Membership ideas

[a.wayne]

Originally Posted by Jason

From $10, for one year of benefits. Which happens to be less than the large frappachino I didn't have at Starbucks in Moscow last year

Very fair and thanks for a great site ..................

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Hearinspace

Hi Jason,

I'd like to see 1) An exact quote search function that only looks at text (including spaces) not word recognition, and 2) the ability to search the results of a search.

I often go looking for a post I first saw when I didn't need the info but now I do. It is usually the case that I can remember a word that was used in the text but not how it was used - For example: I'm sure there was something about electrical & technology but that's all, it could have been "electronics technology" , "technical electronics", "an electrical technicality" etc. . . . To be able to search "electr" and then do a search of those results for "techn" would be great.
These functions are also highly useful when doing fresh searches where we know generally the sort of info we want to find but have no clear idea what form it may be in.

Thanks !
Hearinspace

Thanks for the suggestion. Search is a core website function, so if we make any improvements to that it will be for everyone to enjoy. Speaking of general website improvements, I'm going to shortly add a "request improvements" thing to the site so people can vote on suggestions..

[Moondog55]

What ads?

I have never seen what I would call an advertisement.
I do not count links to sponsors websites as an ad tho.

If we have paid membership are you still going to be running Beg-a-thons??

If we get ads can we expect discounts at the sites involved??

If we need to have paid memberships for full access can we add some really good calculators and such as part of the site? e:g Mathcad work sheets for using MJK's TL calculators, for this I would be willing to pay on a usage basis martins work is valuable and I agree with his stance on this.
All in all I could go to $25- US a year without harming my relations with SWMBO but as we are both members I would expect a household fee, not an individual cost.

Regards
Ted

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Moondog55

What ads?

I have never seen what I would call an advertisement.
I do not count links to sponsors websites as an ad tho.

My preference is certainly to have relevant ads, all the time. I really don't want to see ads for ED popping up :)

If we have paid membership are you still going to be running Beg-a-thons??

I'd like to see membership drives replacing begathons.

If we get ads can we expect discounts at the sites involved??

That's up to the people showing the ads, but as it would mean more clickthroughs and goodwill for all I think they'd be silly not to. We'll be working with sponsors to get discounts for diyAudio members.

If we need to have paid memberships for full access can we add some really good calculators and such as part of the site? e:g Mathcad work sheets for using MJK's TL calculators, for this I would be willing to pay on a usage basis martins work is valuable and I agree with his stance on this.

If anyone is willing to donate intellectual property for this purpose or have us develop web based technology based on their work, I am more than happy to hear from them (PM!). My general feeling towards this is that there should be no exclusivity on this website. Paid membership will not provide a key to any new or exclusive information, just nice frills.

If someone would like to offer diyAudio members a discount on their products or services, that would be wonderful and I would be happy to promote them in due context. I'm sure this would have positive benefits for them, the members, and the site.

All in all I could go to $25- US a year without harming my relations with SWMBO but as we are both members I would expect a household fee, not an individual cost.

I'm more than happy to cater for any special or unusual arrangements, including providing discounts to members from developing countries or who are financially restricted but have their hearts in the right place, on a case by case basis. Just write me :)

In a perfect world, I'd make the membership levels based on a multiple of the average price of a cup of coffee in your city, but I fear that would be far too difficult to implement.

[Moondog55]

Greets Jason
i did not expect
1/ such a prompt response
2/ such a detailed response

The comment about family membership was partially a joke, Cecile really only registered so she could post a rejoinder to a comment I made on a build thread.

I do expect you to make a good deal of money thru the T-shirt sales, I want a couple for me and I'll have to get a couple of XXXXL for SWMBO so please make sure we have at least one style for big girls and boys, heck Mambo T-shirts sell for $55- each Get Reg Mombasa to do the artwork and I'll pay that at least once.
Coffee here in Geelong averages $3.50 a cup for expresso, so a cup a month equals AUD$42- I'd not want to go higher tho.

Regards
And please keep up the good work; I have learnt so much hear here hear

[Jason]

Thanks The multiple - I wasn't thinking of 12 but you get the idea

[Moondog55]

Jason ???when did you get back form the Bahamas??

[Moondog55]

more ideas wanted

I'm running on empty here

[prairiemystic]

Is the question at hand, a better revenue stream/model for diyAudio? Or membership ideas only. I'll put in my $0.02, just rambling way too much here.

Tiered membership with fees ($10) seems fine, the cost of a (printed) electronics magazine these days. I would want more from the site though, in terms of how it's organized i.e. organizing swap meets/group listening sessions in my area, open source designs, categories are weakly defined- it's all tedious. All the info is here, but not well indexed and reading 1,000 posts is too time consuming. It seems little has changed since the BBS first came around in the 80's.

Open a diyAudio merchandise store (or partner with a store) for goods promoting the DIY'er like clothing, backpacks, mugs etc. etc.
Open a diyAudio store (or partner with a store or support a member's store) for electronics goods from projects/group builds here. Kits from some of the projects here would be awesome! Share profits with the designer or get open source designs working, so far the site lacks a format for that.

I like what SparkFun Electronics is doing, although they are "reverse" in that they sell parts- with their forums to support the parts and hobbyists. One game changer is they partnered with a cheap PCB manufacturer (BatchPCB) and offer royalties (to US citizens) if a designer's PCB sells.

If the "value" here is community and information, such as the diyAudio article His Master's Noise: A Thoroughly Modern Tube Phono Preamp - that is great to publish a project here, but then what. It's a prototype. Where are the PC boards, the bill of materials, the links to suppliers, some CNC machined front panels, oh please kit the thing so I don't have to hunt for each part etc.
There's so much more to making a gizmo than the discussion and I notice people's lives are quite busy, making a market for kits, especially for newbies.

That $100 eBay DAC Kit- Posts: 2,502 Views: 254,969 - there's an example of what the masses are into, but see how the forum is one massive thread. If I was interested in say adding a transformer to this, the search required is exhausting, some say it's fun but I calculate 125 minutes to read all those posts at 3 seconds/post. Over two hours of reading!

The ads here are somewhat quiet, I see no Amazon electronics/audio-topic book ads, no Hammond, Sowter, Jensen etc. and I guess it's limited by Google Ads. What about company's new product announcements, maybe a "what's new" page with a fee to advertisers.

If suppliers offer discounts to diyAudio members, that be incredible.

I'm going to shut up now but this is interesting, new ebusiness ideas.

[Moondog55]

What?? You start the pot boiling and then turn the heat down???

I am with you on the kit thing as I am a total klutz at electronics and have stuffed up a couple of chip-amp kits.
I think you will find that a discount may already be available from some suppliers but not heavily marketed.

But I like the current free advice on offer and the total willingness to share expertise; you don't get that too often.
GTG's should be more often I agree, wait till I buy an old church and I will host as many as I can ; until then what do you suggest??