Can someone get rid of that Special K advert!

[alibear]

How old are you? I stopped doing things purely in order to gain stars around 25 years ago

[Katster]

lol I'm 30, ok.. maybe not a star, maybe a little gold dancing man haha (he doesn't even have to be gold), & maybe acknowledged would be a more fitting word than reward.

[Chazeboy]

well id be willing to put money in, i love this site, very helpful, handy, and good folks on it (mostly ) and wouldnt want it closing down.

just let me know neil

disclaimer

cant afford silly money

[The Nal]

Theres 5 or 6 of my mates who had no intention of going to Glasto this year (I was a maybe) until efests weighed in with the Bruce, Neil Young and Blur rumours back in November (all months before they were officially confirmed and months before anyone else called it). My mates bought tickets early on the recommendation and faith in the info provided by efests. And the info turned out to be 100% right. It was only due to efests that they’re going. You may not agree with their attitude but its still reality.

If they’d waited until early this year (which they would have) it would’ve been sold out. Ive had numerous, “Jesus, imagine we didn’t bother getting a ticket!!” conversations with them since and Glasto 09 is the talk of the town so to speak. Ive been bought a couple of double whiskeys since too which has paid my 18 fee for next year!

However, Efests will have to continue, and improve, on this service if they’re going to expect people to cough up 18 notes per year to post on an internet message board or put up with pop ups all over the place.

What ever happened to logging into a chatroom, typing in whatever user name you felt like and just chatting away? No security, no membership needed etc.

God damn you Gary Glitter! You're ruining it for the rest of us "normals".

[glasto_mongrel_2008]

I wouldn't mind paying. After all I pay heaps for Sky telly and theres still ads on every bloody channel. My backup button is worn wafer thin from getting rid of the 'Press your Red Button and win summat' every few seconds.

[Staberinde]

I'd happily throw in around £20 a year to keep the site running, it would be a shame to see it finish.

Maybe for each person that donates to the site, they could be rewarded with a little gold star next to their name & maybe a temporary coloured one for those who have purchased something from the site shop.

Not only would it pique people's curiosity, but it would also encourage people to help the site out.

[karlpowell]

I also would pay a yearly sub to get shut of the adds and keep Efest alive

Edited March 12, 2009 by karlpowell

[eFestivals]

i'm currently trying to find an add-on so that the whole process can be automated for subscribers - hwo I hope it'll work is that when a person subscribes they automatically get an ad-free skin, and when their subscription expires it automatically reverts to the skin with ads.....

As soon as I tie this last bit down (I very much hope today) the system will be go. Please bear with me.

[norainplease]

I think these are great. Each time I go on a thread Neil has posted on there is a different advert in his signature. I've quite often used these links to visit the site.

[beermonster_c]

Neil having read this thread and the related poll (Charging to use this site) several things spring to my mind. I dare say they have to you aswell but thought i would contribute them anyway incase there is any milage in them for you.

It seems to be those who are 'die hard' efesters will pay for a subscription to continue to have the use of this site rather than lose it. These are the kind of members who whenever they sit at a computer end up on efestivals ( I know I am one of them!)

However from the related poll, although small numbers and not statistically significant, I note that , 76%, equating to 16 out of 21 voters (at the time of writing this) say they would not pay to use this website.

To this users perhaps certain attractions, or 'Whats In IT For Me" (WIIFM's) are needed to motivate them to pay for a service rather than just have the freebie with advertisments.

Examples I can think of include (and i dont know if these are possible / realistic / economically viable)

- Offering a discount from the e-festivals shop

- Negotiating with other companies for benefits / discounts through them.

What comes to mind for this example is the company Go Outdoors. Perhaps through membership to this site you could negotiate a free discount card for there company (for which the only charge £2 for 12 months anyway). Perhaps in exchange for discounted advertisement here or commission from them to you for referrals from here as there is certainly a cross over in the demographic that use both of efestivals and Go Outdoors.

- Exclusive links to Festival / Concert tickets.

You already have links to Seetickets, Ticketmaster etc which provide you with commission. Is it possible to negotiate for exclusive links for the sole use of e-festivals subsribers on festival ticket release days (perhaps via a membership number or unique code) that may assist people to get tickets to their favourite festivals and negotiate ticket day a little bit easier than bashing refresh buttons for countless hours?

- Pre-release Festival / Concert tickets.

Any milage or possibilities of this? whether 50 / 500 / 1000 tickets available via subscribing to this site? First Come, First served 24hours hours in advance of general release, similar to Muse did at V Festival last year? - How many R&L / V / TITP / Glasto goers would subscribe if this was possible?

- Combined usage of Efestivals / eGigs on same user subscription. I for one have barely used eGigs. How many others here are the same? What possible increase in revune could this idea produce for you via advertising / commision links?

- iPhone application. Any milage in producing one of these either free or small charge for ease of use of this site via an iPhone? I personally have an iPhone and find it frustrating that every time I log into this site on here it logs me out from my laptop and vice versa. As a result I tend to not bother logging in via my iPhone and just browse as a guest.

Sorry for the long winded and possibly confusing ramble but I for one dont want to see this invaluable resource disappear as a result of financial difficulties.

I hope some or all of these idea's are realistic to swing that 76 percent who wouldn't pay to asking where to put their card details.

Edited March 12, 2009 by beermonster_c

[scudetto_boy]

The special K advert sucks!!

[sjhopewell]

People would pay to see the rumour list, I'm sure!

[pehaw]

People would pay to see the rumour list, I'm sure!

[nina3d]

Just out of interest - do many people use the rest of the site?

I find that I spend 99% of my efests time on the forums and very very rarely venture on to other pages. Is this the norm?

[Davey_T]

Could you not just use a script of some kind which automatically changes a ticket link to eFestivals affiliate one?

[eFestivals]

Just out of interest - do many people use the rest of the site?

forum use represents just 7% of the traffic of eFestivals. So yes.

[eFestivals]

Could you not just use a script of some kind which automatically changes a ticket link to eFestivals affiliate one?

implemented earlier this year.

[eFestivals]

'Whats In IT For Me" (WIIFM's) are needed to motivate them to pay for a service rather than just have the freebie with advertisments.

I'd already thought about this, and the issue is that I risk giving more away in discounts than any benefit I might get from subscriptions. As it is I barely make anything on the efests merchandise when every cost is factored in.

The subscription idea actually came about because some people asked if it was possible to have the forums ad-free - it's not being done for the purposes of revenue raising, the charge is merely to cover the lost ad revenue of those who would no longer be getting ads.

If I have the time (and time is a huge issue for efests staff, there's not enough time to do everything that might be done) I'll investigate possibilities of membership discounts with 3rd parties, but I suspect that they'd expect a sizable membership number to make it worthwhile for them - I'm not expecting the subscription option to be taken up by very many, I realise that far too many people expect everything for free on the net.

- iPhone application. Any milage in producing one of these either free or small charge for ease of use of this site via an iPhone? I personally have an iPhone and find it frustrating that every time I log into this site on here it logs me out from my laptop and vice versa. As a result I tend to not bother logging in via my iPhone and just browse as a guest.

hmmmm .... that is an issue with the iPhone then, and not this site. I can log on from multiple PCs running different operating systems and using different browsers, and from my phone (Nokia E61i) without getting logged out. So no - get Apple to fix the iPhone to normal browser standards.

And there's all those apple aficionados who reckon Apple are perfect.

[eFestivals]

And just to prove it heres a post done on my phone

[eFestivals]

i'm currently trying to find an add-on so that the whole process can be automated for subscribers - hwo I hope it'll work is that when a person subscribes they automatically get an ad-free skin, and when their subscription expires it automatically reverts to the skin with ads.....

As soon as I tie this last bit down (I very much hope today) the system will be go. Please bear with me.

I'm having difficulties with this. If I don't get it sorted today I'll go another route which will definitely work.

[darrenbha]

I'll vouch for neils comment on postings from phones as most of mine have been done from my mobile.

[Staberinde]

I know, what about selling @efestivals.co.uk email addresses.

oh, just a min, you did

Just show me the non-ad subscriber link, and I'll show you my dosh

[glasto_mongrel_2008]

forum use represents just 7% of the traffic of eFestivals. So yes.