I've had some people bring up this idea before, and I've been against it due to the fact that I haven't liked the idea of splitting the community like this based on who pays and who doesn't. That said I recognize that this community is growing beyond anything I've ever imagined, and I am a little distressed at the fact that some of the better posters have gotten drowned out due to the amount of traffic we get. The signal to noise ration might not be right anymore, and I want to do what I can to improve that.
So my idea is to create a subscription based forum using PayPal, where only Broncos fans could post. It would be only accessible by bonafide broncos fans, and you couldn't even get access to it until you had a certain amount of posts in the main forum... I'm thinking anywhere from 500 to 1000 posts (or some sort of date/quiz qualification form where long time readers could gain access if they could pass the test), just to make certain the users are bonafide broncos fans... and to make it exclusive to established members of the community.
The cost would be something like $5 bucks a month if you pay monthly, or $35 bucks per year if you paid by the year. I'd then upgrade the forum to the high end server available through our current host. As part of the membership, Google banner ads would be disabled for your account, so you don't have to see them.
This forum wouldn't change. It would operate the way it is operating now... It would be available to one and everybody, just as it is now. The other forum, of course, would have less traffic, no rival fans, and a core of the community who is into this site and into the Broncos so much that they're willing to contribute a little bit of their hard earned for this exclusive access, so you know the quality of poster would be high.
This is an idea I'm kicking around. If there is enough support for the idea, I'll move on it.
I just see this site growing and have heard some horror stories recently about how communities are getting lost because of the growth of the boards, and I want to do what I can to prevent that.
What do you think?
So my idea is to create a subscription based forum using PayPal, where only Broncos fans could post. It would be only accessible by bonafide broncos fans, and you couldn't even get access to it until you had a certain amount of posts in the main forum... I'm thinking anywhere from 500 to 1000 posts (or some sort of date/quiz qualification form where long time readers could gain access if they could pass the test), just to make certain the users are bonafide broncos fans... and to make it exclusive to established members of the community.
The cost would be something like $5 bucks a month if you pay monthly, or $35 bucks per year if you paid by the year. I'd then upgrade the forum to the high end server available through our current host. As part of the membership, Google banner ads would be disabled for your account, so you don't have to see them.
This forum wouldn't change. It would operate the way it is operating now... It would be available to one and everybody, just as it is now. The other forum, of course, would have less traffic, no rival fans, and a core of the community who is into this site and into the Broncos so much that they're willing to contribute a little bit of their hard earned for this exclusive access, so you know the quality of poster would be high.
This is an idea I'm kicking around. If there is enough support for the idea, I'll move on it.
I just see this site growing and have heard some horror stories recently about how communities are getting lost because of the growth of the boards, and I want to do what I can to prevent that.
What do you think?
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