AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Hi all Just gauging the level of support for opening up Gamesbids more. One way to open up is for all regular members having access to premium membership if they choose to. Here’s where things sit right now at Gamesbids.com in comparison to some similar blogs: Opening up premium membership to all What do other members think? Would you like to become a premium member on Gamesbids.com ? Gamesbids.com: Gamesbids.com has premium members but it is not open to all its not clear how you become a premium member regular members cannot edit their posts only premium members can edit post This gives a clear appearance of a closed secret enclave. Sorry, but it does exactly that when the gate is shut. that may not be the impression which Gamesbids.com intended but that “closed secret exclusive club” is clearly how premium membership currently looks on gamesbids.com - and that is damaging. Skyscrapercity.com: Skyscrapercity.com has premium membership open to anyone who wishes to pay the subscription. those who don’t want premium membership can still edit their posts. TotallyOlympics.com premium membership was removed in 2017 and the site is open to everyone The totallyolympics host host posted this in 2017: “I was able to reduce the costs of hosting the website and I am able to pay most of them with the money I receive from the ads (which is very few, but still enough to cover most of the costs), the Premium Membership and the donations are not necessary anymore and Totallympics is free for everyone again.” members can freely edit their posts Editing Posts Currently, of three big Olympic blog sites, Gamesbids.com is the only one of these where regular members cannot edit their own posts. Skyscrapercity.com - regular members can edit their posts for free TotallyOlympics.com - regular members can edit their posts for free Gamesbids.com - only premium gamesbids members can edit posts. Regular members cannot become premium members as access to premium membership is not open to all. No paid subscription but no published pathway to premium membership either. Would you like the ability to be able to edit your posts? Ads on gamesbids.com Ads on websites are a way of helping to pay for the cost of hosting that website does this “secret club of premium members” on gamesbids.com not see the ads? Some websites will block ads if you pay for a premium membership * * * * * * * * * * * * * Personally, I much prefer Gamesbids.com and I urge you to continue to stay at Gamesbids.com, but it needs to open up and be more accessible to all. This thread is to see what others think. The feedback from members in thisthread can be passed on to the Gamesbids administrators to consider. What do you think? Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Let me guess who wants to become a premium member. 1 Quote
munichfan Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 I think this thread does not belong in the General Olympics Discussion section. Apart from that, these boards are small. And I don't see becoming premium as such a major perk. I don't have any issues with how thinks are working as of now. 1 Quote
Popular Post Sir Rols Posted February 15, 2022 Popular Post Report Posted February 15, 2022 I was just thinking yesterday that it’s a saving grace at least that you don’t have premium. You’re insufferable enough now 1 5 1 Quote
StefanMUC Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 I think I'll finally try this fancy "Ignore User" option that even a very peasant membership seems to include. 1 Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Poor SkyScraperCity & Totallympics, too. 1 Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 26 minutes ago, AustralianFan said: This gives a clear appearance of a closed secret enclave. Sorry, but it does exactly that when the gate is shut. that may not be the impression which Gamesbids.com intended but that “closed secret exclusive club” is clearly how premium membership currently looks on gamesbids.com - and that is damaging. This sounds so vaguely familiar. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. You should be use to that by now, though, since that's how the new-norm, you're so in love with, now operates: Everything now done behind 'closed secret exclusive clubs', behind-closed-doors, hush-hush, wink-wink, with no transparency whatsoever. You should have no issues with this, either. 1 Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 Just now, FYI said: This sounds so vaguely familiar. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. You should be use to that by now, though, since that's how the new-norm, you're so in love with, now operates: Everything now done behind 'closed secret exclusive clubs', behind-closed-doors, hush-hush, wink-wink, with no transparency whatsoever. You should have no issues with this, either. What are your views on opening up Gamesbids.com ? Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 24 minutes ago, Sir Rols said: I was just thinking yesterday that it’s a saving grace at least that you don’t have premium. You’re insufferable enough now What are your views on opening up Gamesbids.com ? Quote
StefanMUC Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 2 minutes ago, FYI said: This sounds so vaguely familiar. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. You should be use to that by now, though, since that's how the new-norm, you're so in love with, now operates: Everything now done behind 'closed secret exclusive clubs', behind-closed-doors, hush-hush, wink-wink, with no transparency whatsoever. You should have no issues with this, either. Touché... That ignore user function is actually great as I'm just learning, why did I never use it in the last almost 9 years? Quote
Sir Rols Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Note to other premiums - make sure you burn all the evidence in the secret meeting hall if this clown ever makes it in 1 Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 17 minutes ago, StefanMUC said: I think I'll finally try this fancy "Ignore User" option that even a very peasant membership seems to include. What are your views on opening up Gamesbids.com ? Quote
Sir Rols Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 1 minute ago, AustralianFan said: What are your views on opening up Gamesbids.com ? I don’t think *cough* certain members could be trusted with a “create poll” function Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Just now, AustralianFan said: What are your views on opening up Gamesbids.com ? What do you mean by "opening up"? As far as I can tell, anyone can still join the site. When premium was first made available here, & that was eons ago, it started off with being $9.99 as a one-time payment. Then it became a $14.99 yearly thing. And now it's no more, apparently. It's seems that GamesBids has now gone by the way Totallympics has, as you described above. By having all these ads that are here nowadays paying for most of the site's operations. Something that a premium membership fee alone couldn't be able to do long-term, I'm assuming. And my guess, is the people who still have premium today, are the ones who paid the one-time $9.99 fee LONG ago. I was actually going to do that back in the day, but when I finally decided to do it, that's when it transitioned into a yearly subscription, so I said forget it then. Other than editing posts & starting polls, I don't see any other benefit to it, TBH. Quote
Sir Rols Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Just now, FYI said: Other than editing posts & starting polls, I don't see any other benefit to it, TBH. That is about all. And a bigger mailbox. And a secret conclave each Full Moon near the equinox. Quite seriously, it is just the mailbox, edits and polls. We still get the same ads. And I really do think the poll feature would be abused in too many hands. It’s all moot anyway. By this time next week the site will be back in hibernation. Quote
fatixxx Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 gamezbids is democratic enough imho, but i think that the word-using is not appropiate.. closed-enclave where all the secret hush-hush wink-wink intellegence occures is a little bit unnoble wording 10 years ago a was on the bench of being premium member and at that time GBmoderator was so polite to answer my question but with the loose of istanbul on tokyo back in 2013 buenos aires i lost my excitement back then.. but want to share my toughts on this issue.. 1// as gamesbids-platform is democratic enough.. who can attach a poll on top of this thread with 4-5-6 options when this threads get mature enough 2// i surely would want an option to edit my messaging when i wrote somethşng wrong (because of the switch of language of keyboard for example) this unableity causss a problem that shifts-forward into a new message to indicate the wrongness or to add a few sentences more.. this unableity gives me from time to time a little stress, not being able to edit your own mesagges gives an handicap feeling.. minor improvements will make us users feel more valuable.. the question/title on top of this thread is not wrong but the secrecy/shallow view is not correct. best regards, fatih 1 1 Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 9 minutes ago, FYI said: What do you mean by "opening up"? As far as I can tell, anyone can still join the site. When premium was first made available here, & that was eons ago, it started off with being $9.99 as a one-time payment. Then it became a $14.99 yearly thing. And now it's no more, apparently. It's seems that GamesBids has now gone by the way Totallympics has, as you described above. By having all these ads that are here nowadays paying for most of the site's operations. Something that a premium membership fee alone couldn't be able to do long-term, I'm assuming. And my guess, is the people who still have premium today, are the ones who paid the one-time $9.99 fee LONG ago. I was actually going to do that back in the day, but when I finally decided to do it, that's when it transitioned into a yearly subscription, so I said forget it then. Other than editing posts & starting polls, I don't see any other benefit to it, TBH. So you would like to be able to edit your own posts? Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 7 minutes ago, Sir Rols said: That is about all. And a bigger mailbox. And a secret conclave each Full Moon near the equinox. Quite seriously, it is just the mailbox, edits and polls. We still get the same ads. And I really do think the poll feature would be abused in too many hands. It’s all moot anyway. By this time next week the site will be back in hibernation. You’re a moderator and can edit your posts. Regular members cannot even edit their own posts. Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 Just now, Sir Rols said: That is about all. And a bigger mailbox. And a secret conclave each Full Moon near the equinox. Quite seriously, it is just the mailbox, edits and polls. We still get the same ads. And I really do think the poll feature would be abused in too many hands. Ahh, yes. Forgot about the mailbox. That's one perk where I think I'd actually like. There's been a number of times throughout the years, where I wanted to send, or someone telling me here, that my mailbox is full & can't send/receive anymore. Yeah, three messages just isn't enough, especially if you forget to clear your inbox. Lol, & yeah, can just imagine how many 'new-norm' polls we'd wind up getting otherwise! 6 minutes ago, Sir Rols said: It’s all moot anyway. By this time next week the site will be back in hibernation. Yeah, it does seem like the boards have had a pretty good run these past six months, with Tokyo 2020ne & Beijing 2022. Quote
Rob2012 Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 (edited) You'd be better off PMing GBModerator with your ideas. (I'm gonna get banned for this suggestion aren't I?) Edited February 15, 2022 by Rob. Quote
FYI Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 3 minutes ago, AustralianFan said: So you would like to be able to edit your own posts? It'd be nice sometimes, but not all that necessary. Like I just mentioned to Rols, I think I'd like the mailbox expansion the most. Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 Just now, FYI said: It'd be nice sometimes, but not all that necessary. Like I just mentioned to Rols, I think I'd like the mailbox expansion the most. That would be good Quote
Sir Rols Posted February 15, 2022 Report Posted February 15, 2022 4 minutes ago, AustralianFan said: You’re a moderator and can edit your posts. Regular members cannot even edit their own posts. The only mod tool (apart from the flag as spammer) tool I used to regularly use was the ability to move posts to different forums. That was lost in the last software update, but I miss it. It would have been handy in cases such as Olympics2028. I dunno, editing’s okay - mostly when spell correct or too fast typing stuffs up a post. But I participate in other sites without it and it’s not a deal breaker. At worst you post a correction. Quote
AustralianFan Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Posted February 15, 2022 20 minutes ago, FYI said: What do you mean by "opening up"? As far as I can tell, anyone can still join the site. When premium was first made available here, & that was eons ago, it started off with being $9.99 as a one-time payment. Then it became a $14.99 yearly thing. And now it's no more, apparently. It's seems that GamesBids has now gone by the way Totallympics has, as you described above. By having all these ads that are here nowadays paying for most of the site's operations. Something that a premium membership fee alone couldn't be able to do long-term, I'm assuming. And my guess, is the people who still have premium today, are the ones who paid the one-time $9.99 fee LONG ago. I was actually going to do that back in the day, but when I finally decided to do it, that's when it transitioned into a yearly subscription, so I said forget it then. Other than editing posts & starting polls, I don't see any other benefit to it, TBH. It’s the editing function that Gamesbids is not allowing regular members like us to do. Skyscraper allow members to edit their own post. TotallyOlympics allow members to edit their own posts. Gamesbids.com do not allow members to edit their own posts. Quote
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