Benefits for Permanent Members
Title
Benefits for Permanent Members
Short, concise description of the idea
The benefits for being a permanent member can be expanded and should be a priority for LJ; doing so will result in greater goodwill for both site maintainers and users.
Full description of the idea
Permanent members have gotten the short shrift for much of LJ history. Paid members have the leverage of withholding funds to hammer home a point; permanent members, on the other hand, are beholden to the policy decisions and changes that LJ makes. As a trade-off, there needs to be more focus on giving them perks. This will, in turn, sow the impetus for permanent members to give good word of mouth about being a permanent member to other LJ users. Thus, when LJ has a pressing need for an upgrade or a new project and offers its users permanent user status, there will be a desire in the userbase.
An ordered list of benefits
- Specifically, you could implement changes such as:
- adding a userpic slot cyclically (every month, every quarter) where this is done on an basis that can be expected, unlike the current system
- more space for interests. As users age, their interests grow. This could be cyclic, such as once a year, once every two years, once every five years, etc.
- increased number of tags. As users' diaries grow, they need to be compartmentalized and filed. This could be cyclic (same as above).
- And so on. There are many areas in which you could expand permanent users' perks; these can be small things on an incremental scale, or they can be large in one fell swoop.
- This will require a team dedicated to upgrading and improving the site for permanent members, or at least adding duties to administrators and/or their assistants.
- There will need to be a schedule implemented and maintained for cyclical changes.
- There should also be some function by which permanent members can leave feedback as to how this has improved or changed their LJ experience.