A New Change For Luminous-Landscape

[S Meyers]

I have been a long time reader on the forums here and since most questions are answered well enough I don’t contribute myself.  I have spent several years in R&D in alternative print methods and in time will openly contribute to those specific fields as my way of giving back.  I appreciate what LuLa has offered, so a big thank you for the creators and all of those who do contribute. 

I would willing donate my time and funds to better moderation of forums.  Why not open the forum moderation to volunteers? And why not allow individuals the ability to rate and flag post similar to arstechnica.com/?   Free users could have restrictions, unable to post, having to view ads, etc, no access to LuLa generated content.   

I would suggest going even lower to $1 a year as a base rate and allowing the individual to add what they feel as a donation.   Be open and transparent about funds, what is raised and where it goes.   Once a person is opening their wallet, you are giving them the chance to contribute what they deem is fair and valuable to them, it will be different for each individual.     

And as far as LuLa generated content goes, perhaps openly soliciting more guest articles and reviews from volunteers vs having paid staff generating content.   

Steve Meyers

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... You are overly defensive and argumentative about valid points being made...

If presenting opposing arguments is being argumentative, so be it.

I remain sceptical that the new model will provide sufficient funds.

[LesPalenik]

$12 is a good deal to continue accessing Lula website

On one hand, out of the thousands of archived articles, videos, and forum posts many are by now outdated and in all practicality obsolete. However, abandoning all that content would be a great loss.
In order to maintain all existing information online and keeping the site up to date, new articles, videos and forum posts are needed. All members, including the ones who are opposed to the subscription concept agree that some monetization is in order. So far, the $12 yearly subscription fee seems the BEST AND SIMPLEST option to solve the big problem. If anybody has a better idea, feel free to share it with the site owners.
 

[marc aurel]

And if that is true for most of those who oppose paying and want a free forum, then how is the site going to finance it?

Hi Slobodan,

I admit that I am not quiet sure about my position. I can understand your point - it is necessary to monetize the website - to a certain extent. In the past (for 16 years) it seems to have worked that money from advertisements and fees for certain tutorials finance the infrastructure and the maintenance. The users contributed to the attractivity by their content too which made it attractive for advertisements. That used to be a great deal - a combination of content from the founders and content from the users in the forums made up something great everybody profited from.

They say that things have changed on the internet and I don't know what that means. What has changed? It is impossible from the outside to get an idea about how much money comes in through advertisements and tutorial fees nowadadays. In their announcement video for the new membership Michael and Kevin mostly talk about the content that they produce and want to produce as a reason for the substription model. I'm not interested very much in that part. But if that content is really of high interest and some people pay for it - couldn't that bring in enough money and the forums could remain free?

Regards -
Marc

[Kevin Raber]

Please see the post above...

Thank you for you comments.  Michael, Chris and I have been following the topic all day.  We have heard you and we will keep the forum as a FREE portion of the Luminous-Landscape site.  The rest of the site will be part of the membership site.  The exception is the For Sale topic.  If you wish to post there you will need to be a member.  Thanks for the feedback.

[marc aurel]

Thank you for you comments.  Michael, Chris and I have been following the topic all day.  We have heard you and we will keep the forum as a FREE portion of the Luminous-Landscape site.  The rest of the site will be part of the membership site.  The exception is the For Sale topic.  If you wish to post there you will need to be a member.  Thanks for the feedback.

Thank you very much. I am glad to hear that (I did not see it in time beacuse you posted it while I was typing). I hope this solution can give you a good financial basis. Thank you for all your great work and for running this great site!
Marc

[Manoli]

Michael, Chris and I have been following the topic all day.  We have heard you and we will keep the forum as a FREE portion of the Luminous-Landscape site.  The rest of the site will be part of the membership site.

I think you've made absolutely the right decision and both thank you and congratulate you on it. We'll never definitively know but my gut instinct tells me that you'll garner a lot more subscribers on day 1 than you would have done under the original proposal - and, yes, I will be subscribing (I would have done either way), but let that not detract from a politic decision in the best interest of all.

Good luck with the new model.

[scullyb]

This is one of many photography sites I frequent, although 12 is not a lot of money, if I start paying that kind of money for every web site that I frequent between photography, technology and science it would no longer make the internet worth browsing at all. 
good luck and I understand the difficulties in making money from a web presence, but as with all paywalls so far they are no longer part of the internet to me.

(what is with the 7 different questions just to post a message?)

[dseelig]

Well I thank you for the change and will continue on the forums as afar as the for sale I cannot argue with that either. Thanks for listening David

[TJunkers]

I only recently discovered this site, but after browsing the forum alone I'll gladly pay the $12 a year.

[adias]

Thank you for you comments.  Michael, Chris and I have been following the topic all day.  We have heard you and we will keep the forum as a FREE portion of the Luminous-Landscape site.  The rest of the site will be part of the membership site.  The exception is the For Sale topic.  If you wish to post there you will need to be a member.  Thanks for the feedback.

Great decision. Well done! Re the content site, although I empathize with many of the critical posts, I will become a member. I worry though, about the monetization success. As others  pointed out you may lose in the process and that is not good. Wish you luck!

[Guillermo Luijk]

We have heard you and we will keep the forum as a FREE portion of the Luminous-Landscape site. The rest of the site will be part of the membership site. The exception is the For Sale topic. If you wish to post there you will need to be a member. Thanks for the feedback.

Smart, elegant and above all, fair. I hope the new era of Lula is a complete success. Thanks for listening.

Regards!

[idillic]

I think the subscription model is fine.  I get a lot of pleasure and value from the web site for free. In the past I might have paid for books or magazines.

Whether it is $12, $24 or whatever, it will be good value for me.

[scooby70]

I'm disappointed by this but I can't really say why. It's not the money as it's really just the price of a couple of magazines and I stopped buying those years ago so I'll have saved enough to pay my LL bills for a few centuries.

I enjoy many of the articles especially the real world kit reviews which are a nice change from the overly technical and maybe overly critical reviews on other sites which in my opinion can go on too much about things that will never ever matter to me. I also like the enthusiasm that comes through and it's so nice to read and hear opinions as so many seem to be afraid to express an opinion these days. I'd much rather hear and opinion than a bench test result.

For these reasons I do like LL and it's not a lot of money so all in all I can't explain why I'm disappointed, but I just am.

Sorry.

[haddadlf]

Lula being the oasis that is it, I think what you are charging is below value, that's just my 2¢. Many of us who visit the site rely on your reviews and opinions, many of us who travelled with you guys we know that you guys call it as it is. In my opinion you could have charged much more and still be great value. Thanks for all your hard work, will sign up and sign in on 11/30.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stephen Starkman]

Kevin, Michael, Chris,

I think your decision to keep the forum open and "free" is a smart move. I think it will help encourage people to the subscription side for many reasons. The forums, for the most part, are user generated content and this shows terrific support for your users.

I'm sure you'll introduce/tweak the paid side over time, and with user feedback. Even though I visit LuLa less often now then perhaps 10 years ago, I still consider it a valuable resource and recommend many people visit.

But, in short, smart move. A paywall on the forums would eventually kill it. Even at $12/yr.

Stephen

[MBehrens]

Free Forum!!! Dang!! I was really looking forward to a nominal charge to keep the conversations civil, seems most of the detractors and arguer for the sake of arguing were opting out, it was so good to see them leave. Maybe I won't subscribe... It was a slam-dunk yesterday.

[amolitor]

I'd reply but I'm too busy laughing myself sick.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Free Forum!!! Dang!! I was really looking forward to a nominal charge to keep the conversations civil, seems most of the detractors and arguer for the sake of arguing were opting out, it was so good to see them leave. Maybe I won't subscribe... It was a slam-dunk yesterday.

Terrorists won...again

[GrahamB3]

What a pity.

I understand the need to monetize one's assets, especially at the end of one's life. There's too many other free sites available to occupy my attention to ever consider paying anything to your site.

Best of luck.