VIP Packages: Pitfalls, suggestions and alternative ideas.

I'm well aware that there's another topic already made by the lovely Teagan, but I just figured that I'd get what I have to say out of the way too.

Look, I know a lot of people are upset, but the site and upper management's position is not unreasonable.

Shit's expensive nowadays. I get that and I'm sure many other users do too. I've noticed many WoX sites have been getting fewer people actively using the site and being online recently in the past 3-4 years, which would mean less revenue for the sites to stay functioning. As a dedicated user, raising the price of VIP to account for inflationary and maintenance costs isn't a concern. I believe there are other, more effective and user-friendly ways to increase revenue. As others have said, the current package system is super awkward and costs way too much, at least in a single increase.

Because of the new updates, most VIP subscribers won't want to pay for it anymore. Yes, you've raised the price of the services, but also you've run down the demand drastically which decreases the overall revenue you'd be making from the sites. Fewer people buying a more expensive product doesn't end up meaning that you make more money.

An alternative update, according to general consensus, is to simply increase the monthly price of VIP. Most people stated they would be willing to accept any price from the original $3.25 up to $5.50. The latter is only a dollar shy of a price double and isn't indicated to significantly decrease demand. And that's only a dollar off from a price double, which would mean tons more revenue.

Most sites, such as WoO and UA, used to accept payment and donations in the form of statuses. If need be, that could be a great way to gain more money to keep sites running! Statuses aren't anything special outside of a roleplay perspective, so it still wouldn't be pay-to-play. You can write stunning roleplay pieces even if the character doesn’t have a status.

While it's not a guarantee that these strategies would generate more profit, it strikes me as more likely than breaking up the VIP perks as they are now. Small statuses like distant Veela heritage, enchanted items (not necessarily canon) like magical skeleton keys, etc. on P-US and some of the common statuses on other sites would work best because then it also frees up space in status competitions for the BIG statuses.

If not, then ones like animagus, parseltongue, and metamorphmagus would yield lots of revenue if they were sold, as other exclusive ones on smaller sites have gone for 150 EUR before. This would both bring revenue in the form of purchased statuses and increase user engagement.

If purchased statuses are off the table, then something simple like buying galleons might work well, too! Users that might balk at the $12 dollars a month for VIP benefits might be willing and capable of directly buying galleons. I understand that a big concern may be that this could cause the site to become p2p, but I don't think that's the case. The 500 galleons of starting money are more than enough to make sure you're covered for two years of classes and some food, so the extra galleons would be for quality-of-life things for users who don't dedicate hours n hours of time to grading and homework!

If the concern is gambling, then I don’t think this could end up any different from other purchasable options. Anyone could have bought the original VIP + 500G and resold it in chest items for IRL money. If it’s because it could be used to power the wizard wheel which is site gambling, then the same could be argued about buying wizarding card packs for a chance to get rare ones and buying potion notes for a chance to get recipes.

Another issue in addition to everything above is the "fair play" field. Sure, it could technically be called “evening the playing field” for grad staff and everyone else, but the main incentive for newer users to buy VIP comes from those staff members! People see the pretty names and the fancy profile texts from the users that are made to be role models on sites; this generates interest, so they pay for it all in one bundle. By taking it away from grad staff (and I'm all on board with the making-sure-sites-aren't-p2p thing), profits as a whole would be decreased, simply because the passive advertisement won't be there anymore.

On a more mathematical side, some of these new packages don't make sense. Here are some of the inconsistencies and other miscellaneous notes I've found relating to the changes in VIP packages:

1. In general, there are a lot of packages. Before the changes, buying the things you wanted was simple: click on VIP, purchase, and you were done. Now that various packages have been introduced, there are a lot more hoops to jump through. That generally discourages people from trying to purchase site benefits in the first place; for the people who do want to, it makes it hard and less likely for them to be repeat purchasers.
2. Dark mode and the relations package each cost $2, but the relations package includes dark mode AND relation info, while dark mode only gives the titular benefit: dark mode. If the dark mode package doesn't include relations, shouldn't it be worth less?
   1. Accessibility for people with disabilities should be universal, so this package shouldn’t be sold in the first place. It's never nice when someone is excluded from something they love due to a lack of accessibility.
3. Most people don't actually like seeing signatures block and take up half of the entire page in owls or topics, so in my humble opinion, that wouldn't be a package that anyone would buy.
4. The lucky package doesn't seem very helpful. Most people keep all their money in the vault so dropping it isn't a significant concern. Getting potion notes by the handful always means buying them. It would be highly unlikely for a user to purchase an add-on after already having bought the notes themselves.
5. The organizational package, in my opinion, is one of the least useful ones currently offered. Two dollars isn't worth the ability to sort things in your chest into folders and mess around with owl layouts.

Since at least the P-US site is already dealing with about a quarter of the membership it was at three to four years ago, this update to VIP is likely to add to this decrease in activity. In the P-US chat an hour after the VIP changes were announced, numerous users were talking about leaving because they felt the changes showed that the developers didn't care as much about them as they'd once thought. While it could be argued that people are leaving because they dislike change, it may be more likely that it was the execution of the change(s) that is driving people away.

WoX sites are, although development team built and maintained, mostly run by people who volunteer their time. This change to VIP would not only drive away those integral volunteers but also drive down average user numbers drastically, leading to less overall income for everyone involved.