Re: A2central.com, can we try before we buy?

[David Miller <justdave@obvious.egl.net>]

In article <3b0fca53.13343756@newsflash.concordia.ca>, Mitchell Spector
<a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote:

>     I was always of the opinion the message area should be freely
> accessible, with premium services (i.e. live chat, file downloads,
> web space, telnet access) available only to paying members. At
> least this would help promote the service, attract new customers
> and be inclusive to _all_ users of the Apple II. As it stands now, 
> it feels more like a private club than a true part of the Apple II
> community.

The private community is exactly what we're selling.  And a lot of the
Apple II Community is there.  We all saw what happened to Delphi after
they opened up free web access.  Although, yes, it did get a lot more
Apple II people to stop in and visit, it also let in a lot of riff-raff
from the web (mostly non-Apple II folks who were trolling for some fun
harrassment, since they could).  I've personally lost count of the
number of accounts that we sent chat transcripts and copies of messages
to Delphi management of people coming in and just harrassing people,
and the accounts wound up getting revoked.  But they kept coming
because it was free and you could just sign up with another account
under a different name, and go right back to it.

Those who were frequenting Delphi A2 for the Apple II information were
growing quite weary of the constant screw-offs coming in and harrassing
people.  This is one of the reasons for having a for-pay service.  It
guarantees that the people who are there are actually there for the
subject matter and the community, and not just because they can.

OK, so you don't have enough money sitting around to pay every month... 
there are ways to keep your account free.  Write articles for the
a2central.com website.  Review Apple II software.  Every time your work
gets published on the web site, you get a free month. (The rules and
guidelines for this are here: http://www.a2central.com/contribute/ )

> >How many subscribers do you have A2central?
> 
>     Probably somewhere between 25 and 50, though this is only
> a rough guess.

You're actually way low.  I'm not in a position to disclose the amount
though (I'm not the boss).  I will tell you it's still under 200
though.  We also have a few forums besides Apple II open now.  Mostly
other forums from Delphi that wanted to keep text-side access.  There's
a link from the main Syndicomm web page that shows a list of all of the
forums that are currently on the service.

For those who are into nostalgia, the whole menu system got changed
around towards the end of March.  The place now looks a LOT like GEnie
did.  But we've made lots of improvements on what GEnie had.

Dave Miller - System Admin / Lead Software Engineer
Syndicomm Online          http://www.syndicomm.com/