Admin
Admin - Webmaster
Happy New Year to Everyone!
2010 will have a few changes at Car-Seat.Org.
First, subscription costs will be dropping yet again for supporters and benefactors! A two-month supporter subscription will now be $3.99. For six months it is $8.99. For benefactors, the cost is now $5.99 and $11.99 for two and six months, respectively. At the time of this change later today or tomorrow, all current supporters and benefactors (as of around midnight tonight) will receive 1 extra month added to their terms for free. This is both a "thank you" for your support, but also to partially compensate for those who subscribed recently and could not take advantage of the new, lower prices.
Second, prices for advertisers will increase slightly. The ongoing drops in supporter and benefactor subscription rates are due to the increased revenue from advertisers and sponsors. Please support them with your business!
Third, there will be a new type of sponsor subscription targeted to individuals who would like to contribute at a higher amount. It is also intended for unincorporated sole proprietorships, such as network marketing sales (Avon, Mary Kay, Amway, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, etc), home-based services (child seat inspections, graphic arts, sewing) and for personally hand-made products and crafts (diapers, toys, jewelry, etc). These are generally businesses where you are the only employee and you do not re-sell items manufactured by others at retail (in a store or online), except for network marketing brands such as those mentioned above. This type of sponsorship will have all the forum feature benefits given to sponsors (including increased private message storage, increased image storage, extra social groups, more profile customization, animated avatars, etc). Unlike full Car-Seat.Org sponsors, the only type of advertising allowed would be a simple, text link in your signature. No sponsor sub-forum, signature banner logo, profile logo or advertisement or any other advertising would be allowed. The cost will likely be around $23.99 for 6 months but may be adjusted periodically. Other types of businesses, including incorporated entities, partnerships, limited liability corporations, or any type of business that sells retail products made by others (excluding multi-level network marketing sales like those mentioned above) would have to subscribe at the full Car-Seat.Org Sponsor level.
Fourth, Vbulletin 4. This is a major upgrade of the forum software with many new features. It's a big upgrade, so there are likely to be various glitches. It's also a new look, so while some of the color schemes may be retained, many aspects of the current look will be lost. Some plugins that are used now may also be incompatible. This will probably not happen for a few months. That will give a little more time for patches to resolve early problems with the new software and to allow developers time to update plugins to the new version. I'll post updates when this change is closer.
Finally, there will be a new organization to the shopping area. This will include a couple new sub forums to make a better organization of where to discuss various types of deals. One of the forums will be semi-private, similar to the current Community Member Chat forums. This will allow Community Members and Subscribers to discuss special sales, post one-use codes, organize co-op purchases or talk about other shopping information that you don't necessarily want visible to visitors or search engines.
Please watch this post and this thread for more changes!
2010 will have a few changes at Car-Seat.Org.
First, subscription costs will be dropping yet again for supporters and benefactors! A two-month supporter subscription will now be $3.99. For six months it is $8.99. For benefactors, the cost is now $5.99 and $11.99 for two and six months, respectively. At the time of this change later today or tomorrow, all current supporters and benefactors (as of around midnight tonight) will receive 1 extra month added to their terms for free. This is both a "thank you" for your support, but also to partially compensate for those who subscribed recently and could not take advantage of the new, lower prices.
Second, prices for advertisers will increase slightly. The ongoing drops in supporter and benefactor subscription rates are due to the increased revenue from advertisers and sponsors. Please support them with your business!
Third, there will be a new type of sponsor subscription targeted to individuals who would like to contribute at a higher amount. It is also intended for unincorporated sole proprietorships, such as network marketing sales (Avon, Mary Kay, Amway, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, etc), home-based services (child seat inspections, graphic arts, sewing) and for personally hand-made products and crafts (diapers, toys, jewelry, etc). These are generally businesses where you are the only employee and you do not re-sell items manufactured by others at retail (in a store or online), except for network marketing brands such as those mentioned above. This type of sponsorship will have all the forum feature benefits given to sponsors (including increased private message storage, increased image storage, extra social groups, more profile customization, animated avatars, etc). Unlike full Car-Seat.Org sponsors, the only type of advertising allowed would be a simple, text link in your signature. No sponsor sub-forum, signature banner logo, profile logo or advertisement or any other advertising would be allowed. The cost will likely be around $23.99 for 6 months but may be adjusted periodically. Other types of businesses, including incorporated entities, partnerships, limited liability corporations, or any type of business that sells retail products made by others (excluding multi-level network marketing sales like those mentioned above) would have to subscribe at the full Car-Seat.Org Sponsor level.
Fourth, Vbulletin 4. This is a major upgrade of the forum software with many new features. It's a big upgrade, so there are likely to be various glitches. It's also a new look, so while some of the color schemes may be retained, many aspects of the current look will be lost. Some plugins that are used now may also be incompatible. This will probably not happen for a few months. That will give a little more time for patches to resolve early problems with the new software and to allow developers time to update plugins to the new version. I'll post updates when this change is closer.
Finally, there will be a new organization to the shopping area. This will include a couple new sub forums to make a better organization of where to discuss various types of deals. One of the forums will be semi-private, similar to the current Community Member Chat forums. This will allow Community Members and Subscribers to discuss special sales, post one-use codes, organize co-op purchases or talk about other shopping information that you don't necessarily want visible to visitors or search engines.
Please watch this post and this thread for more changes!
