Premium
A common complaint among tBloggers are the proliferation of spam blogs here in our blog site. These sellers masquerading as blogs grow faster than weeds and choke the recent blogs section and slows down our server. Not only that, they cause this blog site’s admin (which I understand is composed of one person) to devote a great deal of time to shut them down, instead of developing new features for our site.
My friend Finalyfree recently blogged about this problem and I suggested a rather drastic and somewhat controversial solution: all blogs should be converted to pro. I suggested lowering the price to $15 a year to make it more affordable to most, if not all bloggers. I believe most of these spam blogs are not willing to pay and would rather go to some place where they can create blogs for free. For those who would pay, the admin would still retain the right to shut down any blog he deems as spam and refund them only part of the fee, charging them a small amount for the trouble they caused. This was actually a revision of an initial suggestion and I would further revise it here.
I suggest we do the conversion in phases. The first phase is just to encourage bloggers to convert to pro. I’m a pro user and some of the features that I really like are the following: (1) advanced site statistics (I use full advantage of this feature, specially visiting the blog sites of people who visited, both as a courtesy and as part of searching for quality sites) (2) Full HTML support (I’m just starting to learn HTML, but I like the fact that I can enhance my site dramatically when I do learn it fully). (3) New comment notification (that little box that pops up when I have a new comment adds to the excitement of blogging, at least in my opinion) (4) Full image support (I like the idea of adding pictures and slideshows to my blog with much ease.) These are great features (no, tbucks x 4 doesn’t count) but basic users can add similar features to their blogs using utilities and websites, so the appeal of turning pro is somewhat diminished.
The solution I think is to add more features that are truly exclusive and useful to pro users. One that comes up to mind is an advanced post editor that can correct spelling. (I know, I know…you can use a text editor, but the idea is that you don’t have to). Another is a featured posts section. When you add or edit a post, it will ask you whether you want to add it on your featured posts section. (I achieved this by creating buttons and linking to previous posts, very tedious).
After convincing most users to pay, maybe that’s the only time we can ask the remaining ones to convert.
posted by: jennjr (reply)
post date: 07.25.05 (12:10 pm)
I don't necessarily disagree with you on this.
However (and you always know there's a "however" coming), given that tBlog is not reliable in the least, I would personally have a problem with paying for the blog service, knowing that I may or may not be able to add a post, respond to comments or read blogs and comment...
But, to go back and defend the original statement, would the server crash as much if the spammers weren't bogging it down? Probably not.
With that said, I guess I wouldn't have an issue of paying to blog here. I would just want some reassurance that I'll be able to access tBlog whenever I want to...
posted by: theseeker (reply)
post date: 07.25.05 (12:25 pm)
Reply to: jennjr
It's kinda a catch-22, isn't it? But I think the chicken came first, or else what would hatch the egg.....
Anyway, I do think that these spam blogs are the major cause of the outages and slow server. So if *we* eliminate them, then tBlog would be a more reliable site.
posted by: Deanna (reply)
post date: 07.25.05 (2:19 pm)
I have to agree with Jenn just a little on this one. I am afraid to ay and go through the same problem we had just a few weeks ago. Obviously your a pro user, did you get a little heated when he couldn't do anything for 2 to three days (and are you paying for those days)?
I would like to pay for it to have all the other features but I would also like a guarantee that would stop the stupid spam blogs (which I know won't happen). I might still pay for it just to get the extra features even if it won't stop the spammers.
posted by: mnash (reply)
post date: 07.25.05 (4:36 pm)
If you pay for mine I'll go ahead and go pro.
You are right though.
posted by: theseeker (reply)
post date: 07.26.05 (9:29 am)
Reply to: Deanna
I have to admit that I am a little ticked off every time there's an outage (there was a short one earlier today). But do I think I misspent the $20 *per year*? Compared to all the money I misspent (watching crappy movies for instance), I still consider the fee money well spent :)
As for stopping the spam blogs, I don't think Rocky could guarantee that, but it would surely help him concentrate on the problem if more members turn pro.
posted by: theseeker (reply)
post date: 07.26.05 (9:34 am)
Reply to: mnash
Come on man, don't tell me you couldn't afford $20 *per year*.
posted by: mnash (reply)
post date: 07.28.05 (11:30 am)
Reply to: theseeker
Again, you are right!
posted by: eka00 (reply)
post date: 07.30.05 (6:24 pm)
Hmmm... you know, aside from the tblog community, which is by far the closest knit I've seen on any blog engine, most of the stuff one gets with a pro account, can pretty much be gotten for free on other blogs such as mine (blogsome.com).
It allows for easy customization, privatization, prevents comment spamming, stats and a bucnch of other stuff.
Although I'll admit, the latter's pro stats is nothing compared to tblog's own. In that respect, tblog rocks! I think more people will go for your ideas if the dude who runs the server can guarantee quality of service.
posted by: theseeker (reply)
post date: 07.31.05 (8:55 pm)
Reply to: eka00
At least he has something to build on, so if (or maybe I should say when) he fixes tblog's troubles, this could be a group of loyal bloggers willing to pay for that extra 'something'.
Now if he got it all good that he convinces you to come back and pay, that's a major achievement by itself.
I wouldn't hold my breath though :)
posted by: basild (reply)
post date: 08.05.05 (10:36 am)
I'm beginning to think that Rocky just doesn't care anymore. You have some compelling ideas, but they would require action on his part--and he just doesn't seem to be willing.
posted by: theseeker (reply)
post date: 08.05.05 (12:38 pm)
Reply to: basild
I agree, and it is his loss. The potential for tBlogs growth is enormous. Maybe he doesn't realize that.
