To get it out of the way, I want to say that I've been a member of GiantBomb since the beginning and love the idea of supporting the Whiskey Media brand. A subscription based system is certainly a way to go about it but as many of the users have pointed out it is a way of splintering the user base into pay scales. Either you as a member are completely supporting GiantBomb by donating the 50 dollars a year or the five dollars a month for x-many months, or you don't and let the ad revenue you generate from simply visiting the site cover for you. Or you can be a total douche and have ad-blocker on at the same time.
My idea is a little wild and crazy for the internet. It's something people who listen to the radio are accustomed to, especially if they listen to National Public Radio. What I am eluding to is akin to a "Donation Month" where users from the community chip in to cover the extensive costs of running this website. This has the possibility of users donating values across the board and can become problematic if everyone merely donates a dollar or two. To counter-act this simply setting a bare minimum of five-ten dollars and you have a decent revenue service in place. That's roughly the price of an inexpensive Steam game, and we all know how crazy those games sell
The Very Reason This Still Exists Is Evidence EnoughSo what's going to be the incentive of donating larger sums? Ten dollars a pop isn't going to keep this site independent from advertising dollars and allow all the nifty features that Whiskey Media wants to implement. Well, we return back to the NPR model and offer people gifts for donating specific amounts or higher. Say someone donates fifty dollars to GiantBomb, in return they send them one of those fancy dancy T-Shirts that's going away with the fifty dollar subscription. The higher the donation the grander the gift. Seventy-five dollars for a signed photo of the crew or a personal phone message from Matt Kessler? One hundred dollars for swag from conventions or company promotions? Anything higher could warrant a lunch with Sara from Comic Vine, or the chance to get a tour of the Whiskey Media complex... Or you can walk Will Smith's Dog.
This would continue until the goal for the next several months (or possibly further) was met . This would include the HD Video option, the taking down of advertisements,as well as a complete bombcast It's a new and inventive way of going about it but it allows everyone to reap the benefits of a subscription based system without segregating the community. It's not too late to switch gears and try it out. GiantBomb's members (especially the general Whiskey Media audience) are incredible supportive and in my opinion are of a higher class than your typical video game website. Opinions are always welcome guys, feel free to comment on such a proposal.
To get it out of the way, I want to say that I've been a member of GiantBomb since the beginning and love the idea of supporting the Whiskey Media brand. A subscription based system is certainly a way to go about it but as many of the users have pointed out it is a way of splintering the user base into pay scales. Either you as a member are completely supporting GiantBomb by donating the 50 dollars a year or the five dollars a month for x-many months, or you don't and let the ad revenue you generate from simply visiting the site cover for you. Or you can be a total douche and have ad-blocker on at the same time.
My idea is a little wild and crazy for the internet. It's something people who listen to the radio are accustomed to, especially if they listen to National Public Radio. What I am eluding to is akin to a "Donation Month" where users from the community chip in to cover the extensive costs of running this website. This has the possibility of users donating values across the board and can become problematic if everyone merely donates a dollar or two. To counter-act this simply setting a bare minimum of five-ten dollars and you have a decent revenue service in place. That's roughly the price of an inexpensive Steam game, and we all know how crazy those games sell
The Very Reason This Still Exists Is Evidence EnoughSo what's going to be the incentive of donating larger sums? Ten dollars a pop isn't going to keep this site independent from advertising dollars and allow all the nifty features that Whiskey Media wants to implement. Well, we return back to the NPR model and offer people gifts for donating specific amounts or higher. Say someone donates fifty dollars to GiantBomb, in return they send them one of those fancy dancy T-Shirts that's going away with the fifty dollar subscription. The higher the donation the grander the gift. Seventy-five dollars for a signed photo of the crew or a personal phone message from Matt Kessler? One hundred dollars for swag from conventions or company promotions? Anything higher could warrant a lunch with Sara from Comic Vine, or the chance to get a tour of the Whiskey Media complex... Or you can walk Will Smith's Dog.
This would continue until the goal for the next several months (or possibly further) was met . This would include the HD Video option, the taking down of advertisements,as well as a complete bombcast It's a new and inventive way of going about it but it allows everyone to reap the benefits of a subscription based system without segregating the community. It's not too late to switch gears and try it out. GiantBomb's members (especially the general Whiskey Media audience) are incredible supportive and in my opinion are of a higher class than your typical video game website. Opinions are always welcome guys, feel free to comment on such a proposal.
I think they are going the right way about it for now. They are a business not a charity. However I think your idea for gifts for even larger donations is not bad at all. But at that point, why dont they just re open the giantbomb store with shirts and the like?
@SamFo: This is true, however, NPR is also not a charity, it is considered a service to its listeners. They broadcast because of their passion for journalism and bringing their listeners quality information; just like GiantBomb. They could turn this into a pretty big event like they did with The Big Live Live Show Live and draw a HUGE amount attention to this cause.
I think the donation model would only really work for smaller content creators. But Giant Bomb and friends are a business: they need to find a working model for generating profit and delivering value to paying consumers. At the moment I feel that they're a little too light on the latter side. I'd like to see more cool stuff that encourages community interaction – like the achievement tracker, for example.
This may sound like a strange thing to say but I'm not sure Whiskey Media would really want to take donations. As has been stated they're a business, not a charity and I'm sure it's not beyond them that they could have added a donate button to the site but they seem like they've got their concept of "going to business with their users" firmly rooted.
@Bellum: And we aren't donating to their business by paying 50 dollars a year? You're working with semantics. Calling it a charity and then donating it 50 dollars does just as much as calling it a business and giving them 50 dollars. A charity is not out to make a serious profit and tends to stop once their goals have been met. My plan is that donations to the site would continue throughout the year, just that during this "pledge week" we'd see all these opportunities for rewards for and incentives for giving such high values. It's obvious that GiantBomb is a business and is looking for legitimate profits and I doubt this would be disingenuous to take such a pay model and make it really profitable.
" @Bellum: And we aren't donating to their business by paying 50 dollars a year? You're working with semantics. Calling it a charity and then donating it 50 dollars does just as much as calling it a business and giving them 50 dollars. A charity is not out to make a serious profit and tends to stop once their goals have been met. My plan is that donations to the site would continue throughout the year, just that during this "pledge week" we'd see all these opportunities for rewards for and incentives for giving such high values. It's obvious that GiantBomb is a business and is looking for legitimate profits and I doubt this would be disingenuous to take such a pay model and make it really profitable. "
We're talking about people. Semantics are everything. AND DON'T FORGET YOU GET THIS COOL MEDAL UNDER YOUR NAME!
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