Reply To: The Price of being a Beastie

[angelicdespot 4689xp 0]

Again to play Devil’s advocate, although I think you’re right @tonysilvey that most wouldn’t notice a 20p rise and that – assuming there are quite a few of us – it would raise a nice amount of money…   I get the feeling that any price rise has to be a one off.   You’d annoy people if you raised it 20p this year, 20p next year and 20p the year after a lot more than you would if you just raised the price to £4.39 now and then left it for several years.

If they’re going to raise the price at all, they sort of only have one chance, so if 20p isn’t going to be sustainable / sufficient in the long run then they should just bite the bullet and put the price up more now.

Although they could combine a mandatory price hike to £3.99 for everyone but at the same time announce that there was a voluntary rate of £4.99.

Like @limburger I don’t feel – and doubt the team feel – that differently priced classes of membership would fit the spirit of the community.   But enabling people to pay more for the same might work.

That said, i suspect that the number of people who voluntarily paid more probably wouldn’t be very significant in the grand scheme of things, so the most important decision has to be: if the price is going to change, how much can/ should it be raised to make it as acceptable as possible to nearly all existing subscribers while not putting membership out of reach / interest of non-backstagers and while raising sufficient extra cash to be worth the hassle?