A Poll regarding bandwidth and costs (important)
Sunday, July 27, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
This as good a time as any since this subject is going to have to be dealt with at some point:
Our Story So far...
As long time users know, the amount of traffic this site gets has steadily increased. This month something like 1.3 million unique individuals will visit this website.
Since the dot-com collapse, bandwidth prices have increasingly become painful because there's no realistic way to pay for the site via banner ads. We are getting ready to unveil Textbanners.net this next week and hopefully that will help (users can take out ads on the site directly for as little as $1 per day).
But realistically, we're at something like 50 megabits of bandwidth much of which is dedicated to this site.
Right now, Stardock pays for virtually all of the tab. The goal was always for WinCustomize to become self-sustaining. But as the site has grown, that hope has drifted further and further off.
But to try to off-set costs, we instituted WinCustomize subscriptions. For $19.95 a user gets a 2 year subscription to the site which gives them unlimited downloads, 2 premium suites, and the WinCustomize browser along with 5,000 free impressions on TextBanners.net.
Non-subscribers have been restricted to 50 megabytes of bandwidth they could consume in the form of downloads. You'll occasionally see a post by someone who suddenly discovers scruples and expresses his outrage and desire to defend innocent artists everywhere for having to pay to download more stuff. But it's been one of the few ways of getting people to subscribe or at least go away and go to some other site to download stuff.
Subscribers have helped us pay for new hardware, more bandwidth, etc. But it's still a fairly low percentage. Well not just fairly low but amazingly low (far less than 1% of visitors).
One reason for that is because Stardock customers are currently exempt from the bandwidth restriction. So are users with access levels Apprentice and up.
Who should pay the bills?
That's put Stardock in an awkward position. It's facing either having to raise the price on Object Desktop (the proposed price is $69.95 up front and $37.95 for renewals) or put some sort of cap on the amount of megabytes a non-subscriber Stardock customer can get. The proposal on that end is 250 megabytes.
We'd like to hear from you. Which way do you think is most fair? My opinion is that we should go with the 250 meg cap on SDof bandwidthvery few people download that amount of bandwidth so it would only affect a small percent (most of the bandwidth is used by a small percent btw). Those users can contribute either by subscribing for $20 for 2 years or contributing in other ways (skins, themes, walls, message boards, etc. and gaining higher access).
What's your view?
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Reply #22 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:14 PM
| #18 by White_Moth - 7/27/2003 5:23:52 PM |
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I think the best thing I have gotten from this site that cannot be weighed against the trivial amount of money I have spent here, being an ODNT and Wincustomize subscriber, are the friendships, and the self improvements from such a rich diversity of humanity that is found here at Wincustomize.
I vote White Moth for President of the UN... [except the 'gotten' bit.....nasty use of English, that].... |
Reply #23 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:25 PM
And thank you for the vote.
Reply #24 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:30 PM
[Message Edited]
Reply #25 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:32 PM
Reply #26 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:35 PM
non-paying people only gets to see the newest 25 ( if not less )items in any skin type.
maybe make it reasonable cheap such as 2 bucks per month, with addional savings for paying the entire year ( ie: 20 bucks )
hmm maybe something like 10 mb a month for non-paying, but with possibility of downloading a single file thats bigger than 10 mb like a theme thats like 11 mb file.
non-paying ODNT users: 50 mb per month but with no limit on viewable skins, so odnt users still have benefits. once again, with possiblity of going over the size limit, but only if it was below limit, but download size is bigger than aviliable left over to download. ie: 45 mb used, and user can download a skin thats 10 mb but cant download til next month.
just a few ideas
Reply #27 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:43 PM
Reply #28 Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:48 PM
| The problem is that about 5% of the userbase uses about 25% of the bandwidth. |
Then shouldn't that 5% have their wings clipped before they reach 250 megs?
Chances are that bunch is nothing but leaches.
btw...... is that 250 megs a year, or a month?
Reply #31 Sunday, July 27, 2003 9:59 PM
I don't think the price of OD should be raised for paying for WC. I'm a long time user of OD and if the price is raised for paying for WC i will have serious doubts wether i will continue my OD subscription (BTW I'm also paying now for WC).
I think a cap of 50 / 250 MB is much, lower this cap per month and in total and raise the price.
Reply #32 Sunday, July 27, 2003 10:29 PM
Whats the average size of a skin?
You talk about 5% using 25% of the bandwidth: what are they downloading exactly?
I think some real in-depth research on the site itself needs to be done, and possibly/probably some revamps to the site itself to lower the bandwidth expenditure of the site pages themselves.
Little things add up.
(IE: how much bandwidth are all the snazzy website graphics eating up? how big are each of the pages? the index? etc.)
It'd also be interesting to see a "minimalist" theme added to the "site skins".
It'd be nice to have a lower bandwidth version of the site, just to speed things up even a tiny bit...
[Message Edited]
Reply #33 Sunday, July 27, 2003 10:42 PM
Reply #34 Monday, July 28, 2003 1:20 AM
| From what I understand there are tons of so called "Adventure Capitalists" (i.e. insane rich guys) that throw around millions on the most insane studies and experiments you could even imagine… you need to get a hold of one of these wackos as an investor…then there can just be free love. |
Crispy Dove,not a great idea, people who know zip about this type of business can cause huge problems and in real terms, there is no such thing as a free lunch, let alone free love.
Brad, I'd go the extra mile, non-subscribers, 100M cap, period.
Subscriptions, $20.00 per year.
It's just sound business.
I'd like to know just how many of the non-subscribers are using 'unregistered' Stardock apps .... Jafo knows exactly what I mean re 'unregistered'.
'Venture Capitalists' I think?
And there are not too many 'insane rich guys' out there .... they don't retain their $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ if they are wackos!
[Message Edited]
Reply #35 Monday, July 28, 2003 1:25 AM
| The problem is that about 5% of the userbase uses about 25% of the bandwidth. |
Be worth checking the ratio of skins v walls, and to be fair, 3Mb to 4Mb Icon packages are a bit over the top IMHO.
[Message Edited]
Reply #36 Monday, July 28, 2003 1:35 AM
I would say last, just because some kids are downloading more then 250 megs dasn't mean that people who are buying objectdock should be pay more. I think 250 megs is a bit high. Shouldn't it be smarter to make it 100-150 Megs for people who don't contribute and 200 megs for people who do make skins and contribute?
Reply #37 Monday, July 28, 2003 1:52 AM
| Shouldn't it be smarter to make it 100-150 Megs for people who don't contribute and 200 megs for people who do make skins and contribute? |
Styl, define 'contribute'.
Your proposition would be a bit rough on untalented members such as this particular Marsupial who have been around from the early days but lack the skills to 'contribute' other than financially.
Reply #38 Monday, July 28, 2003 1:57 AM
Reply #39 Monday, July 28, 2003 3:09 AM
Right?
Reply #40 Monday, July 28, 2003 5:27 AM
I am all for the cut on downloads. I am all against making OD more expensive. I just think less people will go for an OD subscription then.
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Reply #21 Sunday, July 27, 2003 5:56 PM