Loyalty Perks

[ace_case]

People should get something for being a part of x10hosting for a long period of time. I am not entirely sure what though. Perhaps a loyalty server for people who have been here a long time and haven't totally abused the server, or possibly some extra resources (extra email, ftp, subdomain, database, etc.), lowered or removed login requirements, or something like that. It shouldn't cause too many problems with abuse, since you would have to wait a year or so to get these features, and as far as I know, most people prefer to quickly sign up and start abusing.
Thoughts? Comments? Opinions?

 

[essellar]

So taking something for nothing for a long enough time should get you even more for even less?

There is (or at least was; it's not clear how it would work with the new forum yet) a rewards program of sorts that's based on what you return to the business/community. Yes, it was somewhat gameable (by forum spamming), but forum posts plus reputation would move you into one of the "higher" user groups, and those came with some rewards. You might notice that I have a neat "scarf" around my avatar's neck, for instance. That came with a resource boost that's about equivalent to the old Prime membership (still requires login for activity, though), as well as access to some of the tools needed to do support effectively. (I don't use them anymore; my mind is slipping due to Parkinsonism and I make too many mistakes now to trust myself with admin tools.) Under the old system, you could work your way up to getting an account on an exclusive server as well (required 5000 posts and 150 reputation points, which wasn't exactly easy). But the point is that you had to provide value to get value; simply avoiding being a pain in the butt already has a reward — Free Hosting.

 

[ace_case]

I like that idea too. What about a loyalty plan though? Like the longer you stay with x10 (free or paid) the more discounts you get? Not sure how it would work, but I think it would seem like a neat little idea. Stay for a year get a special plan available, stay for 2 years get x% off of that plan, etc. The plan could be independent of the plan you are currently on, and just add some extra features. (More resources, forum stuff, etc.)

 

[essellar]

Again, why would they want to reward somebody for taking something for nothing longer than other people have been taking something for nothing? The something you're taking is its own reward. There's something about this idea that's not very far away from a panhandler expecting his "regulars" to dig deeper 'cos, like, he's been on the same corner forever.

Premium already has a very deep discount when you pay ahead far enough to keep off of the billing/resource planning headache warning radar.

 

[ace_case]

I don't think you understood the second idea properly. It's not rewarding taking something for nothing, it's rewarding staying with this hosting. True it applies to free hosting, but it also applies to prime, illuminated, and premium. Put it this way: After a year of service (on one account) allow a new plan to be bought for... let's say $5/year. A year after that let them get it for $4/year. After that $/3year and so on until $1/year. The plan could have little things, such as extra databases or emails, longer execution times, larger upload, more ftp users, etc. (Admittedly, it wouldn't be very beneficial to Premium) The people could have a forum badge like "Loyal Member for x Year(s)" and "Loyalty Plan x" for those with a plan, with x being the number of years they've been here.

 

[Skizzerz]

Note: The following post is my personal opinion on the matter. Nothing contained within represents any sort of official answer from x10Hosting about this topic.

I could possibly see forum badges, I can't see any sort of extra perks beyond that. The current system is you get additional perks the more you give back. Simply getting free hosting for X years isn't really any valid reason to get additional things for free (which is exactly what @essellar is saying). Our costs are already quite minimal; while I cannot go into any specifics if we bring the price down too low it will not cover the operating costs of the servers, paying support staff (for premium), paying taxes, etc.

For things like additional databases and emails, all I see that doing is reducing adoption of prime/illuminated/premium since you can just stick it out for X period of time to get it anyway (not to mention the nightmare it'd be coding all of that in the backend -- you'd need a separate cPanel plan for every possible combination of extras). For things like execution and upload times, those are serverwide settings and cannot be changed per-account.

Basically, your proposal makes absolutely zero sense from a business standpoint. If you want to get extra perks, you can actually be an active member of the community and give back by helping your peers with issues. Keep that up and you'll be able to reach Community Advocate level and all the benefits associated with it.