Slow site and supporters

[MacMathan]

This may not be the right thread for this but hear me out.

I see the sales drive to get a new server to help with the slowing issues which is a fine idea but also makes me a little frustrated.

I have been a community support for a while and if just even 10% of the 70000 registered users of this board would cough up the ~20 bucks a year it seems like things such as server upgrades would be covered.

I am assuming that paid memberships are only a fraction of that number.

It may not be technically possible but I would suggest for the time being, so as not to lose people who actually pay to support the site that the number of non-supporter accounts allowed to connect at anyone time be throttled.

Yes that is unfair to some but if you can't afford ~7 cents a day(U.S.) to dedicate to your hobbies then you may need a cheaper one or at least should be fine with slow servers and waiting in a queue to get on.

 

[Mark]

Certainly the pro-DDI people understand the importance of subscribing to a service as useful as EN World, and at a fraction of DDI cost, it's a bargain! Are all WotC EN Worlders Community Supporters? I would hope that at least all other Publishers who share information on their products through these boards are Community Supporters, too.

 

[LightPhoenix]

It may not be technically possible but I would suggest for the time being, so as not to lose people who actually pay to support the site that the number of non-supporter accounts allowed to connect at anyone time be throttled.

Yes that is unfair to some but if you can't afford ~7 cents a day(U.S.) to dedicate to your hobbies then you may need a cheaper one or at least should be fine with slow servers and waiting in a queue to get on.

Here's the problem with that - you'll drive away the significant majority (as you stated) of people who help to make this site a great place to be. If I was told I had to pay money or possibly not reach the site, I wouldn't bother trying to come here. I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I think that is the prevailing opinion, and the way that things work (online, at least).

My other problem with throttling is that the site isn't actually running that slow. The slowdowns seem to be periodic, and if you read some of the other threads in Meta you'll see that people (CS and not) are helping to try and identify the cause. Outside of those slowdowns, the site is running smooth as silk, for me at least.

Another effect of creating, in essence, "premium" accounts is that you begin to segregate the community, cultivating elitism and ultimately defeating the purpose of ENWorld in the first place - where everyone can talk about their hobby on equal footing. Heck, Gary Gygax had a long running thread conversing with fans here. Charging for access destroys that. Sure, in an optimistic utopian view that wouldn't happen, but realistically that has been shown not to be the case, over and over again.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I agree with LightPhoenix. I choose to pay for a CS account because I can and I want to, not because I want special treatment...well other than secretly hoping a CS account would get me access to Piratecat's and/or Sagiro's game.

 

[MacMathan]

I am not looking for special treatment but I am looking for a greater number of users to actually support the site.

Any method to encourage this while temporarily helping with the performance issues would be helpful.

Ideas?

 

[LightPhoenix]

I am not looking for special treatment but I am looking for a greater number of users to actually support the site.

Any method to encourage this while temporarily helping with the performance issues would be helpful.

Ideas?

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off so rude, though I am highly opposed to denying people access to the site - I think that's completely the wrong way to go.

I don't think there's a particular problem with people not supporting the site. I think it might be prudent to do fund-raisers more often (maybe every three or four months), but otherwise when we are told there are problems, people step up. Looking at the totals on top of the page, $1100 has already been raised, and to my memory this is not an uncommonly high number. I don't know how long this supports the site - my guess is not long - but possibly two to three months. Hence having fundraisers more often.

Really, everything that can be done and more from a site-management end has been done. The CS accounts bring in some revenue, and donation drives bring in a lot. These are sweetened by special sales, and often publishers will jump in and offer free stuff as well. I'm honestly not sure what more could be done. There's always going to be a percentage of people who won't donate or support for one reason or another. I don't know what can be done more to increase that number.

I don't know if the Marketplace or future Reviews sections are for CS-only. Perhaps since they take up bandwidth, you would need to grab a CS account (or individually purchase access) to buy/sell and to post reviews (reading reviews should be free).

I would suggest applying the Gleemax mentality to the boards - allowing people to link characters and such to their profiles... but that's development time that's not available, and more importantly likely to upset WotC. They could develop integrated PbP tools and charge for access, but again, that's edging on WotC territory and Michael is rather overworked as it is (plus starting a new job, yay Michael!).

 

[Staffan]

I don't think there's a particular problem with people not supporting the site. I think it might be prudent to do fund-raisers more often (maybe every three or four months), but otherwise when we are told there are problems, people step up.

I don't think more frequent fundraisers are a good way of getting more money, at least not that often. It would probably just lead to getting more or less the same amount, but spread out more.

I mean, I suppose there could be an annual fundraiser drive (it was what, 3-4 years since the last one?), but more often than that is probably counterproductive.