Honestly, the only "upgrade" listed that I'm the least bit interested in is increased message storage. I have no desire for photo or video albums or any of that other (what I see as) clutter - and as far as forums for every school with a Greek system, does that include locals? Schools that have "clubs" who operate like GLOs? Community colleges that have their GLOs? Where do you quit? I'm just afraid that something like that would either result in a lot of empty forums (much like a certain happy pony rainbow filled Greek site I can think of) which I personally think makes people less inclined to post anything, or else turn into another aaaay ceee beee or the like.

I'll gladly pay a "pledge drive" fee (rather than a subscription) to have more PM storage and increased protection from spammers, but the rest of the things don't have me inclined to donate a dime.

There are already forums out there for every school with Greek Life. I don't think John is considering that. The ability to embed Youtube would be nice though.

ORLY?

Didn't catch that on my first read.

I agree, that'd be a bunch of empty forums. We already have lots of those.

I was a little too brief with how I posted about that idea. My plan isn't completely figured out but I have given it a bit of thought.

Current forums that are empty or seriously inactive could end up being deactivated or moved out of view.

Then we would have an area of the site, or use an existing area, for new forum requests. New forums would be added when there is enough interest indicated by GCers. This process would also be used when/if there is interest to bring back any of the old forums that were deactivated.

That's generally the process I've thought about using even with the campus forums. If there's enough interest then we would add them. No interest would mean no forum for that campus.

Somewhat of a work in progress, but that's the general idea.

Would it be possible to group schools together? Perhaps do a west, mid west, north and south or something similar instead of individual schools? That way if I am looking at multiple schools I an look in that area? The problem with my idea is that there is a wide variety in areas, but something like that idea?

If you were going to do it, probably just have forums dedicated to different athletic conferences as greek cultures seem to be pretty similar from school to school within big time athletic conferences, then maybe another forum for FCS and DII/DIII schools as they are very much in the YMMV category.

I see lots of potential in what is being discussed and how it could potentially lure a lot more folks here. The down side is that other sites (which shall not be named) which do this are just endless rumor mills with zero credibility where you can read some anonymous sorority girl telling everyone what she heard about why half of Pike's pledge class and their rush chair quit. That said, if there was a better moderated forum out there, the current mods would likely be up to that sort of task.

^^^^ HAhahahaaaa!

LOL :)

I was thinking that I like the optional subscription but thought maybe people won't take the 5-year plan because who knows if they'll still be coming around in 5 years? But then again, I was active for 7 years before I was even Greek so hell, I'm not going anywhere. ;) But I don't mind the ads so I like the idea of having an option. But I wouldn't mind making a contribution, this place is awesome and I want to see it thrive as much as everyone else.

Having an option like "reddit gold" would be another way to drive revenue and add to someone's avatar.

What about selling smartphone apps?

That's a possibility and is something I will eventually look into.

...

I've been dragging my feet too much in regards to getting any of what was discussed in this thread going.

I guess what it boils down to is that I do not like the idea of loading GreekChat up with ads nor do I like the idea of asking members to pay any kind of membership fee (even if only for access to bonus site features). It's a recipe for disaster if I don't do something, though, so I am going to get started working on it today.

That's one app I would consider paying for, and I don't pay for apps in general.

Me too!