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New Membership Packages


Chief Bakes

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  • Management

New Membership Packages

Following on from the acquisition of 3 new policing forums to the group we have reviewed the Membership Packages and decided that we are going to give them a re-vamp and make them consistent across the sites. With that in mind I am excited to introduce them to you. 

First thing that needs to be said is that any and all existing members that have registered for the forum prior to the 9th January 2017 will see absolutely no change to their access on the sites whatsoever.  They will still have access to everything they already do and will still be able to interact as they currently do.  The only slight change to the existing members will be the group name which will be proceeded with "Resident" so  "Resident Members", "Resident VIP" and so on. This change will only affect new members signing up to the forum from the 9th January 2017 onwards. 

So the new groups will be as follows;

Guests
Same as now, non signed up visitors to the site and whilst they will be able to see an area exists they won't always be able to view the content of some of them. There will be no change to the access level of the guest membership group.

New Bronze Member
This will be the new group that members register on the forums as and remains the same as our current New Members group in that their first 5 posts will need to be approved.  They will only have read access to force specific and recruitment areas so they will be able to view topics and the posts.  After the first 5 are approved they will be moved to the Bronze Member Group. Whilst a New Member they will have the same user badge as Bronze Member.

Bronze.png

Bronze Member
This is a new group although it is pretty much the same as the current Members group, however, they will have read only access to the force specific and recruitment areas so they will be able to view topics and posts but not reply or create topics in these areas. Its essentially the same as New Bronze Member but without needing their posts to be approved. They will have the Bronze Member badge.

Bronze.png

Silver Member
This is a current VIP equivalent membership and they will be able to access all areas and post freely in all of them.  The membership plans available for silver membership will be £19.95 for one year of £36 for three years. They will have access to VIP areas as well as Force Specific and Recruitment with the ability to create and reply to threads in those areas. They will have the following badge.

Silver.png

Gold Member
These members will have the same access as a Lifetime VIP on here.  They will pay only once and it lasts forever, it will cost £100.  For the cost they will get the full access across the forum but they will get Gold Membership access across all four sites effectively making it just £25 for lifetime gold membership per forum, there is no lifetime membership on any individual forum it must be purchased as a Global Membership. They will have a Gold Membership badge on all four forums and will get sent an exclusive Gold Membership Police Community Mug.

Gold.png

The current VIP and Lifetime VIP will remain as is and will not be moved into a new group.  Over time these groups will decline in size and membership.  The only VIP's will be those who renew every year without fail and the renewal cost will remain at your current subscription price. We are not imposing changes on existing members, remember this is about new members signing up from the 9th January 2017.  If your VIP membership expires and you fail to renew within 30 days of the end of the VIP period you will loose access to that membership group but will have to purchase Silver or Gold.  It will no longer be possible to purchase a Lifetime VIP for a single site. They will retain the following badges. VIP membership will be closed to new purchases from the 9th January 2017.

VIP.pngLifetime_VIP.png

We will be offering our existing Lifetime VIP's the opportunity to upgrade to Gold Membership for a 50% reduction off the price at £50.

Recruitment Pass
There will also be a completely new level of membership called a Recruitment Pass - this will allow standard Bronze Member's to reply and create topics in both the Recruitment and Force Specific areas of the forum. It will not give them access to the VIP areas. The recruitment passes can be purchased for 1 month (£6.95) and 3 months (£11.95) which can be renewed. This recruitment pass will only be available to Bronze Members and their badge will change to the following if they have an active pass.

Recruitment_Pass.png

Our established Resident Members without any subscription prior to the go live date will have the following badge

Resident_Member.png

The only change to them will be that VIP and Lifetime VIP packages will be frozen as of the Go Live date and you will only be able to subscribe to Silver or Gold unless you have and maintain an active subscription prior to this date. 

All Membership Packages will allow Ad Free browsing of the site and allow your ad blocker software to be active.

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  • 2 months later...

I've just come into here looking for info on the new membership options, because I'm increasingly seeing new posts blocked because they don't have a valid purchased membership. Aren't the moderators and Chiefs concerned that if you start requiring everyone to pay to the site to post and ask questions - i.e. pay to contribute, then we aren't going to get new members and the site is going to decline?

I've just seen this thread locked - http://police.community/topic/108350-syp-recruitment/ .... we have very few contributors to the SYP forum and recently I've seen quite a few established members asking for input regarding SYP. If we scare off people who could make valuable contributions in the future - such as the poster who's thread has been locked - we are doing everyone and the site a disservice. I've always thought that one of the great things about the Police Community and Police Specials sites is that they were forums that were open to all. Yes, we've had a few trolls and a few numpties, but they seem to get dealt with appropriately.

Isn't it also a bit cheeky to offer the opportunity for people to ask questions to existing members and taking money that is being gained as a result of our knowledge and contributions. Where is this money going? What do the existing members - i.e. the experts providing the knowledge - get as a result of offering their advice and comments to people who are paying the site for assess to that knowledge and those opinions?

It's a shame this change wasn't publicised and discussed more widely before being introduced.

Edited by Policey_Man
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The money goes to running the website - hosting charges, software licences and support for Invision (the forum software), including the cost of the upgrades to the sister sites. The advertising (for those who see it) would not be enough to cover the costs. 

None of the mods are paid and I doubt the admins (the three owners aka Chief Rat, Chief Bakes and Chief Cheetah) take any money out - I'd be surprised if they did, it would be more likely they put money into it rather than take it out.

Existing member packages have been ring fenced, only new members, who joined up after the advertised start date, are subject to the new rules. The Chiefs didn't have to do this, but they did. 

The only caveat to that is - make sure you renew your yearly VIP subscription asap when it expires! 

Other options could have been considered, perhaps a yearly fee for everyone, or a rise in the VIP costs, or maybe there's another's idea out there (you're free to suggest such ideas in the think tank forum). 

The recruitment pass isn't too expensive, less than a beer. Quite a few people have been happy to sign up to that and others have taken out silver and gold packages. 

The change was advertised via a forum topic and was announced at the top of every forum site (as an announcement) for a few weeks prior to the change. 

It is a difficult balancing act, keeping everyone happy, keeping the costs reasonable, keeping the software upgraded and therefore as bug free as possible.

The Chiefs put a lot of effort into upgrading the PS, UK Police Online and Police U.K. Sites after they were acquired from their former owner. The sites, especially Police U.K. had quite a few technical issues - the effort to upgrade the software (including the costs for that software upgrade) will hopefully see a much more stable platform (less downtime) and hopefully usage of these sites will grow as time goes on. 

 

 

  • Like 5
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  • Techie1 + pinned this topic
  • 6 months later...

Good day,

I have come back to view the recruitment forums and found that I can no longer view the post I was previously following. What steps to I need to do now to rectify this?

Thanks

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Just now, Superman558 said:

Good day,

I have come back to view the recruitment forums and found that I can no longer view the post I was previously following. What steps to I need to do now to rectify this?

Thanks

Which post? You can browse the recruitment forums, but to post in those sections yu will have to purchase a recruitment pass.

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4 minutes ago, Fedster said:

Which post? You can browse the recruitment forums, but to post in those sections yu will have to purchase a recruitment pass.

Hi, thats the trouble I can't even view the full post now as it states 547 replies are hidden. Its on the West Mercia and Warwickshire 2016 recruitment post

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Just now, Superman558 said:

Hi, thats the trouble I can't even view the full post now as it states 547 replies are hidden. Its on the West Mercia and Warwickshire 2016 recruitment post

You mean this?

https://police.community/topic/34380-west-mercia-regular-recruitment-2016/

 If you are viewing as a guest, you will only be allowed to see a certain amount of posts before being asked to sign in, if you are logged in you should not get any restrictions.

Could you clarify are you getting the 547 replies hidden message when logged in or as a guest?

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1 hour ago, Fedster said:

You mean this?

https://police.community/topic/34380-west-mercia-regular-recruitment-2016/

 If you are viewing as a guest, you will only be allowed to see a certain amount of posts before being asked to sign in, if you are logged in you should not get any restrictions.

Could you clarify are you getting the 547 replies hidden message when logged in or as a guest?

This is when logged in. At the bottom of the thread where you would normally click next to advance to next page of replies etc

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  • Management

The restrictions exist on guests viewing and on members viewing forums/threads where a paid membership package is required.  As it's a recruitment thread then you'd need either a recruitment package or a full years membership.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is hard for commercial advertisers to reach their target-population. If this forum would be free to use (like the succesfull Facebook and Tinder), it would probably attract  much more users and readers world-wide IMO.

That may interest advertisers, to pay much more, to target a select group of professional decision-makers with commercial messages. Many internet-forums profit from using that financial strategy.

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15 minutes ago, Charles said:

It is hard for commercial advertisers to reach their target-population. If this forum would be free to use (like the succesfull Facebook and Tinder), it would probably attract  much more users and readers world-wide IMO.

That may interest advertisers, to pay much more, to target a select group of professional decision-makers with commercial messages. Many internet-forums profit from using that financial strategy.

This forum is free to use, apart for new members wanting to post in recruitment areas.

Not sure what your point is? 

Btw Facebook and Tinder have paid moderation teams, you are talking about companies who are worth billions of dollars.

You are not comparing like with like.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I purchased a recruitment pack last month via PayPal, this months subscription has also come out of my account, BUT my account is locked, as if I dont have a paid account and I can't see any replies now.

What' going on?

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  • Management
1 hour ago, Superman558 said:

So I purchased a recruitment pack last month via PayPal, this months subscription has also come out of my account, BUT my account is locked, as if I dont have a paid account and I can't see any replies now.

What' going on?

Hello @Superman558

I have checked your invoices and we have only received one payment from yourself, that was on the 19th January for a 1 month pass therefore, this would have expired by now.

If you have a payment reference or receipt from PayPal then we could investigate further but please only send this to me via Direct Message or by a Support Request and not by posting it here.

Chief Cheetah

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13 minutes ago, Chief Cheetah said:

Hello @Superman558

I have checked your invoices and we have only received one payment from yourself, that was on the 19th January for a 1 month pass therefore, this would have expired by now.

If you have a payment reference or receipt from PayPal then we could investigate further but please only send this to me via Direct Message or by a Support Request and not by posting it here.

Chief Cheetah

Done

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