BTW, I'm open to ideas for adding new features for Supporter membership. Ideas? Maybe the ability to change your username?
I don't have a book to sell yet, and I like the idea of keeping promotions off the forum even though I think sometimes innocent links and discussions shouldn't be in that category. And I know you offer to let people contact you to advertise on the site. But, how about letting people advertise their published work in their sig for a fee? It could even be a separate fee from supporter. Sell specific tiny banner space on our sigs. I don't know how Absolute Write has it set up. I've not joined that forum yet. But they show members' published book cover images in the sigs with a couple links allowed. The book covers are all uniform size, they look attractive rather than distracting. And if you don't post in the forum, no one sees your book cover.
I think all members should be able to change their username ONCE without admin intervention. No one should be able to change their username more than once per day (week?), to prevent capricious pranks involving user names. I am opposed to any advertising privilege. Being able to buy the right to advertise will attract the wrong element. Please be careful not to give rights with paid membership that would be rule violations for standard members. That gives the impression that the rules are restrictive for the sake of imposing rules. Every rule we have is to allow members to post without harassment and to maintain a non-threatening environment. Advertising spam is pernicious. Give them any opening, they invade like fire ants at a picnic.
I can't change my under-the-avatar name because I haven't been here a year. I think all Daniel was saying was giving supporters that option sooner than one year. I'm neutral. As for the ads, I'm only talking about one's own books, no one else's. If someone posts spam to promote their book cover showing in the sig, it will be obvious. For one, they'd need to be a paying forum member, and/or they'd need to pay an ad fee to put the image in the sig. But what is a spammer going to do, they can't just bump their posts. And if they don't contribute to the discussions, no one will see their sig.
@Ginger, I haven't quite been here a year, and I was able to change my under avatar title... I don't know why, maybe sheer volume of posts? And, I think that if someone gets something published, there should be some modest way that they can let people know that 'Hey! Check out my book!'
Hey, something changed from the last time we had this discussion. I now have the option. Let me think, let me think ... I can be anyone I want to be. OK, that's weird. The option didn't show before and now it does, but it didn't work. Oh well. Never mind, the instructions were akin to a double negative, I got it now. Woohoo!, Thanks Daniel. I totally agree with this. If there's some concern about people joining just to promote their books, make a time limit, you can't post your book cover image/book title/link until you've been here X amount of time and have X number of posts and because the whole point is to generate more money for the site, it'll cost X dollars.
I'd love to change my username but don't want to hassle Daniel about it. If it was an option when signing up to support the site, I'd be down with that. My current one was made a few years ago and I'm not a fan of it.
For the record, there seems to be confusion here. I'm talking about changing "senior member" like you still have to "Web Surfer Girl" like I now have. Phoenix is a "A Brave Little Toaster". I understand what you are asking though. I've had 4 different forum names over the years and sometimes you just don't like an old one.
Yeah, I was more responding to what Cog said about changing your username once but I see what you mean about changing your tag-thing (which is cool by the way.)
Actually, I currently have no problem with people linking to a personal blog or to a book they've published in their signature or profile. There are settings in place that prohibit links in signatures and profiles for new members to reduce spamming. I do appreciate the sig-banner suggestion, but I have a personal vendetta against images in signatures - too much clutter for me, it's an eyesore. The idea itself isn't bad though - perhaps featuring work, having a published work section in the profile, or something to that effect. Unfortunately, I don't think there's an easy way to set this up to restrict it to once. I wouldn't be entirely opposed to this though. I agree that changing usernames should be limited to reduce confusion. There's actually already a built-in function that prohibits someone using someone's past username for one year. I agree that things should be kept equal for members verses supporters in regard to the rules. Supporting members have this feature and possibly Contributing and Senior members, so if you've met the thresholds for one of those groups you might have that ability. I don't mind. Shoot me a PM with the name you want (ensuring it's available) and I'll change it for ya.
The new FAQ includes a section on Supporter membership. Please check out the Supporter FAQ for common questions, Supporter features, and the most up-to-date information on becoming a supporter.
Do we get any kind of notice when the time we paid for is nearing expiration? I didn't choose recurring but do plan to renew.
@Daniel - Is there any chance you could slightly increase the signature limit for supporters? Maybe from 4 lines to 6?
i'd like to go on the record as opposing any increase in sig info size... i don't see any good reason for it and i, for one, would find longer ones to be annoying as bleep... nothing personal, jj... hugs, m
I've done a tentative $12/year subscription. Does this appear on my profile page or is PayPal taking forever as usual? I suspect this the latter. Did the deed on Wednesday the 13th of March. Not expecting kudos or anything - being new still navigating all over the place... where can i ask stupid questions before bothering some administrator?
"$12/year ($1/month upfront) Subscription: Donate to WritingForums.org without ordering supporter membership" "You won't get Supporter status, but you will be supporting WF through sending us $1 USD/month. " -- https://www.writingforums.org/account/upgrades
