Column #221; By DanQ - Page 2

Rasbelin · August 5, 2003, 04:43

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ

We are not a registered or a non-registered charity and, as such, do not feel comfortable involving ourselves in donation situations.

Maybe you should register a non profit charity foundation called the Apolyton Foundation.

Panag · August 5, 2003, 04:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka

Maybe you should register a non profit charity foundation called the Apolyton Foundation.

hi ,

now that would be a good idea , ......

maybe we could help children all over he world , .......

have a nice day

St Leo · August 5, 2003, 18:57

including Sun Solaris, FreeBSD, and Irx

Surely, you must mean Irix, not Irx.

Netscape was second at 7.5% and Opera placed fourth with 2.3%.

Whoo! We shall overcome.

DrSpike · August 5, 2003, 19:56

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ

Fair comment.

It is our hope that if and when we are able to get an optional subscriptional service in place, which would provide non-content related perks for those who subscribe, that this will be more or less a direct way of supporting this site financially; there will, of course, be a nominal percentage charged by whatever outfit we select to handle such electronic payments. Given the direct perks that would be received by any subscriber, this would not be a donation but rather a payment for services rendered.

We are not a registered or a non-registered charity and, as such, do not feel comfortable involving ourselves in donation situations. Nonetheless, we are extremely appreciative of such expressions of financial support for this site such as yours.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

Good to know the score.

From the look of this and similar threads 'Poly will be awash with cash.

David Murray · August 8, 2003, 14:35

>Around 40% of these individuals run WindowsXP as their operating system, followed closely distantly by Windows98<

Followed clo ... wha ... huh? Me no speaka da Eeenglisshhh!

PLATO · August 8, 2003, 23:15

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ

Fair comment.

It is our hope that if and when we are able to get an optional subscriptional service in place, which would provide non-content related perks for those who subscribe, that this will be more or less a direct way of supporting this site financially; there will, of course, be a nominal percentage charged by whatever outfit we select to handle such electronic payments. Given the direct perks that would be received by any subscriber, this would not be a donation but rather a payment for services rendered.

We are not a registered or a non-registered charity and, as such, do not feel comfortable involving ourselves in donation situations. Nonetheless, we are extremely appreciative of such expressions of financial support for this site such as yours.

-----------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Ahh...tax situations I presume. Okay, that makes sense. Still I believe that projects could be put in place to raise funds that would meet the criteria of "services rendered" or "products sold". For example...micro published books (Apolyton...A History and The Apolyton Book of Quotes ) would be excellent choices. These too would involve partner companies though (I assume).

Subscription services just doesn't seem right. It seems to me that it could lead to two classes of Apolytoners. One of the attractive features here is that we are all treated as equals (once we surpass the settler ribbing). In addition, to add more services would increase the strain on already stretched equipment.

Perhaps some direct support could come in the form of direct sales from the site of some small item. For example...a bumber sticker that costs pennies to produce could be sold for $25. A price for product arrangement. (one could not say that it is part donation because who is to say what is the value of the site name.)

In any event Dan, you appear to have a base of some people who are willing to help this site to the next level. We are simply waiting for direction on how to proceed.

WesW · August 11, 2003, 03:50

Congratulations, guys! I have been enjoying your site, Dan, since before the merger, and I hope to be here years on down the road.

WesW

alva · August 11, 2003, 23:42

How about bundling the articles and selling them as an E-book?

DanQ · August 12, 2003, 00:21

Quote:

Originally posted by PLATO

Ahh...tax situations I presume. Okay, that makes sense. Still I believe that projects could be put in place to raise funds that would meet the criteria of "services rendered" or "products sold". For example...micro published books (Apolyton...A History and The Apolyton Book of Quotes ) would be excellent choices. These too would involve partner companies though (I assume).

Subscription services just doesn't seem right. It seems to me that it could lead to two classes of Apolytoners. One of the attractive features here is that we are all treated as equals (once we surpass the settler ribbing). In addition, to add more services would increase the strain on already stretched equipment.

Perhaps some direct support could come in the form of direct sales from the site of some small item. For example...a bumber sticker that costs pennies to produce could be sold for $25. A price for product arrangement. (one could not say that it is part donation because who is to say what is the value of the site name.)

In any event Dan, you appear to have a base of some people who are willing to help this site to the next level. We are simply waiting for direction on how to proceed.

Hi again.

Believe it or not, but earlier this year I started work on what originally began as simply a re-write and expansion of Apolyton's History section at http://apolyton.net/about/history and decided in doing so to have a more detailed version that could hopefully be sold as an e-book with the 'basic' version still free for viewing. I have not yet decided whether or not this is a route I'm going to take, primarily because work on it has stalled since late-May for administrative reasons. An inherent problem with this sort of action, of course, is that once one copy is sold the file can be easily re-distributed by that buyer to many, many non-buyers quite easily in a very short period of time...

As far as Apolyton Store ( http://apolyton.net/store ) products go, I can tell you right now that the items that are there are marked up no where near the percentages that you are talking about in your example. By far the greatest portion of the unit costs (>80%) goes towards the base cost charged by producer CafePress (CP). The problem is that these Store items historically have poor sales numbers "as is", and continue to perform by and large poorly. To cite your example: while bumper stickers may cost pennies to produce, CP' base price for a bumper sticker is notably more than that. So, to do what you have suggested successfully prices would have to be inflated by us second after first being inflated by CP -- recognizing, of course, that they too need to make money for the service that they are providing. I doubt very much that these items will sell better if the prices were increased even more. Unfortunately then, what you have suggested in this regard is not feasible as much as I wish it were.

Moving along...

I can certainly understand why some would view a subscription service here as creating "more than one class" of Apolyton user. Depending upon how it was setup, this could definitely be so; however, I believe that the crux of this consideration is whether or not access to content at least in part would be restricted to subscribers. As I have stated in the past and will gladly state again, any and all benefits from an Apolyton subscription service would be non-content related perks. The two examples I primarily highlight to illustrate this are ad disablement and increased private messaging storage space. As you have said with reference to Apolyton Store products, this would not be a donation as there would be a direct benefit to any individual who subscribes thus encouraging the enrolment of subscribers.

Again, I do not believe that more than one class of Apolyton user would be created by the said subscription service that we (the ACS administration) have in mind. Certainly one could argue for instance that there are already more than one class of Apolyton user: special powers and/or titles, custom avatars or not (when the service is enabled), and even matters that are not directly related to the site's setup such as a user's connection speed to the Internet (i.e. faster loading times). On a related note, the subscription service being discussed here is not elaborate nor would it be a costly venture for subscribers whether they were to pay month-to-month or some time in advance. To ensure its success, it would need to be quite efficient in its implementation from the beginning in order for it to survive in the long-run. This requires extensive planning, and avenues are still being explored to this end.

In closing, I understand you and others wanting to directly assist in contributing to the site's financial help more than you are able to do so at this time. It is greatly appreciated and indeed hopefully the means to fulfill this desire will be realized sooner rather than later. I also thank you all for the suggestions submitted in this regard to date. In the meantime, at least, what we are looking for and can more likely accommodate are offers of assistance in the day-to-day operations of this site.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

P.S. Alva: I hadn't considered that before. Yes, perhaps indeed another e-book idea...

DrSpike · August 12, 2003, 04:51

I think an intelligent direction for the discussion to go in is what the non-content benefits to potential subscribers could be. Disabling ads is a useful one, though many will no doubt argue they can already block them.

PM space is also a non-issue for most I'd say.

I think many would donate anyway, regardless of the possible lack of benefits. But what other benefits should Dan/Mark consider?

DanQ · August 12, 2003, 23:22

Quote:

Originally posted by DrSpike
I think an intelligent direction for the discussion to go in is what the non-content benefits to potential subscribers could be. Disabling ads is a useful one, though many will no doubt argue they can already block them.

PM space is also a non-issue for most I'd say.

I think many would donate anyway, regardless of the possible lack of benefits. But what other benefits should Dan/Mark consider?

We are certainly open to other non-content suggestions for subscription service offerings. I can tell you that there are other ideas already documented -- the ad disablement/PM storage increase are just the two that I most often cite.

As for what the others are...

I would in fact like to see other suggestions posted here and over some time see which ones raised both are and are not on a list that Markos and I put together a little while back.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

DrSpike · August 13, 2003, 05:35

How about the right the spam for one week after you join with no retribution.

No, seriously, it's not that easy to come up with things that are both useful and don't restrict the non-subscriber accounts too much. Perhaps there could be better avatars for subscribers?

FrustratedPoet · August 13, 2003, 05:48

More upload space would be nice for some people.

Maybe subscribers could be allowed to upload files NOT related to games ACS covers (but still legal things, obviously).

People seem to like badges of status, so perhaps some kind of "Friend of Apolyton" (or whatever) custom title would be attractive to some people.

Maybe an @apolyton.net email account for subscribers? I have no idea on your capacity to provide this, however ... I don't really understand what adding another 50 or 100 of those would entail.

I'm sure bigger avatars (both in pixel size and file size) would be popular, but it would create a burden on non-subscribers who would have to have their browsers load those things every time. Maybe not such a good idea...

FrustratedPoet · August 13, 2003, 05:52

Oh actually, on the avatar thing .... subscribers with less than 500 posts should be allowed a custom avatar. That's better.

Would be popular with a lot of OT regulars who contribute to the community without posting on-topic.

Panag · August 13, 2003, 18:28

Quote:

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Oh actually, on the avatar thing .... subscribers with less than 500 posts should be allowed a custom avatar. That's better.

Would be popular with a lot of OT regulars who contribute to the community without posting on-topic.

hi ,

dont they get it after one year , .......

and no , even them should get 500

have a nice day

Immortal Wombat · August 13, 2003, 18:30

No, the 1 year thing hasn't worked in a while IIRC.

FrustratedPoet · August 13, 2003, 18:45

Quote:

dont they get it after one year , .......

and no , even them should get 500

No, that hasn't been in effect for ages.

And why shouldn't people who pay their own money to help support the site at least get the right to choose their own little picture by their username? They will have contributed far more to the community by donating than some spammer who posts 500 "I agree" and "Me too" posts in 5 different demogames.

DrSpike · August 13, 2003, 19:10

I agree (

), and maybe giant avatars for subscribers with 5000 posts.

I think a 2-tier avatar system is better than not allowing non-subscribers avatars.

Frozzy · August 13, 2003, 21:05

People are always curious for more fora...

How about a secret forum for subscribers/donaters? People who don't donate will be so jealous they'll have to give money!

alva · August 13, 2003, 21:21

Damned Spike, you beat me

-

Pretty good idea FP

-
Frozzy,

wouldn't that be denying content to non-subscribers?

Skanky Burns · August 14, 2003, 02:24

I would pay just for no banner and popup ads.
A larger avatar may just be nice too, the 10k size limit prevents some animated avatars from being used.

alva · August 14, 2003, 02:28

Quote:

the 10k size limit prevents some animated avatars from being used.

Ahh, the first reason not have larger avatars..

I could/can stand one, but not everyone having one of these flashy (annoying) thingies.

Frozzy · August 14, 2003, 02:38

Quote:

Originally posted by alva
Frozzy,

wouldn't that be denying content to non-subscribers?

I wasn't actually serious. It was more of a parody on the staff room.

Rasbelin · August 14, 2003, 04:49

Sponsored membership goodies

- larger avatars
- 50 kb size limit for custom avatars
- no minimum post requirement for a custom avatar
- no ads (banners or pop-ups)

That's about it.

alva · August 14, 2003, 05:12

Mark doing a weekly 'full-monty' style striptease ??

Hell, I'd watch it

FrustratedPoet · August 14, 2003, 05:25

DrSpike · August 14, 2003, 06:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka
Sponsored membership goodies

- larger avatars
- 50 kb size limit for custom avatars
- no minimum post requirement for a custom avatar
- no ads (banners or pop-ups)

That's about it.

Well to be consistent I'd say you need a certain post count for the larger avatars, even for subscribers. 500 seems about right.

So non-subscribers: 0-500 posts use bog standard, then small custom after 500.

Subscibers: 0-500 custom, then large custom after 500. This could also be a little higher perhaps, maybe 1000.

Immortal Wombat · August 14, 2003, 08:20

large avatars

Skanky Burns · August 14, 2003, 09:48

Slightly larger I could support. But not too large - we all will have to be downloading the subscriber's avatars.

DrSpike · August 14, 2003, 11:30

Well that's ok, since our subscriber fees will pay for super-whizzy (TM) equipment.