Paid-members only site?

Jeff,

By now I am assuming everyone knows that you have to be a paid member to access the games section, display a track record, etc.

We all know there are features that are still available to any registered member. Do you think you will eventually accept paid registrations only?

I am not sure if this has been brought up before but I was just curious.

-Tina

*** Edited 11/14/2003 1:23:59 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

What would make someone want to pay to use this site if they have never visited it before? How would they know that what they are paying for is really what they are going to get? I think that you need to have something out there to show people that the price is worth it. Just my opinion. I know for me because I visited the site often enough it was worth it to me to pay the $20 yearly fee (and I would be willing to pay more if an increase were to come along.)

I only meant the remaining features being accessible to paid members (posting, submitting stuff, sending private messages, etc.)

Anyone could still read the content, including the forums and news. I just think it would prompt even more people to pay the $20 for a membership and would help weed out any remaining trolling and abuse (as in people creating accounts just to make trouble and then delete them.)

Don't get me wrong, I think the mods do a great job of keeping it noise-free and most non-paying registrants are doing anything but causing trouble but it's still an idea.

-Tina

*** Edited 11/14/2003 2:17:53 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

I don't know. I hope it never comes to that, but when the next version of IE ships with a pop-up blocker, it might be something I have to do.

Pop up's are just not wanted by the public. I know it pays but people find them annoying. Jeff you should really go after those nasty Linux users who use text only browsers.

My $20 is well spent on this site.

Pop-up blockers just seem like a self defeating mechanism. They're not a sustainable solution because any content that you want to view that is driven by pop-ups will go away if every starts blocking them. Granted, I find especially the ones that pop something else up when you close them extremely annoying, but if that's what it takes to get good web content then I'll deal with it.

-Andy who is about to send in his 'buzz membership renewal. *** Edited 11/14/2003 4:33:27 PM UTC by ApolloAndy***

Most popup blockers are "smart". If you click on it yourself it will go ahead and open a window. Also You just say what sites you want popups to appear on.

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...when the next version of IE ships with a pop-up blocker, it might be something I have to do.

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That's part of the reason I still think those interstitial ads are the thing of the future. Is there any way to defeat an ad code that's part of a link? Plus it just feels more like traditional entertainment advertising - "more in a second, but now a word from our sponsors"

Banner ads will always be a good nickel and dime method for anyone with high page views but they're about as ineffective as web advertising gets and it probably won't be long before someone gets the hint.

Does anyone have a pop-up blocker that stops those "In-Vue" ads? They're the ones that are kind of like a pop-up but scroll across the screen on top of the page you're viewing and stop dead center. I've yet to see a free pop-up blocker that stops those.

It's funny how some people still refuse to believe they'll have to pay for quality online content. I see it more and more every day.

Actually theres a program out there that blocks most ads. I Used it on my old computer cause it was too slow and some of the flashy ads crashed it. Its bundled with kazza lite++ edition. I don't remember the name of the program as I didn't risk putting Kazza on the new machine. I pay for stuff thats worth paying for. Like coasterbuzz :)

I've never actually had any trouble with Mozilla blocking any popup windows that I actually wanted. I'm not exactly sure how they do it, but it has to be different than what the addons to IE do.

Funny you should mention that, Joe... I was just thinking the same thing. I finally downloaded Mozilla 1.5.1 yesterday because my version was desperately out of date.

With stand-alone pop up blockers, they seem to stop everything even if I try to open a game or something in the background. The Mozilla one seems to be pretty smart, though. Anything you click on, it won't block. It seems to know just the stuff I don't wanna see.

Jeff, obviously I know your opinion on the whole blocker thing, but I was wondering this: how do they count pop-ups? Do the ad agents realize specific instances where a user blocks an ad and therefore they don't compensate you for that ad? Or is it more that they realize/assume how many people are doing it and just lower the overall rate that they are willing to pay?

(It only took me one day of the www. site before I re-upped the club. I'm spoiled now- I couldn't go back.)

The blockers keep the new windows from even being spawned, and as such, no request for the actual ad is made so they are not counted, and thus, I don't get paid.

See, when I used to use a stand-alone killer, I used KillAd. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that one, but the window does actually start to pop up before it's removed. It shows up in the taskbar momentarily, and then dissapears. So with this particular one, I guess you'd still get paid?

Now with this Mozilla one, I never even know that there's anything popping up. I guess that one would screw ya.

(Not that either of mine affected you, since my $20 keeps flowin'.)

I don't mind the banner and ads on the side. In fact, I've occasionally clicked on them, because they were relevant. One of them even helped me plan a trip to Kansas next week for my brother-in-law's wedding. The pop up/under/around/over ads are what bother me. On CoasterBuzz, they pop up once per page. I've been to other sites, though, where they pop up multiple (5) pop-ups per page. That's excessive. (And probably also against the advertiser's rules as well). I have a couple of sites where I use Google's AdSense, and it's quality! Text banners only. No pop-ups. Quick load time. Hasn't made a ton of money (I place about 8,000 ads per month on my site, and my clickthrough rate is about 1.7%), but it's so far paid for my hosting and domain registration expenses. There's a fine line between offering ads on a site well, and poorly. Jeff has chosen to do it well on CoasterBuzz.

Hopefully soon, Google will be paying my $20!!!

d8