Thanks for the interesting suggestion,
TheBritishBloke. It produced some lively discussions in the back room.
We considered adding the monthly membership option you suggested, because of its potential convenience to some users, and a chance for the site to gain more members. But after weighing the pros and cons we decided not to offer it, so I'd like to explain the disadvantages that led to that decision.
- MacRumors has always used an opt-in system for paid membership, i.e., membership payments and renewals are manual, never automatic. This is to make sure that nobody is ever charged when they hadn't intended to continue their membership. With a monthly plan it would be a huge annoyance to have to renew manually every month, so payments would have to be automatic, meaning that the "forgot to cancel" problem would become a concern.
- Offering a monthly option could in theory bring new members onboard who would otherwise not have joined, but a monthly option would add to our recordkeeping overhead (time and fees for processing, tracking, and problem-solving), probably canceling any gain we might get from additional membership, even if we charged $2.50/month or $3.00/month. We'd feel uncomfortable charging even more for monthly membership, the equivalent of $40 or more per year, even thought that's what it might take to make it worthwhile to the site.
- Having a choice of plans could lead to confusion over how to join. It might seem simple but we spend a lot of time answering very simple questions about using the forums and we'd rather not have another potential customer service issue regarding monthly memberships.
- PayPal has been very reliable but once in a while there is glitch and we need to help somebody get it straightened out. Despite their rarity, these cases could multiple with automatic monthly payments.
- It might interfere with the stability of the private forum community to have new members, with less of a commitment to the site, popping in and out every month.
- With such a low barrier to entry we might find users joining for inappropriate reasons, such as to post spam ads in the private forum. We work hard to keep software spammers and shills out of the public forums. We don't want to give them yet another target.
Our paying members like the thank-you benefits they get (ad-free pages, Demi-God, Demi-Goddess, or Contributor user titles, and access to a private forum) but it's not necessary to join to take advantage of the news pages, Buyer's Guide, and Mac Guides, or to participate in the the forums that cover news, Apple products and services, special interests, etc. The primary benefits of the MacRumors website are still free, and supported by advertisements.
Despite changes in the cost of living, we haven't increased the $25/year price of a paid membership. In effect, the real cost has been dropping each year. It's a small amount and completely voluntary. To be frank, if $25 is a problem for someone's budget then supporting MacRumors this way might not be appropriate for them. And there are
other ways they can support the site without stretching their budget.