[MarkoDaGeek]

personally i think it would be a good idea, 12 a year wouldnt be bad....

i think we could restrict less and yet offer the premium members more, like D art now makes it so you cant search unless your a paying member, some things like that could be restricted, i think we could offer the premium members more stuff outside DIC, such as special offers on things

[skyhawk133]

*bump* Any final feedback before we implement the Premium Membership?

[jaredigital]

let's run down the list:

newsletter - meh, it would have to be REALLY good.
interviews - see above.
site cutomization - don't want it anyways.
sticker - don't want it.
premium only forums - you're gonna have to staff them like a mofo and offer exceptional content because i can already get tutorials out the wazoo from lots of places.
email - no thanks
hosting - meh, i guess


i think you're going to have to do a lot better than stickers and free email accounts. looks like some current members may be willing to buy a membership, just to support the site, but you're going to have a hard time selling it to new members that come in. how about offering a domain name with Premium membership? or access to source codes for whatever code floats their boat? this is a code and design portal, so offer something a coder or designer would want, not some cheap stickers. just my 2 cents from a marketing point of view.

[mandalyn]

Yea..as far as the graphics end goes--the site doesn't really offer up any good tutorials. No .eps files, no brushes, fonts, etc. It almost seems like you'd have to start working your asses off a lot more to encourage that, or add more staff (which always sucks and doesn't usually work out).

Someone would have to be sincerely devoted to the site, plus want to maintain that of their own. Plus what was it, 5Megs of space? Maybe I misread, but that's not a whole lot for $3/mon or $12/yr. Especially if the only thing else they are getting is the ability to read these forums. I'm being hosted by one of my friends, and I'm using over 20megs of his 500, and not paying a damn thing. That, and he gets a great deal on his service.

Which also came to my attention - those "special" forums won't even be that active for quite some time, if ever, depending on what else is involved in being a premium member. I'm always turned off by sites that categorize its visitors. It's one thing to donate money in order to keep the server running and such, but it's another to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to someone who's paying monthly.

Perhaps hold contests with wonderful prizes but have a $2-5 entry fee depending? I'm sure there are enough people here who support the site enough that if you guys are really running into a financial burden, that when you post something about it in the updates or whatnot, that they'll understand and contribute.

This post has been edited by mandalyn: 13 May 2004 - 10:15 PM

[skyhawk133]

Hmm, I'ma really tired so I'm sure I'll read this in the morning and go ... wha?!

dream.in.code isn't supposed to have graphics stuff, it's a code resource. HTML the graphics and flash end of things are almost becoming non-existant because the C++, PHP, and other languages are starting to support the site. Originally, back in 2001, we had a LOT of flash and graphics folks because the site was heavily advertised on the FlashKit.com forums.

With regard to the space. I personally run the web hosting company that hosts dream.in.code, with over 200 active clients and over $600 a month in web servers, I know 5MB is not a lot. The idea isn't to give someone a site, but instead, give them something they can take pride in.

Not to single you out, or anything of that nature, but you are new here, your since of commitment to the community and devotion have not yet formed. The target audience for the d.i.c membership is not new members. It's the member who decided to stick around for a few months and frequents the site on a weekly basis. The idea of putting a "dream.in.code supporters" drop down menu on the homepage has been mentioned which I really like.

That takes me to your other point of 'categorizing visitors', the only way you'll be able to tell a premium member from a standard member is the member group they belong to and if they are listed in that drop down menu. It's not segregation, or categorization so much as it is community bonding.

To summarize:

d.i.c premium =
- Closer knit community
- Better Content Overall
- Support your favorite site
- Show others you support the site
... and a few other things that I'm way to tired to come up with

[skyhawk133]

I guess a premium membership to anything can be equated to that of asome expensive golf club... you really don't join to play golf... maybe you do... I don't know, like I said I'm tired.

[mandalyn]

Well it's a lot like blogging sites. The people who contribute money get their blog promoted everyday or as soon as it is updated.

I understand the validity of your statement on how I'm still a newb, but I've been a part of several online communities -- one I've been frequenting for four years now. And we had to go through and find out ways that we could just keep up the forum because it was done in PERL and the entire thing just sat there. It should have been compressed or somehow stored elsewhere. Not only that, but the loadtime was crap and there was CGI-Timeouts like none other. No one really wanted to pay for a forum, even though we all wanted it to stay.

So basically everyone moved to Livejournal and once it was being tested again, everyone moved back to it.

So yea, I'm cheap, but I'm also devoted. And I think that's a lot of the problem with member sites. Or if you could get enough members like SomethingAwful and only charge a one-time fee to access the forums, that might work out too. But I guess they're based on comedy and Photoshop, whereas this is based on coding.. and more coding.

And I only enjoy mini-golf.

This post has been edited by mandalyn: 14 May 2004 - 01:03 AM

[skyhawk133]

I remember those days, we used to use Ikonboard, haven't lost but maybe 2 or 3 posts in the entire upgrade process over the years. We've upgrade atleast 4 times now. Maybe more.

I would never take anything from members away, I just want to give those that can spare a few bucks and want to partake in such a membership the ability to do so. Plus, I think a site that offers a premium membership has a more professional look about it, whether or not it's some huge thing that has super fancy content or not, it's just a mind set people have... or atleast I do.

[LeprechauN]

being the 30th member on the forums, I can say Chris is right about not taking anything away from the members all my posts are still here from years ago. but what sort of features would the premium members have access too?

[hitokirisn]

im a pretty silent member here, but the community aspect of the site is great. I originally found the site as I was entering ap comp sci in the end of my soph year (searching for c++ resources) and loved the caffiene lounge. Hell, its probably the biggest reason that I visit the site and got d-s hosting.

in short, i'd pay the 12 bucks a year, because the site and members are hella cool.

[cyberscribe]

hitokirisn, on May 16 2004, 01:10 PM, said:

in short, i'd pay the 12 bucks a year, because the site and members are hella cool.

amen.

[Amadeus]

I see the premium option has been implemented.

[skyhawk133]

Yes sir, and since you were the first to signup, you can drop me an email with your desired username and password for the email & web hosting, as well as your address for the sticker.

[Trakker]

hmm...i'd be sure to pay the small fee, but like jared, i'd like to see more...a free sticker(meh) and a email account(with GMail just around the corner) aren't the most appealing things ever. I kinda like the interviews idea...but it needs something...more i think.

[snoj]

Well as soon as I can get some money for general spending, I'll signup.