Interest in Premium (Ad-Free) Site?

A user recently PM's me, expressing his desire for an ad-free site, and the willingness to pay a fee to access it.

Essentially, it would be a site mirrored to look exactly like this (free to all, and with ads), but which could only be accessed by paying a nominal. In my response to him, I promised to open it up for discussion, and to gauge the interests of others.

With that being said, I'd appreciate any feedback on the following, and from as many members as was possible:

1. Would you be interested in a mirrored but ad-free site (i.e. it would be exactly like this one, with all of the same content, members, etc.), if such was available?
2. If you would be interested in such an option, what would it be worth to you to pay - meaning, what would be both fair and reasonable - insofar as an annual cost, if anything?

I look forward to hearing some frank input, so please don't be shy, or fail to be honest, please.

Thanks, in advance!

 

I will be honest, I will not be coming here if we have to pay for it.

 

I won't say I'm gone if it happens, but I will say that I have more patience for ads than I have disposable income. I feel at home here. It's the best I've found anywhere. Besides, I'm 90% mobile. I see no ads. Is that odd?

 

Is there not a way to do it to where members paying the small fee are not subjected to ads, but those who do not are?

Or is that in effect what you are saying (the forums are mirrored, as in posting on one posts on both)?

 

The ads aren't as much a bother as how painfully slow the forums respond. I'm not dogging or anything. I don't know a [dadgum] thing about hosting a site like this or the costs (and I appreciate it for what you offer), but I simply don't post here often due to load times. I have no idea if it's a message board software, server issue, or both. I'm not referring to TOOS specifically either as I post on a a handful of message boards. Maybe offer a premium member service for a certain donation amount? I post on one forum with a $9.95 registration fee and $4.95 no ads option. It has 160K+ members and generates revenue through odd things like $5 to change your avatar and $9 to change another user's title.

 

It's a shame about the slow server issue.

 

That is what he is saying, mirror is a bad term. I think you can assign user groups, and then display ads based on usergroups. So those in the nominal usergroup wouldn't see the ads, but every other usergroup would.

 

I love this place, but it's silly to even consider pay for sites when it's one of the slowest sites to load on the web.

 

love it here. wouldn't pay to post on it, if i understand the question correctly. I wouldn't be opposed to charging new members and letting the first specific number that showed up here to stay for free

 

Ads don't bother me at all. I honestly hardly notice them.

 

I would be for the ad free...I wouldn't have an issue with $10 fee personally. It's something I enjoy, so I have no issue with saving a month's worth of pocket change to pay for something I enjoy.

With technology constantly evolving, it would also provide a basis to upgrade and improve things as website grows.

That's my thoughts

 

I use Ad Block for Google Chrome. No ads and I still get the site for free. Both problems solved.

 

Don't take this the wrong way, b/c I enjoy the site, but do you know what is causing your slow-loading issues? vBulletin is one of the most popular forums, and I haven't seen other sites have this problem.

 

I use the app 99% of the time on this site. The few times I've accessed the site from a PC, I didn't even notice the ads. I obviously wouldn't want to pay for an ad free site since they aren't visible on the app.

 

The question was whether some would prefer an option to pay a fee to access an ad-free version of the site.

It wasn't asking if the entire site should go to a subscription-based model.

If a subscription based model was offered, it would be entirely at the users discretion - those who wanted to continue with a "free" membership, could do so, without interruption.

The site speed is being addressed - and will be fixed.

 

Some issues which seem to cause a sluggish speed have been corrected, and you should notice a difference.

We'll continue to work on it.

 

Seems faster already. Not quite as fast as my Brazilian fart porn forum, but fast nonetheless.

 

Speed is very noticeably improved.

 

Yes it is. Dang, Tenny D. That's some great service. Stuff like the quick address of these issues is one of the many great aspects to the 8th. Thanks for what you do.

 

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