K Scar... thank you for raising the question of whether subscriber status tags are valid, as well as some valid points about the running of the website. I also would be thinking twice about the value of the site if suddenly asked to subscribe for something that was previously free.

The comments you made, and questions you asked, are probably what many others are quietly considering - and therefore I'd like to thank you for expressing them so I can answer in a way that may also answer the unasked questions of others. But I would welcome any amount of discussion of the subject, so anyone who would like to take issue with me over any points is more than welcome - and website changes may be made as a result.

I guess my first thought would be 'why should I pay?' And I would go and search for an alternative, then realise that the info on W2S is quite unique. This might prompt me to consider that W2S is the 'Whitepages of Karaoke', but without the huge phone revenue to provide for the running (Whitepages is not free, it is 'included').

I would also expect that all the basic info would be free, and that Subscribers would get something extra - isn't that the way it works on many websites? But, ah, if only half W2S people subscribe for the 'extras', we're going to see a $100+ price tag - whereas to make it something that all W2S people need, the cost is spread a lot more fairly at less than a US dollar per week. Now I start to understand why the important information is kept for subscribers.

But is this fair? Well, I figured that the occasional karaoker simply won't need this basic information, so actually it does serve to diffrentiate the genuine occasional karaoker from the W2S regular. And, as for noting subscription status in the Forums, this is the same - as the occasional karaoke will rarely have anything to contribute, and will be mainly a reader not a writer. And as for the SWD tag - whatever non-subscribers are called, or even if they are not designated at all, this will soon come to mean the same. Everyone is expected to start as a Guest, progress quickly to SWD status, and then move after a short period to Subscriber. Subscribers are the lifeblood of the site, and deserve to be recognised. No one is going to think twice about an SWD, unless they are still an SWD a month or two later whilst still using the website actively.

And I took note of what Arran and Jason said about some people actually not having the money available - so I made sure that the W2S Venue names match those in Whitepages, and put a link to the (quick but hard to find) text version of Whitepages at the top of each gig's Comments page. But, with all that, the site is maintained with the support of subscribers, and it is these who have my focus.

So what about getting the revenue from advertisers, and filling the site with flashing banners, losing both sides of every page to Google ads, waiting three times as long for every page to load because of all the advertising content that needs to be loaded? Are the US karaoke sites with their copious quantities of adverts the way to go? We tried $1 top-of-forum advertising, aqnd I think the total revenue came out at nearly $20. Nah. Do you want a site where what you read is necessarily dictated by the adertisers, or do you want a site where I (and you) can upset whomever we want when we feel the need?

It's at about this point that it becomes obvious the only way to go is with a broadly based subscription, and surely less than one US dollar per week is the sort of decision we make every day about the value of something we are considering buying? I could talk of 'the principle not the money' here, but the principle here is already perfect: If I use the site regularly but don't subscribe, I will find it inconvenient, probably more costly in phone calls, and everyone else will know of my decision.

And, when I have moved from SWD to Subscriber status, won't I be quite happy to see my support and investment recognised by way of having my subscription status next to my name?
Submitted by David on 19-09-2005

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