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

[Hot Trout]

Those are all good ideas and some of them have been ponder over before. To implement them will require some clever coding on the site and just at the minute I can not give the time. Hopefully by Oct or Nov I will be able to start working on a new system like this.

Thansk for the ideas. It is all appreciated.

[stinow]

If in some way I can aid you in coding, please let me know.

[Hot Trout]

Guys, I want to run an idea past you all again. We are reaching the limit of our current servers total storage at 2TB. We will most likely need additional RAID5 storage to allow me to add the PlayStation 2 roms later in 2012. To do this I will have to upgrade the server and the cost will also go up. As well as this I am glad to have to report that our total bandwidth use increased significantly during 2011 (more people using the site) and this has also increased the rent. That said the income generated is covering the costs of everything so far so good.

I want to upgrade the Raid5 to 3TB or maybe 4TB if I can. To do this I was thinking of increasing the cost of unlimited membership from $10 to $15. I dont think that many people would have a problem with that but I just wanted to run it all by you before I make the change. If you are already an unlimited member you would not have to donate any more by the way, once unlimited ... always unlimited.

[stinow]

Guys, I want to run an idea past you all again. We are reaching the limit of our current servers total storage at 2TB. We will most likely need additional RAID5 storage to allow me to add the PlayStation 2 roms later in 2012. To do this I will have to upgrade the server and the cost will also go up. As well as this I am glad to have to report that our total bandwidth use increased significantly during 2011 (more people using the site) and this has also increased the rent. That said the income generated is covering the costs of everything so far so good.

I want to upgrade the Raid5 to 3TB or maybe 4TB if I can. To do this I was thinking of increasing the cost of unlimited membership from $10 to $15. I dont think that many people would have a problem with that but I just wanted to run it all by you before I make the change. If you are already an unlimited member you would not have to donate any more by the way, once unlimited ... always unlimited.

Totally understandable. I'm afraid though that $15,- might be too much for some people.
I'd be happy, just to do a donation every now and then ($5/year sounds very acceptable to me per example).

But making the start-donation higher might lower the numer of users who are willing to register for unlimited downloads.

[Hot Trout]

I hear what you are saying and have the same thoughts myself. I am just trying to find some way to add 2TB of additional storage for the possible Playstation 2 section.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Kherr]

Don't forget HT that we still have the Gamecube and Xbox sections to upload as well, but I would hold off on the ps2, xbox, and gamecube sections until 2013 when the new tier of systems drop... The Wii-U, the PS4, and the Xbox 720 or 3, whatever they're going to call it... for safety's sake. >.>'

[Hot Trout]

I hear what you are saying. I cant wait to get ps2 and xbox roms online but it will take as massive amount of storage. Exciting times, i love how comprehensive our roms are. Te lanus is doing great work and adding more and more roms is just a great buzz.

I can probably hold off on the increase in price for now.

[Kherr]

That would be good HT, simply because asking 15 bucks is starting to get excessive... even though I know what you're talking about. I get paid tomorrow, thinking of donating some more money. I love this place. :3

[stinow]

That would be good HT, simply because asking 15 bucks is starting to get excessive... even though I know what you're talking about. I get paid tomorrow, thinking of donating some more money. I love this place. :3

Excellent choice. But you are free to do or do not donate.

In my perspective, services like this website or excellent service in a store is something I -gladly- pay extra for. And that doesn't mean I can easily spare the cash, but to me service is often a big part of the product you're buying. I try to buy food mostly at the local grocerystore, bakery, etcetera. Just don't like the idea of the big supermarkets, especially the lack of service they offer.

For example: I like perfumes (a lot). Most are quite expensive, but in the store I visit, the service is outstanding. The people are friendly, knowledgeable, understanding and can tell you a lot of interesting details about the products they offer. Worth every single penny. Just like TOC.

[Kherr]

Excellent choice. But you are free to do or do not donate.

In my perspective, services like this website or excellent service in a store is something I -gladly- pay extra for. And that doesn't mean I can easily spare the cash, but to me service is often a big part of the product you're buying. I try to buy food mostly at the local grocerystore, bakery, etcetera. Just don't like the idea of the big supermarkets, especially the lack of service they offer.

For example: I like perfumes (a lot). Most are quite expensive, but in the store I visit, the service is outstanding. The people are friendly, knowledgeable, understanding and can tell you a lot of interesting details about the products they offer. Worth every single penny. Just like TOC.

I understand what you're saying stinow, but 99% of the people out there do not care about what they're getting for their money, they only care about what it costs and how cheap they can get it. There are multiple competing ROM sites out there on the net that don't charge anything at all for complete access to their entire database. Why would we want to make people go: "Oh, it costs money to access this ROM here? I can get it for free elsewhere, I'm outta here."

Besides, I've donated $30 USD thus far, and still considering donating for a third time even though I do not have a job. Not to mention I work for HT by moderating the forums... So I'm right there with you, worth every penny.

Regardless, it doesn't matter what is right or not for me, what matters is what's right for the general userbase, which is in an amount of millions. Targeting only specific people that will arguably donate 15 bucks now, and in another amount of time 20, and then 25, and then 30 - etc. will be a stupid move. One must move as the public allows, and if the public isn't ready for 15 bucks as a required amount but ready as only a suggested amount then that's where we need to stay in order to attract the most donations. It's just smart business; it's logical. That's why this thread is open, so that people can have their say about prices.