Premium WP member options?

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What I mean is:

On two other sites I am on, they offer a paid thing that is very cheap that grants you VIP/Premium status on the site.

In general, what this does is it gives your account more options (more PM's, bigger sig/avatar, private forum, profile customization, whatever) but it also removes ad's like those on WP. I am "Premium" on two sites, and it cost me $12 on one for 6 months and $20 on the other for a year. I support both those sites as I think they provide a good service.

I was shocked at how removing ad's made my site browsing speed jump. Both these other sites have many many more users then WP (one has almost 68k users, the other has about 2.2 million.) Both have ad's to support them in the same manner as WP, and both loaded just as slow (bad connection + ad's = slow). Just by removing ad's a users experience will improve.

Since calling it Premium or VIP on WP sounds sort of elitist (which it is), might I suggest "Supporting Member" instead. Give the person a custom title, more PM space, and most importantly remove the ad's.

I think $20 for a year is fair for WP. For every user without Ad's the new server fund gets $20. To me, being able to support the site and get something back is nice. I don't want to just donate because my donation means nothing until the money is all there.

Hell, even just a $10 version to remove Ad's would be nice.

I oppose to this scheme. What makes WrongPlanet.net special is that we are all almost equal, and I think having access to more functions than other users by paying a fee would defeat a purpose of this wonderful forum ---

Advocating for the ordinary Autie/Aspie.

Seriously, why should we penalize the poor or those without access to credit card for advocating more of their concerns? Haha.

I would rather see ads than to pay for this wonderful forum!

You miss the point completely. The point is if we donate, remove the ad's. You don't even have to give a "Supporting Member" title. Some people do like something, even a tag, to show the contribution is noted. I am not saying we should ad extra features for those who donate, I was citing an example of other sites using this method.

And donating $10 to remove ad's does not make a user better. It's a way for Alex/WP to show support for the people who choose to donate. Just removing ad's is enough. Other features are optional.

Oh I see. I am ok with the ads and I understand, because I have no money... Sigh.

Thanks anyway.

This idea is mainly for those who are going to donate to the site/new server as a way to note appreciation for doing so. The ad's are ok, but some are sort of offensive at times, and browsing speed goes up dramatically with them gone.

WP is a free site and everyone is an equal. If you choose to support WP with monetary means, I just feel that a small gesture would be nice.

My thoughts on this are that atm this would just create more work for Alex when he's already got issues with the site running slow and finding a new hosting solution to worry about... I think if people are going to donate it's because they appreciate WP and want to see it running more smoothly not because they get to have a bigger avatar or pics in their signature.

Well, this is something that requires escalation to Alex and therefore the consensus of majority of WP members. Still, I believe that giving from the heart rather for the benefits is much better.

Personally, though, I would love to donate to WP, but my current financial standing won't allow me to. If I am a bit more capable, I would be more than happy to do so. I am not really after better features--I am happy with what I have right now.

Yes, but sincerity from the heart alone is not enough to maintain a server, and with added incentives Alex could potentially get more funds coming in to offer some very useful stuff for the ASD community... although yeah I think the incentives should be more geared towards more cosmetic rather than functional capabilities, such that those who are poor are still able to come to WP as a useful support forum.

Hats off to Mr. vanJones for a good idea.

The message boards I've see that offer that are part of message board services. I imagine on an individual message board, the work to implement something like that would be too much for it to be worthwhile.

You could just use this instead: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Awesome, I was thinking of recommending AdBlock also.

From what i've seen, things aren't exactly equal. There's double standards.

I don't think there should be special members, that could make things even worse.

Let's implement the Premium membership scheme then if we have the resources and time.

I was thinking about becoming a preminum member but I'm still pretty unsure if I want to do it?

There is another site I'm on where "premium" members get ads removed and also get heaps of extra features and privileges. On WP I could see a reasonable solution being removing ads for "supporting members" (they already get custom banners). Enabling extra features would go too far.

I block ads to get rid of the nuisance and free up screen space, but I never click ads even when they aren't blocked (there's a thread in the Computer forum right now about how many Google ads link to scam sites).

If this were a Facebook post, I'll like it.

I think we have given enough recognition to the supportive members who click on the yellow button on the left.

However...

If the Premium membership gets implemented through raising the financial security of our wonderful website, I'm all for it.

If not, I am also happy because we can focus more on the issues of autistics in general, rather than... the not-so-pleasant stuff.