Why not charge €1 to register on boards

MadsL

I just read a post with a user claiming to have re-regged 250+ times this year.
Multiple re-regs and muppetry seem to consume a good deal of Admin and mods time.

Surely charging €1 to reg an account would soften the cough of these idiots?

El Guapo!

Charging even 5c would probably cut the number of posters down significantly.
It's not about the money, people don't want the hassle of having to whip out the credit card details to sign up to a site.
Having it as a "subscriber only" site would be the death of Boards.

KoolKid

I agree entirely. The average sign up is someone looking for information. There is a good percentage of those who go on to be good contributers.
Why lose them for nothing.

MadsL

El Guapo! wrote: »

Charging even 5c would probably cut the number of posters down significantly.
It's not about the money, people don't want the hassle of having to whip out the credit card details to sign up to a site.
Having it as a "subscriber only" site would be the death of Boards.

Hardly, how many active users are there now?

Why not let new posters have 3 posts to try the site and then request payment of even 50c to continue?

KoolKid

Compulsory subscription will not work regardless of how much it is. It's too much hassle for the average browser.

El Guapo!

MadsL wrote: »

Hardly, how many active users are there now?

Why not let new posters have 3 posts to try the site and then request payment of even 50c to continue?

I seriously think you're underestimating the laziness/stinginess of people in general.

Some sites are able to operate on a subscribing basis, but there are very very few of them. Lots try and fail. And the ones that do manage it successfully are orientated around a specific area/niche subject and have relatively few members.
With Boards being as diverse as it is, it would never work. As was already said, people sign up to ask a question but then hang around afterwards. If a fee was introduced, the site would slowly decline and probably end up back the way it started; as a tiny community of die hard posters.
It's a no-go in my opinion. That is of course, just my opinion though.

MadsL

KoolKid wrote: »

Compulsory subscription will not work regardless of how much it is. It's too much hassle for the average browser.

65% of users in the US in 2011 paid for online content.

I pay for additional functionality on this site.

Why not assign a newbie number User12554887 until payment lets you pick a username, and give subscribers an option to see or not see newbie posts.

Make all newbie posts premoderated.

Instant end to muppet reregs.

Is it perhaps because (conspiracy theory) rereg muppets boost the unique page view stats given to advertisers?

KoolKid

It just won't work on such diverse site as boards.ie IMO. No conspiracy I'm afraid, people just wouldn't bother.

MadsL

KoolKid wrote: »

It just won't work on such diverse site as boards.ie IMO. No conspiracy I'm afraid, people just wouldn't bother.

Sure nobody would pay for extra features on boards...oh wait.

El Guapo!

MadsL wrote: »

Sure nobody would pay for extra features on boards...oh wait.

Extra features....yes.
Just for the privilege of posting....no.

MadsL

El Guapo! wrote: »

Extra features....yes.
Just for the privilege of posting....no.

That's what I am proposing.

You can post as Guest1225455 for 3-5 pre-moderated posts. Then you have a choose a username and pay a tiny fee to get PMs, an avatar, a post count, visitor messages, un premoderated instant posts etc.

Days 298

MadsL wrote: »

That's what I am proposing.

You can post as Guest1225455 for 3-5 pre-moderated posts. Then you have a choose a username and pay a tiny fee to get PMs, an avatar, a post count, visitor messages, un premoderated instant posts etc.

sounds unnecessarily complex and not user friendly. I think I'd pass on any forum with those entry rules. I vote to keep the status quo. You shouldn't need to give your debit card or your real name to join boards.ie

MadsL

Days 298 wrote: »

sounds unnecessarily complex and not user friendly. I think I'd pass on any forum with those entry rules. I vote to keep the status quo. You shouldn't need to give your debit card or your real name to join boards.ie

Paypal?

Text payment?

The Big Smoke

This would cost more money to manage than what it would bring in.

Frosty McSnowballs

MadsL wrote: »

Paypal?

Those without PayPal, would then have to create a PayPal account.

Neon_Lights

I'd just set up another irish boards site and take all your unhappy "customers" away muahahahaha!

forgotten password

they should be payin us

Neon_Lights

forgotten password wrote: »

they should be payin us

:pac: $$$$$$$

lovely cash

El Guapo!

MadsL wrote: »

That's what I am proposing.

You can post as Guest1225455 for 3-5 pre-moderated posts. Then you have a choose a username and pay a tiny fee to get PMs, an avatar, a post count, visitor messages, un premoderated instant posts etc.

Makes no sense.
Pre-moderating every new users posts would be a monumental task and next to impossible without a huge team of employees to moderate.
Plus, you'd just get people signing up for the 3 free posts, then re-registering for another 3 posts. Over and over again, all day every day, thousands of "new" regs, thousands of pre-moderated posts.....

The hamsters would shoot themselves in the face after the first day.

Neon_Lights

MadsL wrote: »

That's what I am proposing.

You can post as Guest1225455 for 3-5 pre-moderated posts. Then you have a choose a username and pay a tiny fee to get PMs, an avatar, a post count, visitor messages, un premoderated instant posts etc.

Eh you make it sound like a dodgey dating site

KoolKid

I think boards has it right at the moment. Pay for extra privileges bit not for the right to post.
It's never going to work and I doubt it's ever going to happen.

Tombi!

You can't really even consider doing it.
The site is far too generalized.
If it were a certain subject, sure. It'd be nice to have a My Little Pony forum that requires a quid per account. There's a reason people would do that. MLP is something people troll a lot about online. Fans of that show would probably pay a quid just to be able to discuss it in peace.

The pre-moderated posts is just... no. There's no way it'll work. There's I think 80 or so forums. Way too much work for the mods. You'd probably need a section of mods just to approve posts.
What happens if I wanted to ask about getting a phone. Three posts in and it's "pay or kindly f*** off" in order to get more feedback.

And even then, who their bloody mind pays to post? It's not a niche site. It's nice that I can post in AH, head down to the Dublin forum and to bargain alerts all on my one account and all but... it's not worth it just to post.
I can see the point of subscribing. People do it for one of two reasons (IMO): they either really like the site and want to support it or else they just like the features.

TBH, if you told me "pay a quid or you can't post" I'd just close the account.

MadsL

Neon_Lights wrote: »

Eh you make it sound like a dodgey dating site

Eh? There already is a boards dating forum you have to PM for access

Neon_Lights

MadsL wrote: »

Eh? There already is a boards dating forum you have to PM for access

no backdoor fun for me, yay!

MadsL

Neon_Lights wrote: »

no backdoor fun for me, yay!

Pretty sure they cater for that...

MadsL

RopeDrink wrote: »

minor time sinks at the 'cost' of said growth.

This doesn't look that minor to me, but then I'm not an Admin...

20 odd a day?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/banlist.php

Delirium

pre-moderation of posts at user level? :eek:

I wouldn't envy any mod in a busy forum with large threads with high post turnover. They' have to trawl through hundreds of posts to find posts that require approval.

And then you have the forums where anonymous posting is allowed. You'd just end up with the trouble-makers being funnelled into those forums.

The reduction of users signing up due to the fee has also been mentioned.

The negatives outweigh the positives tbh.

MadsL

koth wrote: »

pre-moderation of posts at user level? :eek:

I wouldn't envy any mod in a busy forum with large threads with high post turnover. They' have to trawl through hundreds of posts to find posts that require approval.

And then you have the forums where anonymous posting is allowed. You'd just end up with the trouble-makers being funnelled into those forums.

The reduction of users signing up due to the fee has also been mentioned.

The negatives outweigh the positives tbh.

Not every user. Just the first three posts of new users. And premoderation would be just like dealing with reported posts no?

[-0-]

A boards.ie tax. There's enough taxes these days.

oscarBravo

MadsL wrote: »

I just read a post with a user claiming to have re-regged 250+ times this year.

Here's the thing: someone who puts that amount of effort into making a dick of himself (and it takes less than a tenth of the effort to ban such an idiot as it does for the idiot to sign up in the first place) is basically carrying around an "I am a dick" sign.

If someone has indeed re-regged 250 times, they deserve the online equivalent of a pitying smile and a rueful shake of the head - and very little else. They are online graffiti artists, desperately seeking attention by trying to destroy what other people are working to build. And they're failing.

The signal to noise ratio on this site is very, very high, despite the desperate efforts of those who have nothing to offer but noise. We don't need to introduce major changes to frustrate their efforts because they are self-frustrating. They are a gnat at a festival: a minor annoyance, easily ignored.



tl;dr: we're not planning to feed the fragile egos of the sort of muppet you're describing by dealing with them other than how we already do.

Days 298

[-0-] wrote: »

A boards.ie tax. There's enough taxes these days.

Think of it as a New User Reduction Levy... NURL :pac:

hullaballoo

MadsL wrote: »

This doesn't look that minor to me, but then I'm not an Admin...

20 odd a day?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/banlist.php

That low?

Back in the day, Beruthiel would have 50+ accounts banned before 8:30am. That's not a joke.

20 a day, taking into account spambots, shills, re-reg's etc. is a low number.

Again, not broken, don't fix.

Karl Stein

Would an incremental increase in privileges help dissuade it?

Isn't there some sort of system like that for the Soccer forums to prevent idiocy?

Mr E

Just to put things into context:

1. Register a new email address (30-60 seconds).
2. Register a boards account (30-60 seconds).
3. Receive boards email and activate boards account (15 seconds).

From our side:

1. Ban an account (4 seconds), or ban an account and delete all posts (8 seconds).
2. Err... that's it.

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

I just read a post with a user claiming to have re-regged 250+ times this year.
Multiple re-regs and muppetry seem to consume a good deal of Admin and mods time.

Surely charging €1 to reg an account would soften the cough of these idiots?

Are you trying to discriminate against Mr E taking the LoB top spot?

I'd prefer to charge a few non re reg posters money for having to put up with their crap. Can we do that actually? That would be awesome. Automatic deduction from their paypal account every time they say something stupid.

This time next year we'll be millionaires Rodney.

Super-Rush

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd prefer to charge a few non re reg posters money for having to put up with their crap. Can we do that actually? That would be awesome. Automatic deduction from their paypal account every time they say something stupid.

This time next year we'll be millionaires Rodney.

Ha ha.

Artful_Badger

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd prefer to charge a few non re reg posters money for having to put up with their crap. Can we do that actually? That would be awesome. Automatic deduction from their paypal account every time they say something stupid.

This time next year we'll be millionaires Rodney.

I was gonna suggest a "dick jar" to put a quid in every time you get infracted but "dick jar deposits" might look a bit sketchy on the books

professore

Neon_Lights wrote: »

I'd just set up another irish boards site and take all your unhappy "customers" away muahahahaha!

This.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd prefer to charge a few non re reg posters money for having to put up with their crap. Can we do that actually? That would be awesome. Automatic deduction from their paypal account every time they say something stupid.

This time next year we'll be millionaires Rodney.

Or y'know a "bitchin" mod' fine for volunteers who volunteer and then bitch about it...

:pac:

MadsL

MadsL wrote: »

Or y'know a "bitchin" mod' fine for volunteers who volunteer and then bitch about it...

:pac:

I'm not bitching about modding at all.

You can't mod stupidity. Unfortunately.

BOHtox

What are the extra features of Boards.ie and how much does it cost to get them?

Neon_Lights

professore wrote: »

This.

You!

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

You can't mod stupidity. Unfortunately.

I'd be so banned, clearly

Karl Stein

BOHtox wrote: »

What are the extra features of Boards.ie and how much does it cost to get them?

€5 for one month or €50 for the year.

If you subscribe you can change your name and upload nice avatars.

Mr. G

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

You can't really even consider doing it.
The site is far too generalized.
If it were a certain subject, sure. It'd be nice to have a My Little Pony forum that requires a quid per account. There's a reason people would do that. MLP is something people troll a lot about online. Fans of that show would probably pay a quid just to be able to discuss it in peace.

The pre-moderated posts is just... no. There's no way it'll work. There's I think 80 or so forums. Way too much work for the mods. You'd probably need a section of mods just to approve posts.
What happens if I wanted to ask about getting a phone. Three posts in and it's "pay or kindly f*** off" in order to get more feedback.

And even then, who their bloody mind pays to post? It's not a niche site. It's nice that I can post in AH, head down to the Dublin forum and to bargain alerts all on my one account and all but... it's not worth it just to post.
I can see the point of subscribing. People do it for one of two reasons (IMO): they either really like the site and want to support it or else they just like the features.

TBH, if you told me "pay a quid or you can't post" I'd just close the account.

I agree with this. Mods are volunteers and to expect us to premoderate these posts would be too much. I think Boards have it right at the minute.

Taking out a debit card to pay €1 probably isn't worth it after PayPal/bank charges. I know if I was asked for money online to view a forum, I just couldn't be bothered, aside from the security aspect of it of course.

Mr. G

Carlos Roca wrote: »

€5 for one month or €50 for the year.

If you subscribe you can change your name and upload nice avatars.

Here's more info on it also

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056950118

Yeah, it's an absolutely ridiculous idea that would ultimately backfire. I, and many other now-regular users, signed up to here just to ask a simple question. If I had gotten here originally and seen that there would be as much hassle as pre-moderation or paying to ask a question, then you'd be damned sure I would have closed the tab, gone straight to Google, and found somewhere that can answer my question for free. And this is essentially what will happen with new users.

20+ bans a day isn't that high amount, given how many people create accounts each day.

petes

I think it's fantastic idea and I'll take 50c on the euro to premoderate all newbie threads!

Dav

Just for the record, we're not doing this - any barrier to entry at sign-up is bad for any website, especially one like ours.

MadsL

Dav wrote: »

Just for the record, we're not doing this - any barrier to entry at sign-up is bad for any website, especially one like ours.

What the hell kind of democratic decision-mak...oh wait.