Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

1. Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #1

   Lately I have spent some time in another community and I thought I should present you with a great idea they have:
   For 20 USD you can buy a season pass that lasts for 6 months. This season cards includes 7 USD that you can split and bestow upon OTHER members whose submissions you adore.  The rest... goes into the pockets of the developers and caretakers. ;)
   
   There are other benefits too: Season pass holders can start special threads, open special forums and do other special stuff. Imagination is the only limit here (special votes or tags that they can stick to subs, special ways of highlighting, etc...). Still: The site is still free for those that have been invited and no basic needs are taken from the users.
   
   The community has 10.000 active members and is membership by invitation only. Many, many users regularly buy these season passes, so the admins (there are 3 developer-admins) have a nice little extra source of income that makes up for the time they spend tweaking and administrating the place. 
   
   Now this forum is more of a cultural thing wherein upcoming concerts, music, games, movies, books, politics and so on is discussed so there is a wider base for users. But still... I think cheap season passes would help finance this place (Strolen's) and the huge dollar donations made by others need not seem so intimidating to us regular "Joe Strolenite"s ;). We just buy a season pass and be done with it. Of course: Huge dollar donations are encouraged still ;)

2. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #2

   Sorry to be the one that shoots down the idea this time...
   
   ...but we are an open place, and live by opening the gates to anyone that comes by... what happens afterwards is another matter. :)
   
   I am not exactly sure I would like to go around paying people for what they do (not that they don't deserve it many times!). Being paid could be nice as well, but again it would introduce money where it should NEVER be, IMO.
   
   Also, what would be those special places be, and other privileges one gains only after paying to us? What parts of the Citadel would we have to cordon off, or develop that is only for those have the cash?
   
   
   Sorry to be a little harsh, but this is a suggestion to completely turn around this whole place, and break much of what it was built on, with uncertain results, besides likely alienating our members. This place is free, though there certainly can be (voluntary) donations.
   
   And I don't want to change any of that.

3. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #3

   No, no you aren't harsh. I expected the reaction but I had to tell you guys about that particular system as I have seen it working.

4. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #4

   Once we hit 10k users we will require something like that in order to afford the dual servers+ needed to run it. RIght now it is only about $5-600 a year which isn't going to kill me. The donations saved me this year big time. (Thanks!) I may have to tap into those funds a little bit for the StrolenCon, but it is all going to the Citadel.
   
   This isn't a bad idea, for the future. It is easy to come up with some fun things for "premium" members to do just to make a tangible award for a donation. And we wouldn't cordon off anything I don't think, it would be basically extras that are available like AG mentioned. Those extras don't necessarily have to limit the experience of BH.

5. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #5

   I think I need to sleep over this... if you say it may be necessary one day, then I believe you. Still not something I'd like to see here.

6. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #6

   I'm not particularly technically inclined, but are there features that would be cool to put onto the site, but that aren't feasible for everyone to have?  That sort of thing would be the ideal incentive for such a program.

7. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #7

   Don't think too hard. It will be a long while before we get to the point where we actually have to seriously think about it. By then I might be a millionaire and it won't matter how much it costs to keep it online.

8. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #8

   There are ALWAYS features that can be added. :)

9. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

   #9

   I would have to second manfred (pre-sleep) on this.
   
   What about a simple variation if we have to...an annual, good-faith tithe. Everyone has to donate something once a year, be it $5, or whatever. Always encouraged, but never enforced.
   
   The donations will add up nicely.

10. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #10

    I will just let the thought simmer. Really, we are talking 5-10+ years down the road unless we get some kind of crazy sudden boom, which I think is highly unlikely. If it comes to the point where I am struggling to afford it and the helpful donations are not enough, we might start looking into something to try and spur more donations.
    
    Until then.....

11. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #11

    5-10 years? That's like... AGES! :)
    
    Guess we can really put this on ice.

12. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #12

    In internet years it is decades. By then fast servers will be a dime a dozen.

13. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #13

    
    5-10 years? That's like... AGES! :)
    
    Guess we can really put this on ice.
    

    
    
    Put on ice?
    
    I dunno. If it is gonna happen it would be nice to have an archive of ideas to draw upon. If my memory serves Strolen and MoonHunter, the site architects,  will spend hours and hours going over this when the time comes, and their discussion threads will quickly grow mile long. That is why they need our feedback before we have the chance to recoil in horror of these monster-threads. ;)
    
    But... The site needs to grow a little more exponentially before this is gonna happen. It needs more legs to stand upon. The current leg is amazing... An olympic leg even, but it has a too narrow focus.
    
    *Holds hands up before the flaming begins*
    
    Please let us talk like civilized people about this!
    
    Ok... Going on to a slightly different subject... So the above subject can come to pass!
    
    I think we need more stuff here. Perhaps someting light to catch the attention?
    Crowd pleasers... Humour section with genre parodies... Us getting down from our ivory towers of elitism.
    
    Perhaps something more instantly recognizable as genius?
    Great art... Celebrity Strolenite... Music section (following Nobody's example)
    
    Greater socializing possibilities?
    Blogging section... Personal galleries... Visible friend networks
    

14. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #14

    Um... what's wrong with our current rate of growth?  Why do we need any of this?  It seems like you want to attract people who wouldn't normally come here, which is okay, but the Citadel *is* a roleplaying site, and if we try to create more bells and whistles to attract people, I have a feeling we'd lose track of that. 

15. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #15

    I had considered that there are roleplaying sites with whom we could forge stronger ties.  Sites that don't have some of the Citadel's strengths, but may have advantages we don't.

16. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #16

    "Advantages we don't"?!
    Lord I won't,
    Surely you know we're the best...
    
    *cue Disney-esque villian song*
    
    Well, singing aside.  We could form a Confederacy of RP sites and take over the internet with them, gradually stealing patrons from sites like llama.xxx and goggle.com!  Wow, I'm not feeling very serious right now, I'm sorry.  Seriousness will come sometime tomorrow, I'm pretty sure.

17. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #17

    We are the Borg... advantages of of other websites will be assimilated into our collective.
    
    
    I think we had a relation that might have grown into an alliance with some other website at some point... and then it was absorbed into yet another website. The Internet can be an unstable place, so "allies" would have to be chosen carefully. But I would like to know about potential candidates. (Wulf: do you have particular sites on mind?)
    
    
    On the whole is my opinion this:
    1. Yes, we don't need it.
    2. I don't mind considering the ideas. I don't feel like taking it all at any point, but some parts may find their place here.
    
    A functional gallery could be nice. A prettier profile page would be nice. Other media... I don't mind at all!

18. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #18

    Functional gallery and sound upload are both useful things in my mind.  If we can get a high-functioning gallery, we can import pics, maps, NPC avatars, you name it.  Sound would be perfect for various song-based subs.  All these are in the name of higher RPing.
    
    But when we start introducing the blogging and the networking and cajoling* people for new features, we'll be another MySpace clone in no time.  We should have some sort of "safety net" for keeping the citadel afloat in times of economic strife, but we should avoid becoming a conglomorate site, IMHO.
    
    *Not that I think charging people for a premium pass is bad, I actually think it's a good idea.  But we should really think about what sorts of features to put in there, as that could easily change the crowd we attract to the site.

19. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #19

    Know what is really funny? A little group of mine at work own the site www.yollama.com, we just haven't really done anything with it yet.  hehehe
    
    I have some somewhat strong feelings about bondage with other sites, although I think confederacy is a better word.
    
    I DO NOT want sites to be listed in a public forum though. If, by chance, we decide "no" about some of the sites, I don't want public record discussing it. Not a very polite thing to do at all and it may cause issues if the site ever saw it....maybe. But just in case, ya know? Plus, don't want to finally decide to say yes to sites, ask, and get rejected either. hehehe
    
    If we start discussing that, it needs to be in a private, invite only forum.
    
    (SOME RANDOM ADMIN - PLEASE SPLIT THIS TOPIC WITH A BETTER TITLE - I just realized I am late for work)

20. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #20

    Roleplayers love talking about themselves. In every myspace clone I am in there is a roleplaying sections where people prattle on about themselves and the splendid-idity (I know that is not a word) of their system and Game Master.
    
    So... What is wrong about being a MyRPGSpace? If we riddled the user homepages with enough "Which roleplaying systems do you play? What roleplaying system is your favourite? Your favourite character class/profession?" and so on, non-gamers are gonna catch on and leave.
    
    There will still be non-roleplayers like Rei and Nosredna, but hey: It was ever thus!

21. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #21

    When I looked at some of the sites on Effie Rover's "RPG Gateway" site (Link: http://www.rpggateway.com/Ratings/ ), I saw several sites that drew my interest.  The "play-by-post" community here is fairly small and could benefit from contact with other like-minded groups.  Conversely, we have some writing on this site that eclipses anything those poor souls have seen lately. 
    
    It frustrates me to see clearly inferior sites lauded (Italian Heroquest, anyone?) simply because people haven't seen the coolness that can be found here.  Massive sites like the Star Wars Combine sit at the top of their ratings simply by virtue of their massive player base; I suspect that few of us would like to see Strolen's become a juggernaut like that, but having a few more folks around might be nice.

22. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #22

    split topic into 'Citadel's Future Plans', since what is being discussed now, has little to do with financing and more to do with plans for the future in general.
    

23. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #23

    An idea out of the blue... some of the content here is of a publishable level. If some of the authors agree, could a print-on-demand book on www.lulu.com for example, be helpful in financing the site?
    
    Again, just an idea...
    
    Whoa.. didnt know youd fringed the topic before: http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2465.0.html

24. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #24

    It would be fine with me if my subs financed the citadel. Dunno about the rest of you though. My guess is that we would need an editor that could contact the author to ask permission. However... Just to sow a seed of sad reality: I doubt Strolen would get fat and wealthy from selling those PDFs. ;)
    
    Unless... Unless we were successful in branding the Strolen's PDFs concept and the PDFs became known as roleplaying litterature gems of exquisite quality.
    
    Anyone able and willing to do that, please report to the citadel quartermaster (that is manfred for you).

25. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #25

    Yeah, I am starting a new diet and going to the gym daily so I definitely won't be getting fat!

26. Re: Financing the Citadel: Season Pass

    #26

    donation made toward Con expenses

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