Update Followup

So will the people that already have a lifetime subscription still get to keep theirs and not have to pay again? Or will ours just revert back to a plus account? Thanks for the update again. This does help clear the air a little bit. <3

Seconding Raven Elyse’s question regarding current Lifetime memberships.

as a long time subscriber I have always thought about the lifetime… but your price is extremely reasonable and I don’t mind helping with the cash flow.

It you can’t devote the time necessary to make the site better you should find someone who can. We deserve more than a random entry here and there.

I third that question!

I’m glad that you addressed #6. I was getting tired of seeing people rant about it all over the place. Thanks! 🙂

Oh nooo. Readers choice is going to blow up again with everyone’s rebuttal to this.

That is the first I’ve even heard of Keep Calm and Carry On, I love it! I guess if that is so over, then I’m so out of it.

Thank you Bruce – I, for one, appreciate that reassurance.

4…. I’m a little disappointed in this… Just saying…. I understand that you need to Constantly bring in revenue, but at the same time, us heavy users…. this was great! What will happen with the life time members??

Thanks for your entry above. It would be nice if you could do an entry regularly…say once a month…. to give us the latest “whats going on”, scoop, etc..

well I wondered about the ‘rumor’ and even stated I couldn’t find any ‘facts’ but I did encourage everyone that hadn’t including me to back ’em up peeps lol something we Should be doing anyway… I am glad OD isn’t going away I have come to really like it

It’s absolutely adorable that you for making your entries so up close and personal for the OD members 🙂 You guys are doing great. Keep up the good work.

I think we are all wondering about current lifetime diaries. lol. I’m glad that you try to answer all our questions and concerns! Even if I wasn’t worried, I learned a lot from this entry.

The way I read it, if you have a lifetime membership now you still will.

So if you already have a lifetime membership, will you still keep it?

IF YOU NOW HAVE A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP YOU CAN KEEP IT.

Thanks DM for making things clearer 🙂

He said he’s waiting a few days in case there’s anyone who wants to buy a Lifetime membership. I think this implies that current Lifetimers will be allowed to keep their memberships.

children huh? gotta love them all. glad you do. your need the auto-message-software asap dude… just saying.

is it just me, or do we go through this whole song and dance every time there is an outage. Thankfully my interest in this place is extremely low nowadays.

Thank you for the reassurance and the personal update. Your comment about the LIFETIME subscriptions is a wee bit confusing, but I hope I’m understanding correctly: 1. Those of us who opted into this will still keep our LIFETIME status 2. You are going to be taking this option away sometime soon 3. Any subscribers *not* subscribed to the LIFETIME membership before you ‘expire’ that option will always have to renew their memberships ??????????????????????????????????? Thanks again.

Thank you so much for all this info. I assume with your wording that those with lifetime will continue to have that. Notice how he said, “I will wait a few days in case there is anybody out there who wants to buy one, but the Lifetime option will go away soon.” I don’t think he’d want people to buy it JUST so it goes away in a few days. I completely agree that the lifetime option has run its course and I think getting rid of it is a good idea. If I did not already have a lifetime sub I would buy one today.

Aha – I agree with Cat_Mommy – if I didn’t already have the Lifetime membership I would buy it today!

…my suggestion re: outages…use Facebook to let us know. At one time that was the way we got that info but this last time…nothing.

Thanks for all you do, DM! I started here in 2002, left for a while and returned in November. You’ve created an awesome writing-community space here. I had forgotten how important it it, how much I appreciate it. At the encouragement of Camdengirl, I became a member for the first time ever, as I want to vote for things that I believe in, things that work. Kudos to you and the OD team! Really, words are just an approximation of how much we value what you all do.

I always uses the odplus.asp login screen. Would it be helpful stats wise to use the ad-dy one?

I also want to know what will happen to my lifetime membership?

Oh and I know that u don’t think that communicating that the site is down makes sense but if it’s a planned outage how much time and effort does it really take to put up a one line entry to sat as much the day before the outage?

So about my multiple emails to the help deal that have remained completely unanswered……..

Help DESK. dyac!

thank you for taking the time to reassure us all.Please let us know the answer to the #1 noter question when you can. Have a good day….P

cool. be well.

If you bought a Lifetime membership you GET TO KEEP IT.

Thanks DM. dynne

Thanks for the follow-up. I actually at first read the title as “Ultimate Followup” (it’s been that kind of a day), so no worries about being unimaginative. :-)Thanks again for everything and keep on keepin’ on.

Aloha nui loa…

Thank you DM and the fantastic three. I’ve benefited greatly from the relationship that I’ve made and maintained here. I wonder if the folks over at Wired might be interested in do a blast from the past article on your and our pioneering work and how it has transformed over the years. Keep up the good work. And ciao to all of my friends here. Ciao,

thank you, DM 🙂

Thank you DM, hopfully folks can cool down some!!! *hugs*

I ponied up for a lifetime almost four years ago, so I’ve about gotten my value out of it, and it has been worth it. I’ve always thought that there should be a greater difference in benefits between free and paid. To me, just having the ads gone is worth it, since I probably bring up the “time on site” statistics significantly on my own! (ha, ha) I practically live here. Well, actually, since my life is recorded here, I guess in a way I DO live here! Anyway, I’m just testifying to the “free” users that the subscription is well worth it if your journaling is important to you.

We all do understand. I will just continue to emphasize that this is a site about communication, so please communicate even if you feel anything you said wouldn’t be useful and would be redundant. Thank you for communicating.

Thanks 🙂

Thank you and please know that even though I have a lifetime membership, I would be willing to pay every 6 months again.

Good job with the follow-up! Thanks.

C’mon Bruce! Someone should at least ‘Keep Calm and Open Diary”.

Suggestion: if the lifetime subscription isn’t helping out as much as it should, raise the price. Make it $200 instead of $100 or even $500 if that is what it will cost to make it more profitable for your site. At least that way the option is still there. Just a suggestion… Later,

Thanks :).

I already said before that I’d be willing to pay and I got jumped on. However, I think I’ve more than gotten my money’s worth just being rid of the advertisements.

thank you for all you have done. i started a diary on OD as a freshman in high school in 1999 and have always found this to be such a safe and comforting place. i appreciate your entries every so often and totally get your need to have a full time job and a life outside. we ALL do and i hope everyone will respect that.

Thank you for keeping me alive even through my dry spell.

Thank you Mr. A. I am so thankful and blessed that OD IS staying open for a good, long time to come. Thank you for taking time from your work schedule and family life to ease people’s nerves, :*))). I appreciate everything here, and love our community. God bless you and your family, BigHUgz, Lois

I recognized that Lifetime memberships, while a good thing for the journalists was not good for OD in the long run. I’m surprised that you continued selling them this long.

Communication is always helpful. Always. (always!)

I, like many here, am grateful for all you do here. We probably should let you know this more often.

Thanks DM, this entry answers some key questions that have popped up. I think some people will disagree with what you’ve said in number two though. I may be wrong about the way OD is run but I assume that the admins don’t always immediately know how and why outages have occured or what’s going on, and that it may take you some time to work on it inbetween day jobs etc. So some silence and downtime is understandable. In the past however a quick “we know the site is down” tweet (from you or the admins?) has always been helpful and reassuring. Even for those of us who are not worried about a sudden OD apocalypse 😉 Nice to see you updating. Hope the new job is going well xxx

Thanks diary master, that really does reassure

I left you this note in February 2006: You know, if you would actually COMMUNICATE ON A REGULAR BASIS and with the people who pay for this site and respond to e-mails and problems, you might have a leg to stand on in asking for help. Bruce, it is a BASIC TENET of BUSINESS and COMMUNICATION to keep your audience (community or customer base) informed. This is not the first time I have told you this.You continue to ignore us. [Luna] [p] 2/2/2006 2:26:38 PM Additionally, you need to consider putting a CAP on the number of Lifetime Subscriptions you will offer/sell. Suppose everyone takes advantage of the economics of the situation. What are you going to do in 52 months when yearly subscriptions have dwindled because everyone has paid all they ever need to pay to have a diary on OD? Further, what is a Lifetime Subscription? Is it for MY lifetime? (c) [Luna] [p] 2/2/2006 3:16:10 PM Only took you six years to figure it out? Wow.

Cheers to you DM, and cheers to the volunteer admins! I appreciate that the world has changed since those early days, and I understand your decisions. I wish there were an easy solution, but I know otherwise….

Thanks for your update Bruce(DM)… I think that giving these kinds of updates on a regular basis (even though you are busy doing other things) is very helpful and also reassuring. I’m wondering if an email notification system for when the site is down is a feasible option? One quick email to every user of OD and bingo, there are no panic buttons going off from OD’ists. Keep up the goodwork. I appreciate that you are all working toward improving and optimizing the use of OD. Thank you! G~ PS: So glad that life time memberships will be retained by those that have them.

I love that the people whining the loudest are the people offering very little to make OD a viable source of steady income :o( I’ve said it before, but I’d happily pay a subscription again, because despite OD time being limited for me, it is STILL home.

After reading the stats about the changes over the years, I looked at my own beloved OD and found the surprising fact that my start in 10/01 has meant 200+ entries per year during most of these years. The surprising thing to me was that in 2002 and 2003 I had over 600 entries each year. I became a lifetime member back when the need was expressed, despite my own tight budget, because I believed inOD and found value. I have had a few times of not writing much, but I always come back, which you, as the DM do as well. Working a full-time job requiring a commitment is familiar, and the explanation of the site’s history have been good and seem credible to me. I love OD, but I know I have long since gotten much more in my lifetime membership than I gave, unless we consider the percentage of my expendable money that was at the time! I can’t imagine my life without OD, even though I am in the process of making my OD private so I can start over when I get married next week. Thank you for the update.

Good entry! I think that #3 is wise, proving that there are indeed still some things that are free in this world! And it is also an invaluable service for those who can’t afford a subscription..or may eve be accessing the OD from a library! thanks for addressing #6. Inquiring minds did wonder! *smiles* Bri

thank you. take care,

Interesting update and comments here. 1) So the previous entry was concerned about the lack of traffic to this site which brought then potential revenue from ads run. 2) This entry is addressing the income conern with a soon to be removed option to purchase lifetime memberships. 3) From one and two above I now am wondering: why not look at ways to increase traffic tothe site. There is a contradiction to the paid lifetime membership being removed and the need for a steady stream if revenue. 4) Why not encourage the membership to share links to the front page of this site on FaceBook and Twitter to help increase the traffic flow to this site. 5) Keeping the site fresh and alive sometimes means adding some new little tools along the way for OD members to use. That generates fresh excitement which in turn causes more members to share links and talk about the new things going on on OD elsewhere which in turn drives more traffic to the site. (continued on next note)

(cont. from previous note) There are so many ways today to drive traffic to a site that I am just wondering why not more effort placed into that, rather than dumping the option to buy a lifetime membership for your contributing members. This site needs to encourage its contributing members in order to be able to increase the traffic flow that then makes the ads revenue increase. Currently it just appears that OD shoots itself in the foot so to speak with discouraging its contributing members. This is just my humble opnion and it is written with all due respect and only with concern for solutions to problems you have mentioned and keeping the membership here happy so as to keep the site ALIVE. Best wishes.

I appreciate everything and your team do to keep this site going. I have made so many friends here. Thanks.

Communication is very important and I hope you will write to us more often. We need to feel a commitment from you not only to Open Diary, but to us as well.

Thank you 🙂

And also, why not look at cheaper hosting methods for the site, you are seriously getting screwed on your server costs. I can refer you to several people in server hosting that could help you reduce your costs.

Really nice and comforting to read all these things. Your dedication to founding and maintaining this site and your transparency towards its workings are highly appreciated!

Have a nice weekend….

Did any of the above people worryinga bout their lifetime membership actualy READ this entry!? He said existing lifetime members can keep their membership, and everyone has a few days to consider buying one, and then it will disappear and new members will have to pay monthly instead of lifetime, as it was only ever offere dto get inn a quick bit of needed cash.

Thanks for the update!

Thank you for the update, I’m glad my lifetime membership will stay 🙂 However, I think us lifers wouldn’t mind donating now and again! Is there a way to do that?

Thank you for the clarification.

I will stay faithful and trusting until you give me a reason not to. Nothing that’s happened recently has broken my trust, I understand that life happens, and I appreciate you’re stepping up and acknowledging things. 🙂

“but at some point just communicating that the site is down and somebody is looking into it isn’t helpful” It is ALWAYS helpful. And if it’s down for more than a few hours updates saying your still working on it are equally helpful.

Cool doggies. Keep up the good work.

The fact is, people are prone to panic. I highly doubt there will ever be a time when OD goes down temporarily, there is no communication, and people do NOT panic that it’s the End Of Times. If some kind of “Yeah, sorry, we’re on it” notice would help with the panic epidemic that seems to happen (because the people who DO understand #1 get sick of seeing it, let me assure you), it seems like a good 20 seconds to spend.

#4 does not make me feel as if you are very grateful for the loyalty of your lifetime subscribers. I know lifers will always get their subscription and it will never expire, but can you offer us any reassurance that we will always receive the same OD experience as subscription users? I would be very… lets say ‘unsettled’ if us lifers were treated as pariahs just because we chose a one-off, all-out show of faith. If OD shut tomorrow, I would be gutted, but I wouldn’t feel I had wasted my money. However, if I received a less than ‘first class’ service because I decided to go for a lifetime subscription, then I would feel betrayed, and probably seek pastures new.

Thanks for the acknowledgments.

I’m so glad, Bruce. Thank you so much for clarifying things.

You explained the situation very well the first time around, and you did it here again. I hope it will be comprehensible to everyone. Thank you for the work. We hope your other job is great and that you also find free time with your family, which is the most important.

Re: Donations – I agree with what others have said! I have been a free user for more than 10 years and I would happily donate.

Can you make an OD app for iPhone and smart phones pretty please? 🙂

that meme was over 50 years before it started. Yay retro.

Why not institute a number of options/perks that cost a small amount of money? Like the ability to use icons for posts, put pictures in notes, have cool and interesting diary layouts or store images in an OD storage account? Each of these things would cost a subscription fee like $2-$12 depending on the usage and the length of time.

I appreciate the Follow up.

Somebody just left the following note on my diary: “Surely being a lifetime member doesn’t make you think you are contributing towards the running costs. It’s the equivalent of 5 years (last time I checked,which admittedly was a few months ago) and if you are here longer then you are being a leech.” Thank you DM for turning me into a pariah on a website that I loved so much, I was willing to show the biggest gesture of loyalty in a time when it needed it the most.

Would it be alright if we, as lifetime members, pay yearly anyway? By the way, it’s nice to see you in bold. Really.

well at least I know you read my note even if you disagreed with me {smiles}.. so if the average user time is only counted by the amount of people online I wonder what drags the average time down to 3 minutes? Must be an interesting distribution curve because to do almost anything here, read, write, takes more than 3 minutes.. the only thing that does not is.. checking notes. I often leave OD up all day long but in a tabbed window, as I check my notes and go back to what I am doing. Anyway to quantitate the area under the curve or per user experience per day instead of per session? Oh well, probably doesn’t matter you know the advertising metrics game well enough.

Thank You for explaining a bit further. I plan on keeping my diary here. I have made some dear friends here.

I was going to get a lifetime membership but I think I would rather help keep the site up & pay monthly. 🙂

What about adding a donation button? Photoblog.com has a donation button and take as little as $1. I’m sure people would be willing to do that. Lifetime membership was a good idea at the time, but it’s basically 5 years of service. I think people would be more willing to donate than pay a yearly fee.

I’m so OG OD, I remember when there wasn’t even a pay option to begin with – started out completely free/

Thanks for the update,DM. Will be 98 June 12 and this diary is a big part of my life. Playing Solitare, at http://worldofsolitaire.com/ is another big part. Adding a few time grabbers like that here might raise the income from ads. Willy,of

Glad to see that we’ll be given notice if you ever decide to shut OD down, thanks for that much at least.

Sometimes I think that people either forget or don’t quite realize that despite the fact that OD is a business of sorts, it’s quite a bit different than your typical business. I hope you always keep a personal interest in OD and in how you communicate with us.

I, for one, will never join Facebook. I have been with OD for over ten years and look at this site as a lifeline. Thank you for everything.

Have you guys got a ‘donations’ option for those of us who ARE lifetime members but can occasionally afford to donate?

Thank you! This place is wonderful!

I just joined a week ago, when I found your site. Then I upgraded in about 2 days to a 6 month plan. The way I look at it, a blank journal can cost aroun 15 to 19 dollars, which makes this site really reasonable. Because I would go through a couple blank books a year. And here you can make friends, you wouldn’t make elsewhere. It’s a writing community. And I’m very thankful to play a part. Keep up the good work, I like it here. I like the layout.

Plus, I hate to delete them – we inevitably have people come back to OD after being away for years, and finding their diaries again, which I think is really cool. I LOVE that you keep old diaries so that we can come back to them. Thank you so much for that.

I don’t think the lifetime membership was a bad idea. I was never ever going to pay money for OD, but that deal was too good to pass up…so you did get something out of someone who probably wouldn’t have paid a cent. Considering there are issues with customer service regarding the monthly subscription, getting rid of the lifetime subscription is a bad idea. One of the hidden perks tothe lifetime subscription is not dealing with payment issues. Why not raise the price.

Thank you for not getting rid of inactive diaries. I made this diary I’m commenting from back in 2002, and met the love of my life on it. I haven’t been on it in 6 years now, and would be crushed if it were completely gone, though the hack of years past wiped my former posts.

Hi. Thanks for not deleting old diaries. I had assumed my diary from ancient times had fallen off this site eons ago. I’m somewhat afraid to open it up and reveal to myself what I was up to so long ago, but it’s also incredibly reassuring that it’s there, if I ever dare.

I find #1 amusing.