Yuku free message boards

alison wrote:

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Why bother being an admin? Being the owner of board is a serious committment if you want a successful community. People don't become admins just because they want the free supporter status if other people pay to keep their board ad free.

Admins see no ads on their own boards. That is their perk.

Anyone who donates money to a board - admin, mod, or member - will benefit from their generosity by having their yuku supporter topped up. It doesn't matter how much you donate as long as it's more than $5. For every $5 you donate, you get 1 more month of Yuku supporter. This is much Fairer on the people who actually fund the communities.

The rewards from being a good admin is that you have a thriving community.

Alison -- did you mean Owner, or Admin, or Admins (plural)? Thanks!

But perhaps we can rejig that to include a "deal" if you're paying the whole thing in one go

Alison -- that would make sooooooooooooo much sense. It's always bothered me that the numbers don't match up and that you would end up 2 months short on YukuSupport if you purchased one year of Gold in one payment!

P.S. Why are the smilies below the line in the post and even in the box where you type? Was it this way always and I just never noticed?

You have a really good point, Alison!

But, I think that the fees need to be adjusted for the small boards. It's clear that Yuku is structuring the fees to encourage everyone to buy Supporter. And why not? It makes total sense -- Yuku has a much higher profit margin on it. Let's say you have a small board of 20 members. One year of Gold = $54 for 20 people; One year of Supporter for 20 people = $240. And Yuku's best case scenario, that people buy both. So, for the same board it is $294. And I can well imagine that on the LARGE boards, that the profits are even greater. To be honest, it's a smart business decision on Yuku's part. Structure Yuku for the individuals, not the boards.

But, what is it that draws people to Yuku -- the boards? Or, the profiles? Or, the blogs (which still need a bit of work)? The only problem with focusing on the individuals so strongly is that it kind of forgets the actual boards and Board Owners & Admins, who do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes and who have spent hours upon hours helping members with their Yuku accounts and figuring out the new system. So, in my opinion, it probably was not the best way for Yuku to have handled this, especially during this transition period. So, at the very least, if an Owner buys a year of Gold, the Owner should get a YEAR of Supporter, not 10 months.

TigerLady wrote:

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The more I read here, the more confused I get. What the mad tigers is the difference between gold with supporter and gold without supporter???? I wanna know cuz I don't intend to pay for supporter when it runs out. For a small board like mine, it is very expensive to pay $66 for it. Yuku seems to be like Leona Hemsley - they don't care about the "little people."

re little people!!

Gold eliminates ads on the board. As an owner, you don't see them anyway. So really, the ONLY reason to buy Gold is so that OTHERS don't see them.

But confusing the issue is that if OTHERS have purchased Supporter, they don't see the ads anyway, so why purchase Gold at all. {shrugs}.

But, if you have a board like ours where members aren't interested in profiles and blogs and don't tend to roam, it makes no sense for us to pay $294 for an ad free board when we can purchase ad free for $54. In addition, many of us are more than happy to support the board with $, so that others who can't afford it right now don't have to. We function more as a community than as individuals.

As an owner, the only advantage I see to Supporter would be the additional storage space...but, right now, (unless Alison is able to change it) you only get 10 months of Supporter, not 12.

The way that this is structured, as far as I can see, is to encourage everyone to buy Supporter. There are obvious benefits to Yuku (money wise) and to individuals as well, especially those who like to design their profiles, etc.