InsaneJournal Announcements

Details on Possible sale (take 2)

InsaneJournal Announcements

Details on Possible sale (take 2)

Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry
I have shut off votes and comments on the previous post. The comments I received there made me rethink things so this is going to be the new poll to gauge things

We are considering doing a fund raiser on IJ so we can move off our of Dedicated Servers and onto our own collocated servers. What this will allow us to do is lower the overall cost for running IJ and therefore be able to more easily upgrade our service as we will only have to add in hardware and not up our monthly costs to do this. In turn we can look at lowering prices around here once the site is moved and everything is stable.

What we hope to do is offer a new kind of account. The name isn't locked in stone but we are thinking of calling it "Hospital Benefactor". We will limit the sale to 350 of these accounts and charge $100 for them. We haven't finalized what the specs on the account will be, just that they will be a little more loaded than Permanently Insane accounts. Something like 1000 userpics. And more notifications, etc.

We will only move forward on this if we can be sure there is going to be enough interest. Moving onto our own hardware has a number of benefits and we think it is worthwhile to attempt this sale.

Edit: We will allow you to transfer Permanently Insane status to another account if you already have one and you purchase one of these accounts

Edit 2>: If you answer maybe can you please let us know what we could to do change that maybe to a yes. Also please let everyone on your f-list know about this poll so we can get a large enough sampling of answers to know what we should do.

Poll #3722 Upgraded Account
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Would you be willing to pay $100 for this account

View Answers

Yes
39 (18.9%)

No
100 (48.5%)

Maybe
67 (32.5%)

  • It's hard for me to say whether I would spend $100 without knowing specifically what the account would entail, though I am 100% in favor of moving the site to more stable collocated servers. I guess my issue is this - on one of my accounts, I paid $60 for a permanent account and if I were to get the extra userpics, it would be another $10. But if the benefits of having this new account are only a little more loaded than having something Permanently Insane, I think I'd be a little more open to it if it was priced at $80 - or at least around $60. Or if you're set on having the price be $100, maybe just make sure that the benefits of having a Hospital account are $40 more than just having a Permanent one.

    That being said, I'm wondering if you've thought about just having another Permanent sale? I know myself as well as some other people would definitely jump at the chance to have more. Were a lot sold last time?

    Regardless, thank you so so much for everything you do for the site and all the updates!
  • I would also like to know if, in the process of purchasing such an account, I would be able to transfer my permanent + insane userpics. I know I'm not exactly active here right now, but I do like the service enough to potentially contribute to such a move--but I don't need another permanent account. So...maybe, I voted maybe, if I's be able to transfer all my goodies on this account to the new one, which already has about as many goodies as it's possible to get for IJ. I'm not entirely sure I'd need more of them, but...yeah, I'm curious about how that would fall out, transferring insane userpics + permanent account to one of these, should I choose to support the site in this way.
  • *votes yes on reckless use of moneys* :P
  • Sorry I can't be more definite than 'maybe'.

    If LJ became so hopelessly judgemental that I decided to move my personal blog here then $100 for a lifetimes blogging is more than reasonable. But at the moment they are being sort of sensible and I can't justify spending that amount speculatively.
  • I voted maybe. I have a permanently insane account and I don't really use much of the features on it but I'm all for supporting the site. I just don't have that much to spend as a college student, if there was a way the Hospital accounts could have an edit comment feature or expand like some paid accounts on LJ has I'd definitely buy it.
  • $100 is just a lot of money to spend right now. There's bill and groceries and gas for the car....I have to go with maybe for now, not knowing where I'll be and what I'll be able to afford if/when this sale were to happen.
  • I think the biggest hurdle is the unsolved comment rot problem. And I'd probably rather have two Perm account such as it is.
  • I voted maybe; I already have a perm account and from what I saw from a comment you left above Squeaky, this account would give more style layers and icons. Well, I have the layers I needed since I just imported them myself and I only use 7-8 icons. I think if I was going to pay $100 (or even $60-$80) I would like to know exactly what I'm getting. So in general when throwing around money like that I'll just have to know what the account gets, then I'd be able to decide

    Also, in theory, say I buy this account would it be possible to transfer my perm account status to another username so I wouldn't loose that purchase?
  • I checked maybe, solely because of the state of my personal finances right now... :(
  • I had to go with maybe. It all depends on when this sale takes place. So, more than likely, that would be a yes, but I'm playing it safe with my answers.
  • Yes, especially if the move would figure out some of the comment rot. I'm all for the move anyway and assuming everything came up at the right time - in terms of personal finances - I would definitely support this.
  • I voted Maybe. What would change my mind would be if I actually HAD $100 to spend, but more importantly, if I could be sure the comment rot would no longer be an issue. I stayed away from IJ for a while because of it, and when I heard you were moving DBs I thought "Excellent! I'll join." Unfortunately, that hasn't been fixed yet. I wish I could help discover why it's an issue - someone mentioned that maybe it can be looked into as to why it only happens in journals and not in communities as a means for solution?

    Either way that's what would make me change my maybe to a yes.
  • How many...

    How many of you would donate (any amount!) if squeaky put a donation button somewhere highly visible?
  • I checked maybe simply because I don't know how much money I'll have available and because I have no idea what I'd do with the account benefits yet (not having maxed out anything available on my permanent account) and it's a lot of money to spend just like that.
  • I've voted maybe, and considering I think I missed the permanent account sale notices, I'm glad someone bought this to my attention.

    To make my Maybe a yes, give me a way to back up or archive the comments to my posts!

    Yes the icons would be great, I feel severely constricted right about now (I have found all my 'lost' icons, all 500 of them) and the option to have 1000 icons in one account is fantastic, but, to be honest i would rather preserve the writings of the RP Community I am a part of, so the archiving comments is far more important!
  • While I love to support IJ, I can't see a benefit to an account like this for me without specifics, so I voted NO. However, I might be inclined to gift away some perm accounts if you have another sale of those.
  • I said maybe because money is tight for me tight now, so it'd depend on IF I had the money to spare at the time.
  • I had to answer maybe, because it literally depends on what I will have for mad money in that particular month when the sale begins. With bills as they are, that varies, and sometimes it's simply too tight for me to squeeze out an extra $100. I would like to commit to saying yes, because I would really, really like to purchase one of these accounts. But that wouldn't give you an accurate idea of what's going on with people.

    That said, there was a suggestion above of a donation button. That I can definitely do, even if it's a minimal amount. It does add up, so I hope you'll consider this, possibly in conjunction with the sale. I'd like to contribute in some way, even if I can't purchase one of the shiny new accounts.
  • Things I'd like:

    Photo storage!

    Better organization for uploading icons, it's so hard now I rarely do it. PLEASE move the "here are your pretty pics!" off the same page as the upload form!

    Of course, fixing comment rot.

    Ummm, I don't know... one free paid asylum that comes along with every benefactor account?

    Ability to edit comments.

    I'll post if I think of other features I'd pay for. But you've got my hundred bucks either way.
  • In terms of buying an account like that it'd be a combination of what the account offers and my financial situation at the time. Certainly I'm all for having dedicated servers and the potential for lower costs, mostly because I think that having the lower costs could well get more people to buy the other things offered. Which can only be a good thing.
  • I voted no, but I will tell you what I would spend 100 on --

    I primarily use IJ for roleplaying, and I think you'll find a huge chunk of your population does as well. I would pay 100 dollars if I could have one paid benefit for multiple accounts instead of just one. Maybe like... 125-150 icons or access to styles. One or two perks that I can spread out over, say, ten journals for a year. Buying a paid account for ten journals just isn't worth it to me, because there are only 1 or 2 paid benefits that I would actually utilise, but being able have an "ala carte" option on multiple journals would make me consider dropping that kind of cash.

    Hope that made some sort of sense.
  • I checked maybe. As someone else said already, I would likely pay that much if it came with a gallery like Livejournal has. And, as [info]sherlock suggested, maybe the ability to spread out the icons over various RP accounts.
  • Like many of the others who have commented, I would love to buy one of these accounts, but it all depends on the funds available to me at the time of the sale.
  • I voted "maybe" because a) I'd need a more specific list of how the "hospital benefactor" account would be more beneficial, have more/better features, than what I have right now (permanently insane + insane userpics) and b) I'd have to figure out my own finances and whether or not I could swing the $100 right now (or in the near future).
  • I voted no since I'm already permanently insane with insane user pics. I can't think of any additional features that would convince me to spend $100. Personal finances also play a part in my decision.
Powered by InsaneJournal