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I already mentioned this before: let’s bring back meaning to being a Premium member. Jeff then asked how we would go about doing that, so here’s my take on it. As far as I can tell, Premium members currently do not get a thing for donating (apart from the “great feeling” you get?) well, let’s change that.
Here’s what I propose:
Invitations to chats
This was brought up a while back when I first became a part of the staff here at BigBlueBall but here’s something we can do along with the old idea that might resurrect the point of being a Premium member. Let’s host chats.
Unlike the last idea, that detn8r came up with, I would like to offer the Premium Members a chance to chat with our Guests. While the public, non-Premium members will only be allowed to idle and read in a +m (moderated) IRC channel (they can submit questions to the operators), our Premium members can casually chat with the Guest. Be it technical or personal. If need be, we could let the Premium members in to a password protected IRC channel, let them chat to the Guest and then after an alloted amount of time, we will open the channel to the public.
@my.bigblueball.com emails (could this be powered by GMail too?)
Much like ours, but to distinguish between a Staff email and a user email, prefix it with my. (like Opera does). If this can be done through Google, it would be at no cost to us and they would be getting a nearly free 2GB+ email account with a cool domain name.
my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?
Again copying Opera. We could offer our Premium members the oppurtunity to have a blog of their own hosted by us and a photo storage area.
Priority towards events
If we ever have a contest or something that we are about to run, let the Premium members know in advance so that they can have the edge or something. Got latest news that NO ONE knows about? Post it in the premium section so they get the latest news first, before anyone else. Of course there is the issue with leaking.
Free BigBlueBall T-Shirt? (they pay shipping?)
Nothing makes you feel more a part of this great community than getting a small gift. I say since we send it to MOTMs, it wouldn’t hurt sending them to Premium members?
Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
I personally find any flood limit annoying on any forum attached to any feature. I know some people that share this same mentality and perhaps a prospective Premium member does too.
Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
I personally find any flood limit annoying on any forum attached to any feature. I know some people that share this same mentality and perhaps a prospective Premium member does too.
Reduced or removed restrictions
No offence Jeff, but you are pretty anal about signature size and avatar size. And given how this community has matured, that’s a good thing. But perhaps freedom is something that will entice people to donate. Offer premium members bigger signatures and bigger avatars. Offer them freedom.
Voice or whatever on IRC (when it is more popular, this will be a good thing)
Whenever we get IRC better known, having voice will mean a lot. I really don’t get this, but people like having a + next to their name. Why is there a problem with the same concept on a forum then!? I just don’t get it. Not only does it mean they get to add input when the forum is +m’ed which for us should be NEVER. But they look and feel more important. And who doesn’t love that?
Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
Perhaps giving our premium members more say in community matters will make them actually useful. We often find ourselves at an awkward silence when trying to pick a MOTM. Who better to pick a MOTM than a member that loves this community enough to donate? Who better to pick a MOTM and vote for one, than a member themselves? We are staff members and so our opinion of members is sometimes flawed. We tend to look for things that a staff member needs, not what a MOTM needs.
Participation in Podcasts
Podcasts are not just a way to become known in the community but a way to develop a personal relationship with the staff and to speak, LITERALLY, with the legendary Jeff Hester. I mean come on, who wouldn’t pay for that? 😛
What’s with the + ?
Personally, I think it’s a great idea. But I’m including this as a complaint from other members and people who have become premium members. Why have they had their username modified with a + being prepended? (I know, it’s just a display thing, but they don’t seem to know that). Again, I love this “feature” but maybe we should give our premium members a choice?
More influence over the reputation system?
Perhaps give premium members more points and less restrictions when giving out reputation votes? Their vote counts for 2 instead of 1? It will make members respect Premium members more and perhaps work harder to please them. Although I can see a number of problems resulting from this.
Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
Most people expect to pay for ad-removal, so why not give them this? Remove all ads from the site or most of them apart from Google ads once they are a premium member? Perhaps charge seperately for it too for those that just want ads removed?
Their own cool (faster?) forum skin that only they can use (possible?)
Perhaps offer them a streamlined interface. This goes in conjunction with removal of ads as it will both clean up the interface and speed up browsing.
Security restrictions removed? (Flash, html…etc.)
Although there’s good reason for these restrictions, vB offers great restrictions on HTML, so we could allow our premium members to use them to make their replies more interesting? And perhaps allow flash avatars and signatures? Also a security risk, and may be an annoyance but it’s something some people might want.
Chance to chat to other IM experts…
Now I included this because it should already be something they get. It state so in the forum description, after all. But they don’t seem to be getting this? Why are we not actively conversing with the premium members? Are there even any non-ex-staff premium members around?
I highly suggest an overhaul. Once that’s done, we announce the new system and persuade our members to donate. No one knows about the old system apart from seeing the many ex-staff members with orange names and a + appended.
I think this is the most important
Let your users know that they are helping keep the site free. The mere feeling they get when they’re helping out the community they love in a way no one else could is overwhelming. However, that being said, in my point of view, this site does not need donations – you have so many ads, it should be enough to keep this site up. Remove some ads and push for premium membership. Please Jeff, I ask that you trial this, see how well Premium membership will do once you have removed/hidden temporarily all/most of the ads.
Just wanted to note that not all of these suggestions are mine.
Once again, apologise for the length :woot:
Criticism and comments are welcome.
EvilSeph wrote:Invitations to chatsThis was brought up a while back when I first became a part of the staff here at BigBlueBall but here’s something we can do along with the old idea that might resurrect the point of being a Premium member. Let’s host chats.
Unlike the last idea, that detn8r came up with, I would like to offer the Premium Members a chance to chat with our Guests. While the public, non-Premium members will only be allowed to idle and read in a +m (moderated) IRC channel (they can submit questions to the operators), our Premium members can casually chat with the Guest. Be it technical or personal. If need be, we could let the Premium members in to a password protected IRC channel, let them chat to the Guest and then after an alloted amount of time, we will open the channel to the public.
Wait…what? What do you want to do with IRC? Explain that more clearly, please, I don’t understand what you’re suggesting.
EvilSeph wrote:@my.bigblueball.com emails (could this be powered by GMail too?)Much like ours, but to distinguish between a Staff email and a user email, prefix it with my. (like Opera does). If this can be done through Google, it would be at no cost to us and they would be getting a nearly free 2GB+ email account with a cool domain name.
Not sure if subdomains can be powered by Google or not, but I would doubt it. This also depends on the number of e-mail addresses Jeff is allowed to set up on his domain, it could be 50, it could be 500. If it’s feasable and Jeff is up to it, I like the idea.
EvilSeph wrote:my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?Again copying Opera. We could offer our Premium members the oppurtunity to have a blog of their own hosted by us and a photo storage area.
We are about Instant messaging, though, not blogs, and not photo storage, that’s for sure. There are other web services out there that are free. Sorry, I vote against this one.
EvilSeph wrote:Priority towards eventsIf we ever have a contest or something that we are about to run, let the Premium members know in advance so that they can have the edge or something. Got latest news that NO ONE knows about? Post it in the premium section so they get the latest news first, before anyone else. Of course there is the issue with leaking.
We already try to do this as much as we can (the referral contest), but I do agree with you. They should get a definate heads-up about the latest.
EvilSeph wrote:Free BigBlueBall T-Shirt? (they pay shipping?)Nothing makes you feel more a part of this great community than getting a small gift. I say since we send it to MOTMs, it wouldn’t hurt sending them to Premium members?
Sounds like a good idea, if we give one out every month, the subscription cost could cover some of the cost of the t-shirt.
EvilSeph wrote:Search and Post flood limit removal (or reduction)I personally find any flood limit annoying on any forum attached to any feature. I know some people that share this same mentality and perhaps a prospective Premium member does too.
Re-iterating an idea? 😉 I don’t think this is a good idea; someone could pay, then spam all they wanted, and that’s not what we need. The search also puts a tremendous load on the server, so I say nay against this one.
EvilSeph wrote:Reduced or removed restrictionsNo offence Jeff, but you are pretty anal about signature size and avatar size. And given how this community has matured, that’s a good thing. But perhaps freedom is something that will entice people to donate. Offer premium members bigger signatures and bigger avatars. Offer them freedom.
Avatars, IMHO, are already as big as they need to be. Any bigger and the forums would get cluttered. Same goes with signature images. I think when Jeff thought up those rules he wsa thinking about everyone (himself, the mods, and the members), not just regular users. I say the policy stays. 🙂 Besides, I don’t think you can do some of what you’re asking with vB.
EvilSeph wrote:Voice or whatever on IRC (when it is more popular, this will be a good thing)Whenever we get IRC better known, having voice will mean a lot. I really don’t get this, but people like having a + next to their name. Why is there a problem with the same concept on a forum then!? I just don’t get it. Not only does it mean they get to add input when the forum is +m’ed which for us should be NEVER. But they look and feel more important. And who doesn’t love that?
I’m all for voicing the premieres 😉 Just make sure they understand how to register and log in to their nickname on IRC.
EvilSeph wrote:Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)Perhaps giving our premium members more say in community matters will make them actually useful. We often find ourselves at an awkward silence when trying to pick a MOTM. Who better to pick a MOTM than a member that loves this community enough to donate? Who better to pick a MOTM and vote for one, than a member themselves? We are staff members and so our opinion of members is sometimes flawed. We tend to look for things that a staff member needs, not what a MOTM needs.
This is a really good idea, and could be really useful for us if we get more active premiere memebrs. Great idea! :p
EvilSeph wrote:Participation in PodcastsPodcasts are not just a way to become known in the community but a way to develop a personal relationship with the staff and to speak, LITERALLY, with the legendary Jeff Hester. I mean come on, who wouldn’t pay for that? 😛
He does have a really good DJ voice, doesn’t he? :p Yeah, this is a good idea. I’d like to hear some user participation in the podcast, as well.
EvilSeph wrote:What’s with the + ?Personally, I think it’s a great idea. But I’m including this as a complaint from other members and people who have become premium members. Why have they had their username modified with a + being prepended? (I know, it’s just a display thing, but they don’t seem to know that). Again, I love this “feature” but maybe we should give our premium members a choice?
I agree 100%. Not to sound harsh, but the “+” is really dumb. We need to get rid of it pronto. Besides, isn’t it enough to have a bright, yellow, shiny badge that says “PREMIERE” under your name, anyway? :p
EvilSeph wrote:More influence over the reputation system?Perhaps give premium members more points and less restrictions when giving out reputation votes? Their vote counts for 2 instead of 1? It will make members respect Premium members more and perhaps work harder to please them. Although I can see a number of problems resulting from this.
I agree here, too. They should get a bit more reputation-altering power.
EvilSeph wrote:Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)Most people expect to pay for ad-removal, so why not give them this? Remove all ads from the site or most of them apart from Google ads once they are a premium member? Perhaps charge seperately for it too for those that just want ads removed?
Yes, yes, and yes some more. I despise the ads everywhere, especially the ones on the fourm index for visitors. The message that says “Remove these ads” or whatever is WAY too small, anyway, I didn’t even notice it. (I have to view those ads all the time…you know, the cookie-browser problem or whatever it is. I tihnk it would be a HUGE incentive for people to pay to remove the ads. Besides, it’s still revenue? 😉
EvilSeph wrote:Their own cool (faster?) forum skin that only they can use (possible?)Perhaps offer them a streamlined interface. This goes in conjunction with removal of ads as it will both clean up the interface and speed up browsing.
This would take a lot of work, especially if doing a custom skin. There are a hellofa lot of elements that go into a vB skin. But if Jeff is up to it, I think it would be neat.
EvilSeph wrote:Security restrictions removed? (Flash, html…etc.)Although there’s good reason for these restrictions, vB offers great restrictions on HTML, so we could allow our premium members to use them to make their replies more interesting? And perhaps allow flash avatars and signatures? Also a security risk, and may be an annoyance but it’s something some people might want.
To put it rather bluntly: Bad idea. Remember, anyone can pay to be premiere. Therefore, anyone could mess up our site with HTML or the lot. Sorry, this is a defiante no from me.
EvilSeph wrote:Chance to chat to other IM experts…Now I included this because it should already be something they get. It state so in the forum description, after all. But they don’t seem to be getting this? Why are we not actively conversing with the premium members? Are there even any non-ex-staff premium members around?
I highly suggest an overhaul. Once that’s done, we announce the new system and persuade our members to donate. No one knows about the old system apart from seeing the many ex-staff members with orange names and a + appended.
I don’t really get what you’re suggesting here. Clarify?
EvilSeph wrote:I think this is the most importantLet your users know that they are helping keep the site free. The mere feeling they get when they’re helping out the community they love in a way no one else could is overwhelming. However, that being said, in my point of view, this site does not need donations – you have so many ads, it should be enough to keep this site up. Remove some ads and push for premium membership. Please Jeff, I ask that you trial this, see how well Premium membership will do once you have removed/hidden temporarily all/most of the ads.
Good idea. (I’ve run out of things to say, heh.)
Wow. Huge super-long post. Almost made my head hurt 😉
Anyway, this all seems like a great way to revive the premiere memberships here at BBB. (Rep++ for you, btw) I hope this pulls through and all gets implemented.
Hm…by the way. Do staffers get premiere benefits by default? From the looks of things currently, I think they do. I just hope the trend continues if we implement all this 😉
Invitations to Chats
We drafted up a guest chat thing like Microsoft’s technical chats, but on our IRC server. The original idea was to make it just like Microsoft technical chats and I’ve decided to modify that. We offer the old idea to the public, but only let our premium members chat to the Guest (voice in a +m channel). The public can ask questions, but it will have to go through the staff members online at the time that are hosting the chat. My second idea for this would be to +i the channel (lock it down) and let the premium members freely chat to the Guest prior to opening the channel for the public chat. This allows our premium members to have a more personal chat with our Guests and essentially gives them the oppurtunity to communicat with industry professionals.
Chance to chat to other IM experts…
It says in the Premium forum’s description that they get the chance to chat with other IM experts. I haven’t seen this yet. WE are the IM experts here, so we should be actively posting off-topic chatter or technical information in the premium forums.
Perhaps if we fill it up with knowledge and activity, someone who has just donated to become a Premium member will feel that their contribution was worthwhile.
As far as I can tell, from a premium member perspective, it looks like the premium forum is invisible to staff. We hardly ever post there. We focus more on our sections and that is a big mistake. They have donated, they deserve priority.
The blog and image hosting suggestion applies to any community, regardless of their specialty. On that topic though, I am busy trying to think up some specialty specific features (i.e. that have to actually do with IM, our main focus).
I think you have some good things there, such as the ad-removal and setting up the chat plus the +v in IRC. I completely agree on that. However, like Spike said, no blog nor pictures. The T-shirt is a GREAT idea. Help making them feel really welcome. I think we should get rid of the “+” in the name but keep the same color that it is. Podcast participation and letting them help out in the MOTM picking.
i’ve included my responses to the ones i have an opinion on… the rest i just left out.
@my.bigblueball.com emails (could this be powered by GMail too?)
-Interesting idea, I’m for it if it’s possible.my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?
-Like Spike said… that’s not what BBB is about, though. Nay on this one.Priority towards events
-absolutely. definitely. harumph.Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
-The post flood limit isn’t all that high, is it? I think it’s already set to a decent, respectable level as is. The search limit could maybe be upped, but it does put a strain on the server.Reduced or removed restrictions (on sigs and avatars)
-The reason they’re restricted to those sizes is for the viewing pleasure of others. I can’t stand seeing people with gargantuan signatures. i don’t want to disable viewing sigs altogether though… i just dont like the huge ones.Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
-I’ve quietly suggested this a few times too.Participation in Podcasts
-Absolutely.What’s with the + ?
-I never understood that either.More influence over the reputation system?
-a power of two points sounds reasonable to me. gives them a bit more weight than regulars, but not as much as staff… which is exactly the idea of being a premium.Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
-are there really that many?Security restrictions removed? (Flash, html…etc.)
-uh… no. i vote no on this one. security risk, and the risk of having much bigger files loading (a flash movie to a relatively small image?) which would in turn further slow down the site for non-broadband users.Great post, Warren! No need to apologize for the length. I’d rather see more posts like this. I really appreciate the thought and feedback.
Here are my initial thoughts on your post (I’ve added numbers to make reference a little easier):
1 – Invitations to chats
I like this idea a lot. Let’s just do it. We need: some people to chat with; some advance promotion; anything else?2 – @my.bigblueball.com emails
I like this idea also. I’ll need to check on two things. First, whether Google allows a subdomain. Second, if I can purchase additional user accounts (and how much they cost). Currently they give us 30 user accounts for free, and imply that additional accounts might be available at a cost. But as their hosted email is still in beta, I’m not sure if they’re setup for that yet.3 – my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?
Hrmm… not so excited about this one, for the same reasons that Jake and Tom mention. BigBlueBall is first-and-foremost a site about IM. There’s lots of places to blog and post photos already, and I don’t see us really able to compete or even attract people from those solutions. Heck, even I use Flickr to post photos, even though I could certainly create my own photo blog. If you have seen this done successfully on other sites similar to BigBlueBall, I’d like to take a look. Post a URL or two.4 – Priority towards events
I like this idea, but I’m not sure what events (or news) that I’d announce here first. Contests would be one example. But can you list any other examples?5 – Free BigBlueBall T-Shirt? (they pay shipping?)
I like this idea, too, but the cost is prohibitive. The t-shirt costs me more than the price of a premier membership. I could either raise the price of membership, or maybe provide two membership options (with/without t-shirt). If I purchased at least 100 t-shirts, I could get a much better price, but I’d also have to handle all the shipping myself. But… that’s a possbility something to consider.6 – Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
The time between searches is currently set to 15 seconds. Has that really been a problem? I’ve never had any complaints. Also, there is no way (that I’m aware of) to change this for just one usergroup. And finally, search flooding crashed BigBlueBall in the past (an intentional attack nearly 2 years ago)… hence my reluctance to remove the limit.7 – Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
This is currently set to 30 seconds (moderators and admins are exempt). You think this is a problem? I haven’t had anyone complain. Are there other big forums that have a shorter post flood limit? The post flood thing has saved me personally from accidently making double-posts, and it certainly helps slow down the tide of spam posts. And finally, there is no simple way in vBulletin to change this setting just for Premier members.8 – Reduced or removed restrictions
I do give them more freedom, and I’m willing to consider more. For example, maybe we allow Premier members to use animated avatars? As for the dimensions, I was actually thinking of reducing the allowed sizes for avatars down to something like 50×50. Maybe if we did this for the “regular” members and gave Premier members up to 100×100? As for signatures? I personally hate images in signatures. It’s a pet peeve of mine, but that’s just me. I’m a flexible guy.What limits (if any) would you like to see us use? Again, can you point to other popular forums that have limits more in line with what you’re thinking of? (URLs please). One final note on signatures — I’d be much more likely to consider increasing the allowable sizes if we also added this conditional signature mod.
What does it do? Depending on your settings, this plugin will either:
- Add rel=nofollow to links in the signatures of posts, OR
- Remove the signatures from posts.
Note: These actions only occur when the # of words in the post is less than the minimum you specify. Users who post messages that meet the minimum word count will have their signatures displayed without changes.
9 – Voice or whatever on IRC (when it is more popular, this will be a good thing)
I’m cool with this. Let’s do it.10 – Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
I like this idea a lot. We could easily do this now, just move the nomination and voting process over into the Premier Member forum. Let’s do it!11 – Participation in Podcasts
I agree. Graham suggested this as well. I’m not sure exactly how to include them, but I like the concept. I don’t see having them sit in on the entire show, but I could envision a brief interview or…. Any ideas on how to include them?12 – What’s with the + ?
You’re right, it’s confusing, especially if you’ve used the buddy feature. When I initally added it, I was hoping the “plus” designation would be more obvious than most people apparently find it. We could change this to include a graphic, possibly a star or something similar to this: :new: (but saying “Premier” of course). Making it an option would be too much work. The other thing that would help is a small legend that explains what all the various colors mean.For now, I’ve removed the “+” — we’ll see if anyone notices. I do want to continue to draw special attention to their username — as it helps promote the Premier membership.
13 – More influence over the reputation system?
This is tricky. Currently there is no way to modify someone’s reputation power by their usergroup membership. I can manually adjust a member’s reputation power, but that sounds like work! :p14 – Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
I like this idea. I can’t do this for the non-forum sections of the site (other than the news/articles, which are really forums anyway), but I could certainly do this for the forums. I’ll do this, but it will take me some time.15 – Their own cool (faster?) forum skin that only they can use (possible?)
Even if it is possible (I’m not sure offhand) I don’t like this idea. I’d rather have a cool, faster forum skin that everyone benefits from. Hey wait a minute! Are you saying what we’ve got is uncool and slow? 😮16 – Security restrictions removed? (Flash, html…etc.)
I don’t see much point. Has anyone been clamoring to post Flash or edit HTML? It can be done on a forum-by-forum basis, and I do allow it for news forums — but posts are also moderated there, giving us a chance to make sure there’s no bad code. Again, have you seen this done on other big forums? If so, where?17 – Chance to chat to other IM experts…
I think this fits back with item #1, right? I’m for it. Maybe one other possibility — give our “guest” experts a special Premier membership?And yes, we do have some actual, real premier members. But not many (maybe 5-6).
18 – I think this is the most important…
I get the feeling you don’t like ads. 🙂 I do need to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the ads. I agree with removing them for Premier members, and possibly removing/reducing them for everyone else.I want to thank you again, Warren, for the ideas. I hope everyone will share their thoughts, ideas and suggestions, and please take a moment to address the questions I posed (looking for other sites doing something, examples, etc.).
This summer I’m going to be devoting some big blocks of time to the care-and-feeding of BBB, so the timing for this is perfect! :woot:
as to the ad removal/reduction… keep however many ads you deem necessary to support BBB. if you remove too many and start losing significant ad revenue… that’s not good. we don’t want you losing out on potential moolah. but i can see dropping a few of the bigger ones for premiers. (as a side note, it is ‘premier’ and not ‘premium’.)
for podcasts, why not let them sit in throughout a full podcast? if they know what they’re talking about and are capable of being coherent throughout the whole thing, i don’t see why they couldn’t be a co-host as staffers have done.
i think our forum skin is just fine, but i do still notice a lag on the page load times occasionally (even on dsl). not sure if this is correctable or not, it’s not a huge deal.
For the majority of these suggestions, they’re all things I have done on the many communities I have administered. Most of them don’t exist anymore due to lack of interest in the topics they specialised in, but the community was blooming.
I’ll take the time to reply to your post in a bit. I just want to get a few points across.
17 – Not really, although I have been trying to get experts I know to sign up to BBB. This is what I meant:
In the forum description, you see this:
Premier Members
Private forum for our premier members. Get inside information and a chance for intelligent dialogue with other IM experts.IM experts would be talking about the staff, wouldn’t it? So why haven’t we been giving them the chance to have intelligent dialogue with other IM experts as promised? Couple this with Guest experts and we have a winner I think.
I have no problem with ads. I am just a unique critic. I look at things from other people’s point of views as well as my own then critique accordingly.
Edit:
I’ll be doing some research now that I have free time. I will post back when I complete that research. As such, I might take a bit to respond to your post Jeff.*Agrees with Jeff, this is a great post!*
Heres my view on the whole thing:
Invitations to chats
Definite YES, good incentive@my.bigblueball.com emails (could this be powered by GMail too?)
I don’t know how many people would be willing to do this… Maybe give them an option for it?my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?
Deinite YES, very good incentive/bonusPriority towards events
Don’t we publish these things on the front page? I think it’s fine there…Premium members/All members will know equally, right?Free BigBlueBall T-Shirt? (they pay shipping?)
If they have to pay shipping, it isn’t free! :p MAYBE, if Jeff increases the Premier Membership Fee? Hey, custom Tee’s are not that Cheap!Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
When I became a Premier Member, I think Jeff did that, Right?Reduced or removed restrictions
SuperSize Avatars? Some members may blow this out of proportion…Voice or whatever on IRC (when it is more popular, this will be a good thing)
Yes, good bonus
Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
Hey, we really should let ALL of BBB vote and Nominate for MOTM! I mean, they have opinions too! :p
Participation in Podcasts
VERY good incentive. Possibly a member can tell their “Personal Experience with BBB Story” when/if they choose to participate in podcasts.
What’s with the + ?
When I became a Premier Member, I didn’t like the +. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t. … Asthetics issue?More influence over the reputation system?
What if they give a double negative? Then people will hate premier members… Stick with the regular rep. system…
Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
YES, who LIKES ads? … Oh, but keep Ads Promoting BBB though, like “Call in your IM Question and such.
Their own cool (faster?) forum skin that only they can use (possible?)
Doesn’t everyone have their choice of a fourm skin? I think they can choose from our list, one that only they can use would be too complicated, I think.
Security restrictions removed? (Flash, html…etc.)
Yes, seems ok to me…Chance to chat to other IM experts…
A good Idea, we should share the love…:pI think this is the most important
Let your users know that they are helping keep the site free.
If all else fails, this should be the NUMBER ONE thing. It gives them a really special, warm, fuzzy feeling inside! =)… I hope I didn’t sound too critical…
MrOats wrote:Priority towards events
Don’t we publish these things on the front page? I think it’s fine there…Premium members/All members will know equally, right?yes, but that’s the point. we’re trying to find ways to set the Premiers up and above the general populace. if we give them advance notice of such things, it’s a way of giving them their money’s worth.
Quote:Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
When I became a Premier Member, I think Jeff did that, Right?no, i’m pretty sure he said he can’t set it differently for different user groups. of course, “moderators and admins are exempt” as he said.
Quote:Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
Hey, we really should let ALL of BBB vote and Nominate for MOTM! I mean, they have opinions too!no, that’s not a good thing… the MotM is a member of the general populace… it makes more sense to keep it among the staff and maybe extend it to the premiers as a way of saying “hey, you’re important too”
Quote:More influence over the reputation system?
What if they give a double negative? Then people will hate premier members… Stick with the regular rep. system…do people hate the staff then, since we have more rep power? if you get negative rep points, you probably deserved it and shouldnt have any reason to “hate” the member who gave it to you, much less their entire group.
Quote:Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
YES, who LIKES ads? … Oh, but keep Ads Promoting BBB though, like “Call in your IM Question and such.but ads provide revenue for Jeff to help keep this site free to use. without the ads (and not just BBB ads), it becomes much harder to sustain a site like this.
In response to Jeff:
1 – Invitations to chats
Excellent, I’ll talk to those people I know, maybe we can get this running again? (btw RE: IRC, it may have looked like I wasn’t doing anything to it, but I was. I was waiting on a reply from someone important at Microsoft to clear these chats, I was writing tutorials and doing other stuff..but it doesn’t matter now, I don’t have any of those documents anymore.)2 – @my.bigblueball.com emails
What’s the status/situation with these, Jeff?3 – my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?
If we do expand, I think these will be welcomed. Look how popular all the blog sites are, now look at how much more popular (or busy) Neowin has become. Blogging is about sharing your opinion, it is about being more personal or sharing something interesting you’ve heard about. You’ll soon notice that blogging is where most news sites get their exclusives from. As a friend, knows a friend, who’s a friend of a person who works on MSN Messenger. You get the point. If the staff start blogging, then we won’t seem like the evil demon control freaks that we are 😉 We’ll become more human and more friendly. People will start to get to know us and they’ll probably want to start a blog of their own. Granted, the chances of people already having a blog somewhere else is about 70%, let’s take a risk anyway. Neowin did. It paid off.4 – Priority towards events
Working on it.5 – Free BigBlueBall T-Shirt? (they pay shipping?)
What’s the status with these, Jeff?6 – Search flood limit removal (or reduction)
Your reluctance is understandable, but remember we’re exempting staff and premium – paying – members from flood protection, not the whole community. Looks like I’m the only one who is or was bothered by this (I am certain I was limited by this…doesn’t look like it anymore)7 – Post flood limit removal (or reduction)
It seems I’m the only one who gets annoyed by this. When I post, I tend to post more than one topic after another. My time is somewhat limited as it is (busy with school work etc.) so every second counts. 😛8 – Reduced or removed restrictions
Working on it.9 – Voice or whatever on IRC (when it is more popular, this will be a good thing)
Impossible with the new system. We – even staff – have to earn even voice.10 – Vote for MOTM (nominate as well?)
Glad to see this implemented already. 🙂 But it isn’t publicized enough. What is a MOTM? No one knows. How does one become a MOTM? To tell you the truth, I know nothing of the existence of MOTMs, how they came to be and how I can become one, by looking..anywhere. Perhaps we should have a little box that lists people in our MOTM hall of fame :). Perhaps not.11 – Participation in Podcasts
If you ask people, you’ll often find hidden talent. Perhaps someone is good at singing and wouldn’t mind doing it for fun? Perhaps they’re working on a cool project (doesn’t have to be IM related), they could let us in on their little secrets :). Maybe we should have one controversial “DJ” since those seem to be popular ;)…12 – What’s with the + ?
I’ll have to look into this again, see what the best way to recognize and broadcast just how great being a premier member is. 🙂13 – More influence over the reputation system?
I hope this will be implemented, I do realise how hard it is. But it would help a ton.14 – Ad-removal (ALL/most ads)
Glad to see this will be implemented 🙂15 – Their own cool (faster?) forum skin that only they can use (possible?)
Haha, no, I actually like the skin. I’m just thinking something that will make BBB more personal for them, since only they can have it, since they paid for it.17 – Chance to chat to other IM experts…
We still do not post enough random or interesting stuff in the Premium forum. We aren’t fulfilling our promise to our paying members and I do not like that.18 – I think this is the most important…
You’ll be surprised how many people love to just donate to a community they love. Some people are discouraged if it’s called “paying” for something, but if it’s just a donation, they’ll gladly do it. Let’s offer our community more than one option to keep their community running or improve it. ;oI think it is important that we be more bold and public about the existence of our premium group. Hmm, I just took a look at the forum index and…I can’t even find any mention of Premium Membership anywhere : Maybe I’m just blind?
I suggest we place a nice bold and red link that says “Become Premium!” linking to the page where people can sign up for premium at. If a user encounters any limitations (Avatar size, Signature size…etc.) then they should be notified that they can get that limit increased by becoming premium! Trust me, it nearly worked on me. Then I checked my paypal and found I didn’t have enough money (I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting money from my bank; didn’t want to wait for an e-check to clear).
I really don’t know even know that premium members exist. I see orange names, but that’s it. Infact, I don’t even see orange names. What do all these different colours mean!?! (see next point). >_< Perhaps we should let the community see what threads are in the Premium Forum, but not be able to actually read the posts? I know if it were me, I'd be really curious to see what this super secret special forum is, click on it..see the thread titles..try and click on one of them to see what's inside…and depending on how interesting the topic title looked, I may just pay to become premium. 🙂
I think it is EXTREMELY important that we have a legend. I see colors, I have no clue what they mean. Not only will this help our members figure out who’s who, this will also let them know that a super secret special club exists and you get to be orange when you join!
I’ll talk with Dave, but I’m all for giving Premiere Members voice so long as they demonstrate that they understand the very basics of IRC chat and are capable of registration on their own.
I’m not exactly sure on -all- of these Ideas…Partially because I’m not sure of the logistics involved…
But I really like: “3 – my.bigblueball.com – blogs? photo storage?”
(I think it would encourage -alot- more people to join and add in to the feel of a community)
-and the idea of a legend.Good job bringing these ideas in, Seph. 🙂
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