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Slashdot Subscription Update 618

Posted by CmdrTaco from the throwing-quarters-in-the-guitar-case dept.
A few things have changed in the Slashdot Subscription System since we originally announced it a few months ago. Most important to many of you is that we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal. We also added some control to allow subscriptions to be time based instead of page view based. Read on to see how.

By far the biggest complaint that we heard was from users who either hate paypal, or simply don't want to mess with it. I'm not going to go into the politics of that issue here, but it's a valid complaint. As we've explained countless times, we picked paypal first because it was simple and quick and planned to support credit cards directly as soon as we worked the kinks out of the system. And now that's happened. I'm still interested in other payment mechanisms and I'm open to suggestions as to what they might be.

Complaint number two was from people who didn't like the metered subscriptions. Again, this is a very valid complaint. I've already explained why it was essential that we impose some sort of limits, so what we've implemented is a new option called Max Ads. What it does is limit the number of pages you choose to view ad free on any given day. By default, that is 10. So even if you view slashdot 20 times a day, your $5 subscription will still last 100 days with the default setting of 10 Max Ads. Of course, you can up that number too.

Subscribers still have the ability to choose what page classes you suppress ads on. Simply hiding ads on Articles and Index, but seeing them on Comments is enough for the vast majority of readers to never hit the default Max Ads settings. At those settings, the subscription fee for a year on Slashdot would be on par with a typical magazine.

So far we've been really pleased with the turnout: 2% of our logged in users have chosen to subscribe, and we really hope that number will increase since such a huge number of readers expressed support for the subscription system, but distaste for paypal.

As we explained earlier, a large part of our decision to suppress banner ads was so that we could start accepting other ad formats, but give users an option to support Slashdot, without seeing these new ad formats. These other ad formats are highly desirable and should allow our sales folks to get contracts that we would otherwise be ineligible for. Web Advertising is a highly competitive field, and these ad formats make it possible for us to compete.

The last thing I'm mentioning here is Subscriber Plums. We have a variety of things that subscribers will eventually have access to. We're certainly open to reasonable suggestions, and we'll announce them as they come online. As I've said before, we won't be taking away things from non-subscribers, just rewarding those who are throwing quarters into the guitar case. More on these plums at a later date.

Thanks to the subscribers, as well as to those who click on our ads and support us by supporting our advertisers. You guys are helping to ensure that Slashdot sticks around for a long time.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashdot Subscription Update More

Slashdot Subscription Update

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  • For only ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ProfMoriarty ( 518631 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:32AM (#3387857) Journal
    $0.70 a day, you too can join in the millions to help out the poor, starving /. editors.

  • Here's a "plum" idea. (Score:5, Funny)

    by athakur999 ( 44340 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:33AM (#3387872) Journal
    How about an option to hide the always annoying, never clever CowboyNeal option in the poll? That'll get some people subscribing...

  • End of paypal? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by 00_NOP ( 559413 )
    Seriously: is this a reaction to Mastercard's decision to make things a lot more difficult for Paypal users?
    • No. Paypal has screwed up a few times for a few people. That makes people fear that paypal is going to screw up for them. And so paypal suffers for their lack of care.
      -russ

    • Re:End of paypal? (Score:3, Informative)

      by rodbegbie ( 4449 )
      Nah, the credit card option's been on the subscribe page for about a week now. They only just got around to announcing it today.

      rOD.

      • Re:End of paypal? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jamie ( 78724 ) <jamie@slashdot.org> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:46AM (#3387970) Journal
        "the credit card option's been on the subscribe page for about a week now. They only just got around to announcing it today."

        Nope; it just showed up for an hour in the middle of the night, during a code refresh about a week ago. But has been absent from then until about 20 minutes ago. You were probably one of like 3 people who saw the dang thing last week :)

  • Blackout continues? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:35AM (#3387881)
    Great, Rob, throw this out while the blackout is going on, so the "hard-core" discussion mongers won't be able to contribute. :)

    I do wish you'd list what kinds of Subscriber Plums will be out there, though. I'm kinda-sorta waiting to see "what's in it for me" before I subscribe; if you wait too long I may just get used to the big fattie ads and not care about subscribing.

    Just my feedback, without a name since I am kinda-sorta supporting the Great Slashdot Blackout.

    • Re:Blackout continues? (Score:5, Funny)

      by jandrese ( 485 ) <kensama@vt.edu> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:48AM (#3387989) Homepage Journal
      Great, Rob, throw this out while the blackout is going on,

      I'd forgotten about that. No wonder the S/N ratio has been so high recently.

    • Why I am Not Participating in the Blackout (Score:5, Insightful)

      by grytpype ( 53367 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:52AM (#3388014) Homepage
      I am abstaining from the blackout because I think it is fundamentally misguided.

      I like the Slashdot moderation system. It is the best system I've seen for handling the turd-tossers who want to ruin resources like Slashdot. They are not prevented from tossing their turds, they just get modded down to -1. Anyone who wants to examine their faecal projectiles can browse the comments at -1. (Have you tried that lately? Can you imagine trying to read a discusssion if you couldn't block that shit?)

    • Re:Blackout continues? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Hemos ( 2 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:26PM (#3388263) Homepage Journal
      We don't know the plums yet - that's what we're trying to solict.

  • Interesting Concept, but (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Morgahastu ( 522162 ) <bshel@WEEZERroge ... fave bands name> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:36AM (#3387891) Journal
    I think one of the main things that attracts people to slashdot is that it is not commercial and there is a sense of community (a very twisted one at that). Slashdot is a great FREE site and thats as far as it goes. I wish you guys all the success but I really don't think it will make much money. Slashdot is never consistent (which is a terrible business model) , so how can you expect to make a business out of it? Business involves planning and consistency. I for one don't want to pay for a service that at is heart is free and should always be free.

    • Are You Mathematically-Challenged? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by waldoj ( 8229 ) <waldo@NOSpAM.jaquith.org> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:43AM (#3387954) Homepage Journal
      I for one don't want to pay for a service that at is heart is free and should always be free.

      Uh...OK. How about we host it on your server?

      -Waldo Jaquith

    • Re:Interesting Concept, but (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 ) <{slebrun} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:45AM (#3387965) Journal
      There's a difference between 'trying to create a profitable business' and 'we need to cover bandwidth, hardware, and people costs. Profit would be nice, though.'

    • Re:Interesting Concept, but (Score:5, Interesting)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:45AM (#3387967)
      inconsistent, yes, free no.

      How can you expect them to be able to support this service when it remains free? Yeah, it's inconsistent, they are morons when it comes to posting duplicate stories, the CowboyNeal option is WAY old, and they are pushing it w/the MacOSX theme on related stories, but for how many times everyday that I click refresh and see something new that pretty much interests me, I don't see it as a problem.

      The $10 I contributed wasn't for me to see pages w/o the ads, they weren't that annoying anyway (in fact some of them were entertaining) it was to make sure that at least some money was going to something I use frequently. I don't need to see this page die off in the future or I will end up having to scour countless other sites for shit I can find in one click.

      That's my reason.

    • Re:Interesting Concept, but (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Sircus ( 16869 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:46AM (#3387974) Homepage
      I personally would pay - but not until I'm told how many pages I'm using. If they can track this for subscribers, they could surely track it for me - and if database load is the problem here, let people turn it on for one-week periods. Until I can tell exactly what I'd need to pay to get ad-free Slashdot and can then make a cost/benefit decision based on that, I've no intention of paying.
      • I personally would pay - but not until I'm told how many pages I'm using.

        You know, seeing your low user number one could be tempted to say something like "given that you've been reading /. for quite a while now (3-4 years I'd guess) you might just pay $5 for the heck of it and find out for yourself".

        Just a thought, though ;).
  • Sounds like you still purchase a number of pages, but after your daily allotment of pages, you still view those annoying ads. It's only a partial block this way.

    I feel that this is a half-hearted solution to the "number of pages" problem, and still refuse to subscribe until a true time-based subscription scheme is implemented.

  • I miss the banner ads! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Russ Nelson ( 33911 ) <slashdot@russnelson.com> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:37AM (#3387897) Homepage
    I miss the banner ads! Can't you make the slashdot logo link, jump, and wiggle?
    -russ

  • New ad types? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by proxima ( 165692 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:37AM (#3387899)
    From what I could tell on the IRC conversation, the /. editors promised to avoid Flash ads. I have noticed a few in the past couple of weeks, along with the "extra-big" sized banner ads on the top. Has anyone seen a statement where they said they would start accepting Flash ads now?

    • Re:New ad types? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Hemos ( 2 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:41AM (#3387934) Homepage Journal
      Where did you see it? E-mail me the ad, and I'll chase them down. Sometimes 3rd party ad servers try to sneak it in.
      • I wish I would've copied down the link when I did see it. I figured this was the case, but in the future I'll keep an eye out for them (as probably others will), and you'll get an e-mail about it.

        Thanks for the response.

      • Can I just put in a word that I would NOT mind Flash ads? Not everyone is a raving, drooling anti-Flash lunatic out here, and in fact, Flash ads are often much smaller than regular GIF or JPG ads.

        I want you guys to make money, and I have no problem with reasonable advertising (and to me, Flash is reasonable.

        • Re:New ad types? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by foobar104 ( 206452 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:12PM (#3388148) Journal
          Not everyone is a raving, drooling anti-Flash lunatic out here...

          Just my two cents: I despise Flash ads because they move. Maybe I'm just unique or weird or something, but when I'm trying to read, movement in my peripheral vision is very distracting. Must be some of that frog DNA that got spliced into me in utero.

          Animated GIFs and Java applets have the same problem, but I can conveniently turn them off with my browser. Both IE for Windows and IE and OmniWeb for the Mac have options to turn off GIF animations (although IE for Windows buries it so deep you wonder if they ever meant anyone to use it), but none of those three browsers makes it easy for you to disable Flash.

          So, in summary, browser options good, Flash ads bad. CBS great. (BANG!)

    • Re:New ad types? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:46AM (#3387972) Homepage
      Unfortunately, due to a complete lack of a standard for implementing interactive ads (unless you call Flash a standard, which you could almost do these days), Flash is only gunna be more and more popular as advertisers get less and less afraid to run them and agencies get more and more saavy at producing Flash creatives.

      /. may have said that they wish to avoid them, but if their ultimate goal is to command higher prices for their inventory (ie, our eyeballs), I highly doubt they will be able to completely steer clear of Flash.
  • Most important to many of you is that we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal.

    As someone who has never used PayPal, the fact that Slashdot is directly accepting credit cards may be enough of a reason for me to subscribe. I use a debit card for online purchases so I never get a bill so this would be an effortless purchase.

    • Re:Accepting credit cards (Score:4, Informative)

      by theCURE ( 551589 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:53AM (#3388024) Homepage
      First i think you mean some sort of check card, right? a debit card usually requires a pin number entered. (ie-> going to the grocery store or an ATM machine) Secondly, i think a credit card is more appropriate for online transactions because once those bastards get their little mitts into your account, the money is gone. Using a line of credit to make the purchases, i think you have a bit more security against fraud, as the ccard companies will back your purchase, and fight for your case should something arise. Either way, do you _really_ want mr. taco to have your special 16 digits in some file somewhere? you know how those people are!
      • do you _really_ want mr. taco to have your special 16 digits in some file somewhere?

        Good point, Sir!
        Didnt sourceforge get r00ted not so long back? This is only one degree of freedom from slashdot, surely.

        Which gets me thinking. What security measures are slashdot taking to keep my (important) personal data private? For what period are they keeping cc no's? Do slashdot have a data protection policy? Can I see it please?

    • If someone steals your credit card number you will only pay at most $50 by law.

      If someone steals your debit card number as time passes without it being reported your protection decreases. After a certain period you no longer have any protection and the theft can clean out your account.

  • This was too easy... (Score:4, Funny)

    by PoiBoy ( 525770 ) <brian@poihol[ ]gs.com ['din' in gap]> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:38AM (#3387906) Homepage
    Taco, being able to purchase ad-free subscriptions directly on your site is TOO easy.

    You just got $5.00 out of me. :-)

  • Stats (Score:2, Interesting)

    by grinwell ( 138078 )
    How about revealing some MRTG style stats of usage types and subscription numbers?

    I know it might be considered marketing data, but how many competitors does Slashdot have anyway?

  • I am wondering if a subscription is required to moderate.

    I used to be able to meta-moderate and I used to be asked to moderate about once a month. Since the subscription service came out I have not been able to meta-moderate or been asked to moderate. Is there any connection?
    • That's odd. I'm not subscribed either, yet I can still meta-moderate and I've been given moderation recently. I imagine it may be something with your account, they've been known to deactivate certain functions for certain accounts if they decide they don't like a perticular user, and as far as I can tell a simple post like this one can land someone into that boat.
    • Nope, I've have the abillity to moderate several times this month and haven't even thought about subscribing.

      I'd say there's no correlation.
    • I haven't subscribed yet, and I currently have mod points. I'm going to subscribe, though, as the end of the month rolls around.
    • There's definitely something peculiar going on... I have metamod every day and quite decent karma, yet I haven't been given mod points in months. OTOH, a friend of mine who never posts seems to get mod points every three weeks or so. Hmmmmm...

  • suggestion for membership plums (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FarHat ( 96381 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:43AM (#3387946)
    One of the things I would be really interested in if I choose to become a member is something like the google zeitgeist [google.com]. It could show things like browsers used to connect, number of hits by time of day, OSes used to connect etc. The google Zeitgeist in a way is a snapshot of what the google searchers are most interested in at a given point in time. A similar system for slashdot could be a very interesting snapshot of the geek/nerd community.

    -F
  • These other ad formats are highly desirable...

    God help us if Slashdot resorts to floater ads. There's more than a few sites that implemented these ads that once i was subjected to, i never returned.

    I hope i don't have to find an alternative to /. because they start putting that crap here too!

  • Why are people unwilling to pay for content? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by anthony_dipierro ( 543308 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:45AM (#3387968) Journal
    Here [slashdot.org] are some of the reasons...

  • Ad blocking becoming commonplace? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by billtom ( 126004 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:48AM (#3387985)
    What's the /. owner's take on ad blocking software?

    I think that it's becoming much more common.

    I've never bothered to install ad blocking software, but I recently upgraded my firewall software (zonealarm) and it came with new ad blocking features. I figured, what the hell, turned it on, and wow! It's really nice. I wouldn't want to go back to browsing without it.

    I think that this is the beginning of a trend and we're going to see ad blocking software built in to anti-virus software, web browsers, etc...
  • The way I see it, I'm happy to pay for an FHM a month for about a $4, then I can damn well chip in for slashdot, which I read daily not monthly, and will cost me one third of the price over time anyway (assuming I actually use all 10 impressions per day).

    I've also just "subscribed" to google, by signing up for their adwords system. Its pretty nifty - I've had 452 people see my ad, for just over a fiver (the fiver being their account setup charge -- per-click costs add up to only 0.34 in a week). Its fun to subject that many people to your points of view for 0.34 a week -- give it a go, people! :)

    ("Microsoft" is going for only 0.37 per click -- but remember your linux advocacy HOWTO's...)

  • Story moderation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rbeattie ( 43187 ) <russ@russellbeattie.com> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:49AM (#3387996) Homepage

    Slashdot's moderation system is pretty good and pretty unique. How about pushing the envelope a bit further?

    How about an option where subscribers can see all the stories submitted and vote on them? The highest moderated stories could the bubble up to a "subscriber selected" page, viewable by all. The editors could then decide if the subscriber selected stories were good enough for the front page mix.

    I could expand on this, but I want to post this before the thread runs to 400 posts. You get the idea. Subscribers want control. Push the envelope!

    -Russ

  • Editorial integrity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FattMattP ( 86246 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:50AM (#3388002) Homepage
    Here's what I want for my subscription: Editorial Integrity. Here's what I mean:
    1. Spell check the articles even if you didn't write it.
    2. Use proper grammar.
    3. Make edits if the submitter mispells something, has poor grammar, or screws up the links.
    4. Make sure the links go to the right place.
    5. Remove unnecessary links. We don't need to link to CNN's home page every time we write the letters "CNN." Just link to the article or issue at hand.
    6. Before accepting an article, search your own damn site to ensure that it's not something you've approved to post before.
    Do all of this and you'll have my money.
    • If we did all of that, well we wouldn't be Slashdot now then, would we?

      Lighten up: Life is just to damn short to worry about grammar on Slashdot!

      • No problem. Then you won't get my subscription.

        Lighten up, Taco: Life's just to short to worry about paying your bills.

        • Re:Editorial integrity (Score:4, Interesting)

          by CmdrTaco ( 1 ) <malda@slashdo[ ]rg ['t.o' in gap]> on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:34PM (#3388326) Homepage Journal
          Heh. No, you're missing my point. Slashdot is supposed to be an informal source for news. If we sanded off all the rough edges, Slashdot would cease being the site that I want to read. And I've been running this thing for 4.5 years now with the goal being to create a site that I wanted to read. If you disagree with me, don't read. I don't mind!

      • Troll Alert! (Score:3, Funny)

        by wiredog ( 43288 )
        Who is this Commander Taco with UID 1? Since we never see people with those low UIDs posting here, it must be an especially clever troll! Watch out!

        Another sign it's a troll: All the words in the post are properly spelled!

        Next we'll be seeing guys claiming to be Hemos and Jamie posting comments here...

    • I want to add to the above that I don't care about being able to turn ads off. You can still show me your ads if I subscribe. But what is listed above is what I would pay for. Paying to turn off ads holds no value for me. In fact, it somewhat detracts from the value as I sometimes see an ad on Slashdot that leads me to something useful.
  • The last thing I'm mentioning here is Subscriber Plums. We have a variety of things that subscribers will eventually have access to.... As I've said before, we won't be taking away things from non-subscribers, just rewarding those who are throwing quarters into the guitar case.

    In other words, right now, I have access to everything, and once the "Plums" start, I'll only have access to some things.

    That's when I'll go.

    Ellen
    Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class—whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
    All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
  • I would almost consider paying for a subscription if slashdot had fewer (far fewer!) repeat articles.

    Maybe you can have a plum option, "don't bother showing me repeat articles, cause if I wasn't interested once, I'm not interested now"?

    This for me is the biggest reason I won't pay for slashdot. Don't get me wrong, I think slashdot is great, and definitely worth what I pay for it, just not worth a whole lot more.... If I really want to see repeats, I can quickyl enough browse the 1/2 dozen sites that slashdot get most of their stories from anyway...

    • I completely agree. I have a weekend subscription to the New York Times, and I can't tell you how many times they've double posted articles on the same tired topics: the Mideast conflict, the bad economy, boring art, police brutality, etc. I've already read about each of these issues at least once! Man, it's almost as if news, or history even, has a way of repeating itself!

  • Plum suggestion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by astrashe ( 7452 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:52AM (#3388020) Journal
    I suggest that when /. stories are approved, they be visible only to subscribers for 15 minutes. During that time, posting would be locked, so subscribers wouldn't dominate the discussions. It would be a Bad Idea to let people who pay have an edge in the debate.

    The idea behind the suggestion is that subscribers would be able to actually read the stories before the /. effect shuts down the affected sites.

    This is the only thing I can think of that would induce me to pay for /. I'm sorry, but I'm cheap, and that's the reality of the situation.
    • The idea behind the suggestion is that subscribers would be able to actually read the stories before the /. effect shuts down the affected sites.

      A far, far easier way to avoid the /. effect is for /. to simply keep a local (local to /. and the andover colocs) cache of the page. Link to that instead of to the actual site. The /. network is set up for that much load; a home enthusiast's cable modem isn't.

      Maybe replace the link-to-cache with the link-to-real after 24 hours, or a week, or whatever. There's probably lots of tweaking possible here that I haven't even thought of, much less posted. My point is that /. has the capability to shoulder some of those slashdottings, at least briefly.

      • Re:Trying to make it difficult? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by President Chimp Toe ( 552720 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @01:24PM (#3388648)
        Even better, why dont slashdot (or someone independent) set up a "slashdot OpenNap server".

        As soon as a story posts to the homepage, it gets put on the opennap server.

        - essentially p2p, so slashdot effect just wont happen. Bandwidth cost are shared between users

        -linux/windows clients etc.

        -could set up the system independently (in, say, the ukraine) so that copyright infringement isnt too much of a problem.

        -easily scriptable, so that links are up on the network straight away, before the original gets slashdotted.

        -when a site gets slashdotted, just open your OpenNap client and get the relevant documents.

    • Re:Plum suggestion (Score:4, Interesting)

      by An Onerous Coward ( 222037 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:49PM (#3388435) Homepage
      This is a terrible idea. If implemented, the First Post trolls will have to put their money where their mouths are. They won't, of course, and Slashdot's hit count will drop like a stone.

      Seriously, though. It's an interesting idea. I'm sure that some people will find a way around it, but at least then they'd be paying for the bandwidth.

      Another possibility would be for people to support the site by buying their own banner ads. I wouldn't mind seeing ads for the SCA or ads to the effect of "Open Source Project X needs C++ programmer with m4d XML 5k177z." I can think of quite a few advocacy sites I'd be willing to help advertise. Help yourself, help Slashdot.

      Maybe if OSDN started throwing in a free subscription with every banner ad purchase. . .
  • Slashhdot will probably make a fair amount of $$$ off of the banner free subscription idea, but this "deal" just doesn't add anythng of value. I mean, what kind of value is it for me to pay to not see ads, I see them everywhere as it is and have become accustomed to filtering them (mentally and proxy).

    Here's something that I might be willing to pay for (ideas stolen from Fark [fark.com]):

    - Open the submission queue, there is a lot of cool stuff that doesn't get posted but people would still like to read it.
    - Make it known who the subscribers are, kinda like bumper stickers for supporting the police.
    - Open the submission queue to early comments by subscribers.

    There is little value in regurgitation of other news outlets and given half the chance and motive there are plenty of sites that would love to replace /.
  • Personally, I'd be willing to pay for slashdot, but I'm NOT going to do it just to get rid of the ads. And I think that a lot of other people feel this way too.

    I think that the people over at LiveJournal [livejournal.com] have the right idea. They don't make you pay for subscriptions... they don't beat you down with ads, but they have a way where if you like their site, you can pay them. And in return they reward you with some extra goodies that the unpaid users don't have access too.

    I think that solution would work here too... I can think of a couple of decent features you could add to /. to make it worth it. But as for ads... seems like the majority of ads (not counting the banner ads at the top of the page which I really don't mind) are from doubleclick, which I have mozilla block... so as-is I'm not seeing a lot of the ads on /. already.

    Besides, there's nothing that says that I can't go to the Palm Pilot [slashdot.org] version of slashdot, which has no graphical ads at all. So, given that there are a lot of different news sites out there, there's nothing wrong with subscriptions, but you have to make your site stand out above the others if you go to that. If you don't people will just get fed up and go elsewhere.
    • Most of the ads are from DoubleClick becuase our advertisers usually use DBCL as their ad serving software.

      I'm philosphically opposed to putting in what I think of as "exclusionary" features - but perhaps early story reading is a good thing. Dunno. Need to think about it. But I understand your point about not subscribinig just for no ads.

  • I know I am a maniac, but I tend to hit reload on the main page quite often, just to see if there's a new story I am interested in. I don't think I am alone in this. It looks like this actually counts for 1 page each time :--(

    Of course this is a purely commercial decision, but just for the record, this system will probably lead me to read /. less than I used too. I know I could leave the banner on on the main page, but in this case I would feel like I paid my subscription for no benefit.

    So what about counting the main page for 1 hit each day. Even a system where the main page would count for say 3 or 5 pages, and with a cap, for example 40 reloads per day would be better. I would feel that I get better value for my money as it would not require me to change my browsing habits to take advantage of the subscription.

  • Subscription benefits (Score:3, Insightful)

    by brad3378 ( 155304 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:55AM (#3388049)
    This will piss off a lot of people,
    but I think Members should be able to read stories first. Have a 10 minute delay for non members.
    Maybe "Gold" members will have the smallest delay.

    Only people that are logged on will have first posts. Its not likely people will pay money to be the first troll.

    Value added. Slashdot members will be more likely to see sites before the slashdot affect.
    This may also help to lower peak website traffic on linked sites.

    easily implemented code.

    and most importantly, Because I said so :-)

  • Include it on your next expense report (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Brento ( 26177 ) <brento AT brentozar DOT com> on Monday April 22, 2002 @11:56AM (#3388051) Homepage
    Print out the email receipt that comes with your subscription, and tack on the $5 to your next expense report. After all, doesn't your company pay for subscriptions and training materials? Odds are they won't balk at the $5, and if you've ever sent your coworkers a juicy news item via a Slashdot link, then you're totally justified. I bet your boss won't even blink at it - $5 for this is a much better value than a magazine subscription.
  • I'm wondering what plums people would like to see.

    One that I would like is the ability to see stories a few minutes before the rest of the world. That way subscribers get a few minutes to post their responses before the rest of us. In most cases, that will take care of the first post problem, while giving subscribers the benefit if having their posts receive more attention.
  • Anyone ever noticed that in the past, the slashdot editors have been very reluctant to enter any kind of meta-slashdot discussion. Now - with the subscription scheme - they are falling over themselves to post it to the front-page, ask readers opinions, enter discussion, etc....

    Has this got anything to do with the fact that this provides them with advertising for their funding scheme, and hence more subscriptions? Kind of ironic, considering the point of subscribing is to get rid of all these dumb adverts.

  • But I thought MasterCard is evil? (Score:5, Funny)

    by lw54 ( 73409 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:00PM (#3388082)
    Most important to many of you is that we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal.

    I'm so confused... I thought MasterCard was now evil?

    Now that I'm boycotting Mastercard in addition to Paypal, where do I mail my payment?

  • Salesperson - "We have a very dedicated, educated, focused reader population"

    Business-type - "Great!"

    Salesperson - "Oh, but we are focused on selling those dedicated readers subscriptions that suppress ads."

    D'oh!
  • I think I'd subscribe if there were an option for subscribers that could put all of the posts moderated as "funny" at the end, or hide them altogether.

  • Want Subscribers (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Strick-9 ( 105679 )
    Here's a suggestion that will have one of two good effects, either for Slashdot-the-business or Slashdot-the-community: give subscribers the headlines five minutes earlier than the nonsubscribers (note: I'm not a subscriber). That will give either a) more money from people who want "First Post", or b) fewer lame FPs.

    Whaddya think?

  • How about extortion, too? (Score:3, Funny)

    by gruntvald ( 22203 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:21PM (#3388214) Homepage Journal
    you could contact small businesses, and say "hey, if you don't pay us $$$, we will post a story about you that will result in your entire years bandwidth allowance being used up by lunchtime!!!"

  • one thing id still like to see (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gambit Thirty-Two ( 4665 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:24PM (#3388241)
    ... would be access to the rejected bin. i pay $5 a month for full access to totalfark [totalfark.com], and its worth it there. give access to the reject bin here, and you may well get more subscribers.

  • And when... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Time Doctor ( 79352 ) <zjs@zacharyjackslater.com> on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:31PM (#3388296) Homepage Journal
    they get 20,000 subscribers they'll release the slashcode!

  • First-chance advantage (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Wavefront ( 104048 ) <gdenning@gmail.com> on Monday April 22, 2002 @12:50PM (#3388440) Homepage Journal

    Yet another subscription idea:

    Take a page from online stock tickers, which show 20-minute delayed values for non-subscribers, and realtime information for subscribers. If Slashdot did the same, it would mean that subscribers have access to new articles 20 minutes (or some other reasonable value) before non-subscribers, allowing them to beat the Slashdot effect, plus the ability to post comments before everyone else.

    This benefit could be used in conjunction with, or separately from the existing no-ads system for subscribers, and IMHO it would draw many more subscribers than the no-ads system.

  • Credit Card Verification? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by idonotexist ( 450877 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @01:03PM (#3388515)
    Out of curiousity, who does /. use for the accpetance of credit cards?

  • Paypal - watch out (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SurfsUp ( 11523 ) on Monday April 22, 2002 @01:35PM (#3388756)
    we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal.

    Watch out for paypal, here is my experience [slashdot.org]. That's not the end of it either. One class action suit is already in progress against Palpal, for exactly the things they've done to me, and another is apparently pending.

    At least, include a warning not to give Paypal any more of your money than you are willing to kiss goodbye for an indefinite period, for no good reason.

    There are alternatives, notably Billpoint [billpoint.com] which at least hasn't done anything evil to me yet.

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