Bill Geiger

Maybe it is just that I don't visit the site as much as I did. But for some reason, something is missing. I dunno.

I am just saying that paying just for an avatar and a "chance" of winning a dvd or blu ray isn't really premium for me. I was happy to give my $10 for year one but didn't see it necessary for another. Sure, $10 ain't shit, I get that.

As far as what I would consider a premium, I would honestly need to think about it. I don't pay to go to any other site so I couldn't tell you what would be good to have.

I can say that I did expect a more thought out "thing" than just contests, one premium forum and an avatar. What "more" I was expecting, I honestly couldn't tell you.

So much for my statements.

WallyOPD

I've never been a premium member but it sounds like the premium forum is basically the Other forum but for premium members only. If the original Other forum was so busy that your thread was likely to get lost in the shuffle then this might be a perk, but that's not the case. So all you're doing by creating a thread in the premium forum is limiting the audience that can read and reply to it.

To generate any serious use the forum would have to allow things that aren't allowed in the original Other forum (gun threads, adult content, personal attacks against non-premium members, whatever).

The Edit King

I believe the sponsors support the site with big advertising bucks.

However...

It has been my understanding that 'we', the multi-talented, knowledge packed, intelligent (and not so multi-talented, knowledge packed, intelligent) members here make DVD Talk what it is, and we support it by simply participating. For example: posting, clicking on stuff, & reloading pages.

-Pablito Tres

Bill Geiger

It is pretty much that, along with the threads listing contest details.

Just doing some quick searching, it seems that premium "features" depends on the type of site it is. Example, a wrestling site might have access to videos and what have you. A football forum might have "inside news and inside access."

I understand that it might not be possible to have certain content due to copyright's and what not.

Lemmy

And we have a winner. Someone who gets it. Bingo.

Trevor

They should definitely increase the perks given to premium users.

Increased PM space and the panic button are sort of neat, but come on, add a few things that really do something.

I'm just thinking out loud, but maybe a personal page hosted on the site? The space in the signature isn't enough for all the threads I maintain or visit. I know people would have a cow if we increased the size of signatures, but I'd like a dvdtalk-hosted place for all my links. Yes, I could get my own webpage or use a bookmark toolbar, but I'd rather my panic button lead to a page with all my dvdtalk links.

Fist of Doom

DVDTalk should just scrap the whole premium membership deal altogether. The only real benefit is the extra contests (the CSI Blu-ray I won was well worth the premie fee I paid, so no complaints).

The tiny revenue stream IB sees from this can't be worth the effort into maintaining the "premium only" forum - it's a failed experiment. They'd generate more traffic (and make more money) by opening up all the contests to every member and (as is standard in most sites) letting everyone have an avatar.

Just my 2 cents.

Darth Maher

I did not renew, yet I still have a countdown (which states that I HAVE renewed... I was on the fence when I created it).

Who do I contact to get rid of this? It is not showing up in my CP.

pilot

fixed.

Darth Maher

^ Thanks.

Trevor

Confused. What effort does it take them to maintain the premium forum? I think that answer is none.

Opening the premium contests to everyone would create more work for them.

Giving everyone avatars would slow things down, even if only slightly

Right now, the premium $ they take in is basically free money, requiring no effort on their part. Why would they give up free $ and create more work for themselves?

Please point out what I'm missing, but your post makes no sense to me.

Quack

Can you check mine as well? I didn't re-up and not sure if I'm supposed to still have a countdown. Thanks....didn't want to be a freeloader with the countdown!

pilot

fixed

The Cow

If done right, yes. I think they created a decent amount of more work for themselves with the all of the membership renewal mess-ups.

Fist of Doom

Every time an IB employee has to post in the premium forum or resolve premium issues (the renewal problems are a good example), it's a cost. Time is money.

I don't see how. They already run contests for regular members. They could just move them there.

I'm not tech-savvy by any means, but some much-less trafficked sites manage it. And there are tons of images and videos uploaded around here, so I can't see that being a big deal at all.

As I argued above, I don't think maintaining the premium forum is effortless or cost-free, but my larger point was this: by opening up all contests to every member and allowing everyone an avatar (just look around the 'net, they're very popular for whatever reason) I think DVDTalk could increase their traffic. And that's the most important revenue stream for them (millions, I'm guessing), not the paltry sum they make from premium fees.

I tried to point it out, but maybe I still don't make any sense.

Darth Maher

Where?

Fist of Doom

At the top of the page, there's a DVD Giveaways link.

Trevor

DVDTalk has had regular contests for ten years. Maybe one every month or two, very consistent. Always mentioned on the home page, and right there at the top main forum area links.

Trevor

Yeah, but have they actually fixed anything yet? But also, it looks like the only real problem was some of us not canceling our subscriptions, something we all knew about last year, and most of us took care of.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the IB staff spends anymore time responding to posts in the combined feedback and premium forums as they used to in just the feedback.
Simple math. Contests with 30 premium people entering are much easier to run than the contests with thousands of people entering.

The contests here have been regular since the beginning. Adding a few more to the non-premium area isn't going to drive more traffic to the site, I would guess. No one would notice. The regular contests don't seem to have slowed down at all since the premium ones started.
Yeah, the extra bandwidth is probably trivial, but why give it away when they can charge for it? I don't think anyone would spend more time here just because they have an avatar.
Maybe, but I don't see that way at all, as I mentioned above.
No, it could just as easily be me. We're both just giving our opinions on a silly issue that doesn't really matter. But I'm pretty positive that opening up a few more contests and avatars wouldn't do a thing to increase traffic, not even slightly.

I think a better strategy for IB would be to add more benefits (real benefits this time), something that would actually make the majority of people pay the $10/20.

Darth Maher

Oh yeah, those. For some reason I thought you were referring to contests within the forum.

JuryDuty

Resurrecting this thread because I'd love an avatar, but none of the other perks mean anything to me.

How about enabling avatars for members with more than 1000 posts or something? Or even 2500? Or 4400? A nice reward for those who contribute to the forum to make it what it is.

Groucho

Good idea! I say we enable avatars for anybody who had 4500 posts as of 9/8/2010.

Lemmy

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I bet there would be some more interest if premium members could have their own online movie collection page. Problem is, I'm not sure IB would be interested in putting that much work into it, even though there is a market for it.

X

I'll bring that issue back up to them.

It might not be very difficult to allow entry of your movie inventory, but extra features such as looking up movies for reviews/covers/price/etc. could require a lot more effort. Is there a minimal set of features that could be incorporated first and then more advanced features that could be added later?