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Author Topic: LuLa moving to membership basis  (Read 15328 times)

Chris Barrett

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LuLa moving to membership basis
« on: November 24, 2015, 10:27:47 am »

If you're like me, you have a bookmark straight to this subforum and may have missed the notice on the LuLa homepage.  On the 30th of this month, LuLa is becoming a subscription based site.  Membership is cheap at a buck a month.  The up side to this is you will also now have access to all of the videos and articles that were only previously available at a much higher cost subscription.

Here's the notice

I didn't see any posts about this at first glance, but sorry if it's been covered already.

In the near future, if you want to start another tedious flame war of MFDB vs FF35, you're going to have to put your money where your big fat mouth is.

CB

Kevin Gallagher

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2015, 10:34:01 am »

If you're like me, you have a bookmark straight to this subforum and may have missed the notice on the LuLa homepage.  On the 30th of this month, LuLa is becoming a subscription based site.  Membership is cheap at a buck a month.  The up side to this is you will also now have access to all of the videos and articles that were only previously available at a much higher cost subscription.

Here's the notice

I didn't see any posts about this at first glance, but sorry if it's been covered already.

In the near future, if you want to start another tedious flame war of MFDB vs FF35, you're going to have to put your money where your big fat mouth is.

CB

+1
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PeterAit

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2015, 10:39:57 am »

I applaud the change, but this is REALLY the wrong forum for it.
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Manoli

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2015, 10:56:19 am »

In the near future, if you want to start another tedious flame war of MFDB vs FF35, you're going to have to put your money where your big fat mouth is.

Yup, and like $12 is going to be a deterrent ...
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Christoph B.

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2015, 11:44:03 am »

Does that change extend to the forum? Or is it "just" for the rest of the page?
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Chris Barrett

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2015, 11:54:00 am »

Does that change extend to the forum? Or is it "just" for the rest of the page?


"This includes our very active discussion forum"

marc aurel

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2015, 12:04:11 pm »


"This includes our very active discussion forum"

That would be sad. And I don't think it would be a good idea. It could happen that the forums get a bit quiet. I rarely read the articles but look at the forums frequently. Of course I can understand the need to monetize the website because. But I see advertisements on the site too (don't know how much money that brings in). But the content in the forum is not created by the lula crew but by the visitors.
I will probably be out if the forums are on a payment basis too.

Michael and Kevin: may I ask if it is possible to make people pay for the content that you produce but keep the forums open to everybody?
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BobDavid

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2015, 12:08:26 pm »

Dear LL,

I think the $12 a year subscription fee is a bargain. I have learned a lot from the LL community, and I sometimes revisit the LL several times throughout the day. My only complaint about the new guidelines is limiting jpgs to 800 pixels on the long side.

I respectfully ask LL to reconsider the 800 limit and increase the maximum to 1200.

Some photographers post pictures exceeding 800 pixels by a factor of 2X, 3X, or more. No question, IT administration is costly--maintaining servers, optimizing data flow, and managing security.

SO, I appeal to the powers that be, to reconsider upping the maximum pixel count to 1200. That is only a 50% increase. 400 pixels matter. Many photos require more than 800 to view and interpret--subjects, processing techniques, diagrams and charts, etc.

Sincerely,.

BobDavid (Robert D. Rosinsky)
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Joe Towner

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2015, 12:45:17 pm »

While I see direct value in the original content being created by the LuLa team, there are issues that need to be addressed.  I found LuLa due to the forums, and the role they have in the community.  Read this article as to how StackOverflow overtook ExpertExchange in the IT/Dev environment: http://www.inc.com/alex-moazed/how-this-engineer-turned-his-blog-into-a-400-million-business.html  Their #1 platform take away is to 'Don't put up paywalls on content platforms with large amounts of user-generated content'.

The forums are a peer to peer platform that are lightly managed, where answers are from subject matter experts (or what ever we are calling ourselves today).  Yes, there is a cost to infrastructure, but putting it behind a paywall is the wrong answer.  The forums need consistent participation from unpaid people, otherwise the page views don't happen, and the overall site becomes stagnant.  Yes, the same question gets asked over and over, so there is an opportunity to create content directly for that market.

While I can afford the $12, I'd rather that be an optional token that allows folks to see that I am personally invested in the LuLa community.  Getting a large enough commitment to make this a viable alternative shouldn't be too hard, but I would suggest doing that first before going full paywall on folks.

-Joe
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Christoph B.

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2015, 12:52:22 pm »

Honestly 12$ is fair - but if the forum access is also restricted that's a no-go for me.
To me a forums worth are the users themselves, they provide the content, they ask questions, give answers, share ideas, give feedback...

I think it would be fair to perhaps limit the "for sale" area but the rest of the forum?
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ced

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2015, 01:00:16 pm »

That move will sort the chaff from the wheat, I guess I'll be with the chaff.
Good luck with the move, thanks for the fine service and thanks too for the ride.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2015, 01:08:35 pm »

Jager

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #12 on: November 24, 2015, 04:26:31 pm »

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Chris.  As you say, many of us head to one or more spots in the forums and don't much see the rest of the site.

Alas, count me among those who think this idea of 'monetizing' LuLa - at least the forums - sucks.  Although the cost is almost inconsequential, and although I've voluntarily contributed to other websites a few times, I'm philosophically disinclined to have to pay to visit an internet forum.  With all due respect to Michael, it's the visitors to those forums that generate the content.

Perhaps from a broad perspective - and as the owner of a website that's surely what one sees - charging a nominal fee makes sense.  All those videos.  All those articles.  All those reviews.  Who could possibly begrudge capturing some revenue from those assets?

Well, for a start, the folks who rarely or never consume them.

SZRitter

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #13 on: November 24, 2015, 04:35:39 pm »

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Chris.  As you say, many of us head to one or more spots in the forums and don't much see the rest of the site.

Alas, count me among those who think this idea of 'monetizing' LuLa - at least the forums - sucks.  Although the cost is almost inconsequential, and although I've voluntarily contributed to other websites a few times, I'm philosophically disinclined to have to pay to visit an internet forum.  With all due respect to Michael, it's the visitors to those forums that generate the content.

Perhaps from a broad perspective - and as the owner of a website that's surely what one sees - charging a nominal fee makes sense.  All those videos.  All those articles.  All those reviews.  Who could possibly begrudge capturing some revenue from those assets?

Well, for a start, the folks who rarely or never consume them.

People seem to forget there is a fixed overhead for websites also. The servers, data-redundancy, hosting, domain registration, SSL, network, security, testing and not to mention the actual people doing the work behind the scenes all cost a fair amount of money. It's easy to see ad revenue not making the gap. I can understand putting their service, which is partially providing the forum, behind a paywall to help pay for those costs. Obviously, the high cost they were charging for the videos previously was not making the profit margin (or possibly any profit) they hoped to achieve. So they are trying a different model to drive revenue. The question is, will it be successful?
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Jager

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #14 on: November 24, 2015, 04:59:21 pm »

Oh, I definitely get the infrastructure costs involved.  I managed IT organizations for many years and fully appreciate that aspect.

I'm also not averse to paying for targeted content.  I've bought many videos here on LuLa, including the comprehensive Lightroom tutorial when that software first arrived, and the extensive Screen-to-Print series; and a handful of the monthly productions, back in the day.  That stuff wasn't cheap.  But I was happy to pay it because it was specific and unique.  It was premium content.

The thing I most like about the internet, even above email and social media and online retail - are the various communities that have sprung up on almost any topic you might have an interest in.  Participating in those communities has traditionally been free.  Some have tried to monetize that corner of the net, but I'm at a loss to point to any that were successful.

Kevin Raber

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #15 on: November 24, 2015, 06:41:13 pm »

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.
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Manoli

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #16 on: November 24, 2015, 08:18:15 pm »

* deleted *
« Last Edit: November 24, 2015, 08:28:21 pm by Manoli »
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SecondFocus

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #17 on: November 24, 2015, 08:21:19 pm »

I am fine with the fee.

I would rather see the discussion forums limited to the paid membership.
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torger

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2015, 03:09:30 am »

Free forum access and paid for the for sale seems like fair to me. In the forum the users contribute the value. I go straight to the forum and don't use the main site much. When I get there it's usually because of a google hit on an article.

At $12 a year I wouldn't mind much if the forum would be paid as well, but I don't think it would lead to any increase in "quality", I think it's a larger risk that there would be less people visiting, less content, and also less quality content. The quality content often is a result of someone asking a question, and if there's only paid subscriptions I think there would be less of those questions, and perhaps more of us self-proclaimed experts arguing ;)

But well, when it comes to forum "trolls" I don't really think there is a problem here. I do see that some are very passionate about certain brands or have fixed ideas that X is better than Y and then you get easily upset, but that doesn't disturb me. I've been in "troll-free" forums too, meaning that everyone had the same ideas about everything, and if someone had a different idea they shut up. If that is the alternative I rather have some "trolling". It's after-all those threads that get the most posts, people like to argue, and as long it's civilized I'm fine with that.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2015, 03:14:48 am by torger »
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synn

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Re: LuLa moving to membership basis
« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2015, 04:33:14 am »

Forum is free. Trolls are staying. Nothing has changed in this part of the site.
Business as usual.
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