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Premier Membership

petkyo ๐Ÿšซ

I was astonished to read a while back that according to Laz premium-level subscribers(folks that actually pay to keep the site online) make up a very small percentage of the visitors here. I read a couple of comments that the fee was not in their budget. Seriously Five bucks a month? For the cost of a Starbucks latte one can get hours of enjoyment here. I realize it's dumb to rant about things all it usually gains me is a sour stomach, but holy cow if you spend a couple of hours a month reading here you should feel guilty if you aren't subscribing.

richardshagrin ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

Since the site is in Canada, you can be a Premier of Canada.

Personally it isn't the money, it's the difficulty of arranging payment. Somehow my Visa card doesn't work to pay the bill. I manage to pay the charge every year, but likely it is more work for the site than they like. I would pay for more than one year if I could get a discount. Interest rates are so small these days, the savings on postage every year would probably cover the interest lost on paying for three or five years in advance. Of course keeping track of who paid what, when would probably cost SOL more than the discount.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@richardshagrin

Personally it isn't the money, it's the difficulty of arranging payment. Somehow my Visa card doesn't work to pay the bill. I manage to pay the charge every year, but likely it is more work for the site than they like. I would pay for more than one year if I could get a discount. Interest rates are so small these days, the savings on postage every year would probably cover the interest lost on paying for three or five years in advance. Of course keeping track of who paid what, when would probably cost SOL more than the discount.

That usually occurs for foreign (i.e. European) sites, but it's mostly due to the various credit card agencies deciding that they're going to censor 'pornography' for the safety of the entire world. It's an ongoing battle.

Personally, I'd ask Lazeez for how to circumvent it. There are ways. Ernest, in Australia, can't actually access many sites like PayPal, but maintains a PP account just for making SOL payments. Also, Lazeez now accepts a variety of alternative payments (like MoneyOrders, etc.).

I suspect that most Premiere members are authors who gain access via the number of contributions they make, but while I don't regularly subscribe, I try to pay for a full year every couple of years, just to do my part.

Replies:   StarFleet Carl
StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

I try to pay for a full year every couple of years

I freely admit I was one of those people who didn't have a lot of money for a long time and simply used the free membership. I thought it was cool when I got full membership with my stories, because I figured that was helping bring people here. Now ... well, I'm certainly in a much better position financially, and as I'm in sales, I definitely understand commissions.

So while I don't KNOW how much it costs to run Bookapy and this site per year, I seriously suspect that the commissions they've made off my sales since last summer ought to cover that quite nicely. I do not begrudge them that in the least. If I can make the sale on the house I'm showing this afternoon, I will not begrudge my broker the $2,600 that's HIS 20% share of the commission check. :)

ETA: If you're going to list a house for sale for $400,000, you ought to make sure the electricity is on. Oklahoma summers are not fun when a house has no air conditioning, and smells of it! (Needless to say, they're not buying that one.)

whisperclaw ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

I agree. I get countless hours of entertainment, which makes membership a very good value for me. I sure hope more people find their way to support the site.

That being said, I can appreciate that if you're a retiree on a fixed income then you have to watch your budget pretty closely.

sunseeker ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@petkyo

Must be nice to never have experienced financial hard times. I have been in the position where I didn't have even a regular coffee or eat outside of my home, and still know people that don't "go to Starbucks for a latte" cause it ain't in their budget, nor are trips to the movies.

So count yourself lucky and I hope you never do experience financial hard times.

And there's no need for anyone to feel guilty...

Freyrs_stories ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

on Gov support and premier but actually use the site less now than when was a freeloader but I figure its back pay for all the years of getting it free. no guilt trip here, but believe in fee for service and its a worthwhile cause, though I wish there were maybe a few more custom options. like maybe a compound search. so you could do an AND search. category AND key word in the same step. as far as I know you can't do that

Keet ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Freyrs_stories

like maybe a compound search. so you could do an AND search. category AND key word in the same step. as far as I know you can't do that

You can.
Go to Advanced Search (menu on the home page), at the bottom there's "Story Text search". In the panel there is a link that guides you to a reference on how to use boolean searches. SOL uses the open source Sphinx server for searches so the page is from the Sphinx documentation.

ETA: Missed the "category AND key word", you can't combine the Story Text search with the categories.
I would like that too but it's impossible because they are in two different search systems. Lazeez would have to write a second filter over the Sphinx results with the category inclusions/exclusions. That's way too resource intensive.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Freyrs_stories

so you could do an AND search. category AND key word in the same step.

You can, but it's totally undocumented and almost impossible to guess.

I guess I can rework that form to expose the functionality.

To do what you're asking for:

In the advanced search content search form at the bottom, select 'Extended Query Search' and then in the 'search for' field enter:

@content keyword @storyTags tag

replace keyword with whatever words you want to search for in the text and replace tag with whatever tags you want. You have to spell the tags as they are spelled in the category search page (although I'm not sure if it works in with the categories that contain a slash (like Ma/ft for example)

You can even do the boolean stuff in there. Example:

@content saturn -pluto @storyTags Science Fiction -Aliens

The above:

Search story text for 'Saturn', but exclude any text that contains 'Pluto' and tags contain 'Science fiction' and exclude any tagged with aliens.

Replies:   Keet  Freyrs_stories
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

In the advanced search content search form at the bottom, select 'Extended Query Search' and then in the 'search for' field enter:

@content keyword @storyTags tag

Great! That seems to be a very powerful way to search.

Freyrs_stories ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

oh thank you and blessings on you and your children?

will test it out this weekend

Freyrs_stories ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

yer, I guess maybe there might be a work around that you could filter one set of search results with a subsequent search but not sure how that would be done without an undue amount of code kung-fu

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

Category search already handles selecting multiple codes.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom there is a:

Find Stories having ___ of the selected codes.

Where the blank is a pull down list with choices of all, any, or exact match.

All and exact match would be doing an and between multiple selected categories, with exact match automatically excluding all categories not selected.

smashyourwalls ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

I am curious about the price of a premium account. I saw someone post 5$ per month (60$) but I have not seen the cost anywhere (unless I missed it somewhere) I was looking at account info and saw payment options but no actual price (which if I'm being honest kinda always freaks me out even if I trust the site like i do here... lol ...just too many bad experiences in life to blindly trust :P ) Anyhoo... so my actual question was how much is the cost for Premium? Is it the 60$ (or was that just for the StarBuck's coffee analogy...?

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@smashyourwalls

Anyhoo... so my actual question was how much is the cost for Premium? Is it the 60$ (or was that just for the StarBuck's coffee analogy...?

If you are paranoid about the credit card links, on the payment options page, click on pay by money order and it will give you all the options.

There are a number of options for basic subscriptions from 30 days to 2 years

30 days is $6.99 US (all the prices are in US not Canadian dollars.

1 year is $67.99 ($5.67/month)

2 years is $124.99 ($5.21/month)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@smashyourwalls

There is a big button on the left of the home page titled 'Premium Services' and it lists benefits and prices.

https://storiesonline.net/doc/Premier_Services_Details

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

There is a big button on the left of the home page titled 'Premium Services'

Do you suppress that link for users who are already premier members? Because I don't see it.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Dominions Son

Do you suppress that link for users who are already premier members? Because I don't see it.

Yes.

smashyourwalls ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thank you for the information guys (and the link Lazeez :) ) not at a spot where i can do it yet but hopefully in a few months i will.

I have always loved the fact that this site was able to be accessed free. Lots of great writers here. Sure some are better than others, hell some are better than authors people buy books of... but just the ability to go online and read stories and story ideas from someone's mind for everyone's entertainment... it makes this site one of my favorites. (and thats not even bringing up the members, who always seem to be ready to help and share :) best site ever!)

Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

There is a big button on the left of the home page titled 'Premium Services' and it lists benefits and prices.

Is the 2 year subscription new? I don't remember seeing it the last time I renewed my subscription.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Keet

Is the 2 year subscription new?

Yes. Since October 2021.

Replies:   Keet  Switch Blayde
Keet ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Yes. Since October 2021.

Just a few weeks late for my last renewal.
Next time I'll do the 2-year renewal. Or 5 if that's also available by then :)

ETA: Any ideas about a life-time subscription? Currently I can afford it, in 5 years it's going to be more difficult.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Keet

Any ideas about a life-time subscription?

The thing with life-time memberships is pricing it, and most importantly the confidence to deliver on the promised service.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I paid for a lifetime membership of a certain organisation at ten times the annual membership fee. The organisation is still going strong but it's a long time since I've availed myself of any of its facilities other than skimming its quarterly e-magazine.

AJ

Replies:   Keet
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

I paid for a lifetime membership of a certain organisation at ten times the annual membership fee. The organisation is still going strong but it's a long time since I've availed myself of any of its facilities other than skimming its quarterly e-magazine.

Some calculations assuming your 10 times annual:
1-year = $67.99
2-year = $124.99
2*67.99 = $135.98
135-124.99 = $10.99 (roughly rounded discount of 15%)
A 10 year ("life-time") should haver a little better discount otherwise there's little benefit against multiple 2-year subscriptions. A 20% discount would be ~$544, a 25% discount ~$510. I would go for that. I'd even go for it if it was a 15 year limit.
The second point which Lazeez mentioned is confidence in the continuation of the promised service. Seeing how deeply involved and active Lazeez is for SOL I have that trust. If it still fails before I die, tough. I've lost more in some other stupid ventures. (Still waiting for my Librem5 linux phone, $699, ordered and paid October 6, 2019. Damn those chip manufacturers.)

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Is the 2 year subscription new?

Yes. Since October 2021.

Maybe the button shouldn't be hidden for reasons like this.

Replies:   Keet
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Maybe the button shouldn't be hidden for reasons like this.

Why? If you subscribe for renewal you will see it on that page. That I didn't see it was because I renewed just shortly before it was introduced.

LonelyDad ๐Ÿšซ

@petkyo

Just to add my two cents worth: I was a lurker (aka free user) for many years. Mainly because I couldn't see any advantage to subscribing. I forget now what made me decide to start subscribing. I usually do three months at a time because that is usually all I can scrape up at renewal time - the discount helps. I'm doing a little better now at budgeting so I'll see what is available next time I renew.

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