An ad-free (and fast loading) site for a subscription? Would you?

I've been on a couple of forums that introduced subscriptions and all became ghost towns very quickly. It would be a huge shame if the same happened to MN.

Yes, as long as there was still a free version with ads for those who want it. Maybe add in the customise options that were on classic and which I am missing since I had to make a new account. Don't know what a suitable price would be, MNHQ could let us know what would be viable.

"So if everyone blocks the ads and no-one pays a sub, how do the server bills and staff get paid?"

Well quite.

That's why the silence from MNHQ over a weekend when users (who hadn't had one before, weren't interesting in having one, don't mind seeing ads; but cannot put up with a non-functioning site) were reluctantly realising it was the only way to go, is so in explicable.

There are two explanations:
a) driving MNHQ to become a paid site by deliberately sabotaging the tech and then ignoring the affected users
b) the affected users aren't actually great enough in number to warrant the a crisis communication plan from MNHQ and the number installing adblockers isn't business critical.

I don't expect it'll be a) as that's so underhand and nasty. b) gives no additional reason to change to a paid site.

There is of course also c) incompetence, but again I don't expect it's that. But if it were, that is also no reason to become a paid site. Arguably the opposite from the Talk user pov- why pay for something which not only has a recent track history of not working well but also no communications from the site management when things go wrong?

Therehave been posts about standard good practice when there are problems for users. MNHQ has chosen to do things differently. And that's fine - their choice - but not a way to look like a service worth your direct cash.

Thanks Cornetto I'll have a look.
I'd pay a fiver a month for ad free. I use an ad blocker but I know that the site needs advertising revenue. I wouldn't want to pay for other things like hide poster though as that would be too far into the 2 tier thing.

nope

It's a fairly personal thing tbh sloany and depends on what you're into and what you want to talk about.

Reddit can be a good bet to find a comfy spot but the layout doesn't appeal to everyone and some sections aren't as busy so you can't count on a conversation that doesn't take place over a number of days. Digital spy has a fairly busy general section, but again it's personal to you whether you feel you fit there. I haven't been on in an age but straight dope had pretty good forums with the same caveats as digital spy (and theres always net-mums....).

There are lots of forums but generally you find them when you're looking for something in particular.

Imho MN's greatest attraction is its biggest weakness, their forums are catering for far more than their originally targetted audience. For example, I wouldn't expect to find more than one board on a parenting website for pets. MN has seven. Maybe I'm way off the mark, but I think they're trying to be too many things to too many people.

These other forums that are as good as MN? Anyone care to name them? I've had a poke about when things have gone crazy here but I've not found anything as good.

If it was something like £25 a year I'd do it. £10 a month = nah.

But I don't spend £18.75 on coffee every month!

There are just too many other forums available to make a subscription worth buying.

I can see your logic BIWI but paying to chat on the internet is a huge psychological barrier to get past, it's just not the way people are used to using the internet, well except for very niche specialisms that I'm not certain MN want to venture into

Re: something awful forums - I'm not certain but I don't think they turned enough profit to entertain the idea of having a 'team' of fully employed staff and offices in the same way as MN, tbh I'm not really sure what the answer is there. Except that a forum in and of itself isn't a particularly profitable venture. It's too reliant on the whims of a largely ungovernable populace who have no real obligation to your brand.

Personally I think the forum is too big and unmanageable. There are far too many sub-forums and my uninformed opinion is that this must have some effect on how they run technically = £££

That is a lot of money for a lot of posters on a really tight budget. I think it's a terrible idea.

I don't really see the issue, tbh. Some of us are prepared to pay for it, to have an ad-free/skimlink-free service, and others aren't.

As long as the fee isn't exorbitant, then I can't see what the problem is. I'd be more than happy to pay a fair fee for something I use pretty much everyday.

Let's say you buy a cup of coffee everyday on your way to work. At a minimum this is £1. So £5 a week (assuming you work Mon-Fri). That would equate to £260 a year - and that's on the basis that you work 52 weeks of the year. So take 5 weeks holiday off that, and it takes you down to £225 a year. That's £18.75 per month.

So if everyone blocks the ads and no-one pays a sub, how do the server bills and staff get paid?

No it's very unlikely I would pay - and £10 per month is just insane!

Forgot - people's expectations are massively higher if you're paying for a site, so much so they would need far more staff than they currently have, more tech staff, more night staff (no more asking for volunteers). To be viable for those who paid and expected that level of service (and people will expect it because they're paying and it's a natural expectation) they'll need to charge and get a lot of people on board before doing it.

There are a lot of sites that are finding ways around adblockers - seemingly innocent boxes which you ignore and that means the site and it's ads suddenly are white listed (available).

The technology necessary really shouldn't need to be upto date just for ads to load and access to be granted. It's a forum not MI5 (unless I'm missing something!)

No.

At the risk of sounding like an under bridge dweller I like to be anonymous online. Also experience elsewhere would suggest people will just go elsewhere if they cannot install adblockers. No point paying for something you can get for free elsewhere.

There are also people who simply couldn't afford to pay.

I appreciate friends here, the difficulties MN face as a business and the site but there's no need to alienate users by having more and mores ads, and much bigger ads that require a lot of memory and space to run due to necessary scripts - I've seen that on MN ads never mind other ads.

I don't know the answer but I know subs/non subs is difficult to implement and I know they run the risk of the site splintering leaving nothing which was my experience. Site was nothing like the size of MN but the subs model killed it.

I have had to put ad blocker on just to be able to access the site. As have a lot of iPad users. I didn't want to but no choice

No.

Bluntly this a forum, the only thing that makes it special is its user base which i'm pretty sure would fall quite sharply off the back of a subscription fee and therefore not worth it. Even the hated daily mail will lead new posters to try out the site which just won't happen as much with a price tag attached to anyone stumbling as a one off.

I know of two forums with fees attached - one is digital spy which you can pay to register on if you don't have an approved email provider to register with. The other is something awful which in its hayday was pretty unique (and knew it and were pretty smug about it) as a community, I'm not sure how they're doing now since I only lurked but increasingly they would deny access to even read the forums to try and boost sales. Both of these are/were one off fees (although SA were very heavy with the bans which is something to consider if you start involving money) which is easier to justify I think.

I, and I suspect many others, just wouldn't stump up cash though.

I would however be happy to watch adverts, like you get in game apps to 'earn' bonuses and stuff. Ideally you could access these at a time suitable to you (link in site stuff maybe? Prompt on login? Prompt on opening a new sub forum?) so they're kept fairly unobtrusive and don't interrupt the flow of conversation. If they were like the gaming ones there's an option to decline.

Lots of sites have started to block content on browsers that are running ad blockers, or at least set up a 'frequent reminder popup' in the hopes of being so annoying that users whitelist the site. I could certainly see MN implementing that, particularly as the use of ad blockers is widespread (and understandably so, given how intrusive the side bar scrolly ads are).

Laska, I don't think the thread is redundant - MN need to consider a range of ideas if they want to offer a subscription service.

No

I'd pay a reasonable annual sub to be ad free.

X posted

I think this thread is pretty good as the other one was more about Skimlinks.

Might be an idea to start a thread in Chat, directing people to this one, to see what they think?

I think that's what Justine is thinking of too OP