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Cost of Subscriptions


PathWalker

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PathWalker

Am I right in thinking that the cost of forum subscription has jumped from $20 a year to $35 a year?

Is that right?

Thank you

PW

 

And before anyone mentions the kickstarter thing I COULD have done - yes I know, but I had issues with kickstarter payment that couldn't be sorted out, and LittleFang told me that if I made a gift payment to the forum it couldn't be tied to that so 😞 I couldn't get that sorted.

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AJ-ish/Sharyn

wow, just checked and you are right. Wow. 

 

as a side issue, I often wondered what it cost to run AT with the amount of traffic it had. Could have been a real factor in it's shutdown. 

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No - that wasn't it. She had just moved on; she actually kept it going a lot longer than she had wanted to, in the end.

 

AT was funded a lot by ads and by click-throughs to amazon etc.

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The last time I paid for two years, it seems to have been $50 USD. I'm not sure if that was discounted for being two years at once. That's as far back as my paypal will take me. And that was in 2016 - it may have gone up afterwards, but I wouldn't have noticed.

Edited by gregory
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Little Fang

We had to raise the costs a bit. This software, plus the themes and plugins, have 6 month to 1 year renewal costs each (depending on each publisher.)  The software alone renews at $95 every 6 months. I tried to keep it affordable still!  🙂

 

Pathwalker please message me again, there was a lot going on and I'm going to be mostly out the next few days for work. 👍 

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Little Fang

I just did the math on all the stuff we got going on since I like some transparency.

Only about 2% of all our members are subscribers (and we LOVE you all!) and occasionally we get donations (ALSO much love!) ❤️ 

I calculated this new software, with plugins, hosting, and domain costs, to be around $613.24 each year.  It's good to have buffer too in case something happens, or we need new plugins for any reason.  

 

This is why we had to raise the price just a little.  I don't recall the prices of AT, but I think I was paying $9.95 or such for a 3-month sub.  (If anybody has the prior prices, please let me know!  This will help keep us preferably lower than them.)

 

Thank you all for being here and bringing up this discussion!

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Little Fang

I wanted to add, I'm trying to avoid putting a ton of gross google ads everywhere, and subs allow us to keep those things off the site.  We have the reader ads, as I try to keep things on topic here. 🙂

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I just wanted to add a little bit of my personal thoughts and opinions on all this. Firstly, I feel that it’s admirable how transparent Brittany (Little Fang) is and how she really tries her best to meet everyone’s expectations and suggestions. There are not just the physical costs that need to be weighed in here. There are hours and hours spent every day on this forum by Little Fang and us moderators/admins. A lot of it is behind the scenes stuff, where we manage the technical side or discuss ways to provide even better or cooler stuff to you all. Plus the time spent on moderating, mentoring, running circles, working on the deck library, answering questions, doing readings, etc. Plus to actually participate in the discussions! Little Fang took two weeks of from her job to manage this upgrade/move too. We do all this because we love this place and we love all you guys! And we truly understand that money is an issue for most people. We get that and we are constantly trying to come up with ways to keep the costs down. Little Fang has been so driven and inventive to find features and plug ins for free - such as the chat window or the up/down button that everyone missed. This was because all the Kickstarter money only covered the basics. And with the time we already invest in this, it’s not really feasible that we (Little Fang) start paying for those extra features out of her own pocket. But that is what would have to happen if we did not have subscriptions and paid readers. So please, keep all this in mind. We really want everyone to get the wonderful experience here that they hoped for and we are willing to turn ourselves backwards to do so. It’s just that you don’t always see us turned backwards much of the time. Plus, you do not get to see all the secret planning that goes on where we try to come up with really awesome surprises and new fun features for you all. We are super inspired and enthusiastic, and we have big dreams for this place. And I hope you will all dream big with us 💖

 

So much love to you all! 

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I'm actually with you so much. I know a lot about how much sheer grind went into running AT. And I love how few ads there are here - even when logged out (I went to look !) You're all worth it for what you do. We get this kind of hassle about subs to the choir 'm in, every year. And every year I point out that it costs a LOT less per week than a coffee in Starbucks. I do know that many people can't actually afford that coffee - but a load of the noisiest whiners I SEE in there - several even arrive at choir carrying a Starbucks takeaway ! At $35 a year - that's well under a dollar a week - hardly extortionate, though hard for a few of us, I admit.

 

One teeny thought - AT did gave the facility to gift slightly discounted subs - including one to gift a sub to a random person chosen by Solandia - often someone she knew couldn't afford it (I recall someone over there who was so popular that I think their sub was paid by so many others that it won't expire for about 50 years !) LF might like to consider that ?

 

I don't see the amazing up/down arrow, by the way. I don't actually mind, but... which pages is it on ?

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18 minutes ago, gregory said:

I'm actually with you so much. I know a lot about how much sheer grind went into running AT. And I love how few ads there are here - even when logged out (I went to look !) You're all worth it for what you do. We get this kind of hassle about subs to the choir 'm in, every year. And every year I point out that it costs a LOT less per week than a coffee in Starbucks. I do know that many people can't actually afford that coffee - but a load of the noisiest whiners I SEE in there - several even arrive at choir carrying a Starbucks takeaway ! At $35 a year - that's well under a dollar a week - hardly extortionate, though hard for a few of us, I admit.

 

One teeny thought - AT did gave the facility to gift slightly discounted subs - including one to gift a sub to a random person chosen by Solandia - often someone she knew couldn't afford it (I recall someone over there who was so popular that I think their sub was paid by so many others that it won't expire for about 50 years !) LF might like to consider that ?

 

I don't see the amazing up/down arrow, by the way. I don't actually mind, but... which pages is it on ?

Thank you!

 

I am sure that is something that Little Fang would consider. We have had people gifting subscriptions before. And its such a awesome gesture (and a great gift, I you don't mind me saying so :grin:)!

 

The arrow is not in the page, it is seen in a grey bubble in the lower right corner (as seen on the pic below)

1.jpg

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My last payment to AT for a year on my paypal (only goes up to 2016 as well gregory) was $37.46. I am not sure why it was an inexact amount, that was the US$ cost before UK£ conversion and think that was for a year and Little Fang was right that the smallest package was $9.99 for 3 months. Over $30 for 12 months for sure. Maybe it was $35 (or a little less) a year and $50 for 2 years but the 2 years came towards the end of the forum.

 

I like to compare the cost of subscription to the cost of a tarot deck that is massmarket. On Amazon.com a RWS deck is $22, some a little cheaper. Wild Unknown Tarot is $30, Fountain Tarot RRP is $40 (but mostly sells for around $30). So it's the cost of a deck or two per year.

 

There was two nice things on AT with subscriptions.....

 

 - subscription offers. From time to time you could buy up time on your sub when it was reduced. This was so useful to get 2 years with a reduction. Solandia did it on special days, some World Tarot Days and on big anniversaries of the forum. I think the offer was 25% off the cost of all packages but it only was available for 30 days.

 

- gifts like gregory posted about. You could send someone a sub as a gift, with your name on or anon! Also there was a thread where people could ask for a subscription gift for a year. They had to give a good reason, make their case why they deserved it. Sometimes people would send a gift sub to them or other people paid money into AT to cover that area and Solandia would give it to them from that fund.

 

This forum is something I use daily and happy to pay those costs but do have a worry that it will price out some people and maybe gifting or a gift subscription thread + fund would solve that.

Edited by DanielJUK
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Nordica De Spell

I just want to add that to me it’s evident the work, energy, passion and LOVE you pour into this forum.

 

(I think that there will be more subscribers in time.)

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Nordica De Spell said:

I just want to add that to me it’s evident the work, energy, passion and LOVE you pour into this forum.

 

(I think that there will be more subscribers in time.)

 

 

 

 

:bubble_blovekiss:

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fire cat pickles

It also helps when people are willing to donate books, decks, and bags for the (the receiver paying the) cost of shipping plus (the donor providing a) donation to the forum. I can't remember where I saw this, but it is a nice gesture!

Edited by fire cat pickles
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Little Fang

Thanks all!  :animated-smileys-hug-002:

 

I had forgotten about the gifting thread honestly. I love that idea! 

I think I can make gifting possible but I need to check.

 

Good morning, by the way! Time to work. 

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9 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

Thank you!

 

I am sure that is something that Little Fang would consider. We have had people gifting subscriptions before. And its such a awesome gesture (and a great gift, I you don't mind me saying so :grin:)!

 

The arrow is not in the page, it is seen in a grey bubble in the lower right corner (as seen on the pic below)

1.jpg

Doesn't seem to be on mine - but I suspect my security settings. They block heaps of unexpected things :rofl: I don't care anyway ! Thanks.

 

ETA yup - it is there when I use a different browser !

8 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

My last payment to AT for a year on my paypal (only goes up to 2016 as well gregory) was $37.46. I am not sure why it was an inexact amount, that was the US$ cost before UK£ conversion and think that was for a year and Little Fang was right that the smallest package was $9.99 for 3 months. Over $30 for 12 months for sure. Maybe it was $35 (or a little less) a year and $50 for 2 years but the 2 years came towards the end of the forum.

 

I like to compare the cost of subscription to the cost of a tarot deck that is massmarket. On Amazon.com a RWS deck is $22, some a little cheaper. Wild Unknown Tarot is $30, Fountain Tarot RRP is $40 (but mostly sells for around $30). So it's the cost of a deck or two per year.

 

There was two nice things on AT with subscriptions.....

 

 - subscription offers. From time to time you could buy up time on your sub when it was reduced. This was so useful to get 2 years with a reduction. Solandia did it on special days, some World Tarot Days and on big anniversaries of the forum. I think the offer was 25% off the cost of all packages but it only was available for 30 days.

 

You know - I think that was exactly what I did. I think I actually bought 2 reduced years when I still had 9 months to run ! (I got a refund at the end, and it was quite large !)

 

I have an ex-global mod from AT in my home right now, who says as she recalls it was $30 US a year when it closed. So not such a difference to he $35 here..

Edited by gregory
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10 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

 

 - subscription offers. From time to time you could buy up time on your sub when it was reduced. This was so useful to get 2 years with a reduction. Solandia did it on special days, some World Tarot Days and on big anniversaries of the forum.

 

@gregory Unless you weren’t just joking and actually wondering, then this is the comment that Little Fang was referencing/replying to 

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29 minutes ago, Little Fang said:

I am looking into a sale for world tarot day 😉 and our anniversary 

That would be great, I only recently decided to become more active in the Tarot community, it has been a struggle balancing my public "real life" and private Tarot/spiritual life and I am trying to consolidate the two more. I really wanted to do the lifetime subscription in Kickstarter but at the time I wasn't sure if I would actually use the forums because I am naturally such a lurker. Now I'd really like to subscribe but the cost is a bit prohibitive for me at the moment. If there were a sale I definitely think I'd be on board. 

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