>>I've been a participant for several years, but have never been a subscriber. While I used to receive a tremendous amount of help a few years ago, I never needed any functionality past the basics so I didn't feel the need to get a subscription. I understand that morally I probably had some obligation, but at the same time I knew my employer wouldn't cover it and personally I am pretty cheap.
>>
>>I don't receive nearly the amount of help here as I did before and use UT primarily for social reasons now.
>>
>>Here's a few ideas that could entice me to subscribe:
>>1) RSS feed
>>2) Twitter integration (new questions posted on twitter)
>>3) Daily limit of new messages for non-subscribers
>>4) Some sort of visible point system (reputation points, if you will)
>>5) Comprehensive code library for subscribers
>>6) Perhaps a time delay for non-subscribers new questions?
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>RSS feed for news is on the way. But, it will not be applicable to the support area as this requires a login and several other issues are related to it.
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>I am not sure about the Twitter integration. Could you elaborate more on the topic?
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>I wouldn't want to apply restriction on posting of messages either by regular members or subscribers.
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>We had a point system before but it didn't work quite well. So, we had to remove it. This has created too much fights and races to obtain the points and so on.
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>I like number 5. We already have the download section but I understand that a better system might help. I also want to implement a new option for subscribers which will add, probably in the subscription panel, the list of recent threads which contain code. I have found that more and more threads that contain code are highly valuable. So, the robot could populate a relationship table and make it available on the site. There could also be another option added on the toolbar for that.
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>I do not understand point 6. Could you elaborate more on it?
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>Basicaly, if some of that would be done, do you think it would then worth more about subscribing?

For Twitter integration, I would imagine that a user would be able to subscribe a specific forum, and have notification of new threads sent to twitter. Might be good for getting the UT name out there.

For number 6, I was thinking a non-subscriber would have an hour delay or so before their new threads would be published. It's not really limiting the functionality, but hampering it a bit. I know that a lot of my questions previously have been fairly time-critical.

To be completely honest, there are so many free options out there now that provide more value for me than the UT. My participation has gone down because I've found other arenas that better fit the style of development that I am doing. If I were doing VFP development anymore then certainly I would consider it. I have received a lot of help on the UT over the years, but my preferred method of payback is to help answer questions when I can.