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Premium Membership is Live on Labs!

7399 Views 126 Replies 11 Participants Last post by AG Jeff, Nov 3, 2020

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Discussion Starter · Feb 14, 2020

Hello Admins. We are excited to announce an updated version of our Premium Membership. It’s arriving here on Labs shortly, and across the entire platform within the next few weeks. We’re introducing it as a way for members to give back to their communities -- as all proceeds go to re-investing in this platform -- and to improve their site experience. Our site is ad-supported, but many people don’t like to see ads, so a Premium Membership is a way to improve their time on the site and give them exclusive access to some features. The site will continue to be supported by ads, so the site will continue to be free to use (with ads) for people who are not interested in the Premium Membership.

The price is $19.99 USD, billed annually. We currently only support the USD currency, however people can still purchase the membership wherever they are in the world. We support PayPal payments, along with Visa, Mastercard, American Express & Discover. The features of Premium Membership are:

An ad-free site experience
Focused reading mode (the option to hide the right column)
Access to exclusive forums
An exclusive badge on profile avatars.

Members can unsubscribe from these automatic payments at any time. Members who cancel will retain their Premium Membership until one year from the date of their sign up.

Previously, some communities had Lifetime Memberships available to users. These users will now have the Premium Membership experience (and will receive those benefits for their lifetime). New Lifetime Memberships are no longer available on the new platform. For any user who already has a Premium Membership, and they paid more than the new $19.99 USD price, we are messaging them to let them know the steps they should take to make sure their renewal happens at the new rate.

The Premium Membership features will be live here in Labs for two weeks before it’s rolled out to more sites on the platform, so we’re always looking to this group to help us improve the experience, keep the feedback and ideas coming.

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Discussion Starter · #2 · Feb 14, 2020 (Edited by Moderator)

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Members who aren’t currently Premium members will see upgrade information in a few places on the site. They can find more information and initiate the upgrade by clicking upgrade buttons displayed on the right side community widget, under the Avatar dropdown and in Account Details page under Account setting.

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Mike Lang

· #3 · Feb 14, 2020

Since we're using the words "ad free" vs "reduced advertising", is it truly ad free as in all non-traditional ads are gone as well such as sponsored posts?

We've had some push back from legal eagles on that language.

rdlviper

· #4 · Feb 14, 2020

Mike Lang said:
Since we're using the words "ad free" vs "reduced advertising", is it truly ad free as in all non-traditional ads are gone as well such as sponsored posts?

We've had some push back from legal eagles on that language.

Sponsored posts and site vendors will remain. We can add that to the FAQ; or possibly change it to say "Banner Ad-free".

Mike Lang

· #5 · Feb 14, 2020

rdlviper said:
Sponsored posts and site vendors will remain. We can add that to the FAQ; or possibly change it to say "Banner Ad-free".

Yeah I won't play lawyer myself but wanted to mention it because there will certainly be those that call out the ads that aren't traditional banners.

Announcement

· #6 · Feb 14, 2020

With me being a longterm 'lifetime premium member' of P4x4 does this automatically make me a 'premium' member of 'labs' for this experiment?
I'm not sure what the reaction will be when it is rolled out universally, look forward to the experiment when it takes place.

rdlviper

· #7 · Feb 14, 2020

You can use one of the credit cards posted to become one. But technically as an admin here I think you already have the premium benefits. We just wanted you to have the opportunity to try it out and give you feedback (and not cost you money!)

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Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 14, 2020

Ross Wittig said:
With me being a longterm 'lifetime premium member' of P4x4 does this automatically make me a 'premium' member of 'labs' for this experiment?
I'm not sure what the reaction will be when it is rolled out universally, look forward to the experiment when it takes place.

Hey Ross, your lifetime membership doesn't carry-over to Labs but the good news is that Premium on Labs is basically free - you can just use of the test credit cards listed above and sign-up - would be really grateful for your feedback on the registration experience.

Mike Lang

· #9 · Feb 14, 2020

I'm curious about the processing time. One would think a credit card payment, even a fake one, would be fairly instantaneous. I'm at least 30 minutes in and it hasn't processed yet.

I know users will ask so knowing the expected wait time for various payment methods would be helpful. It might even be worth adding to the "thank you" window.

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Discussion Starter · #10 · Feb 14, 2020

Mike Lang said:
I'm curious about the processing time. One would think a credit card payment, even a fake one, would be fairly instantaneous. I'm at least 30 minutes in and it hasn't processed yet.

I know users will ask so knowing the expected wait time for various payment methods would be helpful. It might even be worth adding to the "thank you" window.

30 minutes! That's a bug. Should be nanoseconds and it was for me a few minutes ago. I'll email you so we can diagnose and escalate this.

Announcement

· #11 · Feb 15, 2020

OK, did it and it took less than 10 seconds for the whole lot. Now to see what happens, our Premium members lounge has been like a seaside village on a wet weekend.

Old Navy

· #12 · Feb 15, 2020

On vB Winners of the TOTM were awarded 1 year Premium Memberships. TOTY was awarded Lifetime Memberships. Is something like this doable in XF?

Mike Lang

· #13 · Feb 15, 2020

Old Navy said:
On vB Winners of the TOTM were awarded 1 year Premium Memberships. TOTY was awarded Lifetime Memberships. Is something like this doable in XF?

Gifting a premium membership is listed on the admincp wishlist.

Mike Lang

· #14 · Feb 15, 2020

Premium mentions in several places that you can cancel at any time but I can't find any instructions on how to actually do it.

We'll want to have step-by-step instructions available.

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Mike Lang

· #15 · Feb 15, 2020

Also, the "Account Upgrades" category on the Account Details page vanishes when you click on other categories such as Signature or Following.

Why would only Account Upgrades vanish at random?

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Announcement

· #16 · Feb 16, 2020

OK things have gotten lost over time, so here is one question I asked somewhere else, re self editing rites of premium members, how far back will they be able to go, personally I think no time limit is what it should be.

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Discussion Starter · #17 · Feb 18, 2020

Ross Wittig said:
OK things have gotten lost over time, so here is one question I asked somewhere else, re self editing rites of premium members, how far back will they be able to go, personally I think no time limit is what it should be.

Editing is not connected to Premium Membership on the new platform. All members have the same edit abilities (except mod teams, who have the ability to edit posts for moderating purposes).

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Discussion Starter · #18 · Feb 18, 2020

Thanks for the feedback on this, @Mike Lang & @Ross Wittig. @VS_Tess note the point around 'ad free' language, and to make sure we update it as there are some ad types remaining.

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Discussion Starter · #19 · Feb 18, 2020

Got it, Jon!

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Discussion Starter · #20 · Feb 18, 2020

Mike Lang said:
Premium mentions in several places that you can cancel at any time but I can't find any instructions on how to actually do it.

We'll want to have step-by-step instructions available.

View attachment 4185

Yes, we will have that information available to members before it goes to the full release platform wide.

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