Would You Pay to Access WATMM In Lieu of Advertisements?

[Joyrex]

So I am considering (and have been for some time) of making the site subscription-only where unless you pay for a subscription, you will only see a limited amount of content (aka a paywall).

I wish it could be free for everyone, but costs have (and continue) to go up over the years, now costing 100 USD per month to run this forum (thankfully the costs of the forum software is part of that).

For a long time now (since 2013) all new members have been required to have a subscription, but an old loophole in the forum software allowed paying members whose subscriptions lapsed to continue to access the site.

I am considering turning this off so if you are not a paying member, you will be limited to how many pages you can view before being presented with a paywall.

The Google Ads was meant to offset the lack/inconsistency of non-subscribers and has been fine, but of course it donks up the site and in some cases renders it unbrowsable from certain devices. If we go this subscription-only and limited content route, maybe the ads can go away?

So, I'd like to hear your thoughts - I fully expect to hear a wide range of opinions, so have at it.

[Satans Little Helper]

Short: yes. At the current fee of $3 a year, can't remember the amount tbh. But it's basically buying a beer for a year access. Can't see any harm in that. But it all depends on the "how much?" question. No brainer to me.  

Edited February 9 by Satans Little Helper

[logakght]

I'll do it for the love of IDM. I sometimes feel bad because I'm a Grand Master and haven't paid anything, tho I don't know how that works.

[beerwolf]

Maybe let youngsters (if any come to watmm) who are under 16 view for free. Anyone over that age has to pay. If you are over 16 you should be able to find some cash from somewhere, if you not? Ask mummy and daddy for a pocket money pay rise. Or stop drinking cans of craft ale for £6 a can. Or suck your gay uncles cock, I'm sure he will give you a fiver. Hope that helps.

 

Edited February 9 by beerwolf

[chronical]

I'll pay you a hundred bucks a month if you do this but instead of a paywall you just redirect to twoism or xltronic lol

On serious note, that'd probably be pretty jarring to some but I wouldn't mind paying for it really. WATMM is special, if it helps keep it up, why not. Youngster account wouldn't work without an ID otherwise you could just pretend to be a teenager? First time in ages we can click "no" at "are you 18+?" on the internet ha

[Mattthegoone]

How much is it? 3£ a year sounds great if it starts working properly on my android phone, ux is awful here recently and aside from the huge number of intrusive ads they have horrible content here in Ireland not sure what dodgy networks you are selling to, sorry not meaning to be bad I was fed an ad about 100 times that had one of my mates uncles partners on it I'd imagine against her will (if she didn't recently join onlyfans), this woman is a retired newsreader in Ireland there's no way that she should be appearing on any advertising agast her will, least not making a site that I like barely operable, the advertising has no targeting and they have no grasp of how to advertise they just blem you with thousands of the same impressions, if annoying people into a low pay wall was your plan sign me up, just let me add an avatar and post the odd photo for my sub and ill feel it was money well spent, and get the big warp 4 to do a monthly dj mix  

 

 

[aencre]

My first thought : wait, I'm already paying for watmming without ads.

...unless my subscription has expired once again without notifiying me?

And, would you look at that, I just went in to check and yes, it had indeed relapsed. That's an issue right there: people like me, who can afford to throw in some money in the hat and already did so, but don't renew because they're not actively reminded once they're due. Surely an automated reminder — email or notification — could be set up?

 

2 hours ago, chronical said:

instead of a paywall you just redirect to twoism or xltronic lol

lol

Edited February 9 by aencre

[YELLOW]

Most likely yes. 

May even be interested if there was like a one-time, lifetime fee

Edited February 9 by YELLOW

[Alcofribas]

I think the major drawback to this model is that it would prohibit a lot of potential new members from joining when there are so many other forums and social media they can use for free. 
 

I think if we can manage to get enough regular subscribers to pay for it, there should be no restrictions even for those who don’t pay. 

[custom knob]

If Google ads only donks up the site for non subscribers that’s fine right?

Im happy to pay my 20 bucks a year for the ekt plus despite not really using any of the added benefits because in terms of entertainment:dollar ratio I think Watmm beats all of the other things I subscribe to.

My suggestion would be to increase the price of the basic subscription to get rid of ads to two to three coffees per year but  maybe that would actually decrease subscriptions if people think it’s too much

failing that, a sponsor - the north face

im a latecomer here, and lucky enough to have a well paying job so grains of salt/stfu capitalist scum etc

 

[cruising for burgers]

I haven't payed for a new plan for a while and I'm still an EKT... and I still don't get any adds... I don't know if it's because I'm using adblock browser though... but I find it strange that I'm still an EKT and not paying for it...

 

edit: just checked an mine is expired but it says on my profile that I'm an EKT... I guess it's adblock browser then... but yeah adblock or not I'm willing to pay 10 bucks a year no probs...

Edited February 9 by cruising for burgers

[Enthusiast]

Happy to pay

[aencre]

1 hour ago, Alcofribas said:

I think the major drawback to this model is that it would prohibit a lot of potential new members from joining when there are so many other forums and social media they can use for free. 
 

I think if we can manage to get enough regular subscribers to pay for it, there should be no restrictions even for those who don’t pay. 

100% behind this.
 

What I'm curious is: are the ads bringing in proper revenue, or are they meant to bog down the non-subscriber experience?

[o00o]

As I noticed and made a topic about when the subscription started back some years ago you guys will immediately lose some friends without noticing as some people are not able or willing to pay and just leave.

i am strongly against weird stuff that makes the side unusable on purpose.

dont we have a lot of paying members already? I am paying for several years now as I think the forum is worth it but would strongly disagree with user punishment just because people can’t or don’t like to pay. The forum lives by its variety of users and just a boys club of a handful paying members does not make it better.

Aren’t there enough paying members already to make the site run ? 

 

Edited February 9 by o00o

[o00o]

I am ok with making exclusive features like infinite image uploads and access to the downloads exclusive for paying subscribers.

I like paying for benefits not to keep artificial restrictions away that spook away my friends 

Edited February 9 by o00o

[Key]

I didnt realise my subscription had expired either, sorted now. Probably more people in the same boat, if a reminder email was sent there might be enough paying members to cover the costs again.

[BobDobalina]

I too pay and only learned that my sub expired via the reappearance of ads.

5 hours ago, cruising for burgers said:

*Jots it down*

[NI64]

Yeah same boat, I just renewed because I saw ads. Had no idea it expired

[aencre]

I was curious of the actual numbers, and since I don't have access to the stats I just did like a normal person and counted by hand who was online today:

I never pay attention to ranks and such. Tallying the accounts, I noticed that some of the higher paying contributors are people I've never heard of (some are full-on lurkers, hi!) while many users whose posts I enjoy on a regular basis are free members. I've also realized how a bunch are small labels and artists and how it'd be conterproductive to have them pay or shoo them away from sharing their upcoming releases — a main reason I frequent this very forum.

Out of 215 users with accounts, 119 have bought a paid subscription; that's more than half. Today, we had :

• 20 supporting members (3$/year) = 60 $
• 35 members plus (5$/year) = 175 $
• 48 knob twiddlers (10$/year) = 480 $
• 16 expert knob twiddlers (20$/year) = 320 $

Assuming the 8 admins who were online aren't spending anything else than time and patience, that amounts to 1035 bucks.

That's just out of the people who where here today. There are 27 times more registered users than that.

So if the hosting+software fees amount to the yearly 1200$, it seems like an ad-less, open community is pretty doable?

We just need an automatic reminder to pay the bills.

Edited February 10 by aencre
english and statistics aren't my first language

[psn]

I've been paying 15 USD a year for years, but it seems my subscription isn't registered under "Manage my Subscriptions". 

[MaartenVC]

1 hour ago, aencre said:

it seems like an ad-less, open community is pretty doable? We just need an automatic reminder to pay the bills.

I agree. Keep the forum free. It can be done.

Otherwise new people would be discouraged too much to join I think. Gotta keep the community alive. (and growing)

Ideas: If possible:

• Notify subscribers yearly with a pop-up. Some subscriptions might just expire without the subscribers really knowing.

• Notify non-subscribers once a year with a pop-up saying that subscribing is a good way to support the forum.

• Show a small "Like watmm? Support the forum." or "Keep watmm ad-free? Support the forum." or "Like talking about music and nonsense? Support the forum." line on the top of the 6 main forum hubs if you're not a subscriber.

• Give subscribers a subscriber-only reaction-emoticon and/or subscriber-only reply-emoticon.

• ...

[Silent Member]

This site needs all the new flesh it can harvest, keep it free.

[luke viia]

18 hours ago, Silent Member said:

This site needs all the new flesh it can harvest, keep it free.

this 100%

On 2/9/2024 at 11:25 AM, Joyrex said:

I am considering turning this off so if you are not a paying member, you will be limited to how many pages you can view before being presented with a paywall.

ngl I would never have signed up here if this was the state of things when I arrived. too many other good free communities. and in 2024 I'd even prefer to join some relevant Patreon community if this paid board option was the alternative presented to me 

which is a bummer bc I genuinely believe message boards are a fantastic sort of online community and I've been involved in them for over 25 years, made lasting friendships through them, learned a lot, etc

[dcom]

On 2/9/2024 at 9:25 PM, Joyrex said:

So I am considering (and have been for some time) of making the site subscription-only where unless you pay for a subscription, you will only see a limited amount of content (aka a paywall).

I've paid from the get-go. Targeted/personalized ads following you around the internet is a nuisance. I'm adblocked up the wazoo, but I still prefer to contribute financially to the upkeep of a forum whose thematic and (para-)social dimensions overlap so greatly with mine as WATMM does. I would go as far as to prefer a completely gated/closed community, with no outside (Google) content indexing because we're regularly discussing very personal things, too, and having all that searchable from outside is a bit iffy. But that's just me. The contributed amount is completely inconsequential.

Edited February 11 by dcom

[aencre]

9 hours ago, luke viia said:

ngl I would never have signed up here if this was the state of things when I arrived.

 

Yeah, me neither : with that the entry-level site looks like with the ads and the overbloat, I wouldn't have joined; I probably wouldn't have even browsed unless in search of specific information

.

2 hours ago, dcom said:

Targeted/personalized ads following you around the internet is a nuisance. I'm adblocked up the wazoo, but I still prefer to contribute financially to the upkeep of a forum whose thematic and (para-)social dimensions overlap so greatly with mine as WATMM does. I would go as far as to prefer a completely gated/closed community, with no outside (Google) content indexing because we're regularly discussing very personal things, too, and having all that searchable from outside is a bit iffy.

If this site wasn't indexed I'd be contributing more personally, sharing art and such, but I know it's not a common concern. Opting out of the google crawl is (probably?) cutting off a main entrypoint for newcomers.

 

@Joyrex, would you agree to share with us some numbers? How much money is coming in from members? How much from ads? Do you have access to stats on how many users have elapsed subscriptions? It is possible to set up automated reminders? Thanks!