Front Page Story Filtering, and MacRumors Supporter Tier ($50/yr)

[arn]

Hi,

We've long had a "contributor" tier that wasn't well advertised. It provided an ad-free MacRumors experience, and also offered a way for dedicated users to support the site for a small fee. We also offered a few additional features, private forums as well as the ad-removal. I've long had plans to add features to it, expand the offerings, to make it a more compelling subscription.

We are starting to test a way for those users to filter the front page stories in specific ways. Those with active MacRumors subscriptions should see a new option called "News Preferences" in their forum account preference panel. This will let you filter out specific types of stories from the front page, and they will be moved to a new sidebar item called "Page 2 Stories". In addition, you can further remove any sidebar element, such as Guides, Upcoming, Recent Comments or even the Page 2 Stories block itself.

An example of the front page with "Deals" content filtered out:

Existing subscribers to the contributor tier can continue to extend using the previous pricing, but for new subscribers, the price for this tier is $50/year.

Current benefits:

- Ad free Front Page, Forums. You simply have to be logged into the forums, and all ads should be removed.
- Authy "one tap" 2 Factor authentication. Details
- Ability to delete your own posts
- Longer time limit on editing own posts
- Access to Private Forums
- Ability to change your username: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/account-details
- Filter front page stories: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/news-preferences

How to Subscribe: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/upgrades

Consider this an early test, please leave me feedback if things aren't working as expected.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I applaud the effort to make another worthwhile tier. However, I think the $50 price tag for what is offered is rather steep. The private forums rarely if ever have any traffic. They are a ghost town. To me, that isn't a meaningful perk. The 2FA offering can be done with other apps besides Authy. The ability to change a username is a nice perk. For $50, I think there needs to be more usable and meaningful perks.

How about private access to podcasts and videos not made to the public?
How about offering an ongoing podcast and video series for people new to Apple products?
How about offering the opportunity for Contributors to participate in some way in the aforementioned, thus giving insight, help, and more of a forum voice to the community at large?
How about offering private giveaways to Contributors?
How about a weekly podcast series where some of the forum members help answer questions about Macs, iPhones, and other products that many here have trouble with from time to time?
How about a "I am a Macrumors Forum Contributor and all I got was this lousy t-shrt" I think something like that would be fun.

There are many things that can be done to engage the membership while growing your business, Arn. I think you need to give this new tier more consideration.

 

[arn]

I applaud the effort to make another worthwhile tier. However, I think the $50 price tag for what is offered is rather steep. The private forums rarely if ever have any traffic. They are a ghost town. To me, that isn't a meaningful perk. The 2FA offering can be done with other apps besides Authy. The ability to change a username is a nice perk. For $50, I think there needs to be more usable and meaningful perks.

Yep. We'll see how it goes. I'm aware there is subscription fatigue, and this is very much just a "nice to have" feature set aimed at dedicated visitors who want to support the site.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

With inflation, everything is off the roof. I think $50 is a good price. However can we please have more than 2 special titles, please? 🙏🏻

More username special titles would also be appealing for many to justify the membership price.

 

[ratspg]

Hi,

We've long had a "contributor" tier that wasn't well advertised. It provided an ad-free MacRumors experience, and also offered a way for dedicated users to support the site for a small fee. We also offered a few additional features, private forums as well as the ad-removal. I've long had plans to add features to it, expand the offerings, to make it a more compelling subscription.

We are starting to test a way for those users to filter the front page stories in specific ways. Those with active MacRumors subscriptions should see a new option called "News Preferences" in their forum account preference panel. This will let you filter out specific types of stories from the front page, and they will be moved to a new sidebar item called "Page 2 Stories". In addition, you can further remove any sidebar element, such as Guides, Upcoming, Recent Comments or even the Page 2 Stories block itself.

An example of the front page with "Deals" content filtered out:

View attachment 2043399
Existing subscribers to the contributor tier can continue to extend using the previous pricing, but for new subscribers, the price for this tier is $50/year.

Current benefits:

- Ad free Front Page, Forums. You simply have to be logged into the forums, and all ads should be removed.
- Authy "one tap" 2 Factor authentication. Details
- Ability to delete your own posts
- Longer time limit on editing own posts
- Access to Private Forums
- Ability to change your username: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/account-details
- Filter front page stories: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/news-preferences

How to Subscribe: https://forums.macrumors.com/account/upgrades

Consider this an early test, please leave me feedback if things aren't working as expected.

Love the option to filter front page stories, very useful feature that I'm already using immediately. Thank you for extending the pricing for existing subscribers @arn !! 🎉🙏

 

[arn]

How about private access to podcasts and videos not made to the public?
How about offering an ongoing podcast and video series for people new to Apple products?
How about offering the opportunity for Contributors to participate in some way in the aforementioned, thus giving insight, help, and more of a forum voice to the community at large?
How about offering private giveaways to Contributors?
How about a weekly podcast series where some of the forum members help answer questions about Macs, iPhones, and other products that many here have trouble with from time to time?
How about a "I am a Macrumors Forum Contributor and all I got was this lousy t-shrt" I think something like that would be fun.

There are many people things that can be done to engage the membership while growing your business, Arn. I think you need to give this new their more consideration.

Yep, all those sort of things are being considered but going with baby steps.

 

[Feek]

I've been eyeing the $25 annual subscription for a while after spending more time in the forums. Increasing it to $50 has just made me reject it without a further thought. I'm a member of other sites with 'private' forums for subscribers and they're utterly dead so I'm not surprised by what @Apple_Robert says above.

I think you'll lose subscribers when it comes to renewal time by doubling the cost and it will put off new subscribers.

 

[Boyd01]

I could be mistaken, but I think this is just another option and the existing $25 subscription will still be available.

⭐️ Paid Membership (Ad Free)

forums.macrumors.com

[edit]Sorry, I think spoke too soon. I was seeing both a $25 and $50 option, but if I log out and then view that link, it only offers the $50 option.

 

[Feek]

I could be mistaken, but I think this is just another option and the existing $25 subscription will still be available.

⭐️ Paid Membership (Ad Free)

forums.macrumors.com

That only shows one option at $50

 

[Boyd01]

Yes, I edited my post above.

 

[icanhazmac]

Existing subscribers to the contributor tier can continue to extend using the previous pricing, but for new subscribers, the price for this tier is $50/year.

@Boyd01 was right and wrong at the same time.

The way I read it is that current subscribers can continue at $25/yr, call it being grandfathered in.

 

[arn]

I could be mistaken, but I think this is just another option and the existing $25 subscription will still be available.

⭐️ Paid Membership (Ad Free)

forums.macrumors.com

[edit]Sorry, I think spoke too soon. I was seeing both a $25 and $50 option, but if I log out and then view that link, it only offers the $50 option.

That looks alike a bug since you are a moderator. Will look into it

 

[jav6454]

Interesting. I might become a paid member again.

 

[Apple_Robert]

That only shows one option at $50

If you have never been a Contributor, you will only see the one option, which is how I read what Arn said. Boyd's link shows 2 options for me.

 

[ivanwi11iams]

Merely curious. When my subscription is about to end, I will receive a notification, no?
Is there a timespan/grace period that I need to renew by, before being charged the new rate?

 

[arn]

Merely curious. When my subscription is about to end, I will receive a notification, no?
Is there a timespan/grace period that I need to renew by, before being charged the new rate?

there’s notifications that you will expire and there is an extend button that you can use.

If it lapses for some reason, contact me, we aren’t going to be sticklers about it.

We’ll try to make all this clearer.
arn

 

[JM]

Special titles would be cool other than Demi-god/goddess or contributor.

-but-

The chipset titles have always been kind of cool and it keeps the forums clean.

How about some Web1.0 stuff with smiley faces, hearts, and stars? 🤣

 

[NightFox]

I liked it when the paid option wasn't widely known about - it was fun whenever there was a thread that evolved into a conversation about how advertising made websites like MR possible. Invariably someone would say that they would happily pay for an ad-free MR if it was an option, but as soon as you pointed out it already was an option, they always seemed to go quiet

 

[CaptMarvel]

Is name change still a part of this “contributor tier”? And are name changes unlimited or one per year? @Boyd01 @arn

 

[Boyd01]

The name change policy for regular members is here:

https://macrumors.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201260787-Can-I-change-my-user-name-

(The following is based on a post by @arn in 2020)
Contributors can access a forum feature to directly change their username. The request is then added to an approval queue where a moderator or administrator must review/approve it. Contributors can only change their name once every 3 months and the old name will also be listed on your account for 30 days after the change.

 

[icanhazmac]

Posting to suggest another benefit for subscribers... the removal of the 'disagree' limit. I appreciate the darkest of humor at times but the number idiots posting in the https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/21/apple-store-hingham-vehicle-crash/ thread had me at my limit way too quickly. I don't think those comments should be mod'd, let fools be fools, but I would like to register my opinion on those posts without waiting for my reset.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

This is a welcome change. I stopped being a Contributor because while it did filter display ads, it didn’t filter “article ads” multiple times a week. $50/yr is a bit steep on the one hand, but…. Worth consideration.

 

[roland.g]

I used to be a contributor a for a long time. Back when teh private forums were popular and quite active. And I do think many of the 'ad' articles should be on another tab and love the idea of being able to filter articles. For $96 a year I can get a subscription to Hulu, watch tons of content, etc. For half that I can remove the ads from MR and filter some articles from the home page and change my user name?!? That seems like some lopsided value. Two tiers, available to everyone all the time would make sense. Ad free for $15 a year and the new filter plus version for $25. But forcing a single tier and at the $50 price point, I agree will cause a lot of cancellations/non-renewals.

 

[ratspg]

I used to be a contributor a for a long time. Back when teh private forums were popular and quite active. And I do think many of the 'ad' articles should be on another tab and love the idea of being able to filter articles. For $96 a year I can get a subscription to Hulu, watch tons of content, etc. For half that I can remove the ads from MR and filter some articles from the home page and change my user name?!? That seems like some lopsided value. Two tiers, available to everyone all the time would make sense. Ad free for $15 a year and the new filter plus version for $25. But forcing a single tier and at the $50 price point, I agree will cause a lot of cancellations/non-renewals.

Agreed, I was a contributor for a while and justified the lower price for ad-free, etc., but at $50 after many years I chose not to renew.

 

[MacNut]

I used to be a contributor a for a long time. Back when teh private forums were popular and quite active. And I do think many of the 'ad' articles should be on another tab and love the idea of being able to filter articles. For $96 a year I can get a subscription to Hulu, watch tons of content, etc. For half that I can remove the ads from MR and filter some articles from the home page and change my user name?!? That seems like some lopsided value. Two tiers, available to everyone all the time would make sense. Ad free for $15 a year and the new filter plus version for $25. But forcing a single tier and at the $50 price point, I agree will cause a lot of cancellations/non-renewals.

The people that made the private forums fun are long gone from the site.