Silly, but it may just work for the financial future of BYOND. in Feature Requests

ID:122410
 
Dec 30 2011, 5:31 pm (Edited on Jan 7 2012, 10:20 pm)
Applies to:Website
Status: Open
Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
It may seem silly, but on wikipedia (Sometimes, it seems to pop up on wikipedia), and most forums that I know of they have a "Donation to keep this x alive(or free)!"

What if BYOND had it's own "Memberships to keep the updates kicking!" (Or something along those lines.) And show how many people are creating new -Membership- accounts per month out of however many Tom, or Lummox, or Whoever would like to see, where a 5 year would mark 5 to it and so forth.

It seems purely for eye candy, but it may make those who feel they just have to complete something compelled to buy a membership.

Example:
[10/150 Membership goal reached this month! ]
<Become a Member today!>
#1 Dec 30 2011, 8:10 pm
Pretty sure that's what the entire 'BYOND Membership' section on the latest blog post from Tom was about.
#2 Jan 1 2012, 1:37 pm (Edited on Jan 5 2012, 6:35 pm)
They already advertise memberships on almost every page of the site (see upper left of this page), not to mention the ads on most pages (again, see the top of this page)...

The reason they are low on funds is because FUNimation shut down 90% of their public community.
What they need is:
A. Some good games to draw in new players. Now that pixel movement is built in, this should actually be possible. They need to acquire an official game development team to showcase what BYOND can do, and work closely with them to improve the engine's shortcomings. Every "popular" game on the front-page being an rp/chatroom isn't bringing in crowds of new gamers, or interesting anyone in paying for said chats.
B. A new pricing scheme. As I have explained to Tom on several occasions; Nobody wants to pay 20+ dollars in one shot. What are the chances they'll even be around in a year? If it were 5 dollars a month, people would be more willing to buy, even though it would cost them more in the long run. Instead of properly fixing this in the new site update, they are apparently just raising the yearly price even further.
C. Some actual rewards for getting a membership. Practically everything you get with the cost of a membership can be found elsewhere, not only for free, but as a generally better product/service.
D. Do not restrict basic functions (like using the pager) to members. Instead, enhance such features for members (provide message customization, for example). This will make non-members see such enhancements, and want them for themselves.
E. I would be willing to bet that majority of memberships are/were purchased for in-game benefits. BYOND needs to be willing to work with developers, as well as provide default in-game benefits. A delay before you can log back in, for example, seems to be something they could easily build into the engine for developers to toggle (they could probably even force it if they want to be greedy). And a more functional referral system wouldn't hurt.
#3 Jan 6 2012, 11:03 pm
@SSX, That was just referencing the comment on Wikipedia, I meant a Goal Box. Like

[10/150 Membership goal reached this month! ]
<Become a Member today!>
#4 Jan 7 2012, 8:44 pm
Yes, something like that sounds good, the goals could be based on how much BYOND's approximate cost to run each month+a few extra memberships a month for net gain that can be spent to further improve things here on BYOND.