[brian]

Please use this thread to discuss this Announcement:
Premium Membership and recent changes to the forums

Thanks

Admin Note Added:
After further consideration, it would have been better to give a warning, so I will be opening both the Break Room and the Current Events forums until Jan 2nd. Give me a few minutes to re-open the forums and modify the announcement.

Sorry for the error in judgement. (I'm human)

Happy Holidays!



Added note 12-8-04 10:30 AM:
Here is my rationale for starting the premium membership program, I posted this yesterday 12-7-04 @ 02:30 PM CST in the discussion thread here

Originally Posted by brian

I really appreciate the kind words and understanding of you all who realize that this is a large website with large bills. Our monthly expenditures for servers, backups, upgrades etc, bandwidth charges, tech support, email servers, etc... all of which are not cheap, I've been running this site for going on 8 years, never asked a member for a dime of support until we started the premium member program a few months back. I truly do appreciate all the premium members who have contributed.

Originally Posted by brian

Sites that survive on advertising alone are far and few between, I've been successful and keeping a fairly low overhead, but online ad spending/revenue is slowing down in general. I thought that this would be a way to help cost of the servers, and at the same time allow the members of the site an opportunity to contribute to the site that they enjoy.

Nearly 1/3 of all the bandwidth charges we pay each month come from these two Non-nursing forums. A big portion of the servers processing power is used for these forums, they are popular forums, but they are not nursing related.

When I started the non-nursing forums, I was hesitant, because I didn't want the financial resources of company to be funding non-nursing related off-topic discussions. This is what has happened. Which is why I finally made the decision to put them in the premium forums? My mindset was that, if you want to discuss non-nursing content, those members who get their enjoyment, support etc… from the forums to help ease the burden of the cost that they are bringing, some of you may think I am wrong for thinking that way, but that was my mindset. I’d rather not even consider closing the forums, as many people enjoy them, myself included.

Looking back at how I surprised everyone, with this, I realize now that it was a mistake; I should have warned the community of such change. I apologize, but I am human and I can admit when I make an error.

I am not a huge corporation, I am, me, myself and I, (and a bunch of great volunteer moderators and co-admins). I need to have a viable business strategy to maintain our growth and the well-being of the website and the company.

I hope this helps you all understand more about the situation. Please pardon any grammatical errors, as I am a little sleep deprived at the moment

I hope that helps you understand my reasoning. Thanks!

Originally Posted by brian

Here is what You still get for free without upgrading to a premium membership:

Originally Posted by brian

• Get full access to about 150 nursing related forums where you can post and read.
• Live Chat
• Private Messages system with 50 messages storage.
• Be able to use smilies in your post.
• Be able to read the Break Room and Current Events forums.
• Be able to look through the members photo gallery.
• Be able to read members journals.
• Be able to search all 150 nursing forums by keywords.
• Be able to subscribe to topics and/or forums and get email notices when they are updated, per your preference (immediate, daily, weekly, never).
• access to your user cp, where you can organize your subscribed threads/forums in folders.
• have a buddy list.
• have an ignore list.
• access the calendar and birthday list.
• browse the member list.
• participate in polls.
• use the active topics menu, New post, last 1,2,3,4,5 days, unanswered post search options.
• quick reply box at bottom of threads and PMs.

That's what I can recall off the top of my head, there may be more that I am forgetting, but that's a start. So as you can see, you are still getting a great list of features.

[lil' girl]

Thank you Brian

[Pattiecake]

I'm so new to this so I'm afraid I will need a more thorough explanation, as I just am not getting it.
Are you saying that if we have more than 50 posts, and wish to continue using this site and posting anywhere, that we will have to pay a membership fee?
What happens to the under 50 posters?

And what happened to my signature? Did you already take that? Golly, turn your head and it's gone.

[webblarsk]

Wow.........I posted in Current Events a couple of hours ago and now I can't. Guess I will wait till after Christmas and sign up to be a premium member. Did I miss the warning?

[brian]

Originally Posted by Pattiecake

I'm so new to this so I'm afraid I will need a more thorough explanation, as I just am not getting it.
Are you saying that if we have more than 50 posts, and wish to continue using this site and posting anywhere, that we will have to pay a membership fee?
What happens to the under 50 posters?

And what happened to my signature? Did you already take that? Golly, turn your head and it's gone.

If there are users who have over 50 post, and who plan on sending in a check, and do not want to pay online by credit card or paypal, I will give them premium status now before their check arrives.

You can still post in all the Nursing Forums, the only forums that are affected are the NON-Nurisng forums (Break Room and Current Events) I hope that helps.

[H ynnoD]

I was just curious if you had posted a thread somewhere that this was going to happen.I'm sure some of us would have already have become premium members if we had known in advance...

[brian]

Originally Posted by H ynnoD

I was just curious if you had posted a thread somewhere that this was going to happen.I'm sure some of us would have already have become premium members if we had known in advance...

Sorry, no I did not mention that this was going to happen. In hind sight, I probalby should have.

[H ynnoD]

Originally Posted by brian

Sorry, no I did not mention that this was going to happen. In hind sight, I probalby should have.

Just opened a bank account this week so will up grade hopefully by the weekend.Thanx

[CCU NRS]

Ok I just read the original thread about Premium membership.
a few questions

If I don't want to become a premium member I will not be able to read and post in Breakroom or current events?

I will still be allowed to peruse the general forums and post?

I will not be allowed to have an avatar or a sig line or custom title?

I will not be allowed to play in the arcade?

Others will be allowed (premium members) to see if I am online but I will not be able to see who's online?

[brian]

Originally Posted by CCU NRS

Ok I just read the original thread about Premium membership.
a few questions

If I don't want to become a premium member I will not be able to read and post in Breakroom or current events? You can read them, just not post

I will still be allowed to peruse the general forums and post? Yes

I will not be allowed to have an avatar or a sig line or custom title? Correct

I will not be allowed to play in the arcade? Correct

Others will be allowed (premium members) to see if I am online but I will not be able to see who's online?

Yes, premium members will be able to see who's online, they have the option to be invisible, not showing up the who's online section.