Your feedback about TCS required HERE!

Two words....CHAT ROOM....

Originally Posted by Anne

I need your help with brainstorming some... I want ideas and thoughts - go wild on me!

1. What do you like best about TCS right now? if you could, what would you add or change?

2. What do you think can be added to the premium memberships that might make you upgrade to one? (if you're already a premium member, check out my new thread in the premium lounge).

Thank you! Feel free to PM me with answers, if you want to keep ideas or thoughts private.

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1.I like the lounge and IMO and the supports about these forums and I especially love the community that is TCS!

2.Basically everyone else had great ideas, like payment plans with options on how to pay and a trial period. stuff like that.

You have to have a paypal account for premium?... Didn't know that. That would make me less likely to join. I've been thinking about it, but never got as far as to explore and find that out.
It would be cool if there was an easy to navigate page just sorta introducing all the members. I know we have the biographies, pictures, threads but sometimes it is hard to keep track of who is who and who has what cat and where you are from and all that. It also could tell you who likes to make sigs, who is well read on nutrition, who has exp with fostering all that stuff.
Oh yeah, and a chat room would be cool, but I don't know if that cost more $$$ or what for you guys to run.
Hmm.. also as I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe some more smilies could pop up when you are writing a post. Some are so cool. It takes a while to load up sometimes so I don't use them as much. I .. Oh and as I go through I'm seeing new ones!!!! cool.

I also joined TCS due a kitty crisis. I stayed because of the close family-like bond you develop even though it's over the internet

I don't have a premium membership because of insufficent funds. I almost go paycheck-to-paycheck for weeks just to make ends meet.

I joined TCS because I was sent a link by a family member one time and I stayed because of the great atmosphere and fantastic information that's always available.

The premium membership, I just never have the money when I think about getting it.

Thank you so much for the replies!

A few things I think I can address at this point -

For those that didn't know, subscriptions can be made through this page -
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/payments.php

We use paypal at this point, basically because it's the easiest to use credit card processor. You don't have to have a long term paypal account. If you don't have one, you'll be instructed on how to open one. Personally, I feel that Paypal is a respectiable and well established company, the same one tha owns EBay, and I feel safe running a large and active account there, but I guess that's just me Now, here's a tip, you can actually pay by check if you go for the year long subscription. PM me for details if you're interested.

As for trial periods, I will look into that. I'm not sure how it's technically feasible. If this is important to you, drop me a PM, and if you're a long standing memeber, I can manually let you take a peek before you join).

Generally speaking, the plan is to upgrade the premium membership perks. My intention is to keep everything related to cat advice available to any member, while keeping the perks for paying members. Things on my mind at this point are a chat system, a gaming arcade, virtual cat cards and more. The first will almost surely be limitd to premium members, for various reasons.

Another idea that I had was a monthly, or maybe even weekly, internet radio show, where myself or someone else would host the show, talking about cats, bringing up relevant topics and interviewing experts. A chat room will be open during the show to all members, where questions to the experts can be brought up. Just a thought at this point, the technical aspects are daunting lol, but I know it can be done.

Please do keep feedback and ideas coming! I enjoy reading them and they are very helpful!

A chat room would be great... and the radio show also sounds very very neat.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else... I would love to join, but don't have the funds right now to do so.

I too joined looking for kitty help, and I simply love it here.

Originally Posted by Anne

As for trial periods, I will look into that. I'm not sure how it's technically feasible. If this is important to you, drop me a PM, and if you're a long standing memeber, I can manually let you take a peek before you join).

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I think the trial period is a good idea, but it should only be for longstanding active members. Maybe someone with over a certain number of total posts, who has posted x times in the past month. Because it seems the plus of a premium membership is that you can post in the private forum. If anyone can log on at anytime, even starting a new acct to gain access to the premium forum...the idea of privacy would be gone.

Originally Posted by Anne

Generally speaking, the plan is to upgrade the premium membership perks. My intention is to keep everything related to cat advice available to any member, while keeping the perks for paying members. Things on my mind at this point are a chat system, a gaming arcade, virtual cat cards and more. The first will almost surely be limitd to premium members, for various reasons.

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Cool! DS is on a site called Gaia online. They have a chat room/game where he appears as a character, talking to another character. I don't know how hard that is to do, but it would be totally awesome if we were all a bunch of cats climbing on cat trees, and real trees.

Originally Posted by Anne

Another idea that I had was a monthly, or maybe even weekly, internet radio show, where myself or someone else would host the show, talking about cats, bringing up relevant topics and interviewing experts. A chat room will be open during the show to all members, where questions to the experts can be brought up. Just a thought at this point, the technical aspects are daunting lol, but I know it can be done.

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I LOVE this idea! Great thinking!

Anne,

those ideas are really awesome....I would find the money(like get a job lol) to get a subscription some how...because I would die without one.


I would say that to get a sneak peak or whatever, it should go by the amount of time you've been a member and not by posts because some people mainly just like to read and post once in a while but have been a member for a couple of years. Is there a happy medium??????


oh yea and I joined because I took in a pregnant queen and needed info about delivery and baby kittens and such.

Originally Posted by IloveSiamese

Anne,

those ideas are really awesome....I would find the money(like get a job lol) to get a subscription some how...because I would die without one.

I would say that to get a sneak peak or whatever, it should go by the amount of time you've been a member and not by posts because some people mainly just like to read and post once in a while but have been a member for a couple of years. Is there a happy medium??????


oh yea and I joined because I took in a pregnant queen and needed info about delivery and baby kittens and such.

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I agree about the time factor. Anyone can join and post a thousand useless posts in a short period of time. But a long standing member, regardless of the number of posts, should be afforded the privilege if it becomes available.

I am a active member for well over a year

Originally Posted by Beckiboo

Cool! DS is on a site called Gaia online. They have a chat room/game where he appears as a character, talking to another character. I don't know how hard that is to do, but it would be totally awesome if we were all a bunch of cats climbing on cat trees, and real trees.

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Oh, can we, please? I have to have this!

Originally Posted by clixpix

I agree about the time factor. Anyone can join and post a thousand useless posts in a short period of time. But a long standing member, regardless of the number of posts, should be afforded the privilege if it becomes available.

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I think time is important - and I agree that it is easy to rack up a lot of posts in a short period of time (after all, I have). But I think a certain amount of activity is also important. Someone with an old join date that rarely checks in would be as risky to let in to a privacy-senstive forum. Perhaps more so - frankly I would wonder why they hadn't gotten addicted to TCS like the rest of us!

Originally Posted by Satai

I Someone with an old join date that rarely checks in would be as risky to let in to a privacy-senstive forum. Perhaps more so - frankly I would wonder why they hadn't gotten addicted to TCS like the rest of us!

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Checking in and reading what is going on has nothing to do with posts. I know there are a lot of lurkers out there that are here daily but only post with they feel they have something to add. You pretty much know who the trolls are right away since they can keep there mouth shut. Trolls don't last long around here!

I joined the site basically to talk about cats and such because I don't know anyone personally who's as nuts about cats as me In the process I've learned a lot, and made a couple friends I love your Ideas Anne, especially the chat room and radio program. I plan on signing up for the premium membership as soon as I can free up some money, even if its only for the 3 month plan. I feel that this is a very friendly, informative site, and it can only get better!!

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

I joined the site basically to talk about cats and such because I don't know anyone personally who's as nuts about cats as me

In the process I've learned a lot, and made a couple friends

I love your Ideas Anne, especially the chat room and radio program. I plan on signing up for the premium membership as soon as I can free up some money, even if its only for the 3 month plan. I feel that this is a very friendly, informative site, and it can only get better!!

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Yep, I agree with all of this...same goes for me

Originally Posted by Anne

I need your help with brainstorming some... I want ideas and thoughts - go wild on me!

1. What do you like best about TCS right now? if you could, what would you add or change?

2. What do you think can be added to the premium memberships that might make you upgrade to one? (if you're already a premium member, check out my new thread in the premium lounge).

Thank you! Feel free to PM me with answers, if you want to keep ideas or thoughts private.

Click to expand...

1) everyone here is amazing! EVERYONE is SO nice and alot of fun to converse with. The onlything I would add is a chatroom! I think it'd be lots of fun!
2) Add a monthly drawing to premium for gift cards or items from local pet shops! I currently don't have the cash to upgrade to premium but you could do something along the lines of buying a lifetime membership for like 60 bucks or something like that!

Originally Posted by Anne

W
Generally speaking, the plan is to upgrade the premium membership perks. My intention is to keep everything related to cat advice available to any member, while keeping the perks for paying members. Things on my mind at this point are a chat system, a gaming arcade, virtual cat cards and more. The first will almost surely be limitd to premium members, for various reasons.

Another idea that I had was a monthly, or maybe even weekly, internet radio show, where myself or someone else would host the show, talking about cats, bringing up relevant topics and interviewing experts. A chat room will be open during the show to all members, where questions to the experts can be brought up. Just a thought at this point, the technical aspects are daunting lol, but I know it can be done.

Click to expand...

Wow! Anne, I love all your ideas! They are so great and really neat.

ive been on a few different cat forums, and none of them really felt like "home" to me til this one. i think tis a nice balance of moderation, but also letting people debate. its a fine line sometimes. if you never allow any disagreements it can get pretty boring and...gah can't think of the phrase. hopefully you know what i mean. on the other hand, without the right amount of moderation, things can get really ugly - ive seen it on other boards. i think this board has the perfect balance.

i don't buy a premium membership because i think 60 dollars is a lot of money for one year, and i can't see what i'd actually be spending the 60 FOR. i don't mean that in a negative way at all - love this place and the people here, but i'm just being honest. 60 is a lot for a year membership at a forum. if it were 20 dollars i would definately join..if it were 30 i'd probably think bout it for a bit, and then join. but i think 60 is too much.

perhaps you could have different levels of premium memberships? there must be others like me who'd be willing to pay 20 or 30 but no more. it could be a graduated system of "perks" for the different levels. free accounts get 50 pms, 20 dollar accounts get 150, 30 dollar accounts get 300, 60 dollar accounts get 500... ect ect. and of course, a scale like that with the other premium benefits as well.

as a vbulletin admin, i run two boards myself and really enjoy making custom vbulletin styles.. i'd love to make a style for this board - not for profit, just to be able to use on the board and see other members use. maybe a style making competition? tho i dont know if anyone else here knows how to make vb styles - if not it would be kind of pointless to have a contest, i suppose

i dont see myself leaving here anytime soon. i like the people here. i've learned a lot here.. always thought of myself as someone who knew a lot about cats, but i found out that i didn't know quite as much as i thought i did i came here during a cat crisis and peoples advice helped a lot.

i love the pictures forum

ETA: when VB 3.6 comes out, i would love to see you guys upgrade to the latest version. it's got lots of great features, including multi-quote, which allows you to quote multiple people at the same time..just go thru a thread, click a box next to each post you'd like to quote, then when you hit reply, each post is neatly quoted in the reply box already for you to respond to. so convenient in busy threads when you want to reply to like, five people...