Slashdot Subscription Update

A few things have changed in the Slashdot Subscription System since we originally announced it a few months ago. Most important to many of you is that we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal. We also added some control to allow subscriptions to be time based instead of page view based. Read on to see how.

By far the biggest complaint that we heard was from users who either hate paypal, or simply don't want to mess with it. I'm not going to go into the politics of that issue here, but it's a valid complaint. As we've explained countless times, we picked paypal first because it was simple and quick and planned to support credit cards directly as soon as we worked the kinks out of the system. And now that's happened. I'm still interested in other payment mechanisms and I'm open to suggestions as to what they might be.

Complaint number two was from people who didn't like the metered subscriptions. Again, this is a very valid complaint. I've already explained why it was essential that we impose some sort of limits, so what we've implemented is a new option called Max Ads. What it does is limit the number of pages you choose to view ad free on any given day. By default, that is 10. So even if you view slashdot 20 times a day, your $5 subscription will still last 100 days with the default setting of 10 Max Ads. Of course, you can up that number too.

Subscribers still have the ability to choose what page classes you suppress ads on. Simply hiding ads on Articles and Index, but seeing them on Comments is enough for the vast majority of readers to never hit the default Max Ads settings. At those settings, the subscription fee for a year on Slashdot would be on par with a typical magazine.

So far we've been really pleased with the turnout: 2% of our logged in users have chosen to subscribe, and we really hope that number will increase since such a huge number of readers expressed support for the subscription system, but distaste for paypal.

As we explained earlier, a large part of our decision to suppress banner ads was so that we could start accepting other ad formats, but give users an option to support Slashdot, without seeing these new ad formats. These other ad formats are highly desirable and should allow our sales folks to get contracts that we would otherwise be ineligible for. Web Advertising is a highly competitive field, and these ad formats make it possible for us to compete.

The last thing I'm mentioning here is Subscriber Plums. We have a variety of things that subscribers will eventually have access to. We're certainly open to reasonable suggestions, and we'll announce them as they come online. As I've said before, we won't be taking away things from non-subscribers, just rewarding those who are throwing quarters into the guitar case. More on these plums at a later date.

Thanks to the subscribers, as well as to those who click on our ads and support us by supporting our advertisers. You guys are helping to ensure that Slashdot sticks around for a long time.

Comments

For only ...

[ProfMoriarty]

$0.70 a day, you too can join in the millions to help out the poor, starving /. editors.

Re:For only ...

[Redline]

C'mon now, you're not willing to throw quarters in the guitar case? Never mind that all the content is created by volunteers, and all slashdot does is distribute it.

This is such a fallacious argument. It is based on the assumption that your opinion is more valuable than the network services that distribute it. An opinion is worthless. Every person has one and every person wants to give it to you. The content (mostly the opinions of the uninformed) here is cheap, but bandwidth and employees are not. What's wrong with paying for the services that /. provides?
There is a coffee house down the street from my house that has open-mic poetry readings every Wednesday. I go, buy a cup of coffee, and listen to (and read) some poems. I am not going to demand my coffee for free, just because I provide some of the "content" on poetry night. The coffee shop provided the mic, stage, tables, lights, and ambiance. Isn't that worth as much (if not more) than the small amount of "content" that the users provide?

Re:For only ...

[jordan_a]

Read the copyright notice on the bottom of the page.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2002 OSDN

Here's a "plum" idea.

[athakur999]

How about an option to hide the always annoying, never clever CowboyNeal option in the poll? That'll get some people subscribing...

Blackout continues?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, Rob, throw this out while the blackout is going on, so the "hard-core" discussion mongers won't be able to contribute. :)

I do wish you'd list what kinds of Subscriber Plums will be out there, though. I'm kinda-sorta waiting to see "what's in it for me" before I subscribe; if you wait too long I may just get used to the big fattie ads and not care about subscribing.

Just my feedback, without a name since I am kinda-sorta supporting the Great Slashdot Blackout.

Re:Blackout continues?

[jandrese]

Great, Rob, throw this out while the blackout is going on,

I'd forgotten about that. No wonder the S/N ratio has been so high recently.

Re:Blackout continues?

[Hemos]

We don't know the plums yet - that's what we're trying to solict.

Re:Blackout continues?

[drinkypoo]

I'll subscribe if you remove the karma kap for subscribers.

Karma was what made slashdot fun for me, and my incentive to write lengthy, informative, reasoned posts. Now I just fritter along and write what I feel like; I stay kapped even with the occasional down-moderation. That's no fun.

Interesting Concept, but

[Morgahastu]

I think one of the main things that attracts people to slashdot is that it is not commercial and there is a sense of community (a very twisted one at that). Slashdot is a great FREE site and thats as far as it goes. I wish you guys all the success but I really don't think it will make much money. Slashdot is never consistent (which is a terrible business model) , so how can you expect to make a business out of it? Business involves planning and consistency. I for one don't want to pay for a service that at is heart is free and should always be free.

Re:Interesting Concept, but

[garcia]

inconsistent, yes, free no.

How can you expect them to be able to support this service when it remains free? Yeah, it's inconsistent, they are morons when it comes to posting duplicate stories, the CowboyNeal option is WAY old, and they are pushing it w/the MacOSX theme on related stories, but for how many times everyday that I click refresh and see something new that pretty much interests me, I don't see it as a problem.

The $10 I contributed wasn't for me to see pages w/o the ads, they weren't that annoying anyway (in fact some of them were entertaining) it was to make sure that at least some money was going to something I use frequently. I don't need to see this page die off in the future or I will end up having to scour countless other sites for shit I can find in one click.

That's my reason.

Re:Interesting Concept, but

[Sircus]

I personally would pay - but not until I'm told how many pages I'm using. If they can track this for subscribers, they could surely track it for me - and if database load is the problem here, let people turn it on for one-week periods. Until I can tell exactly what I'd need to pay to get ad-free Slashdot and can then make a cost/benefit decision based on that, I've no intention of paying.

I miss the banner ads!

[Russ Nelson]

I miss the banner ads! Can't you make the slashdot logo link, jump, and wiggle?
-russ

New ad types?

[proxima]

From what I could tell on the IRC conversation, the /. editors promised to avoid Flash ads. I have noticed a few in the past couple of weeks, along with the "extra-big" sized banner ads on the top. Has anyone seen a statement where they said they would start accepting Flash ads now?

Re:New ad types?

[Hemos]

Where did you see it? E-mail me the ad, and I'll chase them down. Sometimes 3rd party ad servers try to sneak it in.

Re:New ad types?

[foobar104]

Not everyone is a raving, drooling anti-Flash lunatic out here...

Just my two cents: I despise Flash ads because they move. Maybe I'm just unique or weird or something, but when I'm trying to read, movement in my peripheral vision is very distracting. Must be some of that frog DNA that got spliced into me in utero.

Animated GIFs and Java applets have the same problem, but I can conveniently turn them off with my browser. Both IE for Windows and IE and OmniWeb for the Mac have options to turn off GIF animations (although IE for Windows buries it so deep you wonder if they ever meant anyone to use it), but none of those three browsers makes it easy for you to disable Flash.

So, in summary, browser options good, Flash ads bad. CBS great. (BANG!)

suggestion for membership plums

[FarHat]

One of the things I would be really interested in if I choose to become a member is something like the google zeitgeist. It could show things like browsers used to connect, number of hits by time of day, OSes used to connect etc. The google Zeitgeist in a way is a snapshot of what the google searchers are most interested in at a given point in time. A similar system for slashdot could be a very interesting snapshot of the geek/nerd community.

-F

Re:End of paypal?

[jamie]

"the credit card option's been on the subscribe page for about a week now. They only just got around to announcing it today."

Nope; it just showed up for an hour in the middle of the night, during a code refresh about a week ago. But has been absent from then until about 20 minutes ago. You were probably one of like 3 people who saw the dang thing last week :)

Story moderation

[rbeattie]

Slashdot's moderation system is pretty good and pretty unique. How about pushing the envelope a bit further?

How about an option where subscribers can see all the stories submitted and vote on them? The highest moderated stories could the bubble up to a "subscriber selected" page, viewable by all. The editors could then decide if the subscriber selected stories were good enough for the front page mix.

I could expand on this, but I want to post this before the thread runs to 400 posts. You get the idea. Subscribers want control. Push the envelope!

-Russ

Re:Story moderation

[dipfan]

Hmm, interesting. Seeing into the submit bin is also helpful, in more ways than one. I often wonder, when submitting a story, if anyone else has already submitted it. If we could see the submit bin (and rejects and acceptances) then the chances are the editors would have to deal with a lot fewer duplications ... users wouldn't waste their time submitting stories that were already pending or rejected, and the editors wouldn't get so much noise in the bin.

Editorial integrity

[FattMattP]

Here's what I want for my subscription: Editorial Integrity. Here's what I mean:

1. Spell check the articles even if you didn't write it.
2. Use proper grammar.
3. Make edits if the submitter mispells something, has poor grammar, or screws up the links.
4. Make sure the links go to the right place.
5. Remove unnecessary links. We don't need to link to CNN's home page every time we write the letters "CNN." Just link to the article or issue at hand.
6. Before accepting an article, search your own damn site to ensure that it's not something you've approved to post before.

Do all of this and you'll have my money.

Re:Editorial integrity

[jeffehobbs]

I completely disagree. To me, bad grammar and poor spelling simply denote a lack of editorial dedication and generalized laziness on the part of the editorial staff. I regularly spell check the messages I submit for the viewing of my friends and family, or if I post to a mailing list where my message might be viewed by a hundred people or so, because I respect the people who read my words and I want my message to be as clear as possible.

When your audience is in the hundreds of thousands, however, it's unthinkable to me that someone who calls themself an editor wouldn't take 30 seconds to throw their text through a spell checker.

And not to mention it just simply looks bad for "the cause" -- there are plenty of linux spell check options, but every time I see a spelling error on slashdot, I think, "poor linux, can't even spell check," and I know I must not be alone in that peception.

~jeff

Why I am Not Participating in the Blackout

[grytpype]

I am abstaining from the blackout because I think it is fundamentally misguided.

I like the Slashdot moderation system. It is the best system I've seen for handling the turd-tossers who want to ruin resources like Slashdot. They are not prevented from tossing their turds, they just get modded down to -1. Anyone who wants to examine their faecal projectiles can browse the comments at -1. (Have you tried that lately? Can you imagine trying to read a discusssion if you couldn't block that shit?)

Plum suggestion

[astrashe]

I suggest that when /. stories are approved, they be visible only to subscribers for 15 minutes. During that time, posting would be locked, so subscribers wouldn't dominate the discussions. It would be a Bad Idea to let people who pay have an edge in the debate.

The idea behind the suggestion is that subscribers would be able to actually read the stories before the /. effect shuts down the affected sites.

This is the only thing I can think of that would induce me to pay for /. I'm sorry, but I'm cheap, and that's the reality of the situation.

Re:Catch-22

[Hemos]

There shouldn't be Flash ads - please e-mail me when you find one. I track down the 3rd party advertiser, and kick them in the jim-jams.

Re:Terrible Business Model

[Hemos]

Try reading the stories. We're specifically ASKING what features it is readers want. We're not done with the system - we want input from you.

First-chance advantage

[Wavefront]

Yet another subscription idea:

Take a page from online stock tickers, which show 20-minute delayed values for non-subscribers, and realtime information for subscribers. If Slashdot did the same, it would mean that subscribers have access to new articles 20 minutes (or some other reasonable value) before non-subscribers, allowing them to beat the Slashdot effect, plus the ability to post comments before everyone else.

This benefit could be used in conjunction with, or separately from the existing no-ads system for subscribers, and IMHO it would draw many more subscribers than the no-ads system.