I apologize if it wasn't clear. I was referring to certain websites using "increased connection speed" (decreasing the connection speed that non-donors used to have) as an incentive to donate, while it is true that no one is entitled to access to the forums per say, it is also no good to a forum to have a significant chunk of its user base feel "punished".
My whole point was pretty much "it's hard for a forum to find a good balance between incentives getting people to donate, not giving any incentives and getting very little donations and simply spiting on non-donors" and sadly, whether I am right or wrong, I do not trust that a website like this can survive on the good will of some users alone
I'll take a look at the custom title and see how hard it would be to add that perk.
In a future version, stuff like a different color name or avatar border are definitely things we could do, I just haven't built out options for those yet.
All of these gimmie gimmie people. You don't buy it because you want to remove ads or some silly forum badge. You do it to give something back to the guys who put the work into the site.
Some of you guys have more than 5,000 posts. You're visiting a free website while using adblock. The owners aren't making a dime off you and you're freely using something that actually costs them something.
You're making it sound like MMO-Champion is some small site run by a few blokes from their garage somewhere. It's owned by Curse, which is a subsidiary of Amazon. Any money we pay for a premium goes to Curse/Amazon. If there are people who get paid to run/upkeep this site, they're well compensated by these multimillion dollar companies.
I noticed a few days ago that an ad actually showed up on the main page. Just added it to my block list and it hasn't come back since. Still an ad-free experience at MMO-C after about 5 seconds of effort.
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The primary problem with that is, we currently use all of that to distinguish mods from regular users. Making everyone look like a mod seems rather silly.
Glad to see this is finally a thing, and so cheap too.
I'm not a huge fan of twitch/curse/amazon which as far as I understand are basically the same companies now, but I enjoy browsing mmo-champ (more than I should) and it's nice being able to give back a bit.
Has it already been asked whether there is/will be an option to toggle the premium badge?
Yeah...no.
If I see people drooling over Russia being destroyed and their people suffering getting infracted and the threads they make closed same as those who do the exact same thing but with the US, I'll consider it.
If I see people refering to someone as a "pathetic piece of fucking shit" getting infracted same as someone calling someone a "dolt", I'll consider it.
If I see people who actually admit that they are baiting and trolling getting infracted, same as people who are just joking in a manner a mod doesn't like, I'll consider it.
In short, if I see moderation that is actually consistent (be it strict or loose), I'll consider it.
Until then, I'm keeping my money.