Board of Directors Paul Posted December 15, 2019 Board of Directors Share Posted December 15, 2019 (edited) All, We're pleased to announce that we've brought back the ability for members to purchase a Premium Subscription. Premium Subscriptions are a great way for individuals to help offset the cost of operating LoveShack.org. Our community costs quite a bit to run, and while advertising helps pay a portion of the bills, your subscription helps us minimize our out of pocket expenses and gives you access to some great benefits and features. Premium Subscriptions will remove advertising from the site while you're logged in, immediately give new members access to private messaging, and increases the total number of private messages you can keep stored exponentially. Additionally, you'll be able to set a profile picture, create public and private journals, be throttled less often when posting new messages or searching, and more. Premium Subscribers will have a golden coin on their profiles and posts to show off their support of the site. We're also looking for ideas on other features you may want to see for Premium Subscribers. Please feel free to comment below! To sign up, visit the Premium Subscriptions tab. We also have the option to purchase gift cards if you'd like to send a code to someone special, available in one-month, six-month, and one-year increments. And, now through December 31st, you can save an extra 15% off (excluding gift cards), just by entering the coupon code LOVE15 at checkout. Thank you to all of you from all of us! Best, Paul Edited December 15, 2019 by Paul Oops! Link to post Share on other sites
Gaeta Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Paul, for those living outside the US we will be charged in US currency on our credit card? Link to post Share on other sites
Author Board of Directors Paul Posted January 7, 2020 Author Board of Directors Share Posted January 7, 2020 Hi Gaeta, 5 hours ago, Gaeta said: Paul, for those living outside the US we will be charged in US currency on our credit card? What a wonderful question! I'm not sure of the answer, yet we're looking into it. Me, being a typical American, and forgetting about the rest of the world... 😊 Best, Paul 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Author Board of Directors Paul Posted January 8, 2020 Author Board of Directors Share Posted January 8, 2020 (edited) @Gaeta, we think we've figured this out! You can choose between a handful of select currencies by clicking on the desired currency you'd like to set as your default (at the bottom of the subscription options). If you choose Canadian Dollars, for example, the transaction will be in the listed currency for the amount indicated. Note, that some banks may charge you additional fees for international transactions since we are based in the United States, even though the transaction is in your local currency, so be sure to check first with the bank that issued your card. Hope this helps! Edited January 8, 2020 by Paul International banking 1 Link to post Share on other sites
K.K. Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 So..... would a monetary contribution make it a little more feasible for me to expect that my posts would still be here the next morning, precisely as I had written and left them the night before? Let me know 😉 I’M KIDDING !! SO JUST KIDDING !! PLEASE DON’T BAN ME. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Author Board of Directors Paul Posted January 8, 2020 Author Board of Directors Share Posted January 8, 2020 Hi K.K., 1 hour ago, K.K. said: So..... would a monetary contribution make it a little more feasible for me to expect that my posts would still be here the next morning, precisely as I had written and left them the night before? Let me know 😉 I’M KIDDING !! SO JUST KIDDING !! PLEASE DON’T BAN ME. What a great question! Thanks for asking it. As a supporting member with a Premium Subscription, you might sleep easier at night knowing that you helped offset a small bit of the costs of operating the infrastructure (servers, databases, electricity, bandwidth, licensing fees, etc.) that it takes to run LoveShack.org! 😉 While we're fortunate that our advertisers support us, we often have to contribute our own personal funds to keep things online, and there have been times where it's just too much (including a time in the recent past when the servers went dark). Premium Subscriptions are a way to give folks both some nice perks and the ability to throw a few dollars (or Euros, now) a month into the piggy bank to spread out the burden of covering our expenses and ensuring the Community continues to thrive. We still expect that our supporting members will conduct themselves appropriately, respectfully, and in a manner conducive to the framework we've established over the years. Our guidelines exist to ensure that everyone feels welcome, safe, and heard. That's what's most important to us. We simply aren't interested in compromising the community for financial gain. All that said, participants that have a vested interest in participating in the Community, within the spirit of the Community Guidelines, should rest assured that myself and the other directors view restricting someone's access to the site as a measure of absolute last resort. The technical, administrative, and logistical hurdles that led to moderators having to make do for much longer than I would have liked are things we want to ensure go away permanently. Now that we've begun stabilizing the technical aspects of our upgrade, we're doing behind the scenes work to make administrative improvements to the community as well. You've already seen some of these implemented in the upgrade, and there are more to come. We now have a platform in place that we believe will help further support accountability, fairness, and transparency in our decisions, and to allow us to increase the number of folks that are able to volunteer their time to further our mission and discourse. We have a great responsibility when it comes to curating the thoughts and comments made every day here, and we'd prefer to not have to make edits. However, there are certain things that, as a matter of policy, contractual obligation, and/or for the greater benefit of the community as a whole, we simply cannot allow to remain on the site. In those instances, we will do our best to make appropriate edits and retain as much of the dialogue as is possible. The use of obscene or vulgar language, as an example, could jeopardize our ability to have advertisements on the site, leaving us in dire financial straits. Above all, please be sure to continue to ask questions, reach out with your comments, and don't hesitate to share your candid feedback. I promise it doesn't go unheard! Best, Paul Link to post Share on other sites
Gaeta Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 14 hours ago, Paul said: You can choose between a handful of select currencies by clicking on the desired currency you'd like to set as your default (at the bottom of the subscription options). If you choose Canadian Dollars, for example, the transaction will be in the listed currency for the amount indicated. Note, that some banks may charge you additional fees for international transactions since we are based in the United States, even though the transaction is in your local currency, so be sure to check first with the bank that issued your card. Hope this helps! So I took the monthly premium. I picked Canada as country, etc. I had my doubts about being charged 3.95 in Canadian as you'd only be getting 0.77% on deposit. So my credit card was charged $5.28 Canadian which represents 1.30% in exchange rate, the exact rate at Bank of Canada this morning. I was not charged any additional fee. I'm happy with that. We Canadians are used to pay more for everything anyway 😉 Link to post Share on other sites
Author Board of Directors Paul Posted January 8, 2020 Author Board of Directors Share Posted January 8, 2020 (edited) Hi Gaeta, 56 minutes ago, Gaeta said: So I took the monthly premium. I picked Canada as country, etc. I had my doubts about being charged 3.95 in Canadian as you'd only be getting 0.77% on deposit. So my credit card was charged $5.28 Canadian which represents 1.30% in exchange rate, the exact rate at Bank of Canada this morning. I was not charged any additional fee. I'm happy with that. We Canadians are used to pay more for everything anyway 😉 Uh oh, that's not how it's supposed to work. If you saw $3.95 as the price at checkout, it was not switched to Canadian dollars. You'd want to see CAN next to the amount. You should have only been charged $5 CAN. To switch the default currency, go to the bottom of the Premium Subscriptions page and select CAN for Canadian Dollars (see the image below). We set it up so that any exchange costs are taken off our end so your credit card is only charged the amount listed (plus any fees your bank might charge for international transactions--we aren't given an option to absorb those costs by our processor), however in order for that to work, we need to send the transaction in the currency you're paying in. I'll contact you privately to see how you'd prefer we fix this and make it right. Best, Paul Edited January 8, 2020 by Paul Added screenshot Link to post Share on other sites
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