General
03 Sep 04
03 Sep 04
1 edit
Long ago, subscriptions to the site were permanent after you paid a one-time fee. When Russ switched to yearly and monthly subscriptions, he let people who had bought the old subscriptions keep them without paying new fees (since they had originally paid for a permanent, not a temporary and renewable, subscription). But he wanted to differentiate between the old, permament subscribers and the new ones (partly, I think, to encourage the old pawnstars to "upgrade" to the new kind of subscription).
So a wingless pawnstar is someone who bought a permanent subscription when that was possible and is not paying yearly or monthly fees.
03 Sep 04
Originally posted by jgvaccaroThanks mate so there is no possible way to pay a one time fee and have a "lifetime" membership I would jump at that chance in a second
Long ago, subscriptions to the site were permanent after you paid a one-time fee. When Russ switched to yearly and monthly subscriptions, he let people who had bought the old subscriptions keep them without paying new fees (since they had originally paid for a permanent, not a temporary and renewable, subscription). But he wanted to differentiate betwe ...[text shortened]... ught a permanent subscription when that was possible and is not paying yearly or monthly fees.
03 Sep 04
Originally posted by D43M0NI think the current system makes more sense-- especially since there's no guarantee this site will exist in perpetuity.
Yes, but putting a price on that would be hard.
Given that the yearly rates seem quite reasonable, I doubt that many people would be willing to pay really large sums for a lifetime membership.
03 Sep 04
2 edits
Originally posted by jgvaccaroThe original pawnstar was not a subscription system in any manner. It was simply a voluntary contribution option to support the site. At the time, the increases in membership were overloading our original equipment, and an upgrade was badly needed.
Long ago, subscriptions to the site were permanent after you paid a one-time fee. When Russ switched to yearly and monthly subscriptions, he let people who had bought the old subscriptions keep them without paying new fees (since they h ...[text shortened]... when that was possible and is not paying yearly or monthly fees.
There were no differences in benefits whatsoever for those who made this voluntary contribution and those who did not.
The idea of an annual subscription had not been introduced, so there isn't any way that an original pawnstar could be considered to have a lifetime subscription at that point in time. That did come to be the case later on, but it was not part of the original motivation to become a pawnstar.
I should add that the site features were still fairly sparse too. There were no avatars, no profile graphics, no clans, no tournaments, etc. There were several bugs that still needed to be identified and corrected during that time as well.
Up until this time, all financial expenses involved in the operation of this site were taken care of by Russ and Chris. The original star was added by the owners to show a token of appreciation to those who helped financially so that all of us could continue to enjoy this site.
regards, Marc
03 Sep 04
Originally posted by mwmillerThat one time fee way back then was at the time when games became restricted to 10 without the fee. That's when I subscribed. So what we were paying for was unlimited games versus only 10. It wasn't like the 6 game limit though, because the 10 game cutoff was only games you could start- people with stars could challenge you all they wanted, so you could still have over 10 games. So we were paying for a little something. If I remember it correctly.
The original pawnstar was not a subscription system in any manner. It was simply a voluntary contribution option to support the site. At the time, the increases in membership were overloading our original equipment, and an upgrade was badly needed.
There were no differences in benefits whatsoever for those who made this voluntary contribution and those ...[text shortened]... ose who helped financially so that all of us could continue to enjoy this site.
regards, Marc
ncrosby🙂
03 Sep 04
Originally posted by RussRuss,
All wingless players still see ads - so they still contribute to the war fund. (All other subscriber benefits are accessible though.)
-Russ
When the pawn star idea was introduced, was the ten game limit introduced at the same time, or did that come a little later? I could have sworn that originally there were no benefits at all for being a pawn star, other than getting a star by your username.
regards, Marc
03 Sep 04
Originally posted by mwmillerYes, there was a very good extra benefit RIVAL CHESS 🙂.
Russ,
When the pawn star idea was introduced, was the ten game limit introduced at the same time, or did that come a little later? I could have sworn that originally there were no benefits at all for being a pawn star, other than getting a star by your username.
regards, Marc
I received a Rival Chess Copy.