Subscriptions vs Adsense

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This thread is not about debating a paid vs free revenue model - that's for Niall to decide as this is his baby! (though my hunch is most would be happy to pay a moderate fee if that meant lesser restrictions on content and lesser downtime)

I am just trying to get a feel of how much each member would have to contribute (as a membership/subscription) if the forum moved from Adsense to private funding

I do not expect an accurate answer as there are many many factors to consider to arrive at an actual number (determining actual active user base; user demographics i.e. will students actually pay for a forum access; impact of dropping out of Google rankings; do you just maintain status quo or aim for better servers, etc)

Maybe if we had a ballpark figure (+/-25%) then a dipstick survey could be done to gauge the more popular opinion? (Again, your call, not mine)
 
Are you talking about making the caf only accessible if you pay a fee. If so I would be against that, basically would kill any future growth. And eventually ruin the café. Sure if people want to donate they can, but it should have no effect on how the caf is run at all.
 
I think the forum needs a period with the new rules to improve the content and that it will be for the better in the long run, even if you don't go with adsense.
 
Dargonk said:
Are you talking about making the caf only accessible if you pay a fee. If so I would be against that, basically would kill any future growth. And eventually ruin the café. Sure if people want to donate they can, but it should have no effect on how the caf is run at all.
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Optional donation is a tricky area isn't it? Because if you rely on Adsense you play to Google's rules

It's a minefield either way
 
How about it's free to be a newbie, then once you get enough likes you can pay a fee to be promoted, or stay in the newbies for no charge?
 
digitalnirvana said:
Optional donation is a tricky area isn't it? Because if you rely on Adsense you play to Google's rules

It's a minefield either way
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Hard to say really without knowing all the actual numbers. But it could be a simple matter of disabling adsense if you get enough donations, and then if they are not maintained at the required level next year you just bring google back. Down side to that is you would have to remove any non google friendly content if it has appeared during the time adsense was not in use.
 
Goooose said:
How about it's free to be a newbie, then once you get enough likes you can pay a fee to be promoted, or stay in the newbies for no charge?
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Doubt that would work, as you would just end up with 90% of member all posting in the newbies and 10% posting in the mains. Wouldn't really look good on the site either as only the main are visible to guests, so it would look really quiet and empty compared to the actual size of the site.
 
Unless we know what the running costs of the site are and the number of regulars, you can't really make any decisions about it. It may be only 1,000 or less, despite there being far more than that actual members.

Also, it will cause more problems with moderation. "I've paid my subscription, I'll post what the feck I like!" etc.
 
A subscription based site is not something I want to introduce, it definitely would kill the growth of the site and is not a steady reliable revenue stream.

The site will remain free and ad supported, if you're pissed off at not being able to write an uncensored fcuk and cnut or post soft porn images, then you're in the wrong place I'm afraid.

The new rules really aren't that bad, if you weren't breaking them before it's business as usual. If you were, just clean up your act and get on with it.
 
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