The Status of Subscriber Services Across Thoughts Media Sites

[Jason Dunn]

Some of you have been wondering about subscriber services, so I wanted to give you an update on them. By early next week we hope to have the email blasts and the advertising toggle available to subscribers. When they're ready to go, I'll make an announcement about it and tell you how to configure them. Our old control panel was far too complex (I had a good chuckle when I saw how convoluted we made it), so the new one will be fast and simple to use.<br /><br />Regarding the actual subscriptions themselves: priority #1 is getting the services set up for current subscribers. When we get the subscription sign-up set up again, you'll be able to renew and sign up again (and in reality, they're the same thing). When we get to this stage, something cool will happen: you won't be signing up for a <em>Pocket PC Thoughts Subscription</em> (or whatever other site you're reading this on), you'll be signing up for a <em>Thoughts Media Subscription</em>, meaning the benefits will track across all of our sites. We'll build something into our system to allow some granularity, such as being able to get email blasts for some, but not all, sites. I'm not sure if we'll have that ready to go right off the bat, but we'll certainly try.<br /><br />Lastly, once we have a working, unified subscriber system, I'm going to really ramp up the value of the subscriber benefits (and I'll likely be looking for help from the community to do so). We started out strong then, frankly, got a little feeble and didn't aggressively pursue new discounts and benefits for subscribers. I want to make the Thoughts Media Subscription something really worth the money you spend on it.<br /><br />And there you have it - thanks for your patience as we work to get all the pieces together.

[gai-jin]

As a former PPC thoughts subscriber, and as someone switching back to a PPC phone after several years with a smartphone, I'm looking forward to seeing the subscriber option brought back and maybe a nice discount on a case or such again! :)

[Constant Caffeine]

Has the new subscriber service been implemented?

[Jason Dunn]

Has the new subscriber service been implemented?

I'm afraid to say that, no, there has been virtually no movement on subscriber services - I just don't have the developer resources to make any movement. I'm looking to hire a developer this month, however, and that's definitely something on the list. I feel bad that this fell by the wayside so badly...it was always my intention to maintain value for subscribers, and especially lifetime subscribers, but it just hasn't been possible so far.

Do me a favour and ask again in about a month and maybe I'll have some good news for you! :)

[100thMonkey]

man, as a lifetime subscriber, I am feeling so hosed ....

[Jason Dunn]

man, as a lifetime subscriber, I am feeling so hosed ....

I'm sorry to hear that - it certainly wasn't my intention. It seems though that some of what I'd hoped to achieve with subscriber services wasn't very attainable on a long term basis. It really comes down to resources - when we switched over to the new forum system, basically everything we created was thrown out the window and had to be re-created from scratch - and I don't have the development resources to do that right now. :(

What are the top couple of things that you miss as a subscriber? Maybe I can work them in slowly over this year...

[100thMonkey]

s/w discounts at the store, benefits....I had also asked a question maybe a year or two ago about discounts on s/w upgrades through the store since the discount was supposed to apply to everything in the store but the store wouldn't let me apply the discount to version upgrades, i.e. version 3.xx to 4.xx or whatever. It was going to be looked into, but I never heard anything else.

Not asking for anything major, just the basic discounts and benefits that I projected to be useful in offsetting the cost of the membership over the long term.

[Jason Dunn]

s/w discounts at the store, benefits....I had also asked a question maybe a year or two ago about discounts on s/w upgrades through the store since the discount was supposed to apply to everything in the store but the store wouldn't let me apply the discount to version upgrades, i.e. version 3.xx to 4.xx or whatever. It was going to be looked into, but I never heard anything else.

Software discount coupons are so complicated - I email the vendor or store, they give me a coupon and tell me one thing, then when someone tries to use it I discover it has limitations and restrictions that I was never told about. It's hugely frustrating, and I've wasted so much time trying to chase down why certain things didn't work like I was told they would. :(

Not asking for anything major, just the basic discounts and benefits that I projected to be useful in offsetting the cost of the membership over the long term.

OK, so discounts are important to you. I'll see what I can do...

[100thMonkey]

Well that's just me, I think that other people may like the giveaways, but I don't really recall there being any benefit beyond discounts and giveaways for subscribers. Of course, if other people chime in and I'm in the minority liking discounts, then responding to the larger desire would probably be appropriate

[Jason Dunn]

Well that's just me, I think that other people may like the giveaways, but I don't really recall there being any benefit beyond discounts and giveaways for subscribers...

Oh, we had lots more than that.

1) Lots of site customizations
2) Ability to turn off ads
3) Email blasts of each news item
4) Free PDAmill game

Unfortunately each item requires a fair bit of coding, and even some business negotiations. Subscriber services was something I was hoping would really take off, but due to a combination of not enough people signing up for it, and my own lack of effort into keeping up the initial quality of offerings, it sputtered out.

It may live again, who knows. :)