by akator » Fri May 13, 2016 6:44 am
I wouldn't recommend a complex system. I was a member of several other communities in the past that tried points/token/credit systems and it killed off every one within a few years.
Simple is good. Straightforward paid upgrades for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly memberships have kept online businesses going for a long time. It works for newspapers, magazines, information aggregators, library services, cloud storage, media streaming, all sort of stuff. There is really no need to change a model that is proven. Don't waste time reinventing the wheel.
Consider ditching the lifetime membership. Hey, I use it and love it, but HBO, Apple, Google, Amazon, Sling, Netflix, no one offers a lifetime membership because it is a revenue killer. I would pay $20/year when I need access especially because that means the site continues to exist.
IF bitcoin wasn't the only option, that is. Bitcoin is not something I will ever be accessing directly through my banking institutions. When there are prepaid bitcoin cards at the checkout line, maybe, but not the way it operates now. And yes, I know how bitcoin works (and also how it doesn't).