Subscription goodies preview
Tuesday, April 23, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
We're going to be starting subscriptions pretty soon and those subscriptions will come with some extra goodies for those users.
As some of you are no doubt aware, running this site is becoming increasingly expensive as skinning increases in popularity. WinCustomize is now ranked in the top 7,000 most popular websites in the world by Alexa after only 1 year of being around. That translates into several TERRABYTES of bandwidth used per month.
I realize some people think that WC subscriptions should be part of their Object Desktop subscription but that just isn't possible as long as ODNT is only $50. We may look at providing some sort of Stardock.net subscription in the future for $99.95 per year that includes ODNT, WC, and Drengin but for now we'll have to have it seperate.
One of the benefits of the upcoming WC subscription will be the skin browser:
https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-apr02.jpg
The Skin Browser will act as a front end to this site making it much faster to navigate and much easier to do things like chat with people on the message board, make comments, rate skins, download skins, search for skins, use suites, create suites, etc. It'll be an ongoing development product (SB 1.0, 2.0, etc.).
Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
We'll be working on providing additional benefits as well. We still have to figure out how much it'll cost per year to subscribe.
One thing we are not going to do regardless if have pop up banner ads on the site. We just hate them too much and with most of the Stardock staff willing to sell blood to the blood bank to keep us from having them, we're not going to have pop up ads anytime soon even for non-subscribers. So we'll have to find other ways to encourage heavy users of the site to help defray the costs of the site.
We hope to have a beta of the skin browser ready in a week or two.
As some of you are no doubt aware, running this site is becoming increasingly expensive as skinning increases in popularity. WinCustomize is now ranked in the top 7,000 most popular websites in the world by Alexa after only 1 year of being around. That translates into several TERRABYTES of bandwidth used per month.
I realize some people think that WC subscriptions should be part of their Object Desktop subscription but that just isn't possible as long as ODNT is only $50. We may look at providing some sort of Stardock.net subscription in the future for $99.95 per year that includes ODNT, WC, and Drengin but for now we'll have to have it seperate.
One of the benefits of the upcoming WC subscription will be the skin browser:
https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-apr02.jpg
The Skin Browser will act as a front end to this site making it much faster to navigate and much easier to do things like chat with people on the message board, make comments, rate skins, download skins, search for skins, use suites, create suites, etc. It'll be an ongoing development product (SB 1.0, 2.0, etc.).
Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
We'll be working on providing additional benefits as well. We still have to figure out how much it'll cost per year to subscribe.
One thing we are not going to do regardless if have pop up banner ads on the site. We just hate them too much and with most of the Stardock staff willing to sell blood to the blood bank to keep us from having them, we're not going to have pop up ads anytime soon even for non-subscribers. So we'll have to find other ways to encourage heavy users of the site to help defray the costs of the site.
We hope to have a beta of the skin browser ready in a week or two.
 |
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
paxx
Reply #2 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:25 PM
Reply #2 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:25 PM
Sounds good. How much is the subscription going to be?
Frogboy
Reply #3 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:52 PM
Reply #3 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:52 PM
Still trying to figure that out.
In our experience, anything over $20 becomes a major impediment to acceptance.
In our experience, anything over $20 becomes a major impediment to acceptance.
Jafo
Reply #4 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 5:29 PM
Reply #4 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 5:29 PM
Australians only get a milk-shake or a cup of coffee for their blood....[Yankee blood must be better quality]....
DavidK
Reply #5 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 5:46 PM
Reply #5 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 5:46 PM
If we choose the option of giving blood, does it have to be our own blood or could we send someone else's?
Peff
Reply #6 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 10:02 PM
Reply #6 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 10:02 PM
Worth every penny!
I'd be willing to pay the $20 and wouldn't have much of a problem with the $99.95...let's see @ $23 dollars a pint...
Will the beta be available through component manager?
I'd be willing to pay the $20 and wouldn't have much of a problem with the $99.95...let's see @ $23 dollars a pint...
Will the beta be available through component manager?
Frogboy
Reply #7 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 10:31 PM
Reply #7 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 10:31 PM
The beta of SkinBrowser won't be on CM since it's not part of Object Desktop.
Now, eventually, we hope to create a Stardock.net CM (like this summer) in which it looks at your account info and can say "Ah, this person has ODNT, WC, and Drengin, make all these things available to him." But that's still a ways off.
Now, eventually, we hope to create a Stardock.net CM (like this summer) in which it looks at your account info and can say "Ah, this person has ODNT, WC, and Drengin, make all these things available to him." But that's still a ways off.
Griffinme
Reply #8 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:37 AM
Reply #8 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:37 AM
They don'y pay for blood here but they will pay for the plasma in you blood.
Last time I did it they payed 5$ per visit and you were allowed to do it every 3 days.
20$ = 4 hours with a needle stuck in your arm. Maybe
100$ = 20 hours with a needle.... Not sure that would be worth it.
It was a way for a broke college kid to pay for dates.
Last time I did it they payed 5$ per visit and you were allowed to do it every 3 days.
20$ = 4 hours with a needle stuck in your arm. Maybe
100$ = 20 hours with a needle.... Not sure that would be worth it.
It was a way for a broke college kid to pay for dates.
feline
Reply #9 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:37 AM
Reply #9 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:37 AM
feline wants to try the beta now! 
i want to see if we can make the Elf thread so long it causes the skin browser to crash with a buffer overrun
well, that is what beta testers are for isnt it?
sounds like you are thinking under $20. that is a year i presume?
oh yes, shame on you frogboy! in your screen shot of the skin browser it isnt skinned with WB!
i want to see if we can make the Elf thread so long it causes the skin browser to crash with a buffer overrun
well, that is what beta testers are for isnt it?
sounds like you are thinking under $20. that is a year i presume?
oh yes, shame on you frogboy! in your screen shot of the skin browser it isnt skinned with WB!
feline
Reply #10 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:44 AM
Reply #10 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:44 AM
Jafo - Australians only get a milk-shake or a cup of coffee for their blood
all australians or just you?
they just dont want to weaken you to much, if they offered to big an insentive who knows how often you would be in there. after all, think of what the spelling would be like here if you werent up to full strength?
actually that isnt a bad idea. can the discussion part of the skin browser throw the text at a spell checker? some of us will take all the help we can get
all australians or just you?
they just dont want to weaken you to much, if they offered to big an insentive who knows how often you would be in there. after all, think of what the spelling would be like here if you werent up to full strength?
actually that isnt a bad idea. can the discussion part of the skin browser throw the text at a spell checker? some of us will take all the help we can get
feline
Reply #11 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:52 AM
Reply #11 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:52 AM
Frogboy - WinCustomize is now ranked in the top 7,000 most popular websites in the world by Alexa after only 1 year of being around.
feline **wow**
talk about saying something about the quality of the submisions by the artists! something must be drawing all these people!!!
Frogboy - Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
any ideas yet on who will be producing these skin packs?
are you going to make me drool all over my keyboard in anticipation, or just keep us all in deadful suspence for ages?
feline **wow**
talk about saying something about the quality of the submisions by the artists! something must be drawing all these people!!!
Frogboy - Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
any ideas yet on who will be producing these skin packs?
are you going to make me drool all over my keyboard in anticipation, or just keep us all in deadful suspence for ages?
Nite77
Reply #12 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:17 AM
Reply #12 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:17 AM
Finnish people only get a warm handshake and probably coffee. If you get lucky.
Well, for the quality of this site $20 is more than acceptable. But for my wallet, $9.90 sounds more like it
Well, for the quality of this site $20 is more than acceptable. But for my wallet, $9.90 sounds more like it
John Hamp
Reply #13 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 12:02 PM
Reply #13 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 12:02 PM
Can you have it where we can pay $2 per month automatically? $20 or $30 ain't much but I don't want to have to keep doing it every year.
Xymantix
Reply #14 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 3:20 PM
Reply #14 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 3:20 PM
Nite77: "Finnish people only get a warm handshake and probably coffee". I don't care about the handshake part but I've tasted your coffee which is quite good!
Oh yeah, the subscription idea sounds great
Oh yeah, the subscription idea sounds great
Jafo
Reply #15 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 6:49 PM
Reply #15 Wednesday, April 24, 2002 6:49 PM
feline...no, that's all Australians....it's a 'donation service', ...we have to give it away....no-one would really 'want' it....[too much alcohol]...
aafuss
Reply #16 Thursday, April 25, 2002 1:59 AM
Reply #16 Thursday, April 25, 2002 1:59 AM
To Stardock
What converted prices (from US dollars) would Australian users pay for Stardock software?
What converted prices (from US dollars) would Australian users pay for Stardock software?
aafuss
Reply #17 Thursday, April 25, 2002 2:06 AM
Reply #17 Thursday, April 25, 2002 2:06 AM
OK,
WB & OB (and others) -US$20= about $40 Australian Dollars
OD= US$49 = approx $100-130 Australian Dollars
WB & OB (and others) -US$20= about $40 Australian Dollars
OD= US$49 = approx $100-130 Australian Dollars
kith
Reply #18 Thursday, April 25, 2002 8:35 AM
Reply #18 Thursday, April 25, 2002 8:35 AM
Good news is the Autralian dollar is stronger these days. I use this site to convert it daily:
http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic
Just make sure you change interbank to credit card.
http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic
Just make sure you change interbank to credit card.
feline
Reply #19 Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:09 AM
Reply #19 Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:09 AM
hopefully this will be payable via credit card. that way my bill just gets converted to UK automatically, which is nice, since the number shrinks
aafuss
Reply #20 Thursday, April 25, 2002 5:04 PM
Reply #20 Thursday, April 25, 2002 5:04 PM
So what would $30 (US) be worth now in Aust.Dollars? It's good to hear thsat our currency is stronger, a while back it ariound 50-53c
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
Reply #1 Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:15 PM