Membership Differences Explained

[NoGi]

Since taking over Shrimp Keepers Forum, I’ve made a lot of changes to make this a more open forum so that information is more accessible and available to everyone in the hobby. This has had an underlying positive change to the culture of the forum and opened us up to new platforms including Facebook and Twitter but did result in a large number of subscription members migrating back to regular members as they were not able to see the continued value in subscribing.

Why become a supporting member? Why pay the subscription?

To put simply, it still costs money to provide a free service to the hobby. We deal with software subscriptions, hosting costs, backup costs, additional storage costs, design costs, etc…. These are all those little things that happen in the background to bring you the SKF Aquatics experience.

Subscription costs start at AUD$11/year for the base level. So, what do I get for the money? Perhaps most importantly, the satisfaction of helping preserve, protect and build this knowledgebase of information for posterity. In a nutshell here's what it provides:

• Larger PM quota
• Access to view, post and reply in all the forums, both technical and social

• Access to all the additional resources such as the real-time Chat

• Ability to create Photo Albums, Blogs, and water parameter logs

• Ability to view more information about other members

• Avoid seeing the Google Adsense ads that are injected into the site for all other visitors

A summary of the specific differences is included below:

Different Levels of SKF Membership Compared

	Guest	New Member	Member	Premium	Platinum	Diamond
Google Ads	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
SKF Sponsored Ads	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Wait between searches	30 secs	20 secs	10 secs	5 secs	3 secs	1 sec
Signatures
Max images	❌	❌	1	5	10	unlimted
Max size of image	❌	❌	50px	unlimted	unlimted	unlimted
Max links	❌	❌	0	2	5	unlimted
Max lines	❌	❌	2	5	10	unlimted
Profile Information
Max photo file size	❌	50KB	50KB	100KB	100KB	200KB
Photo dimension	❌	150px	150px	200px	200px	250px
Allowed Animated Avatar	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Messages (PMs)
Daily PM limit	❌	2	10	unlimted	unlimted	unlimted
PM qouta	❌	5	20	250	500	1000
Max PM recipients	❌	1	1	2	3	3
Add attachments in PM	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Uploads
Can add attachments to posts	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Total attachment qouta	❌	1MB	10MB	unlimted	unlimted	unlimted
Polls
Can create a poll	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Can vote in poll	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Moderation
Post requires approval	❌	✅	✅	n/a	n/a	n/a
Approval requirement removed after	❌	1 post	1 post	n/a	n/a	n/a
Gallery
Max personal albums	❌	0	5	15	15	20
Can upload movies	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Can customise copyright text from username	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Trader Feedback
Can add feedback	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Blogs
Max personal blogs	❌	❌	2	10	15	20
Comment on blogs	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Chat
Access to chatroom	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Private chats	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Themes
Access to general forum themes	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Access to premium themes	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Classifieds
Can post wanted adverts	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Can post sale adverts	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Access freebies/giveaways	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Cost (per year)	Free	Free	Free	?? AUD$11	?? AUD$22	?? AUD$33

Becoming a subscription member not only provides you with additional features but helps to contribute to the ongoing running and enhancements of our community. I hope the table above helps to clear up any confusion around what each level of membership represents.

Edited March 14, 2017 by NoGi
Updated for 2017

[NoGi]

Examples of available premium themes:

 

[NoGi]

Updated membership table for 2017

The 10% increase is due to the ATO wanting me to charge GST now.