ID:181136
 
I think it'd be a great idea to have a solid Byond Non-Members guild. Non-members can have their Blog post actually read, Feature games they choose, and we can all be linked recognizing people who don't have a Membership. The owner could read other non-member submitted blog post and give links to their blogs. I basically wanted a central for non-members, a place to be recognized for their games or blog post. You could have people playing your games without them being submitted (though getting a member to submit it isn't hard if it's good).

It'd be a nice Central for Non-members to stay connected. I've noticed people even leave Byond after their memberships expire because of this sort of thing. I know, "Easy fix, just buy another one." I just thought this would be a small help for people who can't afford it, or even aren't interested in putting real money into Byond.

It would work if someone mature who was interested in running it and keeping it up, ran it.

Not to knock Byond or it's members, just thought it would be a neat idea. It's nice to be connected.

What do you think, would you be interested? (No trolls please)
Your main issue is it'd be invite only, as non-members must be manually added to a guild as contributors.
I think if they do not see the value in becoming a BYOND member, they probably won't stick around anyway.
In response to Jmurph
hmm, Tru. Perhaps this is a bad idea.
Telling people not to troll will attract trolls

Anyways, I'm pretty certain that the point of this being restricted to members only is so that BYOND can make money; if the non-member community gets big enough (Which it probably will) then people will stop being a member, because they get no benefits over others, and join the guild, eventually they would just stop buying memberships (other than perks in the few good games that give you a reward for being a member).

It costs money to make games everywhere, just about, I don't think 15 dollars (or however much memberships cost now) is too much for someone to afford. Think about it, BYOND is a community directed at young people learning to program, if their parents can afford enough internet for them to be on often enough to make/test a game, then chances are their parents can spare that change (or they'd be able to save that amount up somewhere) and buy a membership.

I really don't think this should become a reality, because if it gets popular enough that its useful to non-members, it's probably popular enough that BYOND will be losing a significant amount of money. Oh, and as Stephen001 mentioned, you'd have to manually add all new members (or they'd have to send you a request, in which case you'd be sitting around accepting people, and their siblings, and their alternate keys, and their sibling's alternate keys.
In response to Ill Im
Ill Im wrote:
Telling people not to troll will attract trolls

Anyways, I'm pretty certain that the point of this being restricted to members only is so that BYOND can make money; if the non-member community gets big enough (Which it probably will) then people will stop being a member, because they get no benefits over others, and join the guild, eventually they would just stop buying memberships (other than perks in the few good games that give you a reward for being a member).

I never thought of it looking great. I saw it. *White and Blue non-member page with blog post about other games and blogs that have links. But if a Member paid for a non-member page, I suppose it could get pretty big. It would still lack features like "Byond's" front page features and blog post, game updates and such, I looked at it being like a big game developer's site (Silk or Falacy. Bad combo, I know xD), just connecting and focusing on non-member content so they can get a little attention. But I see what you mean, it wouldn't be great for Byond's memberships. I'm not sure if it would really threaten Byond much, but why chance it?

It costs money to make games everywhere, just about, I don't think 15 dollars (or however much memberships cost now) is too much for someone to afford. Think about it, BYOND is a community directed at young people learning to program, if their parents can afford enough internet for them to be on often enough to make/test a game, then chances are their parents can spare that change (or they'd be able to save that amount up somewhere) and buy a membership.

Oh, and as Stephen001 mentioned, you'd have to manually add all new members (or they'd have to send you a request, in which case you'd be sitting around accepting people, and their siblings, and their alternate keys, and their sibling's alternate keys.

That's why I thought of it as quite a bit of work from multiple people. You wouldn't have to "accept" all members, I was talking mostly about their Game or blog post. Either way, I agree, this isn't a good idea.
In response to Jmurph
Jmurph wrote:
I think if they do not see the value in becoming a BYOND member, they probably won't stick around anyway.

I actually find that kinda offensive, to think that just because someone isn't a member, or doesn't feel like becoming one, to automatically put them into the Deserters Group. I've been with BYOND for years now and haven't decided to bother with a Membership. Sure, maybe one day I'll say, "What the hell, why not" and go ahead and purchase one, but for now, I really don't mind. I've stuck around with BYOND for a while, and I'll be sticking around for a while longer, Membership or not.

- Danbriggs
Some people on this post don't seem to realize that most people stick around on byond BECAUSE its free.
In response to Superfetch
Very True, but thinking about it, I looked at the price for a membership, $18 a year? That's like 5 Cents a day, pretty much free. Which is why I'm looking into getting a membership now. People may love BYOND because It's free, but everyone knows that it's the members who're keeping it alive.