Biren78 as you might imagine this is a very busy week for me, and that does limit how much time I can spend on the forums.

Generally I do like to frame these types of questions, but I do appreciate you taking the initiative to put this together.

On the subscriptions, I can see merits both ways. Setting up subscriptions does take some effort. I would rather you just recruit a friend or two to the active user ranks than go through the effort of setting up subscriptions.

On the functionality you have listed, there are things I am working on. I do appreciate suggestions.

 

[mackle]

'Subscriptions,' in the interim, could be as easy as donations into a paypal account (username as reference), a manual lever to switch the user to a special user class that signifies that a user has donated money within the previous year, and a spreadsheet. State they take up to 1 business day to process, check the account once a day and give the list of names to a mod to switch over. If it doesn't advertise any benefits, but rather just as a way of 'giving back', then it could be a good way of testing the waters of site monetization.

Or, an even simpler testing of waters, just have a donation account set up without offering any user attribution. As long as it's clear about what is (not) offered in return, I can't see the harm...

 

[MiniKnight]

I'd pay of course.

I have a bunch of work colleagues that troll here but aren't active.