Premium Message Board(s)

[Scooch]

I will be happy to "subscribe" if only to do my part to defray the costs of this excellent site. I don't care about the travails of begging 16 year old boys to play for my alma mater, nor does rumor mongering really interest me. But I'm all for kicking the site administrators some cash each month since I spend so much time here. It's only fair.

FWIW, I never personally subscribed on the other sites because I find the aforementioned recruiting stuff a little creepy. I did subscribe for a few months once but that was because of a project I was doing for work and I needed to nab some premium URLs for research, and I expensed it!

FWIW 2, a Sox site I'm a member of (Sons of Sam Horn) has a pricing structure where paying gets you some additional features. For example, paying gives you access to much of the non-Sox boards (I guess OT is the equivalent here, although I don't frequent it), access to search functionality, etc. I'm guessing that's a bear to implement technically but it may be something to keep in mind for a 2.0 release.

 

[OrangeCrush22]

I don't like the idea of a premium board, at all. Is there really a point to it? Why is it okay to post "inside info" on a pay side, and not a free side? What's the difference? A few less people see it? If something is so "hush hush" then why post it at all?

If you need money just put a donate button somewhere towards the top of the forum. I'm sure plenty of people would pony up some cash, to help this website out.

 

[CuseTroop]

I was on the premium board on TOS (I think I still am) and I just lurked on it. There was alot of good posts, with out all the crazyness. I would subscribe here if you set one up, even if it was just to help the site out with some cash

 

[pfister1]

Agree with what Tristan said. Tell me what you would expect to deliver in the way of a premium board and then I could easily answer whether I'd be willing to pay for it.

When people ask for a Premium Board it has been unclear to me what they are asking for;

- Premium professional content ie. articles, rankings and interviews that is unavailable elsewhere.

If it's this I would imagine you'd have difficulty delivering it based on what you've already said in this thread and I personally probably wouldn't pay for it because there is plenty of free content out there and I my real interest is more limited to the basketball side of the house.

- A place to disseminate information that only "insiders" will see - are people more willing to pass along their info if they know that only people who pay will have access to it?

If it is going to be a place to pass along inside information that gets disseminated earlier here than other places or exclusively here, I would probably pay for it. The problem with this is you can't guarantee that there will be inside information to disseminate therefore I would suspect that people looking for this probably will be satisfied with it at times and not satisfied with it at other times depending on how much information gets posted.

- A place where the postings will be limited to "insiders" thus in theory eliminating the hit and run riff-raff, although not the riff raff like myself that might be willing to pay for the privilege of ruining the neighborhood.

Personally I don't have a problem with ignoring the stuff I don't want to read. I prefer to see a lot of postings and parse through them as long as they don't devolve into personal attacks, name calling and syracuse.com like posts then see virtually no activity for days because only a few posters are deemed worthy of posting.

 

[moqui]

will there be thread view?

 

[MikeSU02]

First and foremost, I am fine pitching to help this site keep going. I've been a member of this community going on 13 years or so, and I don't mind having a small fee just to help the community continue.

I would want the following content assuming there were no writers:

[ ] "Insider" tidbits about players/coaches/program news.
[ ] Info on recruits and how close we are with who we are recruiting.
[ ] Analysis from guys like JerseyOrange.

That's all I need.

 

[temery]

I'll pay whatever the going rate would be for a premium board if it happens, but I'll pay $1,000/month for thread view!

I hear you on thread view. The developer of xenforo, the script we use, thinks it is not needed. I think he'll come around sooner or later.

Personally, I find it much easier to follow discussion in thread view.

 

[moqui]

i agree with what tristan said.

in addition to that, id pay $4-$5 a month because a cover charge usually keeps the riff-raff out.

an 'old boys club' board would be ideal.

i dont need some 23year writer wannabe chasing around 17 year olds in the farms of PA and OH asking if Cuse is in their final 4 to make me pay.

id rather pay knowing that the only people in a thread will be tristan, bayside, millhouse, jake, cto, chip, scooch, madny, bees etc...

Oh Lord

I share your elitism, but I'm not sure $5 a month would keep the riff raff out, not even sure $10 would, but if you made subscriptions on a yearly basis only (so you had to come up with the lump sum of $100 or so), that might do the trick

 

[SaintTristan]

i agree with what tristan said...id rather pay knowing that the only people in a thread will be tristan, bayside, millhouse, jake, cto, chip, scooch, madny, bees etc...

an all-star board for foundational posters? I like it.

 

['72 Orange]

I was a premium board member on Scout. What I enjoyed most about that site (besides the inside scoop from connected members) was:

(1) the annual fee seemed to eliminate some of the noise we hear on the free side (fewer trips to crazy town)
(2) the dedicated writiers would on occasion post on the site to clarify their perspective on a recruit and offer insight (beyond the articles) as to what the prospect truly thought about SU based on body language, etc..

Since a dedicated writer in not in the cards, i'd be willing to pay 50% of the Scout fee, just to help keep this board going.

 

[Rocco]

I would be in for whatever. Grabbing Matt Alkire for a few articles a month would be huge. The other thing for a premium board is that there aren't any fringy insider posts. If you got something, please just share it. Enough dancing around it.

 

[OttoForLife]

First and foremost, I am fine pitching to help this site keep going. I've been a member of this community going on 13 years or so, and I don't mind having a small fee just to help the community continue.

I would want the following content assuming there were no writers:

[ ] "Insider" tidbits about players/coaches/program news.
[ ] Info on recruits and how close we are with who we are recruiting.
[ ] Analysis from guys like JerseyOrange.

That's all I need.

While I love the dirt people have on various elements of the program, I know that is hard to gaurentee on a regular basis.

However, I second that I would pay for people like Jersey and CIL to post more often and give their insights.

 

[Scotch]

Whenever this subject comes up I feel like people become insanely cheap.

It was something like $10 a month on TOS, and while there wasn't consistent earth-shattering info, I'd pay that just for the occasional Jake/Francis recruiting post and some football rumors. Christ, half of us are going to drop $80 at the bar tonight. If that covers me for a year of inside info, sign my ass up.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It would be a fraction (1/3 to 1/2) of the cost of the networks. If it is doable, there would be a discount for anyone who was a subscriber with Scout when we left.

Well, certainly if it's just a small amount to help defray costs of operation, I'm in and I think lots of folks would do that. But that auto billing at $10 a month for basically no content from both Scout and Rivals was a little annoying after a while.

It would have almost been better if we weren't promised articles that never appeared, received re-purposed ones from other team's sites, or when writers were hired and then they disappeared after their first few articles.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Whenever this subject comes up I feel like people become insanely cheap.

It was something like $10 a month on TOS, and while there wasn't consistent earth-shattering info, I'd pay that just for the occasional Jake/Francis recruiting post and some football rumors. Christ, half of us are going to drop $80 at the bar tonight. If that covers me for a year of inside info, sign my ass up.

While $10 isn't much if it's the only site you subscribe to, if you have several subscriptions, it adds up, and you begin comparing what you are getting for your money. I also have a suspicion that in the aftermath of Bernie-Gate, that we won't be getting that many really juicy updates on a premium board anymore (not that we have for the last couple years, anyway - for instance, no one knew anything about the move to the ACC before it happened).

 

[IthacaMatt]

If its just fans posting insider gossip....I'd pay a nominal fee for that ($3 to $4 / month).

$50/year would be my upper limit for this content. And even then, I'd expect some actual "insider info" beyond just forum chatter.

But without a premium content writer and without recruiting gossip, I'd definitely wouldn't pay $10/month. Is Matt Whats-His-Name available?

EDIT: If Matt was available...and the service matched what we had during his tenure with Scout...I'd pay premium.

^^^^THIS ^^^^^

 

[thebigeast44]

Lots of good points in the thread so far. A couple of things I would be concerned with: separating fans based on their ability to pay - $99/yr at the old site was a good deal of money in a down economy to many people; removing the chat function and making it a premium feature - I hated that I could not chat with fellow fans at the old site - if a premium board is created, it is essential to maintain a chat function for non-premium users.

Since I never paid for the premium features at the old site, I cannot say if they were worth the money or not. With so many sources of information today, it would seem to be difficult to promote informational premium features.

The only benefit would seem to be to wall off the paid users from the non-paid users. As others have said, this could create a clique on the board. I could understand the benefit of the premium board if this site became similar to the syracuse.com site. Lots of ridiculous comments and worthless discussion. However, due to the excellent moderators we have had over the years, that has never become a concern of mine.

I like how the current site is working. But my mind remains open.

Let's Go Orange!!!

 

[Champ]

Acs

 

[moqui]

The only benefit would seem to be to wall off the paid users from the non-paid users. As others have said, this could create a clique on the board.

that's a feature, not a bug

 

[OrangeMaNPD]

I'd do it.

 

[orange79]

I also have a suspicion that in the aftermath of Bernie-Gate, that we won't be getting that many really juicy updates on a premium board anymore

Maybe it's just me, but this makes no sense. I don't get the causality. Did you think, on TOS, that we would have gotten the scoop on Bernie before it all broke? Not trying to be snarky, really. I just don't get the statement.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

There's "inside information" that we'd all like to know, but if it's posted on an open board, it'll end up on every other blog and website in the city, and it'll no longer be "inside".

 

[Jake]

I don't like the idea of a premium board, at all. Is there really a point to it? Why is it okay to post "inside info" on a pay side, and not a free side? What's the difference? A few less people see it? If something is so "hush hush" then why post it at all?

If you need money just put a donate button somewhere towards the top of the forum. I'm sure plenty of people would pony up some cash, to help this website out.

You bring up a good point, but there are times in which there actually is a middle ground. Where there's information that I feel a wee bit more secure posting on a board where I thought the overwhelming majority of the subscribers had syracuse's best interest at heart. Still, I understand that fans and coaches of other schools may have access to it as well. Thats really the main reason why I'm cryptic in many cases.

 

[Eric15]

All I know is, when the dust settles, I hope I can be a part of whichever board contains SWC's "Upside/Downside", Tomcat's "My Take", and Kaiser's cleverly sassy conference nicknames, e.g. Big 12 = the Bevo 8/12.

 

[orange79]

You bring up a good point, but there are times in which there actually is a middle ground. Where there's information that I feel a wee bit more secure posting on a board where I thought the overwhelming majority of the subscribers had syracuse's best interest at heart. Still, I understand that fans and coaches of other schools may have access to it as well. Thats really the main reason why I'm cryptic in many cases.

Would it be possible to screen those who want to pay to make sure it is really Syracuse people? I'm not sure how you would do this, but I know I have seen admins post before that they have verified IP addresses of trolls that were from certain areas. I understand that IP addresses guarantee nothing. But there must be some way to verify the bonafides of applicants.