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What do you think of pay-per-join forums?

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F

FatalT

Banned
After seeing the quickly closed thread about where the search function went, I wondered what the users of GAF thought of the Something Awful and Off-Topic model of forum-use. At Something Awful, you pay $10 for an account and a further $10 for extra things like having an avatar or changing someone else's avatar. At Off-Topic you have to pay $10 a month for access to the forums.

This supports the forum's bandwidth costs instead of forcing the forum to rely only on advertising costs. I think the SA model of $10 for an account would work fairly well here. The initial fee cuts back on internet incompetence by making the users feel less inclined to spout out trolling statements and general ass hattery since if they were to be banned, they would have to cough up another $10 if they wanted to be able to participate in further discussion.

What do you guys think of this? I'm sure the trolls and people who just waste space on the boards would dislike the idea of having to pay for an account but it sounds like a fairly good system to me. I can't figure out how to create a poll so I guess a discussion on the topic will have to do.
 
M

Mechanical Snowman

Member
You can pay to have someone else's avatar changed on the SA forums? :lol That would make for some hilarious jokes, if people could afford it.

But I wouldn't want GAF to adopt a similar thing. It would probably make the server more stable if the money went towards that, but I just don't think having to pay for forum membership is the right way to go about it.
 
dorkimoe

dorkimoe

Member
Gaf Gold- 500 Error Free since 05

I didnt mind paying $10 for SA, I've gotten $10 worth of humor or some sort of deal in the Sales forum. Also a really good place for information.

metamonk said:
$10 a month to use a forum? no thanks.
Click to expand...
$10 for your life, not a month
 
F

FatalT

Banned
WrikaWrek said:
Are you serious? Atrocious idea.

Bring on the ads.
Click to expand...

I appreciate you serving as an example of the audience I pointed out in my original post. Your custom title and the thread linked to in said custom title are enough for anyone not knowing what I'm talking about.

Thanks again! :D

dorkimoe said:
$10 for your life, not a month
Click to expand...

At Off-Topic it's $10 a month which is pathetic in my opinion. I don't see how the users there actually support that system.
 
K

Keyser Soze

Member
One off donations to help the server (during the course of E3 to aid in the OT staying open) would be fine with me.

Monthly/Yearly stuff to gain access is not right IMO
 
dorkimoe

dorkimoe

Member
The best part about SA is, you can't get away with replies like "lol" or "haha :lol " in serious threads.
Even though i have to stop myself sometimes because of all the funny shit people say over there.
Think how many less errors Gaf would have if it wasn't for all the people spamming the EXACT same thing during E3. Typing word for word what is going on during a conference that everyone is already watching anyway.
 
F

FatalT

Banned
The_Inquisitor said:
Amir0x knows what he is doing. He prefers donations go to a charity.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that it was Evilore who was the manager of the site, not Amir0x.
 
W

WrikaWrek

Banned
FatalT said:
I appreciate you serving as an example of the audience I pointed out in my original post. Your custom title and the thread linked to in said custom title are enough for anyone not knowing what I'm talking about.

Thanks again! :D
Click to expand...


Who's trolling now? Don't you think it's rather weird that you are willing to pay to post on a forum, on a monthly basis, a gaming forum at that we aren't talking about some science professional like forum even!?

One of the great advantages of GAF is having a large community filled by all kinds of posters that fuel discussion at all times, Gaf is barely ever slow or dead.

To make matters even weirder, you seem to think it would be somehow logical to ban people and then ask for another 10$.

I don't mean to insult you, but some weird priorities going on with you.
 
M

Mechanical Snowman

Member
dorkimoe said:
The best part about SA is, you can't get away with replies like "lol" or "haha :lol " in serious threads.
Even though i have to stop myself sometimes because of all the funny shit people say over there.
Think how many less errors Gaf would have if it wasn't for all the people spamming the EXACT same thing during E3. Typing word for word what is going on during a conference that everyone is already watching anyway.
Click to expand...
Very true, in all the conference threads I had to skip a couple of pages each time because it's impossible to keep up anyway, but it is hilarious when something important happens on a stream and the thread explodes.

I think it's more the refreshing of the page to see new replies that strains the server though, people must be F5ing like crazy
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
dorkimoe said:
The best part about SA is, you can't get away with replies like "lol" or "haha :lol " in serious threads.
Even though i have to stop myself sometimes because of all the funny shit people say over there.
Think how many less errors Gaf would have if it wasn't for all the people spamming the EXACT same thing during E3. Typing word for word what is going on during a conference that everyone is already watching anyway.
Click to expand...
I know :lol responses get hate but if someone does say something funny I don't see the harm really. Even do it myself once in a while.

As for pay forums, I've always said I would definitely be happy to pay more for GAF if it would give us the bandwidth that would allow us to have animated sigs, bigger avatars and such. GAF is a pretty barebones forum from this perspective (even when you compare it to other forums that are free) -- worst part about it imo.
 
A

Atramental

Banned
Sometimes I wish Gaf was like SA. But I have an SA account so whenever I need to go do some serious posting I just go there.

But If OT was anything like GBS I bet half of the people that post here would already be on probation, banned, or even perma-banned. :lol
 
F

FatalT

Banned
WrikaWrek said:
Who's trolling now? Don't you think it's rather weird that you are willing to pay to post on a forum, on a monthly basis, a gaming forum at that we aren't talking about some science professional like forum even!?

One of the great advantages of GAF is having a large community filled by all kinds of posters that fuel discussion at all times, Gaf is barely ever slow or dead.

To make matters even weirder, you seem to think it would be somehow logical to ban people and then ask for another 10$.

I don't mean to insult you, but some weird priorities going on with you.
Click to expand...

The main forum we're talking about is Something Awful which is on the system of $10 for an account for life, not a month.

Sure, GAF is a large community with all kinds of posters, however probably half of the discussion from the community is just useless dribble and repeated posts.

Why would it not be logical to ban a member and then ask for another $10? They don't have to buy another account if they don't want to. That's their choice. If a user doesn't follow the Terms of Service they agreed to on signing up for an account then why would they not be banned if they broke them?

I appreciate the free system NeoGAF relies on but after a while people see how they can freely abuse the system through trolling, shilling, and needless posting. It's following the GameFAQs model but hasn't stooped to that low of a level yet.
 
T

ToxicAdam

Member
I think it's impossible to do this "mid-stream" for any kind of entity. SA gets away with it because they have always done it this way. You can't take a free forum and then turn it pay and not expect it to have negative impact. Whatever it is you happen to like about Gaf (the volume of posts, the mix of people, the viewpoint of the users) would be dramatically affected by introducing this element and then lessen the experience overall.

I know a lot of the "oldtimers" don't agree with this, but I like the high volume on GAF and I like the wide range of users it has. Once you go pay, you alter that aspect of it.

Sure, GAF is a large community with all kinds of posters, however probably half of the discussion from the community is just useless dribble and repeated posts.
Click to expand...

It's not too hard to mentally skip over garbage within a thread. All of us possess a filter to do this. The mods do a pretty good job of cracking down on the hackneyed memes and repetitiveness of how people act (at least on the OT side).

I think a big thing that could help is having a system like SBN has. Where registered users can recommend a post (either it is well stated or funny) and then after so many recs it can turn a different color. Doing that cuts down on the people replying "THIS" or "LOL" and also gives the user some incentive to post good shit.
 
J

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
AstroLad said:
I know :lol responses get hate but if someone does say something funny I don't see the harm really. Even do it myself once in a while.

As for pay forums, I've always said I would definitely be happy to pay more for GAF if it would give us the bandwidth that would allow us to have animated sigs, bigger avatars and such. GAF is a pretty barebones forum from this perspective (even when you compare it to other forums that are free) -- worst part about it imo.
Click to expand...
These things are the reason WHY I like GAF. It doesn't have any of those shitty, gaudy, tearing inducing sigs that you find on other forums. GAF has a very simple and effective aesthetic. I'd hate to see it change.
 
B

Brinbe

Member
Probably would've joined SA by now if it wasn't for GAF.

What they do is a fine model for what they get. And a one-time payment is understandable if you get a guarantee of good moderation, a diverse community, and decent posters out of it. Luckily, GAF has that for free. :lol
 
S

SUPREME1

Banned
GTFO.


GAF is the perfect model. Nobody really goes overborad on the asshattery because the mods come down hard...

The advertising is kept to a minimum, doesn't bother me at all. Nothing over the top or annoying.
 
F

FatalT

Banned
ImperialConquest said:
GTFO.


GAF is the perfect model. Nobody really goes overborad on the asshattery because the mods come down hard...

The advertising is kept to a minimum, doesn't bother me at all. Nothing over the top or annoying.
Click to expand...

The mods come down hard, sure, on the asshattery that they actually feel is asshattery. It sometimes seems to be subjective.
 
D

Davedough

Member
There's a reason why I'm not on those forums and if GAF turned pay, there'd be a reason why I wouldn't be here either. Same exact reason why I dont pay for porn on the Internet. I'd miss GAF, but that feeling would go away.
 
R

Ridli

Member
I don't dislike the concept of "Pay to post" forums. Putting a monetary barrier to entry is a great way to keep out a lot of asshats. It's a two way street though, since you also have a chance of alienating great posters who just can't pay using conventional methods for whatever reason (out of the U.S., don't like to post CCard info online, etc).

I can't say I'd be cool with paying for things like animated sigs or avatars and whatnot. I much prefer Gaf's barebones approach. I thought it was restrictive at first, but I rather enjoy the 90x120 limit. No need to clutter things up.
 
D

diddlyD

Banned
i'd never pay for forum access.

i wish they'd just hire someone who knew what they were doing to configure the neogaf server. i visit forums that get way more traffic then this one that don't shit themselves every time 50-100 people try to access it simultaneously, and they even support search.
 
D

dinazimmerman

Incurious Bastard
i don't think forums in general are that interesting anymore. i just post on gaf because it's like second nature now (unfortunately). so i definitely wouldn't pay for posting access. i think it's fine that there's a market for that kind of thing, though. different strokes for different folks!
 
A

abq

Member
Jangaroo said:
These things are the reason WHY I like GAF. It doesn't have any of those shitty, gaudy, tearing inducing sigs that you find on other forums. GAF has a very simple and effective aesthetic. I'd hate to see it change.
Click to expand...
You got AstroLad'd.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
diddlyD said:
i wish they'd just hire someone who knew what they were doing to configure the neogaf server. i visit forums that get way more traffic then this one that don't shit themselves every time 50-100 people try to access it simultaneously, and they even support search.
Click to expand...

Time to head to those forums, then.
 
V

vicissitudes

Banned
I wouldn't mind if we actually have something like GAF Gold, you pay $10 for Gold membership and get a tag of your choice and search functions.

I wouldn't pay a cent for most online forums but I'd make an exception for GAF <3
 
S

SUPREME1

Banned
FatalT said:
The mods come down hard, sure, on the asshattery that they actually feel is asshattery. It sometimes seems to be subjective.
Click to expand...



Still better than letting people run wild knowing all they need top do is pay $10 to get back in.
 
M

Mandoric

Banned
The fun part of GAF is the trolls, so discouraging them might take away.

Lately I've liked the 2ch model. Search heavily advertised/pay, unlimited archives and one free unbanning $30 a year. But 2ch has looooooaaads more content than GAF.
 
I

itxaka

Defeatist
EviLore said:
Time to head to those forums, then.
Click to expand...

Ouch :lol

I would pay for forums. I will still donate if there is the possibility but forcing you to pay is a no-no.

Plus something awful forums looks like the myspace of forums with gifs everywhere, smilies and such.
 
D

DemiMatt

Member
otake said:
Ice cold.
Click to expand...

COLLDDD BLOODED. :lol

Luckily I am part of the gaf uranium package.

*EDIT*
One thing you have to appreciate about gaf is their lag of signatures. Too many times do I stop going to forums because its like frigging the old days of myspace in peopels huge ass sigs and banners.

<3 gaf for that.
 
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