Hey folks,

As many of you know, FunTrivia has been looking for some ways to make some money. Our advertising revenues have plummeted with the economy and we're having a tough time paying for our current bandwidth/machine use. In addition, we've been unable to make system upgrades due to the cost.

Well I've thrown around ideas about accepting donations or charging a small fee to use the site for all visitors. I don't like either option, particularly the latter.

However, I have come up with another option, and would like to hear your thoughts.

* FunTrivia quiz players would be able to use FunTrivia exactly as they do now for free. You'd be able to play quizzes, create quizzes, and browse them. You'd get the occasional annoying banner ad as you do now, and life would go on as normal.

* However, I would also create a special membership status, "Premier Member" or something. For $10-$20 per YEAR, you would be able to quickly sign-up online to become a Premier Member. These members would get everything we CURRENTLY have, plus a set of FunTrivia perks including things like:

- no banner ads, ever. you would lead a commercial-free FunTrivia existence. no pop-ups, no banners.

- special features that only Premier Members could use:
- special quiz statistics, player statistics, graphs, etc
- a feature to automatically notify you via email when one your quizzes goes online, or when a new quiz is created in one of your favorite categories
- a special Premier Member quizlist view that lets you list only quizzes in categories that you specify
- checkmarks to show what quizzes you have played in any category, new quiz list, top 50, etc (remember this old feature? very cool, but quite demanding on the system. I'd defintiely return it for people who helped us out)
- recognition of your status somehow (bolding of name?)
- multiplayer trivia for Premier Members only
- other cool features as they come to mind. There are so many possibilities!

I personally like this approach. It lets people use FunTrivia as they do now, but incents those who enjoy the site to pay a little bit to get some extra perks and support FunTrivia at the same time.

What do you people think of this idea? Would you be willing to pay $10 to $20 a year for such a "Premier Membership" to FunTrivia, understanding that it's completely voluntary?

Let me know what you think!
Terry

[ May 20, 2002, 06:52 AM: Message edited by: Terry ]

It's a good idea, but I've noticed that when sites start to add premium or upgraded memberships, they start out as being an extra and end up being the norm, and the free memberships begin to lose the features. This might be a bit hard to follow, so in other words:

Site A adds Upgraded Membership (UM).
Lots of members sign up for UM.
Pretty soon, more people have UM than free membership (FM).
The pop-ups come back (it's inevitable).
Site A decides to get rid of the popups for FMs as well, but limits FM's privileges.

Result: FM is a limited version of the site. Not what you intended. (I've seen this sequence play out at other sites- it's not just speculation.)

However, it's still a good idea.

Hi Cryst,

FunTrivia is sort of unique in that free members will always be incredibly valuable to the site. Quiz creation really drives FunTrivia, and making that as easy and as accessible to as many people as possible will ensure that we always have lots of new trivia for people.

True, many NEW features would probably be UM-only, but I can't forsee removing anything from the current FMs.

I like this approach because it really shouldnt offend anyone (you dont LOSE anything if you don't join), and it gives those who would otherwise donate a nice little bonus.

Terry

I understand the need to create revenue. However, people in other countries will end up paying more. I know that in Canada, our dollar is worth less than the U.S. dollar, and in order to get a money order in U.S. dollars, I have to pay a fee to the bank. So, my total would end up being significantly higher than $10-$20.

Lady - I haven't suggested this before, but there are ways you can pay by credit card on the Internet (like Paypal and such). So if you have a credit card you wouldn't *have* to pay by money order.

I'd love the idea of being a premiere member, but as I'm in the UK and don't have a credit card I couldn't become one. This may affect a lot of younger members too.

Is there any way round this? If I could I would definitely sign up.

[ May 20, 2002, 11:03 AM: Message edited by: amberg ]

Like I said, it's still a good idea, and better than the others you've listed. It's probably the best thing to do. If my previous message sounded like a complaint, that wasn't intended.

[ May 20, 2002, 11:10 AM: Message edited by: Crystallina ]

In theory, I would be happy to pay a smallish yearly fee, but would obviously have to read the small print (and see how payment options pan out etc.)

What I would hate to see is the site fold or become infested with pop overs/unders. The $10-20 would be more than worth it in my eyes if you could guarantee me an advert free membership.

I would definitely consider paying if it would bring the multi player back!! A small price to pay for all those hours of fun.

I would definitely pay the special membership fee. This is a great site and I'd like to see it get even more powerful. Will you be paying the editors if you make enough? It might be a good idea--or maybe they could at least have free "special membership"?

--Robyn

Well, Premier Membership aside, I can't speak for anyone else but myself, but having to not see any pop-ups in this site and getting a little extra perks out of the membership fee, would satisfy my justification for paying for something that I truly enjoy. Playing the quizzes and chains and taking part in the discussions with all of these wonderful people truly make the difference here at FT! This site is extremly unusual in that it didn't ask for any money. I found that to be refreshing and here I am today 600 posts later in about 1 1/2 months and I wouldn't think of going anywhere else. This is "HOME."
I will have to agree with Robyn however in the aspect of maybe giving free membership or a little small gratuity to your editors that work so very hard and have the patience of a rock! With all of that said. One last thing Terry. I find it very nice that in a site this large and this busy, (I can't even imagine walking in your shoes in one day) the administrator himself (thats you) will ask before any major changes will happen. Again it is these little things of personal involvment that you take on with everybody as a whole, that keeps me here 5-6 hours at a time..!!

Thanks again!
Kim

I would be happy to pay a small fee, especially if it means I can play the multi-player games again.

Lough

Where do I sign up, Terry. Count me in and because I'm in , you can count Albur in too !!!

I'm in, as long as there's a way of doing it without a credit card.

Here's an idea, though, can we wait for a time when the Australian dollar is a little stronger? At the moment $20 American is about $36 Australian, as opposed to the Canadian $30....

(PS - Currency Calculator )

Terry,
I sent you a PM about this. Just wanted to let you know it's there.

Terry, I think this is a fine idea. You've been shouldering the financial responsibility of the site for years, and I think more than a few of us would be willing to cough up some dough to help out. I have a couple of suggestions that might or might not be of help depending on the time involved in implementing them and the value to our community, financial or otherwise.

1. Have you considered entering into a relationship with a bank or another financial institution to offer a FunTrivia credit card? I get offers for this type of thing all the time in the mail and online, and a lot of them seem to be targeted at
interest groups much smaller than we have here.

2. I really loved the challenge. It was the reason I originally started coming around here. I realize this is a lot of work for someone and that is why
you discontinued it (that and the problem with cheating, of course). But maybe there is a way that you could resurrect it and make it one of the special features for Premier members.

Thanks for the time and effort you put into this community. I've been around almost since it began, and it's been a pleasure to watch it grow into what it has become. As several of other posters to this thread have already mentioned, this site offers a really unique and special internet experience. You should be very proud of that. I look forward to watching it grow and thrive for many years to come. Tim

Terry,

Count me in, no problem.

But I hope you do realise you will put yourself and your moderators under a lot of stress.

I've noticed people complaining a lot lately about things they think are going wrong. And since everything was for free, there was a very good line of defence ready.

I'm afraid people will get a lot more bossy around here when they have paid a membership fee...

I hope people will still realise they are getting a lot for such low price, and won't be bothering you and the moderators too much. I know what I'm talking about, I've seen it happen before. Once somebody has paid something, they act as if they own the place...

One last remark, I refuse to pay with VISA online, so you'll have to give us another possibility.

But I do support the idea, I know a site like this costs money and I'd be happy to give a contribution to the good cause... Hey, maybe gifts from 50 dollar or more might be tax-deductable

Well, as many knows, I'm not even 18 yet. Does that mean that I can have this feature for free?! Seriously, I am not sure about that. I mean, I am not 18, and I don't even have a computer home. I don't have any job and no money at all. I use the computers of the municipal library because I don't have any at home. Because all that, things like that doesn't give people like me any chance eh...

Hmmm i love it when the server goes down half way through a long reply!! I'll try again.
Given that this place is an oasis in a cyber wasteland I'll be happy to pay a 'small' fee to keep it clean and the date palms watered.
Have you thought about offering a "Quiz Master" service using the ample resources on hand to create quiz night question packages for clubs and pubs and so on. Quiz nights are always on over here if well packaged and cheap I'm sure you'd get some takers. I'm even surer that there would be no end of qualified volunteers here to produce the goods.

quo - I believe Terry has been trying to sell some things, but there hasn't been quite a demand for it to to keep the site running.

Isn't something like that unfair for people like me?

Rena, I don't think it would be ... there are a lot of people here who wouldn't be able to make such a payment, myself included. But we'd still all be able to use the site exactly the same way that we do now, for free, same as it's always been. It's just that people can choose to pay for extra features, and their payments will help pay for the free services we use. What really isn't fair is that so many thousands of people have been enjoying this site over the years, and poor Terry's had to pay every penny of its operation out of pocket and advertising (which is kind of sketchy after the Internet bubble burst). So don't worry, you're not going to be excluded in any way ... it's just the difference between using a toll road and a public highway, you still get to the same place in the end but one of them has fewer potholes.

Hey, you know I LOVE all kinds of statistics, this feature IS for me. However, since I have no money at all... It's unfair!

Well, Rena, you're going to find it out one day ... that if you want something then you have to save for it. Is it possible for you to do a couple jobs for a neighbour or something like that to make a bit of money?

I am sorry, I have been following this thread - what isn't fair? Is it fair that you sit most of the day in the library while other people such as myself have to work all day to earn a living? Perhaps there is a good reason why you don't get a job, if so then I sincerely apologise.

quote:

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Feb 28

I have about 400 tape cassettes.
I had 87 CDs the last time I counted them.
I'll have 5 more CDs tomorrow, yeeeaaahhhh!!!

May 4

I have 107 now

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Perhaps you might decide on which is more important to you, acquiring more CDs or subscribing to FT for a Premium Membership.

[ May 23, 2002, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: sue943 ]