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SI - Site Forums : Questions and Answers with SI Admin (s) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jaakko who wrote (3477)	11/14/2009 9:51:26 PM
From: d:oug	Respond to of 4893

I'm not SI (Bob) the owner here, just a simple* member, but I think you are a payed Lifetimer that purchased a Premium-Plus upgrade to access features developed after the circa 1997 when you payed for the Lifer status. Your "to cough up more money to be able to search and post messages" is an incorrect statement if you have the Lifer status since whatever access to SI you had upon your Lifer subscription in circa 1997 still exist today without any further payment to SI. Infact what exist today for a Lifer far exceeds in features and speed and user-friendlyness comparied to what you purchased in circa 1997. Fees required to purchase Premium-Plus features for a Lifer or Grandfather are very small comparied to the fee needed for a non-Lifer/Grandfather to obtain such. You have lost nothing, as in your access to SI without any further payments have never been decreased, only increased. Bob has been quite upfront and clear in his prior posts here as to what a Lifer obtains and does not unless an additional fee is payed to access certain features only obtained on a payed basic for a specific time period. My take is a simple rule: Premium-Plus features are not included in Lifer and Grandfathered accounts. * simpleton to SI Dave :) doug

To: Jaakko who wrote (3477)	11/30/2009 8:04:56 PM
From: SI Bob	Respond to of 4893

Edit: D:oug did a surprisingly great job of answering your question not only from a business perspective but from the perspective of a person with an account just like yours. Thank you, Doug! I joined initially in 1997 by paying US$200 for a "Life-time membership".... all in good faith.... I thought it mean: "As long as I live".... I still do... It turned out that it likely was only on the "Corporate Life of the then current owner"... it appears that way at least... BOTTOM LINE: I had to cough up more money to be able to search and post messages... Am I somehow affected by this new offer??? What happens if I don't take neither 3-years, nor Life membership??? Are you planning to sell the business and take all the money you can before selling it to some new unsuspecting owner, who then later on ends up short in cash and offers a new "Life-time-membership" etc. to make ends meet??? Would appreciate an honest decent answer... Jaakko. First, sorry to be so late replying. So many fires, one little garden hose.... But that's my problem.... The possibility exists that legally speaking, I, ADVFN, and again I aren't obligated to honor the lifetime subscriptions. Why don't I know for sure whether that's true? Because it's moot. As an early but not original member of the Fab Four (call me Ringo, I guess), I felt obligated to ensure Lifetime subs carried through and when I sold the site in 06, made sure there was language binding the new owners to that. Speaking businessman/stock guy to someone who is a stock guy and knows more than the man in the street about business because of it, I can bluntly say that any kind of account that I knew going in (in 03) that there would be a large population of users who would be albatrosses (in the business sense -- their continued presence is personally appreciated something fierce! But, they paid someone else or were very early joiners and they'd be a cost factor in terms of hardware and bandwidth costs, but not put coin in the coffers even indirectly by seeing ads. The solution, and it seems to have been accepted with open arms by most such people, was Premium Plus. A set of features that had not previously existed on the site. Available as an add-on for a nominal fee. But by no means required. What you had before as a lifer, you still have. More, actually. But it was necessary, as so many people have appreciated, to find a way into the pockets of those whose money was no longer any good here. So by the most insidious definition I can think of, Premium-Plus is nothing more than an optional and surprisingly successful way to add to revenues. I figured there'd be takers. I really am surprised just how many. But to answer what I think is an underlying question, no, you don't have to buy another Lifetime account or 3-year or even Premium Plus. So long as it's my decision to make (and I plan on it being mine from here on out), you will always have the same benefits of lifetime membership you've always had. I don't plan to sell the site again. I plan to get it to where it can afford and is run by people who can do it without my daily involvement, then I'll retire without "I need to rescue SI!" ever being an issue again. BOTTOM LINE: I had to cough up more money to be able to search and post messages... Back then, that was true and it amazes me to this day just how much the site would make monthly when you HAD to pay to post. Free members can now post and account for roughly 10% of our traffic. Am I somehow affected by this new offer??? Not in the least way, even marginally. Feel free to completely ignore it. What happens if I don't take neither 3-years, nor Life membership??? Your membership remains as-is. Are you planning to sell the business and take all the money you can before selling it to some new unsuspecting owner, who then later on ends up short in cash and offers a new "Life-time-membership" etc. to make ends meet??? Nope. Remember, this is the second time I've been that "unsuspecting owner" though this time I personally knew every single thing I needed to know and didn't have to rely on the selling company's "data". Would appreciate an honest decent answer... "Decent"? I'll let you be the judge. "Honest"? I hope brutally so sufficed because I'm a businessman speaking in front of people who know business know how business is, so feel ugly truths of business aren't so ugly here.