Wincustomize to charge?!?!?!
Friday, August 2, 2002 by Danamal | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Now now... I know full well how much it costs to run a big website... I do it myself. I don't charge people money to download things from me. I know that advertising could pay the dues of running this site two or three times over. Now, you might say that you dont want the site cluttered by advertising... but you just ask the people out there if they would rather fork over $20 for something that used to be free or have to close some annoying popup windows everyonce in a while... I would, in fact, be happy to pay if I saw some real benefit... I don't.
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Danamal
Reply #4 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:10 AM
Reply #4 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:10 AM
Thankyou for clearing that up Frogboy, honestly. I would like more information on the apprentice access if you wouldnt mind.
kith
Reply #5 Saturday, August 3, 2002 1:12 AM
Reply #5 Saturday, August 3, 2002 1:12 AM
Dan,
read #4) above.
I do see a benefit. I don't want popups or creepy advertising. I will gladly pay 2.75 cents per day to use this site.
btw, how much bandwidth does your site use per day?
read #4) above.
I do see a benefit. I don't want popups or creepy advertising. I will gladly pay 2.75 cents per day to use this site.
btw, how much bandwidth does your site use per day?
KW88
Reply #6 Saturday, August 3, 2002 6:30 AM
Reply #6 Saturday, August 3, 2002 6:30 AM
No popups No popups keep the popups and advertising OUT. OK I feel better now that I got my 2 cents in. 
moshi
Reply #7 Saturday, August 3, 2002 8:44 AM
Reply #7 Saturday, August 3, 2002 8:44 AM
as if anybody would care about popups. use Opera or Mozilla and the popups are gone 
i see this place as a service site for Object Desktop customers. it´s free for them, so that´s probably ok. if you aren´t an OD customer, but want to fill your hd with hundreds of skins, there are plenty of sites around: Skinbase.org, LotsOfSkins.com, Deskmod.com, VelocityArt.com, DeviantArt.com, Skinz.org, Customize.org and many more. you could even make your own skins & wallpapers, getting a little creative is fun so why complaining?
i see this place as a service site for Object Desktop customers. it´s free for them, so that´s probably ok. if you aren´t an OD customer, but want to fill your hd with hundreds of skins, there are plenty of sites around: Skinbase.org, LotsOfSkins.com, Deskmod.com, VelocityArt.com, DeviantArt.com, Skinz.org, Customize.org and many more. you could even make your own skins & wallpapers, getting a little creative is fun so why complaining?
grayhaze
Reply #8 Saturday, August 3, 2002 9:25 AM
Reply #8 Saturday, August 3, 2002 9:25 AM
Popup advertising is evil. If I ever put popup adverts on any site I create, you all have permission to inflict great pain on me. Whoever invented popups had to be a salesman, not a web designer.
Frogboy
Reply #10 Saturday, August 3, 2002 11:51 AM
Reply #10 Saturday, August 3, 2002 11:51 AM
Pop ups are ruining the Internet experience for me. And while I use WebBlinds (part of Object Desktop) to block pop ups, it's still annoying that some get through and when I go onto a machine without some blocking involved.
elvee
Reply #11 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:20 PM
Reply #11 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:20 PM
WebBlinds Stops PopUps? How did i miss that? Better go check it out 
grayhaze
Reply #12 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:30 PM
Reply #12 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:30 PM
I'll let you have first choice of weapon Jafo. Just so long as it isn't the lawnmower again... that just plain hurt.
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #13 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:42 PM
Reply #13 Saturday, August 3, 2002 12:42 PM
Try 'Pop-UpStopper' from www.panicware.com , it never fails to stop those evil nasties from appearing.
lwr
Reply #14 Saturday, August 3, 2002 2:50 PM
Reply #14 Saturday, August 3, 2002 2:50 PM
I don't mind banner ads but those popups are very annoying. Especially the ones that creep across your screen abstructing what you're trying to read on a webpage. I don't know how much revenue bannder ads generate but if it's enough and it works for keeping a website free, why not?
moshi
Reply #15 Saturday, August 3, 2002 5:13 PM
Reply #15 Saturday, August 3, 2002 5:13 PM
Mozilla !!!! Opera !!!! both browsers will block popups, you won´t need a third-party app to do this.
UBoB
Reply #16 Saturday, August 3, 2002 5:52 PM
Reply #16 Saturday, August 3, 2002 5:52 PM
Here's a new twist on this old story....
I'd be willing to pay more (yes, you heard right!) Way more, if it meant there would be even more bandwidth at your disposal and therefore a faster site. Sometimes it's a little slow, and I have no qualms about paying whatever to keep it fast and ad free.
Now I don't need any t-shirts, I've got plenty.
I have all of the Stardock applications that I want. (all paid for) And I have the WC subscription. So, what's left?
Is there a way to invest that doesn't involve merchandise?
I'd be willing to pay more (yes, you heard right!) Way more, if it meant there would be even more bandwidth at your disposal and therefore a faster site. Sometimes it's a little slow, and I have no qualms about paying whatever to keep it fast and ad free.
Now I don't need any t-shirts, I've got plenty.
I have all of the Stardock applications that I want. (all paid for) And I have the WC subscription. So, what's left?
Is there a way to invest that doesn't involve merchandise?
WOM
Reply #17 Saturday, August 3, 2002 6:37 PM
Reply #17 Saturday, August 3, 2002 6:37 PM
Danamal: I'am an apprentice and I've never made any apps., I just post messages on the board and comment on the skins. I have only downloaded about 20k's worth of skins, but I like this site enough to subscribe for the $20 for two years. So what are you crying about? I can piss away $20 in a heart beat, so why not put it to good use.
Frogboy
Reply #19 Saturday, August 3, 2002 8:25 PM
Reply #19 Saturday, August 3, 2002 8:25 PM
I know what WinCustomize needs in the near term:
1) 10 more megabits of bandwith would get things fast.
2) One really fast state of the art dual processor server for handling SQL.
Those two things would cost about $50,000 over the next year.
Another thing that would help would be to have one more IT person to help write the scripts and optimize the site. The salary of IT people varies widely, let's say $50k.
So $100k during the next year.
This site gets about a million monthly visitors. 2 year subscriptions are $20.
Would take 5,000 people to subscribe or 5% of the monthly visitors over the course of the year.
1) 10 more megabits of bandwith would get things fast.
2) One really fast state of the art dual processor server for handling SQL.
Those two things would cost about $50,000 over the next year.
Another thing that would help would be to have one more IT person to help write the scripts and optimize the site. The salary of IT people varies widely, let's say $50k.
So $100k during the next year.
This site gets about a million monthly visitors. 2 year subscriptions are $20.
Would take 5,000 people to subscribe or 5% of the monthly visitors over the course of the year.
werewolf
Reply #20 Saturday, August 3, 2002 9:07 PM
Reply #20 Saturday, August 3, 2002 9:07 PM
do you have any current statistics of % #visitors>#subscribers
(what percentage of visitors become subscribers) 5% does not seem unreasonable
(what percentage of visitors become subscribers) 5% does not seem unreasonable
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Reply #1 Friday, August 2, 2002 11:52 PM
2) People who have purchased Object Desktop or one of its components probably would rather not have to deal with pop up windows either (and they have no limits whatsoever).
3) WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, WinStyles, and so forth aren't "free". If you registered one of those programs, you would have no limits.
4) The site is still free. And you don't even have to buy software to have unlimited use of the site's limited bandwidth. You could make skins, contribute comments, become an active participant on the message boards. Users who become apprentice access or higher (which costs nothing) also have unlimited use of the site's limited bandwidth.