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 goldchaosdragon
2003-04-19 23:26
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Congrats on finishing up testing. ^_^
I do still have issues with the friends limits on free user accounts. I can think of three or four ways you can entice people to set up paid accounts without having to put restrictions on the basic service, which would also make Blurty the most versatile journalling service I've seen online (and hook in even MORE Livejounal refugees than we have NOW).
Might I suggest:
1.Poll support for paid users (this is a paid feature on LiveJournal that sounds pretty useful, and all it needs is some cgi scripting)
2. Modest space for image hosting beyond userpics (this would work even better if there was a generic style that allowed for a large background image. Sacrificing a single gig on harddrive space to offer a single megabyte of image hosting could hook a thousand paid users-- after all, the image hosting would be as reliable as the journal itself, so all the Early Adopters with image-intensive layouts would have a chance to host their images with Blurty and not have to worry about extra fees, server blackouts, and broken links.) Diaryland uses this as an enticement and it works famously. And $25 x 1000= $25000 per gig set aside for image hosting per year. If you wanted, you could even institute a GOLD program that provides more image hosting space for a little more money per year.
3. Advanced statistic tracking. Y'all already have in place stuff to track stats, and a lot of people have expressed an interest in tracking the number of people who view their journals. A little rearrangement of the stats-tracking system is all that's needed, and add in a little cgi and you could offer the counters a lot of people have been clamouring for. (And to tie in with the GOLD program idea, you could offer a variety of counter styles for people with a GOLD subscription)
4. The ever-successful invite code tactic: I figure Blurty will be switching to this in the future to limit growth. I'd suggest adding in a "Lite" version of buying invite codes, so that people who don't want to pay a full price year's service Paid Account to get a journal can just buy the codes for a more modest fee and have a Free User style journal.
5. Paypal donations and donation widgets. For those people who would love to support the community but don't have the green to pay the full subscription fee all the time. A special donators-only mood icon set (since we're all trying to get more mood icon sets ANYWAY) would be a nice incentive to get people to donate. Webcomics on various corners of the 'net are able to rake in a few thousand dollars a year on systems like these, with very little expense to themselves other than time and computer space. (It varies according to popularity of course)
These are just a few of my suggestions to avoid having to cut basic service (being able to write in one's own journal and read other peoples' journals) to get people to buy Paid Accounts. I'm sure since the support team is full of inventive people y'all can come up with more ideas.(Reply to this) (Thread) |
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poeticdesire
2003-04-20 05:09
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You have some good ideas there. I agree the limit of friends on Free User accounts will turn many people away. That's the biggest complaint I've heard, is the tiny limit of friends allowed.
I disagree, however, with your suggestion of the invite code. Not so much as having one, but having a "Lite" one, where people pay a fraction of the subscription cost, get a code, and have a status such as that of a Free User. If any amount is paid for a code, whether it be five cents or two bucks, they should get more than a Free User style account. I'd say more like an Early Adopter account style--5 icons, unlimited friends, etc. Of course, those who pay the full subscription would get the paid account status, but again, if you pay ANYTHING for the journal, you should get more than what's offered with a Free User account.
I do, however, like your "donation widget" idea. Perhaps upping the number of icons you can have by two or three and giving an invite code with your first donation, and then perhaps a new mood set "unlocked" and another invite code with your second donation, so on and so forth.
Well, that's my two cents. ^.^(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
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poeticdesire
2003-04-23 04:01
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You're talking two wholly different services there, for the first part. And I won't even touch the gamespy subject as it is, since I game too and I don't use them personally.
However, the thing with your whole point of view? It's the free users that can make or break a journal site. Not everyone has the money or ability to pay, even if it's $5 every two months. Things happen. You see, it's not how a place treats the people who pay that makes it a good place. It's how they treat the free users. Just because free users don't pay doesn't mean they don't care, or should be treated any worse than someone who pays. Their benefits may be less, yes, but they should be treated with the same respect and care. You want people to talk about what a great site or product or service something is, you need to give them a reason to come. And if they're free users, they need a reason to stay. Treat them right as free users, and they may decide to pay in the future. That's the entire point. Give them good benefits as a free user, and they may decide it's worth getting the paid benefits once they've stayed a while.(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
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goldchaosdragon
2003-04-21 17:30
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I'm not sure what you mean here. Polls are available to EAs and (when they begin) Paid Accounts. Are you referring to the poll creator?
Chalk that one up to refusing to read the instructions. @_@ Bascially poll support would be server-side software that let users define their own polls and keep track of results, but it appears we already have that in place.
Part of the reason for the friends limit is to encourage paid accounts so that hardware upgrades will be able to be done in advance, so growth won't be an issue and invite codes won't be needed. Regardless, LJ already has a "lite" version - $5 gets you two months paid time and two invite codes.
My mind must have blanked out on the LJ site when I saw the whole "This is a free service, but if you know no-one you have to shell out" line in the create a journal FAQ. But along those lines, can't we still have a "lite" version of the paid account that, as someone else suggested, lets someone set up a static layout/icon set without committment? Five bucks is five bucks, after all.
Basic point of the post is that the friends limits could be done away with entirely with a little creativity in getting people to give money to the community. I mean, I can understand temporary friends limits while the tier system is being developed in order to keep strain on the system down, but I feel that if this is a permanent measure it's going to sabotage the entire point of the paid account by deflecting people who would otherwise join Blurty to other services that offer something more substantial for their paid accounts.
As people have pointed out in some of the other comment posts, people can't monitor communities or friends-only journals effectively with friends limits in place. If you (and I mean general you) really wanted to start putting restrictions on parts of the service, there are some other areas that could be restricted a little more sensibly: keeping Free Accounts from being the mod/creator of communities would slow community growth, encourage people to work on existing communities, and decrease the number of individual accounts.
And I really am serious about the image hosting thing (for layout pictures and pictures one wants to post in entries)... As far as I know there isn't a service running the LJ code that offers hosting, and it seems to be working rather well for sites like Diaryland. And with it getting harder and harder to remotely host images, it makes even MORE sense.(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
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bertho
2003-04-22 01:03
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I should point out I'm not an admin (although I play one on TV), so I'm not sure exactly what the plans are for paid accounts, but I'm fairly sure that things like custom styles will remain when paid time runs up because I don't think the code really allows for stripping that. The account can be allowed to create a new one or not, but once you've chosen a style, it sticks.
The friends limit is still being discussed a bit. If you didn't notice, it was originally five, then got bumped up to ten shortly after. It's possibly that will be increased further, but I suspect it won't be much, if at all. In reality, this only places a limit on friends-only journals/entries you can read. You're free to see all public entries, still, it's just not as easy, and why should we make things easy for people who aren't supporting the site at all. (btw, going back to the expired paid account thing, paying for two months or whatever would likely allow you to add friends and keep them after your time ran up for the same reason - you wouldn't be able to add more at that point, though).
Note again, though, that I'm not positive about any of this, it's just an educated guess from what I know of the LJ code. You do bring up some good points, though. You might want to send some of your ideas over to  suggestions.(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
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