Hi Everyone,
I've had to create a new post regarding this as there have been many requests now for a "subscription" type mechanism to allow users to pay a small yearly fee to download freely off the server.
We recently came across an issue regarding the bandwidth, and although we have yet to figure out why such a huge upsurge of downloads occurred in the span of a week (25TB worth!), we've decided to place a minimum post requirement of 5 posts for
FULL access to downloads/attachments/lesson plans.
Some users wish however to just donate a small fee to contribute towards the site's costs and maintenance, and we've now made that available through your profile. You can click on your profile, and at the bottom left of your menu you'll notice a "paid subscription" link. There you can choose to opt for a 10$ yearly fee, which amounts to about .83 cents per month. We'd rather have it setup as a one time yearly fee as it is processed by paypal, and they take a small chunk of each transaction.
Everything else is the same, but due to increase in the user base on waygook, and the overall open and non-profit structure of waygook.org, we have two options for our users:
- Make 5 posts, about anything you wish, with or without lesson plans. However, no empty posts as you will get banned for doing things like a "+1" posting or just a "
", "harumph" ...
or
- Option to pay a nominal yearly subscription fee. by following:
THIS LINK FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS.
If you have already donated using the chipin service, please let me know and I'll double check on that to update your status. If you have noticed a "fanatical supporter!" title or "featured contributor" then you don't have to worry.
SUBSCRIPTION LINK HERE ALSO--------- Some Clarifications ----------
Hey Everyone, I just want to clarify things regarding the changes as there are a few different posts about it, with people asking the same questions:
-
Regarding the 5 posts:
This is a necessity, it won't be changed. It's been too easy for someone to register, logon, download like crazy, and not contribute anything at any point. Having the minimum at 1 post is also too easy as it lets someone type a quick greeting and move on. 5 posts makes it easier for us to determine if someone is just posting empty threads/topics. It's also not unfair as you can easily have 5 posts about anything in here (again I repeat, doesn't have to be lesson plans).
-
Download cap or ratio mechanism:
A ratio mechanism that determines how much you can download based on what you contribute would be bad in terms of the quality of lesson plans that appear on the lesson plans board. Which is one of the reasons we don't have the 5 posts requirement as lesson plans.
-
Donation Box (ChipIn):
This donation box is separate from the "Subscription Service". You can donate what you want, when you want, or invite others to do the same. We've recently had to rely on it for base monthly costs.
The Donate box will not update your status as it's not linked to accounts, but the subscription link will. They are two different methods of contributing. The donation box is simply there if you wish to donate. The subscription link is to make downloads available to you if you have less than a 5 posts count.-
Google adsense:
Although some people may think it doesn't make much of a difference, it actually can help a bit depending on how interesting the ads are to the users, and so far is (well, almost) making up for the lack in the donations area.
-
Korean Bank Account:
I don't think we will implement this, and I feel bad that many users do want to contribute but can't due to difficulties with paypal, but I would highly recommend visiting our sponsors from time to time, as it will make a difference overall.
-
Yearly Subscription Service:
Available for people who just want to be able to download freely at any point. It's 10$, so that amounts to .83 cents per Month.
The totality of these measures should help alleviate two key things:
- Rising hosting/maintenance costs, and future upgrades (which affect the overall monthly hosting fees).
- Keeping people with malevolent intentions at bay (for lack of a better way of putting it). Although 5 posts is hardly much of a requirement, it does help separate those who really want to use and contribute to waygook, from those who just leech. Unfortunately, as much it bothers me, people will take advantage of a situation if they can. I think 5 posts seems fair. I also think that once users start making posts, they'll probably warm up enough to the site to contribute more in terms of lesson plans or ideas. The 5 post requirement however, is just a post requirement, doesn't need to be lesson plans (I had to repeat it, it's been asked so many times).
There's also monitoring software running in the background to check everything is well, and who's downloading how much, etc... Just in case.
Essentially two options for being able to access lesson plans at this point:
- Make 5 posts with relevant content (empty "+1" type of threads will cause a ban). Does not need to be a lesson plans, but if you have anything of interest please feel free to share. It's really simple and easy.
- Use the subscribe link to subscribe for a year. This isn't payment for what other's have posted, those always ultimately belong to the users. It's simply to contribute in some form to waygook, while helping cover bandwidth costs which is what really makes it all available in the first place. If you have more than 5 posts, it's obviously optional, just like the donations.
SUBSCRIPTION LINK HERE ALSO
