A change for FinHeaven? All Premium Members... Opinions NEEDED! | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

A change for FinHeaven? All Premium Members... Opinions NEEDED!

FinHeavenAJ

FinHeavenAJ

FinHeaven Lives
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Hey Everyone -

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their support of FinHeaven. A lot of you guys have been here since the beginning and if it wasn't for you guys specifically, I don't know how FinHeaven would have marched on to become the largest Miami Dolphins fan site online. As the site has grown, membership has followed allowing us to keep the tradition of keeping this site more family friendly than many other sites and keeping a high quality of standard.

Recently, however, some of the moderators and I have been talking about where FinHeaven is headed next. What can be forseen into our future.

FinHeaven is something special. It now is something more than I ever dreamed of when I started it. I know for sure George, aka Muck, is starting to realize what FinHeaven truly has become. It's more than a fan site. It's not your everyday run of the mill website. It's something much, much larger. We're unique. Nobody online does what we do in such a professional manner, nor do they do it to our abilities. I'm not trying to sound ****y - because I'm not that type of person - it's just that sometimes you don't realize what you have... what's before you, sitting in your lap.

So, Premium Members. FinHeaven's "elders" for the most part, I come to you asking for your opinion. I want the honest truth... not something that you think I want to hear.

We, the staff, would like to create a three tier membership for FinHeaven. A regular level (everyone), and mid level, and a premium level. We would like to take FinHeaven in this direction because of several reasons.

The Premium Level currently costs $84 / year. This is the level that only certain members can be in. It's invite only. Sure, the cost is a little steep; however, this is where FinHeaven's "elite" resides. This level gets the most rewards. Like, for example, the recent 10% off to the fan store and a free FinHeaven t-shirt (sorry if it takes a bit to get around ;)). Other perks like free email, web space, larger Photo Gallery space, etc. Other perks are to come.

The newly proposed midlevel would cost significantly less... $30 / year. Few perks will exist in this level, except for maybe a free "Value T-Shirt" (costs less than $10). The main benefit of this level is having a different forum to discuss in. So, if members pay $30/year they can avoid the majority of the "newbie" discussions, etc.

The Premium Members will have access to all forums. The mid-level will only have their forum and the "everyone" forum.

So, premium members... I'm looking for your response. Again, let me know what you think entirely. This is something that I personally believe would take FinHeaven in the direction that it needs to go in order for it to succeed. However, I'm very opened minded. Additionally, I respect everyone's opinion here.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please think it through and post your response.

Sincerely,
Andrew Tatum
 
As A.J. aluded to above, the reason we are considering adding a new "paying" forum is because we feel there is a demand for it. We feel that people are looking for somewhere to escape from the "kids" and clueless newbies. Much like you guys did.

We would lay down some ground rules for this $30 forum. There would be no trash talking (not a big concern since it's a paying forum). "Lame" threads would be frowned upon ("Lets trade Ronnie Brown for Ladanian Tomlinson", "Lets get Michael Vick"_....and members who continued to start them after being warned would be banished from the forum.

Each new member (we haven't decided what exactly we're going to call it or its membership) will get a tag (like your Premium tag) identifying them to the masses. Their forum itself will be visible to the public. However, once a non-paying member clicks the link to enter it, they will be greeted with a message as to why they can't see anything and what they'd need to do to gain access.

We would also advise that all paid members with roommates logout each time they leave the site ("my friend the Bills fan got on when I left. He spammed the site").

Obviously, most of the "paid" football talk would reside in the $30, since there would be more members. However, this forum could become your Premium Lounge, where you are free to discuss anything you please, from jokes and typical Lounge type stuff to site suggestions, member complaints, etc.

If we go thru with this, we'd like to roll it out fairly soon to capitalize on the traffic the upcoming games will bring. That would help get the forum going really quickly.

Anyway, gives us your thoughts and/or suggestions!!
 
Best way to go. We have talked about this before Muck, I would only do 2 tiers not 3, but that works as well. Because more people will spend $30 than $84 and the $84 spenders MIGHT be forced to talk in the $30 forums not the $84 Forum because that is where more "action" is posting wise and there will be fewer $84 spenders to interact with.

And if you do two tiers instead of three, maybe have it cost $55 (Premium $55...non-premium FREE). That way you lose money on the $84 spenders, but there are FEWER of them anyway just because of the high cost. BUT you GAIN money on the $30 (which is where you will get the majority of people signing up for anyway because its just cheaper) since it would then be the cheapest option.

But whatever you decide its a step in the right direction.


(also gotta come up with some cool names. PREMIUM for $84 is good. For the mid-level maybe call it GOLD CULB or something. Then the Open Forum or whatever for the freebie portion)
 
I'm conflicted, on one hand I think that having more paying members will lead to better football talk, but Finheaven is also about the old guys talking to the young guys, and I would like to think that a lot of the new member also joined because they first saw the experienced posters having a good football discussion.

But in the end, I agree that what's best for the site is a three tier system, maybe we'll keep our tags and you can add the moniker of Gold member, silver member, etc, and I guess some of the original members here could be considered to be in our Golden years...
 
MikeO said:
Best way to go. We have talked about this before Muck, I would only do 2 tiers not 3, but that works as well. Because more people will spend $30 than $84 and the $84 spenders MIGHT be forced to talk in the $30 forums not the $84 Forum because that is where more "action" is posting wise and there will be fewer $84 spenders to interact with.

And if you do two tiers instead of three, maybe have it cost $55 (Premium $55...non-premium FREE). That way you lose money on the $84 spenders, but there are FEWER of them anyway just because of the high cost. BUT you GAIN money on the $30 (which is where you will get the majority of people signing up for anyway because its just cheaper) since it would then be the cheapest option.

But whatever you decide its a step in the right direction.

(also gotta come up with some cool names. PREMIUM for $84 is good. For the mid-level maybe call it GOLD CULB or something. Then the Open Forum or whatever for the freebie portion)
Click to expand...

Mike makes a good point; what would keep a member paying Premium membership when they could have access to a semi-private forum with fewer ****wits for $30?

For me, it's not going to make a difference, I'll remain a Premium member and be there for the site because it's there for me. But it's an economic reality that some might consider this primarily in monetary terms.

That's why I believe that the benefit gap should be much greater between Premium and Mid-Level. I think the benefit of ML should be special forum access only. If you start including perks such as t-shirts, first of all you decrease the revenue benefit of that membership to FinHeaven itself - after the cost of the T + shipping, what's left? There's not much margin in $30 to begin with when you consider it is a way of funding the site; and if you start cutting into that margin, it might not be worth the trouble after all.

I don't know if I'm seeing that clearly, since I've never run a site; but I do have 30 years of business experience that tells me the forum access in itself is worth the price of admission, and giving any profit away would diminish the effort. Maybe a token item such as a bumper sticker, if you can get a bulk deal from cafepress, AJ - something that would cost less than $5 including shipping.

Second, you want there to be an incentive for those motivated to become Premium members, and for current members to stay; the format of this thread is ideal for taking suggestions as to particular Premium-only benefits you all would like to see.

How about format flexibility, for instance? Would you like to see the site in your own customizable way? Was the spellcheck feature a valuable perk to you; if it was, maybe you'd like more perks like that. One thing I've suggested in the past and would consider a cool feature is the ability to customize the list of available emoticons when posting, without having to load the whole smilie page to get the ones I use most. Stuff like that has a certain value for me; what is it you'd each like to see?
 
(I forgot :o )

I'd call the three teirs:


Blue (or white) - Basic (non-paying)

Aqua - $30 level

Orange - $84 Premium level
 
Great points guys.

I guess Nabo is correct in that the mid-level shouldn't have any additional perks other than the exclusive forum...

Any other ideas guys?
 
i would say a contest for either the premium members or mid level,if you want the mid level we can do a contest maybe with tix to a preseason or reg season game,,this way it wouldnt cost you any money..
 
I'm not so sure if having three different boards will work, but given the ammount of members, you never know.

It's surely worth a try. It would give some members a chance to seperate themselves from the new posters who do nothing but stir trouble.

I do like Nabo's idea of using colors to name each board. Especially Fins colors. That will make it just a little more attractive if you ask me.

Can we start charging for my Camp Reports too. :evil:
 
Obviously, there has been discussion as to whether or not we'll have three tiers or two. I think it'd be ok if we just had two tiers. I think it'd be easier that way. But we don't have to dissolve this one. Like I mentioned above, it could be left (invisible) for existing Premium Members.

If nothing else, I think it would be good to leave it here as a sounding board. This is a big step. And we (or you) may well see something that nobody thought of before....or see something that needs changing. It can be temporary. It can be permanent. Heck, we could keep it as a "board elders" type forum. That once a new paid member is considered a great asset to the site, we let him in this "elders" forum.

Just brainstorming here. :)

P.S. - Ozzy's (and even Nasty's) camp reports would be a huge draw. I don't know if we can afford "priceless" though. Do you barter?? :lol:
 
Ozzy said:
I'm not so sure if having three different boards will work, but given the ammount of members, you never know.

It's surely worth a try. It would give some members a chance to seperate themselves from the new posters who do nothing but stir trouble.

I do like Nabo's idea of using colors to name each board. Especially Fins colors. That will make it just a little more attractive if you ask me.

Can we start charging for my Camp Reports too. :evil:
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3 different boards helps the mods as the mods wouldn't have to spend as much time in say the PREMIUM boards since people paying $84 aren't jerks for the most part (although Im sure some would consider me a jerk..:lol: ). The 3 boards is helping the mods. The mods would only really have to work the FREE boards and the mid-level board on a part time basis. (I still say 2 tiers is better and just meet the $84 and $30 halfway at like $55 or something)

Charging for camp reports would be nice, but some idiot would just pay, then post it on the free board and ruin it for everyone. Or another one of these SCUMMY fan site owners would sign up and post it for FREE on their boards or site. That would be tough to pull off.

But I have said fromt he get go, exclusive audio, exclusive columns, exclusive info like that WOULD be a plus. Maybe, just maybe, get an ex-player to write a column......and have it be ONLY for paying members. (with all the new income coming into the site NOW it would be worth it to pay an ex-player a few bucks to write something weekly)
 
Muck said:
Obviously, there has been discussion as to whether or not we'll have three tiers or two. I think it'd be ok if we just had two tiers. I think it'd be easier that way. But we don't have to dissolve this one. Like I mentioned above, it could be left (invisible) for existing Premium Members.

If nothing else, I think it would be good to leave it here as a sounding board. This is a big step. And we (or you) may well see something that nobody thought of before....or see something that needs changing. It can be temporary. It can be permanent. Heck, we could keep it as a "board elders" type forum. That once a new paid member is considered a great asset to the site, we let him in this "elders" forum.

Just brainstorming here. :)

P.S. - Ozzy's (and even Nasty's) camp reports would be a huge draw. I don't know if we can afford "priceless" though. :lol:
Click to expand...

You could not let one more person into this board we are currently on and use it as a long-time member/ STAFF MEETING place to discuss things just like this. Brainstorming as you said. Float ideas and thoughts and a place to work on things. FREEZE this board as is and just have who's ever in it be part of the ROUND TABLE so to speak.
 
Muck said:
Obviously, there has been discussion as to whether or not we'll have three tiers or two. I think it'd be ok if we just had two tiers. I think it'd be easier that way. But we don't have to dissolve this one. Like I mentioned above, it could be left (invisible) for existing Premium Members.

If nothing else, I think it would be good to leave it here as a sounding board. This is a big step. And we (or you) may well see something that nobody thought of before....or see something that needs changing. It can be temporary. It can be permanent. Heck, we could keep it as a "board elders" type forum. That once a new paid member is considered a great asset to the site, we let him in this "elders" forum.

Just brainstorming here. :)

P.S. - Ozzy's (and even Nasty's) camp reports would be a huge draw. I don't know if we can afford "priceless" though. :lol:
Click to expand...

Come to think of it, leaving this board invisible would probably work best. Make the new board the premium aqua board or something like that. Showing the price as a decrease from the original 89 bucks.

As for camp reports.

As much as I would love to get rich quick, I don't think it would work because every year the media is taking more and more of a Training Camp report approach, and you can bet your last buck, they did it because they saw how popular it is from this site.

Ya'll know I'm only in it for the fans anyway. I've already been offered two reporting jobs from papers reading the reports. :)
 
MikeO said:
You could not let one more person into this board we are currently on and use it as a long-time member/ STAFF MEETING place to discuss things just like this. Brainstorming as you said. Float ideas and thoughts and a place to work on things. FREEZE this board as is and just have who's ever in it be part of the ROUND TABLE so to speak.
Click to expand...

And of course adding a very select few who deserve it. It has to be left open like that.
 
Well part of my issue is that I have different areas to comment on different things. I don't know of the viability of it but what if we had an extra option when we posted in the main forum, everyone can see, members, and premium members respectively then the posts could be alternate colors as well

This allows us to still get all of our main info in one spot, and consolidates where we have to go. Then we can use this form for issues like this and leave the main forum for Fin talk!!!

Just an idea. Aside from that I love it.

Also what do you guys think of sponsoring newbies, AKA points for bringing in people, or maybe you can bring them into the 2nd tier for a week to preview it?
 
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