Move to Subscription or NOT?

[terin]

The question isn't if I would pay (I would, but that is because I technically make money from helping people, even if it is indirectly and a paltry sum).

I vote for it, only on the grounds that new commers and hangers-on could still read it. Though it is a slipperly slope, I would prefer having the "veteran" posters (in the industry, not in posting) who exist mostly to help others retain access.

Here's why I vote for it: I recently made a very good post, and normally this type of post would have been met with praise, but more importantly, action from developers that would really have helped someone (or many people). Instead it was lost in the shuffle of arguing, not a single ounce of feedback. My gut reaction was "Apparently people don't want my help." Which I know to be untrue, but it hurts both mine and your business if my helpful posts (not all of my posts are) go unnoticed.

So, im not perfect, but there are my motives.

-Joe

[luggage]

I just don't see the big deal. It's just a few dollars, I'd hope there was a way for people to pay without a credit card - even just posting a dollar in an envelope would do.

Why would it stop 'professionals' posting? Someone used Snood as an example, well, if the guy was going to drop in and defend himself then paying $1 is nothing. I'd certainly pay $1 to defend myself - maybe he'd be more likely to stick around and post further if he did pay.

Invite forums won't work in the above case either. What if you don't know anyone and want to post? I wouldn't want someone out of the blue mailing me asking for my approval. Too risky.

It shouldn't stop newbies either. If they're serious about going Indie then a $1 outlay should be nothing.

The case for more mods is interesting but where does it end? In a years time will we be in the same situation and need macro-mods?

Personally I'd like to avoid all the obvious questions. Things like "what program do I use to write a game?" and "how do I use an array?" are the kind of questions that can be asked at other sites. A simple $1 barrier would help cut these out.

The other point is experience, it's quite hard to know who you should pay more attention to on here. People who have never completed a game happily post authoritive opinion as if it's fact - on topics they have no experience with yet.

When I first joined the Dexterity boards I was a newbie. I had 8 years industry experience under my belt but I knew nothing about selling a game. Would be good if we had a retail\industry experience indicator, can't think of a decent way to do this though.

To those who wouldn't pay the fee - why not? Can you honestly say you haven't had one dollar's worth of value out of these forums?

Maybe there's a case for both more mods and a fee? Wouldn't this make everyone happy?

[Dan MacDonald]

I disapproved of this poll from the beginning as I didn't think it would really tell us anything we didn't already know. However it has proved to be some benefit. There has been a lot of posts and IM's going back and forth between the admins this week. Many potential solutions were discussed, many of them seemed like they would work but often were discarded because of the need to install a "hack" or "mod" in the vBulliten software.

As a result of some of the good discussion in this thread we have decided to reconsider the decision to leave the vBulliten software in its vanilla state. Mike has agreed to mod the software if it means that we can get a good solution for the forums.

The lurk period was something that came up quite often in those discussions but was dismissed as it wasn't natively supported. Mike and I have discussed installing some mods to the forum as opposed to moving to the natively supported subscription system. Steve is in bed right now, but based on previous discussions we are confident that he will agree to this new direction. Once we get steve's approval we will be installing a lurk mod that forces a 48hr lurker period on most forums (your insight was helpful here Chris Evans). In addition to that some documents will be written that are easily accessible that explain the purpose of the forums and the expectations of posters so that lurkers will have something to read during their lurk period

I would also like to see a mod that allows moderators to silence users for a set interval as a probation but that is subject to availability and consensus.

In addition to that we will likely be picking up another moderator or two to help enforce the forum policy.

One of the real strengths of this community is that it has a small group of leaders that work together to make good decisions. I have appreciated the time and care that mike and steve had dedicated to addressing this issue and working to find the right solution. The talk of subscriptions has produce a lot of interesting discussions about the direction of the forums and the potential indiegamer.com has to offer more services and resources.

Since this poll is not entirely relevent anymore i'm going to close this thread.