Make subscribing more up-front

m_stan

I've been using boards now for a relatively short time compared to some of the 'users', as you can see by my stats aside. I love it. It's been a source of information on everything from work techy problems, to birthday present provider information, to selling a car, to finding out what tv I should buy. And I could go on.

Wondering how I can give something back, other than browsing and trying to contribute with the limited knowledge I have in some fields, I decide to see how I can pay back in another way.

It's hard to find how to subscibe, or even that you can.

Make it more up-front. Add a banner to the homepage. Or a more prominent link. Nothing too big. Not something that will kill bandwidth, or degrade the user experience in anyway. Not something that will turn everyone off. Just something to help yourselves. A more visible way to show those, like me, how to help ensure this wealth of community knowledge stays right where it is.

Build it and they will come.

(ps: my 50 Euro is in the post). Well done.

Nukem

m_stan wrote:

It's hard to find how to subscibe, or even that you can.

Its in your CP on the left. But i understand what your saying but i think forcing that info might scare people away. People see money on a website and are very nervy. I think what could be put in place is under each person have "Subscriber" so more people would ask whats a suscriber(link it to subscribing too) or a small icon on the frontpage guiding you through the subscription (not that its hard).

Anyways its an Admin caper and there decision but i do understand. Been here a year and its rare to have a day gone past without just popping in.

Nukem

marco murphy

Its crap. I PMed several admins with no reply and ...sent a ticket or whatever to subscribe..no answer.

m_stan

Nukem wrote:

Its in your CP on the left. But i understand what your saying but i think forcing that info might scare people away. People see money on a website and are very nervy. I think what could be put in place is under each person have "Subscriber" so more people would ask whats a suscriber(link it to subscribing too) or a small icon on the frontpage guiding you through the subscription (not that its hard).

Anyways its an Admin caper and there decision but i do understand. Been here a year and its rare to have a day gone past without just popping in.

Nukem

Never noticed it in the CP until now. Thanks, coz I paid my sub via paypal just now. I work in web marketing, so I know this can be done in such a way as to help pay the bills, as well as not p*ing people off. As you alluded, it's just a matter of how it's done. It doesn't change anything - it just makes things a little more obvious re the subscription thing.

Poblachtach wrote:

Its crap. I PMed several admins with no reply and ...sent a ticket or whatever to subscribe..no answer.

With your number of posts, you couldn't find it that crap ??? Did paypal not work ?

Nevyn

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/subscriptions.php?

marco murphy

Considering iam young and wouldnt feel good parting with money when no admins have replyed to my PMs...

Gordon

Admins get a great deal of pms Poblachtach. Try posting a ticket on the Help Desk for the SMods and we'll help you out, if the ticket needs Admin attention we'll escalate it.

I think what Nukem posted is quite valid. Imo I would imagine a link on the front page would still be a good idea though.

Thanks for the feedback m_stan, enjoy the subscription. Also check out the subscriber forum.

seamus

I agree with making it more prominent. The main problem lies in - how do you "Advertise subscriptions" without making it feel like they're being forced upon people?

DeVore

Phoblacht... the whole idea of the subscription system was that we WOULDNT have to hand hold each subscriber. What exactly do you want to know that isnt already available to you with some searching? hundreds of others have managed it...

M_Stan, thanks for the support, I know what you mean but years of experience have made us cautious about putting it in peoples faces. In the next short while I believe you'll see the admins try to move more in that direction... but softly. We have a lot of good will here that is worth a lot more then a few euros, but I'd like to be able to reward the SMods and the mods at least a *little* some day!

(Consider that if we bought each mod a pint we'd spend over 1500 euros for that round ). We need some more equipment too (the site could do with two new servers!) and its a huge amount of work now for the admins and most if it falls into the "not fun but has to be done" category, so its likely to become a "job" for someone soon. Its probably time we hired a caretaker (someone Phoblacht can PM) though we've put that off as long as we can...

Its a matter of how we do all this, but I've some decent ideas about it.

DeV.

DeVore

Um, on the front page there is a big image-link (second from the left) front and centre. It kinda has all the info you could need, no?

DeV.

Cloud

That's what I thought!

The big Subscribers button

WizZard

Maybe someone got a little to excited with Adblock??

marco murphy

DeVore wrote:

Phoblacht... the whole idea of the subscription system was that we WOULDNT have to hand hold each subscriber. What exactly do you want to know that isnt already available to you with some searching? hundreds of others have managed it...


DeV.

I asked an admin..more than one even, would they sort out my subscrition after i had sent money by post. A member...of no high rank told me that boards wont be accepting bank transfers or posted cash, no admin has told me this.
I PMed more than one admin to confirm this and went to the helpdesk...
1 month and still waiting.
There is no rush i just want answers

Gilgamesh

Poblachtach wrote:

I asked an admin..more than one even, would they sort out my subscrition after i had sent money by post. A member...of no high rank told me that boards wont be accepting bank transfers or posted cash, no admin has told me this.
I PMed more than one admin to confirm this and went to the helpdesk...
1 month and still waiting.
There is no rush i just want answers

they do accept Bank transfer, I remember this as I asked it in a different thread, and I am also going to be transferring the money for it next week.

just use the search, really makes life easier for everybody

Nukem

DeVore wrote:

Um, on the front page there is a big image-link (second from the left) front and centre

:eek: What a dumbass i is. Shows how much attention i pay to the start page - usually go straight to my fav forums. Me is SNAFU (admins know better )

Nukem

steveland?

Gilgamesh wrote:

they do accept Bank transfer, I remember this as I asked it in a different thread, and I am also going to be transferring the money for it next week.

just use the search, really makes life easier for everybody

No they've stopped taking anything other than PayPal afaik...

Random

I do have to agree with the guy above, to an extent ....

I sent some money manually via PayPal and then sent in a ticket asking about subscribers and it went ignored for 3 weeks. Eventually I just deleted it and gave up

DeVore

in extremism we will accept bank transfers but we are no longer accepting cash in hand at beers as its just too awkward to track and bank etc.

Phoblacht, are you saying you have already sent the cash? If so then I'll sort it out in a weeks time when I return from holidays. Apologies if so. If not, then it is best if you use the automated system as it handles the work load for us.
Oh, and I think we have already agreed between the admins to create the Islam forum. Should happen in a few days.

DeV.

marco murphy

Ah thanks Dev. Good man (about Islam forum) Hope it goes well. thanks again.
I havent sent the money but i will and i'll PM you in a week
Danke Schon