Improved donations / membership upgrades system

[Jason]

I'm happy to announce that the donations / membership updates system has just been updated and cleaned up. Gone is the messy landing page with confusing options. In is a minimal and straightforward presentation. This is only a first step but I think it will go a long way to improving communication.

Firstly, thank you to everyone past and present who has contributed financially to support the operational costs of diyAudio.

Last year we engaged quite a bit of external development help. This allowed us to successfully move to this new, stable, secure platform (XenForo), with almost zero downtime and no significant hiccups since the migration. The new software and hosting configuration will enable us to meet the needs of the community over the coming decade, or two. If it were not for the generous donations towards operational costs from members, and the financial support from the diyAudio store, this would have been possible.

Here's what has changed today:

1. All membership benefits are the same or slightly upgraded compared to what they were before
2. We're now using the default XenForo upgrades system. Simple is sometimes best.
3. Communication has been improved about what will generate a membership upgrade, how much it costs, and how long it will last for
4. The entry level membership upgrade has been renamed from the ever-so-awkward "Aficionado" to "Enthusiast", and reduced in price from $25 to $20
5. The also ever-so-awkwardly named "Connoisseur" level has been renamed "Patron"
6. All levels now enable multiple recipient messaging
7. The only difference between each level is more signature lines, and Patron level allowing commercial links, but we may add new features in the future.
8. Members often reported missing re-subscription emails, or having problems re-subscribing. There are now recurring subscription options for each level for your convenience. Set and forget, but you can cancel at any time to stop the recurring billing. You choose what suits you.
9. We have switched the system that sends emails to a new one, and the emails have been improved to help with better communication

What's coming in the future:

1. This week there will be an update to the "postbit" (the part of the post where you see a member's name, avatar and their details) to add country flags. When this is launched the "donation star" is being changed to a more compact blue "donation shield" which better represents its purpose.
2. Soon after this the "Enhanced Thread Print" system will get a bit overhaul to make it fit for purpose. The current post-XF implementation is not up to scratch (primarily, it can't handle very long threads).
3. In the near term future, any member will be able to gift a membership upgrade to another member, should they be feeling generous
4. In the medium term future, upgraded members will gain additional access to more forum visual customisation options, as time goes on (show/hide flags, various other requested niceties, more themes, etc). And other stuff we will endeavour to find and create to give you value. None of these things exist yet, so take this with a grain of salt, but we will be endeavouring nonetheless.

Again, thank you very much for your support over the years. Especially those who have re-subscribed year after year. Your contributions go a long way to the keeping diyAudio operational.

Jason.

 

[KaffiMann]

Just did a test of the subscription page, works very well.
I have been donating a few times before, and now I feel "restored" after finally achieving a bit of leeway after a tough previous year with no membership. I know you have lower tiers but I so much like being a "Fanatic" so it's that or nothing.

 

[CharlieLaub]

Very nice! Support is strong with the mods at DIYaudio. The new (ish) forum software is working great and the transition was seamless. I am more than happy to give back a little today.

 

[Osvaldo de Banfield]

Contributing from those far countries under the line of poorness is almost impossible. I once donated with the help of @kevinkr but nowadays I sincerely can't. I lost my job 3 years ago and actually I surviving only.

My best wishes.