What do you think of membership charges? Have your say here.

[BlueMaxima]

I love the sound of this and would be happy to help in any way shape or form if this ever takes form.

[Hot Trout]

I also love the idea of tokens and indeed it was discussed at great length at the start. There is however a lot of programming required to offer such a solution to the users and this will in turn take a lot of time.

I think that in the future this will become the system used on this site and current unlimited members will be given many many tokens in return for their accounts.

Users could also then purchase tokens if required and that hopefully would bring in some revenue. Unfortunatly it does cost quite a lot every month to feed this beast and I need to make sure that this continues.

Excellent post and many thanks for it. Stay tuned and in the future this is most likely to come alive.

[phantom309]

All good effort deserves reward,and this site is no different.I wholeheartedly support some sort of monthly or fee system as its only right considering the time and energy going into it.

The one request I have in turn is perhaps figuring out some way to make some of the downloads a bit more user-friendly.Compared to most I know I consider myself fairly computer proficient,but some of the footwork that needs to be done just to get some of the emulators up and running can be somewhat exhaustive.Thankfully the support system is awesome,people are always glad to help..but it would be nice to perhaps see things more "plug and play" oriented.I would expect less from a free site,but when were talking dollars it just seems to be a descent trade.

Hopefully that doesnt come across the wrong way,but Im just looking from the perspective of one who doesnt have the in-depth computer knowledge as some,coupled with the lack of time on occasion to test and re-test fixes for emulators.I can also say that if such were the case I could honestly see myself as well as many other more casual gamers being attracted to and holding interest in the wares offered on the site.

Anyway,point made enough said.All this aside I personally love the site either way and have recommended it to many people.Thx guys.

[JAHGoVeg]

amazing post!

[Kherr]

Guys, I am opening this post again to discuss a pontential change to the donation and unlimited account amount. I value your opinion on such things.

Since we decided to charge $10 for a lifetime unlimited over a year ago, it is safe to say that it has been a success. The majority of users that decided to pay were very happy with the charge being $10 for life, some even saying so in their comments. In fact, on the donation page I had added a 'suggested amount' of $15 and many of the people that donated simply left the amount at $15 even though they could easily reduce it to $10 and still get unlimited. This tells me that the charge was more than acceptable to those that choose to donate.

It is also true however that the vast majority of users that visit this site never upgrade or donate.

Now add to this the fact that over the past year we have more than doubled the number and size of the roms to a staggering 1.8TB. We have also seen a huge increase in the number of users everyday, this in turn means that the total bandwidth used each day has been steadly increasing. It is currently on average 45-50GB a day

Currently the monthly donations on average don't quite cover the running costs and I want to be able to increase the bandwidth use as and when we need to, to continue to be the largest and fastest rom site on the web and to secure some cash for a future server upgrade.

With all this in mind, I was considering raising the Unlimited account minimum amount to $15 and the suggest 'feel good' amount to $20.

What do you all think?

I think this is an excellent idea, but in reality I don't know... I just couldn't see people donating $20 USD for unlimited status... I think the idea of a daily, weekly and monthly unlimited status amounts should also be put into use... like say $2 USD for one day of unlimited status, $7 USD for a week, $15 USD for a month, and $20 to $25 USD for a lifetime account... I still don't know though... but it's a thought. :3

[JAHGoVeg]

Kherr's Idea is definitely a good one but at the same time I don't know. people can be cheap jerks on the internet.

Let me tell you a story....


Ounce upon a time in a land far far away...

Typical Internet User (TIU) : Lets see. I wanna play a game... Oh let me find some roms for an old retro game!

TheOldComputer.com: Hey!!! Typical Internet User! Yeah I'm talking to you! Come and use *dramatic drumroll* THEOLDCOMPUTER.COM! We have all the roms you could ever imagine plus a ton you can't Imagine cuz you've never heard of them before!

TIU: OH MY GOD GAMEGASM!!! GREAT!!! LET ME GO THERE!!!

Typical Internet User begins looking for roms

TIU: OMG I JUST FOUND A GAME THAT I USED TO PLAY WHEN I WAS LITTLE AND I COULD NEVER FIND IT ANYWHERE ELSE BUT I JUST FOUND IT AT THE OLD COMPUTER DOT COM!! THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!

TIU begins download

TIU: OMG WHAT??!!! ONLY 64 KB/s?! MOM!!! I TOLD YOU TO GET OFF THE INTERNETZ!!! wait what? I have to register? failzors!

TIU reluctantly registers

WAIT WHAT? I ONLY GET 192 Kb/s? That's Like dial UP!!!!!

TheOldComputer.com: To get UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD SPEED Please play a small fee of $10! Less than a meal at a restaurant!

TIU: ...
TIU: ...
TIU: ...
TIU: ...
TIU: ...
TIU: ...
TIU: ...


TIU:



And thats why I'm also skeptic...

[Kherr]

I'm skeptic as all get out, but meh, what can you do? You can't pay for the site by yourself because it's not like you're rich... so you have to get help, and the user base is the closest thing you could get help from... But users usually don't like to pay for anything, they only want to get it for free because they don't understand that hosting a site such as this comes with hefty fees to keep it maintained and up and running... but they won't understand at this point and never will... they want it free, so it only falls to those whom have enough kindness in their hearts to donate... with which of course we've decided to reward with unlimited accounts... We're not like the other websites out there that are completely filled with ads and voting and other ways of generating funds that are extremely annoying... we're unique in the fact that it's simply click and download. No voting, no crap, and the largest database on the net... If you want it for free then go torrent it or deal with another rom site's ads and annoyances. We'll stay here and be the best out there.

So it all boils down to whether or not you're feeling kind enough to say thank you with a donation. This money doesn't go into our pockets, it doesn't go to fund rent on a house or car... it goes into maintaining the server and keeping it up on the web... @ $300+ USD a month for the only person in the world that IS paying for it... Hot Trout. Donations help us stay up and running. Donations help keep us alive. Donations are pretty much a requirement for us because Hot Trout can't keep paying for it by himself (and believe me, if I had money I'd pay half the site's monthly running cost out of my own pocket because of how much I love this place). So straight up, if you don't like having to donate to access only 9% of the rom database (yea, that's right, only 9% is locked to unlimited members) then gtfo freeloaders, find some other place to help run into the ground and leave us alone. 32k members and only 30 at MAX talk on this board. It's really beginning to upset me, so sorry about this rant.

*RANT OVER*

*EDIT*

Oh, and believe me, I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to donate and register and become active members here. I also appreciate those who take the time to sign the guestbook even and thank us for having such an awesome site. I thank all of you whom have the generosity in your heart to say something nice, as most usually don't even do that much. Thank you greatly!

[JAHGoVeg]

Preach It brother!!!

I'm going to have that written on my tombstone

[stinow]

Great words Kherr, well spoken.

And I hope more people will donate something, perhaps starting with some involvement in this great community.



i'll have some more € to spend at the end of this month, so that'll work out

[stinow]

For starters, it might be a good idea to create one or two extra levels on top of the life-time subscription.
I've noticed that quite a few die-hard members would gladly pay a little extra.

If people would, for example, receive some:
[*] customizable forum / site layout (choose your own CSS theme!)
[*] special game artwork
[*] tutorials
[*] little less banners

..for an extra one time cost of $10. So the ''super lifetime'' account would be something like $20 - 25.
Or possibly add a monthly fee for these kinds of things. Because I think with a monthly fee you will have a lot less to worry about, since you receive a stable amount of $ each month for paying your costs.

I know this doesn't solve the problem of not enough people donating, but I think it might just lower your monthly worries Hot Trout.