Ad-Free suggestion

[boxerfan]

Forum URL: gmcr.proboards.com

I looked for a "Feature Request" forum but could not find one, so I'm posting this here. Hope it's the right place.

So I just treated my board to 50K Ad-Free page views, just to see how it flies. Before I bit the bullet, I read some info that looked like it was saying members could contribute to "Ad-Free" with the link at the bottom of board pages, but now I realize that this is a very limited system; by default, once I've bought Ad-Free, the link goes away, and I'm expecting that it will come back when my 50K views run out.

So this means that if I want to put a call out to my membership to consider helping with Ad-Free by making, say, a small $1 contribution, there's no way for them to do it directly (I could set up a PayPal account or something, but that just appears shady.)

What would be nice is if there were a rolling Ad-Free "account" maintained by PB for my board, and members could simply contribute to it directly using their CC or PayPal accounts. So, for example, member JoeSchmoe could contribute $1, it would be added to the Ad-Free balance, and then whenever Ad-Free would otherwise go into "overdraft" mode, it would just pull funds from the account until it runs out.

It seems to me that if the system can manage things the way they are right now with Ad-Free, adding this feature would not be rocket science.

Thanks.

[David Clark]

I've marked this thread as a feature request so that the decision-makers can refer to it when they need ideas, boxerfan. Currently, of course, as you already know, this isn't possible. What you can do, though, is register a PayPal account that's linked to your bank account, and have your members make donations to that PayPal account via a button placed somewhere on your forum. Once you've reached an appropriate amount, you can then withdraw the money to your bank account and make the purchase with your card.

Of course from the donor's perspective they have no way of ensuring that you won't just withdraw the money and use it for purposes other than the forum, so I can see why you're requesting this sort of secure PB-managed ad-free account.

[Brian]

The only reason the link goes away is because of what's specified in the Settings tab of the ad-free page. There's an option to hide or show the ad-free text.

When members purchase ad-free for your forum, it goes directly into your forum's list of available ad-free. I'm not sure how having an account to manage payments would differ when the member can just buy the service directly.

[boxerfan]

Thanks, Brian. I did re-enable the link and tried it from a non-staff account. In that mode I was given the same purchase options that I got previously from my admin account. I have no idea what it means to purchase a certain number of ad-free views when the board is already ad-free -- if multiple members do that, do they all get added to the current month's available views, and then all turn into a pumpkin at the end of the month if they're not used that month?

Do views not used carry over into the next month?

How is someone being given those purchase options supposed to understand how it works, I don't even understand it?

[boxerfan]

David, thanks, you get it. I didn't see your post before replying to Brian's.

[David Clark]

Currently if a member was to purchase ad-free for the forum, they'd have to do it all-or-nothing - that is, they'd have to pay the full price of the ad-free package. It seems to me that what you're requesting here is an "account" that would allow members to make smaller donations in a larger pool to put towards ad-free as a community, with some assurance that the money is actually going to be spent on ad-free for the forum, which is what they're donating for.

I have no idea what it means to purchase a certain number of ad-free views when the board is already ad-free -- if multiple members do that, do they all get added to the current month's available views, and then all turn into a pumpkin at the end of the month if they're not used that month?

Just to clarify a bit here, if a member purchased ad-free for you, they will have decided when to apply it during checkout, after having been given three options: 1. Apply now and have it affect the rest of the current month, 2. apply at the beginning of next month and have it affect the full 30 days or 3. simply allow the staff to decide when to apply it. If the third option is chosen, the ad-free will show up as an inactive package in Admin > Upgrades > Ad-Free, and must be activated by you (or someone with the appropriate staff permissions) in this section before it takes effect.

[boxerfan]

Yah, this existing scheme just seems unworkable to me. Once I figure out how many page views we actually get per month (gmcr.proboards.com, maybe you can look it up for me), then what I'd want to do is determine a monthly plan -- say, 100K hits -- and tell the board,

"OK, our ad-free status is costing us so-and-so per month. If just ten of you donate $1 per month, we'll be all ad-free, all the time. If you put in more, it will be applied over time as needed. Thanks for supporting our board."

Keeping it simple, or else no one will even consider messing with it. This board isn't a very big deal in anyone's life. So far it has been totally free. I'm not really sure how much I could raise this way, but the only way I'd even consider trying is if they could put in as little as a buck at a time, and do it directly through PB (not some PayPal account I set up). I'm pretty sure that if they have to put in much more, few if any will.

[David Clark]

Neat idea. The thread's been marked!

[boxerfan]

Postscript to my Ad-free comments: after 5 days (and with "guest" ad-free turned off), our burn rate looks to be about 20K page views per month. As that's less than half of the minimum allotment for what's currently the lowest-tier monthly fee, I'd like to see one more lower tier at 25K page views for $3/month. At that rate I'd probably just foot the entire monthly fee myself and not bother the members. For some reason, $6/month seems like a lot more