Yeah - I had to ask this, b/c it's one of the things that's bugged the hell out of me since I joined LJ and knew anything about paid accounts. And yeah, I was around when basic accounts got 3 icons and paid accounts got 10! (Just before the invite codes went away.)
First - thank you for the explanation. No, I didn't find it over-long and I do like finding out the reasons behind decisions, even if I don't agree with them. If I *understand* I can do other think-tanking and come up with other stuff. So, what I'm now wondering is, how much is involved in, say, having userpics or voiceposts or storage space be purchasable add-ons for non-paid account holders? (Assuming we're going the way of paid accounts w/ DW.) Usecase scenario: Say that I've tried doing that paid account thing and while some of the features are nifty, I don't really use them or want them. (Comment editing - for example - is nice if you've written a book-length comment and need to fix a typo or correct some html, otherwise, copy/paste/re-comment/delete works just fine.) So, I let my pd acct time expire, but I really like having more than 30 userpics. I'd pay $15/yr for 50 or 60 or 100 userpics, because I'd use that, but I don't want to pay $25 a year for 30 userpics, [x] voiceposts and [x] amt of photo storage space, plus all the other pd features that I didn't do anything with, because I *won't* use those. Is something like that possible? With even the caveat that you would have had to have tried the paid acct features for a month first? (It's what $5/month on LJ now?) The system tracks that for the 'loyalty' pics anyway, yes? Possibly even that the option for purchasing only those things you use as add-ons not showing up until you've been a paid acct user for at least one month? I don't know coding languages (beyond my tiny bits of html/css) so I don't know how complex this would be to implement, but here I am thinking outside the box for alternate solutions that would a) continue to generate revenue for the site, b) make the users happy(ish), but c) not be over-burdensome on the code (one would hope) in a way that would require a major overhaul and rethink of the whole process. What I'm leaning toward is, yeah, those 'smaller' paid features are nice, but, even as a regular LJ user (not just an RP'er) - I'd rather have a bucketload of userpics than any number of voiceposts - b/c that is a feature that I can guarantee you *I* will never use b/c I absolutely HATE the way my voice sounds on any sort of recording device. Whether I'll ever hear it or not. So that feature is completely lost on me. I have my own webspace, plus 3 photobucket accts, so storing images on LJ does nothing for me. And things like comment editing? Not a huge draw for me - I see that as a perk. The only reason I have pd time on LJ now is b/c a) I hate those m-f'ing ads and b) I wanted more icons. (Which, yeah, I know, is exactly what they want - but I'm not renewing when this runs out if I can help it --- basic acct back again!) So, yes, I understand the business model, but I'm looking for solutions in other places - thinking outside the box. I wouldn't agree with offering ALL of the pd features as single add-ons b/c, yes, that would be an accounting nightmare, but the more popular ones? Why not? If the goal is to make money to run the shop, doesn't selling MORE of one part of a thing make more sense than not selling very much of a bigger thing? (This, somewhat based on the numbers I've seen regarding users who have paid acct time on IJ - they're far lower than a lot of people realize, b/c the ads there are less intrusive and not slapped on every damned page of the site - hellooooo LJ, stooooopid idea.) Like - Zippo lighters. I wonder how long it took Zippo to decide to sell the flints separately? They're tiny. They cost about a $1.00 for a pack with one or two in it. And they sell TONS of them. $1.00 isn't much, but add it up over the umpteen-thousand that are sold, that's a lot of dollars. Sure, they'd prefer that people go buy another $25.00 Zippo lighter, but that's not really necessary, when all they need is a new flint. (Yeah, I'm comparing Zippo flints to something like userpics, but the idea is similar in nature.) (( I'll stop w/ my long-winded rambling now *g* )) On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 10:41 PM, Denise Paolucci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > On Aug 7, 2008, at 9:10 PM, Highlander II wrote: > > > > This was one of the things I never understood about LJ - why can't *I* >> choose what my $$ pay for on my paid acct? I may have ZERO interest in >> voice-posts or photo space or icons - but, then again, I may want icons >> galore! So, instead of paying for something I'll never use, why can't I >> allocate that I want 500 icons/userpics and NO voiceposts and NO image >> hosting, or that I was [x]MB of image hosting and none of the other stuff? >> I know, K.I.S.S. - from a managing standpoint, but from a 'customer >> service' standpoint, it's kind of a bad plan. (And this isn't directly >> related only to RP stuff.) >> > > You had to ask this, didn't you. *cracks knuckles* > > <snips the heck out of Denise's message> -- Highlander II Currently reading: "Furies of Calderon" by Jim Butcher http://www.h2smsk.com http://hdresdenwizard.h2smsk.com http://vanhelsing.h2smsk.com/ http://jamesmarsters.h2smsk.com
_______________________________________________ dw-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dwscoalition.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dw-discuss
