After reading a comment in one of the front page news posts about destructoid, someone made said that instead of making dtoid exclusively closed, that they should offer a premium membership that includes a free tshirt, special forums, etc. Well.. I thought about this for a second and then I began to build off of it, because I honestly thought it was a cool Idea. I know myself and maybe several other older veterans would jump on this in a heart beat.. but what else could be brought to the table to get someone interested?
Well lets see what we could offer to a Golden Robot..
- free exclusive t-shirt
- special forum section
- a badge of some kind that lets them stand out
- possibly exclusive store items
- personal blog page with podcast hosting
- Ad free destructoid
What do you get if you dont want to be a Golden Robot?
The same thing you get currently with destructoid. You will still be able to post blogs, still be able to vote blogs, post on forums, chat, etc.. no restriction of what any user currently has right now! The Golden Robot is for those who want to help out destructoid and get some extra little things on the side :P
Now when I started thinking about stuff to give a Golden Robot, I eventually came to the conclusion of the last items. Where if you were a Golden Robot, you could have your own customized blog page with a custom banner built by a dtoid artist, along with the ability to change the background color & font color scheme of your page and maybe even implement some CSS later on in the future. But on top of that, you will have a podcast section and an about me page as well. The About Me page allows those, if they wish, to write a more extensive bio and 'intro' about themselves for others to see. And the podcast hosting is for those like the drunkcast, and failcast people who start their own little groups. I think something like this would be cool for them because then we would have more recognizable destructoid community created content.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3010/dtoidcommunity.jpg
Now I know destructoid is nowhere near the size of IGN and Gamespy to be able to push this kind of system in.. but I'm bored, and this is what you guys get from me when I'm bored :P so enjoy!
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Of course, I know what you're describing is a lot tamer than that, being all about extras rather than restricting content. But even the word "membership" can scare some people away, and, yeah, it's their own fault for not realizing all of the awesome stuff the site would still offer, but there's still the potential there.
Yeah, what I'm talking about here is a worst case scenario. It's possible that none of it would happen at all. But there's also the chance that it would. It's not a reason to say "Oh god bad idea don't do it" but it's something to keep in mind.
Shit better be damn pricey to justify the things you listed. Shirts aren't that cheap, Podcast hosting costs money, and special forums segregate members.
Still, it's definitely a nice pipedream. I like it.
That being said.
If I has a golden name and a badge that says "VALUE MY WORTHLESS OPINION BECAUSE I GAVE DESTRUCTOID SOME MONEY!" I probably would do it.
I'm all for supporting Dtoid and would be happy to give money, but even with something as benign as what you're proposing you still divvy up the community into haves and have-nots.
Interesting idea, regardless.