VideoSift is growing quickly whether we like it or not. We've managed to restrict our memberships a bit, but our traffic is still climbing as non members enjoy the fruits of our sifting. We're regularly getting close to 70K pageviews a day - and while our server is coping, it won't be for long if this arc continues.
We also have a lot of features that we want to bring in, but each query we write in to the code, adds another 2% to the overall server load. What's that smell? burning silicon?
Charter memberships are an effort to fund VideoSift to move forward, increase stability and enable the capacity for new features.
We thought of going the straight donation route, but we wanted to give you something in the way of a thanks and recognition for your dedication to this community. So here's the goody list:
- Absolutley no ads for charter members
- Higher number of queued videos (8)
- Personalized name/comment styling
- Customized user profile (a la MySpace)
- Personal subdomain for your profile (dag.videosift.com)
Have a look at Lucky's profile for an uhm.. bright example of profile modifications possible. ;-)
We will be adding other features like Playlists and Friends lists soon.
Of course you don't have to become a charter member, and free membership will continue to be open for all. We will be displaying some ads for non-charter members but nothing too garish (no pop-ups, intimate dating, or monkey-punching).
Thanks for your support on this, it's been a tough call to go this route. Sort of like Castro opening a chain of Starbucks in Cuba.
So if you are a new member, you can register, existing members - please upgrade
We also have a lot of features that we want to bring in, but each query we write in to the code, adds another 2% to the overall server load. What's that smell? burning silicon?
Charter memberships are an effort to fund VideoSift to move forward, increase stability and enable the capacity for new features.
We thought of going the straight donation route, but we wanted to give you something in the way of a thanks and recognition for your dedication to this community. So here's the goody list:
Have a look at Lucky's profile for an uhm.. bright example of profile modifications possible. ;-)
We will be adding other features like Playlists and Friends lists soon.
Of course you don't have to become a charter member, and free membership will continue to be open for all. We will be displaying some ads for non-charter members but nothing too garish (no pop-ups, intimate dating, or monkey-punching).
Thanks for your support on this, it's been a tough call to go this route. Sort of like Castro opening a chain of Starbucks in Cuba.
So if you are a new member, you can register, existing members - please upgrade
I'll have to sleep on it.
Idea: consider sweetening the deal with a lower 'average per-month' fee if you prepay more for a longer period of time.
Observation: 8 vids? Whoa. Sounds hot but at the same time, 10 charter members = 80 queued vids. Eep?
i also noticed that when i went to make a donation, it was set up as $5 for 6 months ... error or ??? i will wait until that gets sorted ... i'm not one for scamming people!
Honestly, I can't find 2 videos to submit that haven't been previously submitted. I worry the 8 videos just encouraging ads and self promotion.
I'd like to boldly suggest toning down the "8" to something less drastic (6, tops), but reducing the "refresh" rate of promote/save commands (something faster than a 7 day cycle)... of course this would only reinforce the charter's appeal for goldies, but then, they're probably the most likely suspects to embrace this.
While we're at it, I would appreciate it if we renamed the site "oohahh-is-keen.com". I'll be sure to send out a new email with my pictures, preferred forms of address, and recommended house-warming gifts pour moi ASAP.
Thanks in advance, I love you all. Especially, you, Krupo.
Do donaters get a special icon or something to show the supporters?
Better than a special icon, you get to color your username text and comment backgrounds. (light red even ;-) )
And when do we expect Google to buy for billions?
Pssst. Larry, Sergey -- email's in my profile. AND it's GMail (wink)
And I'm with Krupo, the queue's already big enough now (there's almost 200 in there as I write this), 8 may be a bit much...
When AOL/calcanis wanted the top submitters from Digg, he was offering to pay them. Just saying. Somehow letting people buy more slots feels wrong. And yet I want to support the site, and would love more queue slots, but having tiered submissision rules feels..wrong.
Lucky's page reminds me of the Myspace ugly contest.
Also, you have it set up for a 3 month subscription? How about the option for a yearly membership? Just knock a whole year out at once and be done with it. :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors#Hex_triplet
Hey?!...Who said that?!! *looks around*
I understand the need to support VideoSift in order to keep the ship sailing smoothly etc but the problem is, I don't like paying for stuff. Therefore, can I have a free membership?
"Of course you don't have to become a charter member, and free membership will continue to be open for all. We will be displaying some ads for non-charter members but nothing too garish (no pop-ups, intimate dating, or monkey-punching)."
But from my experience, here is what the Sift Lords omitted:
1) Your comments will not be brightly colored and people will thus stop reading them.
2) Your videos will languish in the queue while all the reliable voters get fixated by all the shiny and garishly colored personal pages.
3) Siftbot will taunt you mercilessly. Where it hurts.
Deathcow can finish the rest of the top 10 because he writes funnier and punchier material. But it is bleak, bleak, bleak to be a non-charter.
(BTW with FF extensions, you can do stuff like Disable Page Coloring and then you get white and blue happy sift, where everyone is equal.. But I do like the colors)
But now I've got to brush up on my CSS skills.
Hmm, "Chartered Sifter" - a "CS". First it's a term for teargas, now it's a term for a SiftLover.
I am getting ready to jump on the Charter bandwagon/train, but first I really really really have to binge on some "Sid Meier's Railroads!" (which I just bought...).
All aboard!
That Netflix ad is irritating as death though - stupid blinking light! Another incentive to go ahead and get chartered...
[psst - dag, James: talk to www.zip.ca about having their ad appear for Canadian users - otherwise it's wasted screen real estate]
Also - I concur on making the "your comments" reserved, so others can't use the default "personal" colour to reduce confusion.
And I'm with swampgirl on clamouring for a "yearly fee" charter membership option.
All in due time though.