Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Forum becoming subscription only

I'm surprised that there hasn't been any discussion here of Frank's decision to make this website subscription-only, where everyone can read the content but only paid subscribers will be allowed to post.

Does anyone have thoughts on what this may do to the number and quality of the posts here? I'm sure it will become a sleepier place than it is now. What do you think?

April Fools?

Oh just read the thread. I guess you’re right.

I wonder how much it costs to run the site and how much revenue he needs to generate. I wonder if it could be raised by donation if enough people chipped in.

Regardless I’ve been subscribing for a while and will be happy to continue to do so. Hopefully enough of the active members will continue to do so to keep it active. We should put together a list to see if viable.

The lowest level, Bronze, is $2.99. Multiplied by 12, that’s < $36 / year. Less than the cost of one single lesson. Well worth it IMO.

Wow, I saw the post, but didn't scroll down below the graphic, so I missed the bit about subscription required to post.

$29 / year with the annual subscription. I feel it's a small price to pay for what I get out of it. Maybe there will be more posting now with people trying to get their money's worth.

I'm curious if a subscription is needed to submit to the online recitals.

I would assume so, particularly given that the recitals are memory intensive.

In more ways than one, apparently.

Didn't know about it until I read your post - that's what I get for just hanging out in the ABF. And the announcement seems to be hidden in another post, so not very informative.

My first thoughts? If he starts charging he's going to have to upgrade and go mobile friendly. I say that even though I pay monthly already, but it's a voluntary "donation". If you start charging, then you have customers that have to be satisfied.

And it will probably cut down on the new posters. There are plenty of places on the internet where you can get questions answered for free.

The online recitals are hosted here, but they are not tied into the username/password database. As they exist right now, no PW account is required to participate.

Sam

I also donate, currently at a gold level. But not at the new gold level.

The way I read it - you will automatically get charged monthly or yearly unless you opt out. I *hate* automatic renewals and I wouldn't do it here. So if I subscribed for yearly (at a level less than my current one) would it automatically renew? If so, I won't.

His post also says you can subscribe without a paypal account, but I couldn't find that option.

And it's not clear whether if you just donate - say, my current amount - you could still post, or if you have to actually use the "subscribe" option and have - an automatic renewal?

Some questions from me, anyway.

I'm with you on automatic renewals....I generally don't do them. I do have a PayPal account linked to a very low limit credit card that I use for this forum, though, and it automatically renews for me. Just an idea.

Ah, EDIT - the subscribe w/o a paypal account is under "use a dr or cr card".

I do donate at > than the gold subscription, but < the platinum subscription

And I don't want automatic renewals

Can I donate, without 'subscribing", and still post? If there's no automatic renewal on the subscription I'm willing to subscribe and just remember to renew each year.

Just send me the check, Cathy, I'll figure it out! lolol

At the risk of sounding stupid, where is Franks post to be found regarding this decision?

I also missed the announcement - until this thread was posted.

Here is the announcement:
http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2865260/i-subscribed-wheres-my-badge.html

I also missed the announcement. If I decide not to subscribe, I guess that means I will not be able to admin the recitals anymore

It's not that I do not value the forums or that I don't understand why this is needed, I just have some issues with such subscriptions in general and I sometimes think I should hang out here and post less anyway...

I missed it too. Why not create a subreddit and call it ABF? I think it's free.

<snort>

This is very sad. I would be willing to subscribe, but with less new people coming in, and members eventually not renewing their subscriptions, there will be fewer and fewer people to keep this forum alive.

I saw the thread title, but thought it was aimed at those voluntarily subscribing who didn’t have their badge, hence didn’t even read it.

I won’t be subscribing.

While some will argue that it’s only the price of a coffee/Ice cream etc, those people don’t realise not everyone has a disposable income, not everyone is working, not everyone lives in wealthy countries like say the USA, UK etc.

I can’t work for health reasons. Money is very tight (easily survivable but tight). I can assure you there’s many people in far worse situations than I’m in.

I go out for a meal 4 times a year. On my, my wife’s and my now grown up kids birthdays . I’ve only ever gone into Starbucks etc 3 times in my life.

Micro transactions all add up. £2 here a month, £5 there. For many of us, there’s only so much money to go round each month, and sadly if I had spare money, paying to make a few posts a year on here would not be anywhere near the top of my list.

There are plenty of other places with tons of piano info that don’t charge.

If every forum I visit semi regularly decided to charge the same amount, before I know it I would be paying £100 + a month just for full forum access.

Even if I could afford it (and if that was the case and it’s a forum I used all the time, I would voluntarily donate the odd £5 every few months) I wouldn’t support it out of principle. The last thing I want is charging to post becoming the norm for forums.

Very few new people are going to pay to ask a question, I suspect the amount of new posters will drop considerably.

What does need to happen is the post saying it’s sub only, needs to be reposted with a correct title so people know by its title that this site is becoming subscription only.

I don't believe a website whose value comes from independent content creators, can survive if it charges these content creators to create the website's content. They will turn elsewhere. Some sooner, others later.