Andy R

Based on your feedback we have decided to refine the Premium Membership offer. We are working to find the right balance of features and value for those member who help keep the community running through their financial support and ad based revenue from those who wish not to upgrade. As the years and internet have evolved we think its important to stay competitive with other forums and offer features that have become standard.

We will continue to tweak the Premium Membership levels until we feel we have just the right balance. Interference cannot survive without the support of our members. The hosting fees, software licenses, programmers, etc are all part of the ongoing maintenance cost to keep our community running. We hope that with the outline changes you all will find that we are trying to accommodate all of our members and make Interference better for all of our members no matter which membership level you choose to participate as.

Changes:

• We will no longer be charging upgraded accounts as subscriptions. There were complaints about this in the past and we feel it's more ethical to require members to renew each year instead of automatically taking money out of their bank accounts.
• We have created 2 Premium Levels (Silver and Gold). You can see details about these Premium Levels at this link.
• All members who were upgraded have automatically been upgraded to the Premium Gold membership level.
• All Premium Gold members can now disable all the ads (see Premium Drop Down Menu)
• Premium Gold now have space for a slightly bigger avatar (130x130 vs 125x125)
• Premium Gold now have space for a slightly wider sig image (500x120 vs 400x120)
• The Premium Silver upgrade is now $15 instead of the $18 it was before. The Premium Gold (ad free) is now $25/year.

I hope the new Upgrade Levels will be a good mix of bringing value to members so that you all will continue to support Interference and renew your upgraded accounts while at the same time giving all of our members options to decide how they want to participate.

We are currently losing money every month so the costs to run the site are negative. The financial sustainability of our community will depend on how many people renew their upgrades and the ability for the ads to generate revenue. So far the ads have been a total disappointment (no one clicks) so please consider upgrading to help support our community so we can remain a strong and vibrant place for U2 fans to congregate on the internet.

Thanks for your patience and feedback over the last month as changes have been made. We have some other upcoming changes that we think everyone will enjoy as well.

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Andy

Attached Images

	turn off ads.gif (6.8 KB, 1 views)
	premium menu.gif (10.5 KB, 0 views)

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"Music can change the world because it can change people." - Bono
Here's a great example - One Love Concert, April 22, 1978

Sicy

I fully support these changes and I think the members should be pleased about this.

It was also nice of you to upgrade all current premiums to Gold.

I hope that the members will continue to support Interference by upgrading!

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sicy[at]interference.com

Bonochick

I really like this and agree with Sicy.

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"Will he jump out of the internet and punch her face?"

Bonochick [at] interference.com

LarryMullen's POPAngel

last unicorn

Great changes.

I've had problems with ads that were layered over parts of the forum structure so I couldn't navigate properly, that's the only reason why I disabled the ads, the little ads didn't irritate me at all. Good feature.

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elevated_u2_fan

wow, it's like old times... I missed this

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martha

Thank you thank you thank you thank you.

Now just send me a PM when I need to send in the do re mi.

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~BrightestStar~

Please note, while I realize this will come across as bitchy, I honestly do not mean it that way.

But are you honestly suprised by this? The ads are useless, spam essentially, why would anyone click on them for any reason except by accident? It would be far better if the ads were *actually* relevent - ie. links to legit ticket sites, stuff like that. I have not once seen any link up there (and I do look at the ads) that looks like a site that seems to have something legit and worthwhile for me to investiagate. "How to make 10000000 dollars in one year?" Oh come on, I get 10 of those in my spam box every day. I don't click on them either.

And considering the resistence of members to the ads, there is an even lesser liklihood that anyone will click them.

Also, I realize that it's easy to critcize this, and I assume we have random google ads there due to the difficulty in finding people willing to fill those advertising spaces. I hope you find some people in the future, places that are relevent, as then I think you would find the ads to be far more successful.

Further, I realize you guys have made some awesome upgrades and investments into the site, and I appreciate them - the new forum is pretty awesome - but I wonder, if the site is such a huge financial hole, I still wonder how Elvis ever managed. I mean, if he totally absorbed this huge financial burdan, then not only is he awesomer than I previously thought, but he might also be a little crazy. But hey, u2 has that effect on people.

I don't really know anything about the costs of running a place like this, but I do now, a forum associated with my university runs this exact same forum type (vbulliten or whatever) and while I realize the communituy is far smaller, so there isnt as much of a server burdan, I also know they do not get much money to run the site. Like, a laughable amount. So...

It just makes me wonder. I don't mean this as an attack, merely things I wonder about. Perhaps there are aspects I'm completely ignorant about, if so, please, fill me in.


Anyway, as for the rest - an ad free interland has made me extremely happy, thank you. I also think it was extremely nice of you to automatically upgrade us all to the gold level.
Also, bigger sigs =

Thank you.

Annnd.....I'll just hush up now.

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*~ Happy Festivus! ~*

yolland

Good changes.

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yolland@interference.com


μελετώ αποτυγχάνειν. -- Διογένης της Σινώπης

~BrightestStar~

QFT.



This is wonderful.



And Sicy, you were right, without the ads, the pages are loading waaaaay faster. Yay!

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*~ Happy Festivus! ~*

got_edge

How was the site running before switched ownership? I vaguely recall paying less money for "membership" and seeing less ads even if I wasn't dishing out the $15. Does that mean the site was making less less money? Or is this a case of two negatives making positive revenue?

Pray tell

elevated_u2_fan

I always got the idea that Elvis was losing money

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WildHoney

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VP LeatherDivision,Mistress Of Punishment, & Bono er for BRI
Queen Of Perverbia Come & ride The WildHoney Party Bus

Sicy

iSpy is my favorite thing ever.

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sicy[at]interference.com

elevated_u2_fan

oh snap! Is that shit live now?

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