This will help FFR as a whole
 

Alright, so there's a need for money. Understandable. A site like this needs the money to keep it running.

So, my suggestion, why not start selling stuff again? Remember when FFR Shirts and bumper stickers or something were being sold? Why not start this back up again?

I'd buy an FFR shirt, and maybe even one for my friend. I just don't even know if they're even being sold anymore. If they are, the page should be made a little more obvious. If they're even selling, I can't find them when I'm TRYING to find them. That being said, random noob A isn't going to be able to find them when they aren't even trying.

A good idea would be to put it up there with "Home, The Game, etc." It used to be there or something, and was titled "FFR Stuff" or something similar.

Another suggestion is premium accounts or premium forum accounts. A couple of places do this, and it wouldn't give anything TOO good that it'd force people to donate. GunZFactor, for example, puts peoples' names in gold and gives them the right to upload more images at a time. I'm not saying we should steal that idea, but I'm saying something related would be nice.

It'd be nice if someone could run this past Synth if he doesn't read it himself. He's the one that's going to do it if anyone's going to do it.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Both ideas have been discussed.

Merchandise takes too much hassle, and the other idea is still under consideration.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

i'm liking those ideas.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

what Shash said. Merchandise a) is too much hassle and b) doesn't generate nearly as much money as you'd think... and some form of Premium Account is being discussed.

The biggest downside to a premium account is that we've always prided ourselves on not making anyone pay for ANY content. a premium account would almost certainly give certain content only to those who pay for it... even if it is a small fraction of the total content pie.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I ordered a FFR T-Shirt that never came... the money was taken out of the credit card too... lol.

You guys don't have a PayPal Donate-type thing either, do you? I'm sure some people are generous enough to donate.

I would pay for the Premium Account if I could. Another downside to that is that most of the people who play FFR are teenagers who don't have access to money through credit cards.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Word for word what I was going to say. Well, mostly.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

The T-shirt thing was a complete disaster for me. My problem with it was that the price was way to low and it took SO much of my time. I was trying to run a business, keep people working, take care of my family, keep the FFR server running, develop for FFR and at the same time running to the post office every night or so with boxes of shirts and stuff. If anyone reads this and did not get what they ordered, it was not intentional. PM your paypal address and amount and I will make it right immediately.

I had a donation link up for almost a year and gained an entire $5 with about $1000 in promises.

As far as premium memberships go, that is a good idea but it would have to be implemented carefully because I would never want to make FFR a pay site. It just goes against what I believe in. Something along the line of getting SOTW 2 weeks in advance or something + special forum access / titles + improved stats or downloadable stat applications that show realtime updates of rankings etc or who is on FFR. (just brainstorming here)..

It's really an eternal struggle for me.. I care about the community but have to make sacrifices in order to live.

What other ideas do you guys have? Help me out here, I could really use it.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Synth should have some sort of PayPal Donations thing. It may not work COMPLETELY, but donations, although involves money, shouldn't really count as "content", as users have a choice of donating or not. But that's just me. I'm pretty sure Synth has everything under control...





...I hope.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

About the T-Shirt thing, I understand. It would have been nicer to have learned that I wasn't getting any of my stuff months ago, but i'll let you keep my 30-something dollars because I don't have anything more important to spend it on.

If you read my post I made and linked to in about two threads, you know my feelings on this. I said in there that it may be a good idea to pay yearly or bi-yearly to gain premium forum membership or something like that. You know, something like SomethingAwful has. People DO pay to be on that board. I would pay to be on this board. It makes it more exclusive. I like the idea of the whole access-to-special-forums and having a custom title. Something simple like that...for, I dunno...10 dollars every 6 months or 20 dollars a year? Maybe even less expensive than that, I don't know how much the cost of running the site is.

Maybe you could set up something with Cobalt Flux...something like them making a special soft pad that's not that expensive that you can hook up to FFR/Stepmania and/or your gaming console and the pad has FFR on it as well as Cobalt Flux...and FFR gets some of the profits and in return you take the nasty ads off the front page and put more cobalt flux ads. I'd buy the soft pad if it was maybe like...50 dollars or something. (My CF broke so it'd be nice to play again)

Also, i'd suggest no more spontaneous contest where you end up dishing out 75 bucks or more a month. It MIGHT be worth it to save that money and put it towards the site instead of giving it out to random people who doubtfully deserve it.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Idea for premium account: Infinite credits/automatic access to all songs, as well as songs before they're made public.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Poor Synth. ='[

You don't have to resend me a shirt. Lol.

You know... I've always thought about like... an FFR-convention type of thing.
I've made so many friends through FFR, and there is like a 0% of meeting them in real life. It might be too complicated now... but I'm sure that if a lot of people put the effort into it, we can make it happen. Like, we can have separate meetings in different places of the US (since most of the members who play FFR are from the US) and have all the members meet and everything... it'll basically be something social and fun.
You could charge a fee, which is where the money comes in. Something around $80 each person would probably be reasonable, because the conventions can have different activities going on (ie. real life FFR tournaments, DDR/ITG tournaments, movies playing, etc). Furthermore, like anime conventions, FFR merchandise could be sold there. People will more likely buy things they see in real life than by paying through a credit card online (No shipping charges either).

There's a lot of things to work from from there. Just giving a general and somewhat possible idea. I've seen other sites make this work, and turnouts are usually pretty good because hardcore regulars usually make it to these type of meetings.

PS. - Synth's autograph = $15

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

At least you got something...Does the link cost anything to maintain? If not why not place it on the front page? a random dollar here or there is still something.

The biggest problem with anything fee-wise, or even donation-wise on this website is the complete and utter lack of credit cards. With such a vast majority of the site being between the ages of 13 and 18, My bet is that less then .001% of ffr has a payment style other than cash. Heck I still don't have a credit card yet and I'm 20.

This is a guess, but am I correct in assuming the ads for Cobalt Flux, google, and The 800,000 circulating ads bring in at least some amount of cash for supporting the site?

*Edit*
As for this:
Wind, you do know about the meetup Tass is hosting this December right? If not..... BRB with link.

Here: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=52459

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Of course, but I think it depends on the amount of traffic it brings in. More people that click on it, the more money it will raise. At least that was the case on some crappy MMO I used to play.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I was thinking about the FFR convention thing for a while now. How EverQuest has far faires and conventions and theres the Otakon in Ontario and Anime Evolution in BC (Just saying these cause I'm from Canada). I'd say the FFR Convention would take place in Texas, but probably not for a while. Not until FFR becomes really famous. It's getting there at a steady speed though.

That membership thing... I don't think unlimited credits is fair. It WOULD give no purpose to the credits. I feel credits do have a significant impact on new people. It gives people a goal and by the time they have all the purchased songs and the secret songs they are good at it and would continue playing. I'm saying if one person has infinite credits, you'd have to stop them from being able to transfer credits, or have it so they do have credits, but only the secret songs are unlocked for them.

I was thinking having to pay for the priviledges the myspace-ish people use. The profile chat only on paid members profiles. and the wall and uploading the pictures into your gallery. I dunno.

Custom titles under the username, different forum background and/or ffr page background and/or ffr thegame background colour.

Just throwing out ideas.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

This is actually a pretty nice idea, as far as unlocking songs goes. Infinite credits is bad IMO, because then they can just give them to anyone.

I don't like the idea of premium membership giving people things that people would get for free if we weren't a bit short on cash...that kinda defeats the purpose IMO.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Also, if you have the "top contributers" usernames somewhere on the page, with the top ten people and their names, that gets people motivated for some reason.

And one of the biggest and best strategies I have ever seen for raking in ad profit is somehow (I don't know how you're going to code it...) have certain sites (lets say six) ads on this seperate page. Whoever clicks on one, gets their username into the draw for lets say... 1000 credits daily sent out. Can only get a ticket into the draw once every 24 hours per site. So, you can get into it six times daily. and Synth would be getting lots of money out of this. Have the prize whatever you feel it should be.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Let me put it this way. I missed all of thanksgiving with my family this year because if I left the server for more than 30 minutes, it was going to crash. It wasn't until Monday that I finally went outside again.

All of these ideas are good for the most part. I agree with shash about the unlimited credits. Basically it wouldn't be unlimited, it would just mean unlocked songs.

Lets develop a definitive list of things that would make a subscription worth it. Something for both veterans and new members. Because something like this has the potential to really allow us to go above and beyond with our development and equipment.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Somehow, if there ever was a site sponsored convention... I'd bet it would be in Chicago.

1. Synth lives in Chicago
2. It is pretty damn central, when you factor in the Canadians.





EDIT: List of stuff for a Premium Membership:

1. Special Forum access
2. Access to a custom, user edited, forum title
3. Credits
4. Access to SotWs early
5. Possible access to Premium Only songs
6. No ads?
7. Premium Member Only chat

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I've always enjoyed how FFR has been free, and how much time Synth puts into it. But most people on FFR are poor teengers, so we don't have too much money to throw around. If there is this premium membership thing, I will always feel as though I am missing out on something considering I have no money to spare.

EDIT: Synth's story about thanksgiving is really sad. This might not be too bad of an idea.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Where if there's one in every time zone? xD

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Keep in mind that we are just brainstorming here. I want to give the FFR community what it wants. Unfortunately we are delivering an extremely high profile site on a shoestring budget. Another way of thinking about this is that while you may feel like you are missing out, you would benefit when FFR was able to afford development of features and had super fast servers well beyond the dinky $7,000 I spent last spring on a new server for FFR.

Keep the ideas flowing though. I will definitely keep an eye on this thread. Regardless of what happens, I think I have proven that FFR is here to stay.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Not credits, just unlocked songs.

No. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm certain Synth doesn't want to do, and I'd hate it as well.

Other ideas are all good though.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

You mean the thing that I was talking about? Do you need it to be something local and everything? I saw something like this (but didn't reap it like how I explained) with like. "Click on this link to some kinda hotdog site".



1.: What kinda of special forum access?
3.: Credits= how about not credits, just unlocked songs.
5.: I don't like that one :(
6.: I was just going to post that idea. I really like that one.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I think you quitting your job for FFR has ultimately proven that FFR is here to stay. By the way, what does your family think about that?

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Do you make any profit from FFR whatsoever? If not, I really don't know how you do it Synth. Also, I saw in another thread that you said we should link to FFR at other websites. I'll be sure to do that.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

If we had 100 people link to FFR from other websites and worked 1 hour at doing that, it would increase our exposure, ranking, revenue by quite a bit. Things like this are very valuable.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

ATTN: Everyone who goes to another forum post FFR in your sig.
GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

WAIT!! don't post your sig yet! Jason & I have a small surprise for you tonight that would make that task easier. Just give us another 30 mins.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I'm on my psp right now so i'll link to FFR a LOT tomorrow.


EDIT: Hold up, Synth's got a surprise.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Oooo, I like suprises.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Sweet, <3 FFR because I can actually make changes and the main admin bends over backwards to help us.

As for premium membership, I think it'd be nice to give custom titles on the forum and a little "donator" mark next to their name or something. As for ingame stuff, let them play a downloadable version and/or receive updates as you're working on FFR. I don't even know of half of the stuff you work on for FFR, and I'm sure others are interested. That's all I can really think off of the top of my head.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

In the forums you wouldn't really need a little "donator" mark. I think that should be there if you donate $20+ with paypal. Which brings up that question again about paypal that Manti asked. "Does the link cost anything to maintain? If not why not place it on the front page? a random dollar here or there is still something."

So the "donator" mark shouldn't be there for being a premium member or plus or golden or whatever you'd like to call it - because you'd have a custom title anyways and if you don't take advantage of that, then it's your choice.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Remember I said I would give you all something that would make sig life a little easier?

Well here you go, enjoy.. It even generates every type of code you would want, including forum code.

Please go out of your way to thank Jason for the code development.

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/.../SiggyEdit.php

Now go spread those sigs around.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

That is so awesome! Synth you rule!

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Simply awesome. I shall reveal this to the masses wherever I go.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

That's awesome, Synth!

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Uber: Synth doesn't even tell me some of the projects he's working on... lol.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Everyone Likey?

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Those look pretty cool.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Sexy.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Does the firstText attribute not work?

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

seems like it is to me ;)

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Why doesn't the first sig update the Overall Rank as well as the new one does?

Et some constructive criticism upon the new sig:
I'd rather the four icons on the left go and have room for two more stats.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Pretty sweet. At least this part says I joined in 2003 =)

By the way, there's a small typo on the page. You -> Your.

Hope this helps you with your revenue-getting. I'm sure a bunch of people can use this on other forums. Sadly, I don't go to any other forums. FFR is my home =x

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Same. D:

I could pretend I'm still interested in nexopia and go there... you'll get a mass of canadians join the crew.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Everyone makes a difference, even a Canadian.

(that's a joke all you Canada people.)

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I like the idea of the premium chat.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I am up with the idea of pay to moderate for a day. :) Just kidding. That would be uber bad. On the other hand, you can start this. Let people pay for a random ban against someone else. Yay, random bans.

Get your bans here. Just $5 per throw.

This is just a thought.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I love the FFR Community. Ever since I started playing, it's been a good experience. I just started going into the forums and love that also.

As for ideas, what if ffr made a tutorial on how to play. Show everything from combo, to PA, to types of patterns and everything else. I know that if someone is new here, the odds are WAY more likely that you would want that, versus a written out version in the forums. And maybe make it possible to censor/ignore people either in the MP lobby or in forum threads. The MP mods do a good job of limiting spammers and people going in just to be jackasses. But, when they aren't around I know I would definately pay to be able to hit an "ignore ______" button some of the time. As far as payment is concerned maybe have 2 options
1: A bi-yearly payment
2: A Yearly payment

Set the yearly one slightly less then the bi-yearly payment so that it seems more appealing. So if the bi-yearly is $10, have the yearly be something like $17. If it's something that small, I'm sure if they wanted it, they would get it one way or the other. I mean, you can find more change on the street in a year than $20.

*Edit
And THANKS JASON!!!

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

To impliment premium accounts you're going to have to put enough features into those accounts that would actually make people want to pay money for them. The more features you have, more people will want to pay for them. Though at the same time, more features means more people getting pissed because they can't pay money to get them.

Whatever you put into the premium accounts, if you choose to make them or not, I'm paying for them. Though I'd make it a low, monthly charge, instead of a one-time payment.. I mean, I'm sure most of the older members are looking out for your (synth's) best interest, and a one-time payment would bring in a lot of money one time, but that'd be it. Monthly is at least a continuous flow of cash.

Good luck with all of it, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Edit: I like rade's idea for yearly/bi-yearly payments, but I think monthly would do good as an addition to that. Monthly, 3 month, 6 month, and 1 year plans would give a lot of options to whoever's paying.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

So maybe have it (as an example of cheeper with more payment sooner idea)

That if the Value of a yearly member ship at a Monthly rate is $36.
Monthly payments would be $3
Quarterly payments would be $8 (making is $32)
Bi-Yearly payments would be $14 ($28 in total)
Yearly payments would be $20

If that is too high for your liking you can always adjust down from there. If you do though I wouldn't do as big of jumps. Maybe like 2, 5, 8, 15 or there abouts.

Edit*
This is good for me to help with since I am a business major. I'm gonna put some real thought into this. See what I can come up with.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

How about a dollar per month?

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

These are all great ideas. Keep them flowing. Right now we have seen (i think) monthly premium subscription rates of anywhere between $1 and $5. We have to evaluate what the potential is here in numbers and that would determine the price. For $1 I don't know if at 3 cents a day I can provide all the support that would be required of us on our end. At the same time I think $5 is too much and would drive away potential subscribers to the site.

Go spread those siggy's out there! Don't forget to use the embed tag code on your own pages or (gasp) your myspace accounts. It allows the user to click on the image as a link. Spreading these things will help a great deal with exposure.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I've told about 15 people about this site, and about 9 of them still come here.

I'll be sure to keep spreading the word about FFR.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I'd probably be able to pay a one time fee, but paying per month is no good because I don't have a credit card.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

$35 Lifetime Fee?

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Really, what has to be looked at is not only the total number of ACTIVE members (meaning the ones that come on at least once a week) but also how many of the active members would want to use the things that the premium package would have to offer. If there are 250,000 members who at least show up weekly and of those, 10,000 of them find the premium package appealing. You're looking at $300 a day or roughly $109,500 a year before taxes. And that's at $1 a month. However, there is the whole idea of pricing. If you make something too cheap then you might have people think it's not worth it. If you make something too expensive it will drive business away. The key to a good marketing campaign is finding a way to think that people are getting a good deal for how much they're spending. If you make a monthly rate of $3 a month. It's easy for people to afford and they would feel like they were getting a good deal. BUT, if you offer a $3 a month subscription for a $25 yearly payment. It's still easy to pay PLUS if someone stops coming you won't suffer a loss in income. Offering payment options is always the best way to go. It makes it more convenient for the customer, and often leads to more business.

P.S. $3 a month X 10,000 people X 12 months....I have a feeling that should cover all your expenses and more ;)

Edit*

Also, what if part of the premium package had to do with drawings or raffles. Every month or two you could have a random winner (in the premium member group) win a prize. Something Worth joining for. Something that as a business person (which you would be if this started) you could get for wholesale and then award to people. I for some reason have a huge feeling that would help bring in members.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I totally agree on this idea! FFR should start selling merchandise like they did in the past@

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

If you have a bank accnt you can pay. Most banks offer Debit cards that run through a credit company. Whether it's Mastercard, Visa, or Discover.
If it's really that hard for people to pay this way though, Synth could have an accountant take mail in payments. The only fishy parts about that is A.) It would take a while to know who payed and who didn't. And B.) He would have to allow both cash and checks (checks take at least 2 business days to clear if they are from out of the local area).

Edit*
Sorry, I know I'm posting a lot in here. But this is definately up my alley. With this new income would you be willing to pay for rights to songs? Because if you would, you could put more mainstream songs on here which I think would also draw in a larger group.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

The siggy is amazing.
I love you Synth.

Brb, going to a bunch of forums with this in my sig.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

5 dollars a month isn't bad at all, if you offer enough features.

The way I see it, you can generate a lot of money by offering a lot of features for premium accounts, but that in turn will aggrivate more people. Or you can get less money, offer less features, and not aggrivate as many people.

Just don't get greedy, like rade said 3 dollars a month with even a small percentage of the members subscribing will generate a lot of money.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I probably wouldn't pay monthly because my parents would get pissed that i'd have to bug them every month for the credit card to pay for it. It's just like a bill, and people hate bills. I'd rather just pay like maybe 25 dollars or so for a year and not have to worry about it.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

The whole point of the premium thing would NOT be to aggravate people...that must be avoided if possible.

All the suggestions I've agreed with so far are like that:

Special Forum Access/Chat - Would be nothing more than an extra place to go, regular users wouldn't exactly miss out on a ton
Custom Title - Incredibly minor to those who don't have it, but it's a kinda nice thing to have
Early SotW/All songs unlocked - Playing off people's lack of patience is the PERFECT way to do premium features. You can either be patient, or pay up. There will be people who pay up.
No ads - Easily justifiable, no one can really complain about this one.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Why don't you make a deal with some kind of shirt/other merchandise company to take care of orders for you. I think that with as many members as FFR is getting, the other company would be stupid not to take in all that easy market.

Then you could sell merchandise and profit from it without having to worry about it all that much. I'm sure plenty of people would love to sport an FFR shirt.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

IMO, $2-3 a month is the right way to go, with either a $20 or $30 yearly option. Also, you wouldn't have to bug parents each month... things like this can be set up as a recurring credit card payment. Sign up once, and it automatically bills you each month afterwards until you cancel it.

Don't forget though... to accept credit cards (vs paypal or cash/checks), there are extra fees (paypal has fees too for business accounts)... payments to a Visa, to processing companies... things like that.


And Shash, what you said is basically what would be offered... I'd prefer to have at least one other big drawing feature as well though. Best thing I can think of is a small section of Members Only songs.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Keeping the main features of the site (being free without needing anything else to be a part of the community) is obviously the whole idea. Things like what shash said I agree with entirely. But, there absolutely HAS to be something that will flat out WOW them. Remember, how many of the regular forum goers even play ffr regularly? Doing things like Special Forum Access/Chat and Custom Title are things that would indeed be appealing to forum goers and Early SotW/All songs unlocked obviously for players. No ads is both. But what else can be done with the help of this new package? Having a members only section of songs I think would anger more people than intrigue. Maybe, like chicken said, You could do something with a t-shirt company. If you spent $4-5 on creating a shirt (you'd have to buy in bulk numbers), then included that in part of being a member for 25 bucks; spend $1.25 on delivery fees you'd still be profiting basically $20 per person per year. I don't know if this is possible or not still just trying to pitch ideas.

*Edit

Although now that I think about it, you might have to make an initial investment with this idea....

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Almost every single one of those things offer no incentive to pay money to get them.

Custom titles are essentially useless, aside from bragging rights. Getting every song isn't too much of a hassle for any advanced member, and advertisements have never been a hassle for me. They take up very, very little space anyways.

Early SOTW would be pretty neat, but again, it doesn't seem worth paying 2-5 dollars a month just to get a song two weeks before everyone else.

I'm starting to think premium accounts is a bad idea, since you can't offer enough premium features to make people want to pay money to get them, and at the same time aggrivate those who enjoy FFR because it's free.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Omg Synth, you really are God. ='( <3

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I don't know if you are right on your judgement here. I think plenty of people would want songs early just so they could be on the highscore list before anyone else. Do you have anything as an alternative that would help the site this much?

Cheers,

Snyhlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Well, getting on the high score list earlier than most people doesn't seem to be too much of an advatage to people that usually don't get on them anyways.

Even if people that are good, but not good enough to get on the high scores before Shash, Bahamut, etc. (assuming they don't even sign up), they'll still get bumped down in the 1-2 weeks when it's publicly released. And anyone that usually gets the high score anyway, it'll just happen before anyone else, and won't change much.

At best, all you get is 1-2 weeks in the spotlight before you're shot down. It's not a bad thing, but on it's own I don't think it's worth paying for.

Some other alternatives.. I don't know. Maybe a different colored text in multiplayer, of your choosing? That's all that comes to mind at the moment, but I'm sure I'll think of more things later.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Then don't buy it. We're not looking for 100% or even 2% of people to be signing up for this anyway.

If almost no one thinks it's worth paying for, that's a different story...but I'm sure at least a few people would pay a couple bucks for some of the things already suggested.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Shash is right. Synth really doesn't need more than 1% of the ffr community to care. Hell, 1/2 of a percent would bring in 100k at $20 a year. Plus FFR is an ever-growing site. The more site recognition there is, the more chance at people getting this premium membership. Obviously though, this needs more thought. The best way to decide what is best for this package is to simply ask people. Getting ten peoples input represents what 1/1000th of a percent of the community? Plus we really need to brainstorm. We need to think of something that will have people pour into this idea. I still believe that having a drawing/raffle or some type of material good (even a sticker) would make this idea more promotable.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

plus, MANY site regulars will pay for it purely to help the site... as more of a donation than anything.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Ok, lets see if we can get an agreement on this and or discuss this list:

No banner ads whatsoever, anywhere on the site.
SOTW early. Maybe 2 weeks early?
Special forum titles and or more information under your avatar
Private forum areas where you can say whatever the hell you want.
Special rooms in the chat that only allow paid members..
Instant access to all available songs
Special color name within multiplayer so you can play other members if you choose
Merchandise or T-shirt with membership or at slightly higher membership rate?
Active customer support network for the new people that come in as members

Monthly: $3.50
Bi-Annual: $19.00
Annual: $35.00

Pay by paypal, via credit card on automatic renewing subscriptions or one time payment. Or paypal pay by phone payment.

Can you guys think of anything else? Doing my best to implement your ideas here. Again, remember that this is all just brainstorming.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I would say maybe hold off on the merchandise idea until this is proven a success. You don't want to get stuck with 1000 stickers that "flashflashrevolution.com" or whatever. You can always keep track and ship them to starting members later. And to promote one time payments, maybe drop the annual from $35 to around $30. That way even the parents feel like it would be a better way to pay, just one lump sum for the year.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Exactly. :D I'd pay up to $30/$40 a year for a premium account.

I think that color font thing for MP isn't a bad idea... or maybe being able to customize your own profile more with skins like they have on myspace and xanga. Even though people say it's like "FFRspace," the profiles, I think, really did make more people active on the site, because it's not only FFR, it's socializing with others.

-- Edit

I'd really buy another T-shirt if they sold them too. I'd also buy them for a few of my friends too, as gifts and stuff.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Sorry, I made it sound like we shouldn't impliment the ideas purely for the reason that I didn't like them. That's not what I was trying to get across..

I'd be doing what tass mentioned, signing up purely to help out the site. I don't necessarially care what gets out there, I'll still sign up.

I have an idea to impliment this "premium-only song section" that everyone is mentioning, while not aggrivating anyone too much. How about there's a section where Premium members can have their stepfiles displayed (after review by one of the admins, of course), and as long as it's synced and not just random arrows to a random song, it gets added to the section. Perhaps they get displayed for 1-4 weeks, depending on how much feedback it gets.

In this way, songs BY premium members get displayed in the actual game, and only premium members can play them. Maybe the premium members can even vote if they liked the file or not, and add comments about it, viewable by the admins. In this way it's almost like a seperate judging system for SOTW submissions.

..of course, premium members can still submit songs for the SOTW without being added to the game before, if they wish.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

I kind of feel like this might be a little high. I think that if you make the price more than $30 a year it will draw away A LOT of people. FFR does have a crowd of loyal regs; but we can't rely on just them to support this. We need everyone from newbs who just started today, to members who have been here since day 1 to want to join.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

No, it's not that much for a YEAR.
If you pay $3 a month, it would be $36. That's not a lot at all.

Re: This will help FFR as a whole
 

Just a question. For the new sigs which code do we use??? It's really confusing 'cause there are four.

I'd gladly pay $30 a year If I could get a PayPal account.