Would you pay a small subscription fee to keep The AnswerBank operational?

[AB Editor]

 

This poll is closed.

Would you pay a small subscription fee to keep The AnswerBank operational?

• No - 150 votes
• 71%
• Yes - 62 votes
• 29%

See final stats

Stats until: 08:40 Sat 27th Apr 2024 (Refreshed every 5 minutes)

© AnswerBank Ltd 2000 - 2024. All Rights Reserved.

[LadyCG]

In some cases the power has gone to their heads.

[Arksided]

Spare Ed... hope the tech team are still working.... hmm 🤔

On this problem it is annoyingly off putting:

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1864825-2.html

[Untitled]

M's recent post has confirmed that neither donations nor advertising are enough to keep the lights on.... and this thread has proved beyond doubt i think that subscription won't do it either. 
 

i think it may be curtains folks!

[ABSpareEditor]

It's not curtains...

We're looking at ways to sustain The AnswerBank. It would be silly to not consider a subscription-based model. However, to even consider that, we need member's thoughts and feelings. 

It's not something we could just implement because it would instantly turn the active user base from 294694 to zero. 

[newmodarmy]

294694 active users?

I think the definition of 'active' must be a very broad one! I would struggle to name even 94 active users

[newmodarmy]

 gulliver1

17.04 . ABSpareEditor. I did Consider making a contribution but will have to reconsider after realising the Mods have more power than the Spare Ed has.

16:08 Mon 25th Mar 2024

_______________________________________

Now, on refelction I'm all in favour of a subscription. We might lose some members in the short term but in the long run things can only get better

[Untitled]

"active user base from 294694"

🤔

[jackthehat]

Crosswords and Q&Ps garner the most traffic and the biggest number of users, by far.

For those of us more used to posting in News, CB, etc. there seems to be a dearth of users but it is not true of the site, as a whole.

[nicebloke1]

I sugested in an early post that just asking for subscriptions may work if something was offered in return such as a monthly prize draw, it appears this was done some years back and didnt go down to well. So maybe a monthly donation to a charity would encourage a subscription, knowing that a percentage was going to such would possible make it more palletable for some to give freely.

Obviously it would have to be a donation because i believe you have to have a reg number to collect for any charity and could get complicated, I'm sure donations dont carry the same laws, but just sujesting such to secure subscriptions might be a bit messy also???

[AB Editor]

For those who have commented, I thought I'd shed some light on 'Active users' on AB. Spare Editor is correct; we technically have "294694 Active users". These are accounts that are considered to be 'Active'. 

However, to give you a better idea... Here's the number of users who have been 'Active' - as in signed in - in: 
The last 30 days: 1461
The last 90 days: 2767
The last 6 months: 4237
The last year: 6377

This doesn't include the many, many thousands who browse The AnswerBank everyday, but are not members. 

By comparison, we've received 201 donations from just 107 people (not all known members - some just stopping by) in 18 months, with £2,195 raised over that period: around £121 a month on average, albeit this has fallen substantially since we first launched Donations. 

As you can see, a cohort of regular users actively use the site each month, including around 1,000 of you in the last week. 

Our view is that if just some, preferably more, of you, donated on a fairly regular basis to help keep the AB Community going, we could not only keep it going but invest in its future. A few £ a month... We could swipe the idea of subscriptions under the carpet! 

There seems to be a divide, and sadly, one that doesn't swing in our favour. We'll keep considering views and options for The AnswerBank's future. 

M.

[Arksided]

Reported to spam/scam... 

[THECORBYLOON]

What about letting folk join free for the first month or two so they can get used to AB and see what like it is?

If folk pay in advance for three, six or twelve month for example, what about a discount?

A monthly draw for a year's free membership with the winning member named so it's transparent?

[Captain2]

'What about letting folk join free for the first month or two so they can get used to AB and see what like it is?'

I like that idea and if Newbies didn't have to get past the 'donate' and subscribe' windows for their trial period, they may be more likely to stay.

I haven't donated/subscribed as of yet, but have said I am willing to, dependent on where we're going.

[Rosetta]

I am always signed in, never sign out, and for a large part of last year I rarely posted. Maybe your figures of regular users is a bit optimistic Ed, cause I am sure I am not the only one.

Does the decline  in activity/donation levels correlate to any activities by inividual or groups of users?

[Auntypoll]

This site requires a lot of investment to bring it anywhere near other similar sites. The owners should be pitching to potential angel investors not asking for subscriptions. Put money and effort into creating a vibrant site full of content appropriate to the user demography with promotions articles and monthly quizzes and maybe in the future , when your user base is in the hundreds and thousands, then that's the time to introduce a subscription based service.

 

[andres]

A year or so ago when this site was covered in adverts most of the Abers complained and they were removed.At least they vanished from mine.I don't really want to see them back again.  I don't think there is much wrong with this site on the whole. It seems to cater for most aspects of life. Knowing that there is always someone to listen at the other end of your keyboard gives a lot of abers comfort. There are a lot of lonely people who would be upset if they didn't have AB.              Whilst I am not in favour of making this a subscription site I don't think a small donation would go amiss now and then. 

[construct1245]

I would need more information

[SIRandyraven]

Lack of investment by owners , miss management and now struggling to make ends meet.

Karma 

 

[renegadefm]

I would pay a small fee, but over time small fees go up like everything else. 

Plus I would be calling for better control over threads. I'd like the power of being able to delete my threads that have answered my question, or just caused more problems than it was worth. 

[maggiebee]

So long as two individuals dominate every thread, there is no way I would contribute.  Think the site needs a good clear out, has gone downhill over the past couple of years. It's no fun any more and I miss posters like Nungate, Mrs Overall etc.