I just logged into curse today and noticed the Curse Premium option.  I have been running Curse for about 7 Months now. 

I was just curious about how much of the money will actually go to addon developers, and how you decide who gets compensation?

Is it based on how good the addon is or whether it shows up under Supported? 

There are literally hundreds of authors, maybe even thousands.  Who decides how the money is allocated?

And also how much curse recieves and why they suddenly need the compensation after so many years of providing a free service with all the same options as before?

Are there new things Curse doesn't currently have for free that will be better if we pay?

Is it because you are supporting new games and the bandwidth is soooo much more?

Anyway, just had some questions and wanted some answers before I decide to pay you for this service.

Watch this forum is going to get deleted now cause, I posted saying that it should be kept free and now it is gone.

Edit: Losing the attitude is probably a good way to keep your posts from winding up in oblivion.

Come on now this is not a hate post folks.  I just wanted some answers.  Can we keep this a reasonable discussion please?

20% of the revenue will be going towards the author rewards program.  

And the points are awarded based on popularity of the addon.

Ok, so 80% goes to Curse.  Is there a reason Curse decided to Ask for paying subscribers now, when it has not in the past?

Innerpeace,

The past 6 months advertising income got divided by more than 2 due to the financial crisis, while our bandwitdh usage has more than tripple with the 2 recent patches.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

Ok, so 80% goes to Curse.  Is there a reason Curse decided to Ask for paying subscribers now, when it has not in the past?

Don't Forget all the money thing been getting with ADs and there parentships they have.

Thx for the quick reply you two. I will prolly be signing up later today for the subscription.  I just needed to know the reasons is all.  All I could find were bash Curse posts on this so far, with little to no answers as to why it was happening.

We're trying to reach viability as company.  Everyone knows that if you have a pickle jar and take two pickles out and only put one pickle in you eventually run out of pickles.

Sadly, that is not a goal that benefits me as the user in any way.

The 80% that goes to curse does benefit the community to the extent it would be used for hosting addons, but I fail to find any compelling selling points in the curse client. Frankly, it is totally underwhelming in the following respects:

- completeness. Not all addons supported.

- it interrupted me in a raid to tell me it was updated and wanted to download... If I could have strangled someone at that point, I would have. That sort of stuff should NEVER happen with a program that is supposed to be written by a site by people with half an idea of the psychology of gamers. Just add a detection: if WoW is running, STFU. That can't be hard.

- data mining. I did not ask for this, and, frankly, if I hadn't read around online, I wouldn't have known. I have no problem in participating in the community, and have gladly run other such addons to support data gathering, but doing it without telling me or giving me a choice in the matter is not nice.

- downloads actually being slower than the site, and limited to one at a time, just because you DOWNgraded me for not paying. You are not providing added value for paying, you are crippling your own product by progressively taking away features to get me to pay. These practices have been made great by Microsoft, and while they have been very profitable, they have also provided this company with a GREAT image. You are getting the same image in my book.

- Idiotic autorun on windows start. In order to explain how stupid the idea that your program is in any way important enought to be running all the time on a computer of anyone but the most hardcore player is, I'd have to make a flowchart.

As it stands, the program and service offered by premium is NOT worth around a 25% increase in my WoW costs. Come on, compare the services, and tell me, with a straight face, that you think this is a deal which any sane customer would want. Fix all these, and I would probably be prepared to buy your program. BUY, not rent. I will not pay on a monthly basis for this program alone, so please take another look at your business model, try to come up with a "one time payment" option, and research "price elasticity".

If ad revenue is not sufficient to support the service, then it is to expensive for me as it stands. I'll be uninstalling curse client, going looking for alternatives, and if no such alternatives are available, forever curse curse ( ;-) ) for not being efficient enough to provide the service in a business model I can support.

It seems (tho this may not be the case) that the community is taking two steps backward and one step forward, and each step of the way is being led by curse...

I intend this post to be constructive, not a whine. I want the community to work.

BTW: Why should curse.client be above the very addons that give it its sole reason for existing? Addons can't offer "premium" plans, addons can't force people to donate. But you feel you can. I, for one, hope blizzard looks in to this and takes the logical course.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaelten

We're trying to reach viability as company.  Everyone knows that if you have a pickle jar and take two pickles out and only put one pickle in you eventually run out of pickles.

 

You need to practice better pickle hygeiene. Putting used pickles back in the jar is madness.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

Sadly, that is not a goal that benefits me as the user in any way.

The 80% that goes to curse does benefit the community to the extent it would be used for hosting addons, but I fail to find any compelling selling points in the curse client. Frankly, it is totally underwhelming in the following respects:

- completeness. Not all addons supported.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

All addons on curse.com are supported.  We're not prepared to make a statement with regards to any future plans there.

- it interrupted me in a raid to tell me it was updated and wanted to download... If I could have strangled someone at that point, I would have. That sort of stuff should NEVER happen with a program that is supposed to be written by a site by people with half an idea of the psychology of gamers. Just add a detection: if WoW is running, STFU. That can't be hard.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

This is regrettable, however it should no longer be an issue.

- data mining. I did not ask for this, and, frankly, if I hadn't read around online, I wouldn't have known. I have no problem in participating in the community, and have gladly run other such addons to support data gathering, but doing it without telling me or giving me a choice in the matter is not nice.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

For months this has been opt-outable and as of the latest versions it is now opt-in.

- downloads actually being slower than the site, and limited to one at a time, just because you DOWNgraded me for not paying. You are not providing added value for paying, you are crippling your own product by progressively taking away features to get me to pay. These practices have been made great by Microsoft, and while they have been very profitable, they have also provided this company with a GREAT image. You are getting the same image in my book.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

The same bandwidth throttling that's in play in the client is in use on the site.

- Idiotic autorun on windows start. In order to explain how stupid the idea that your program is in any way important enought to be running all the time on a computer of anyone but the most hardcore player is, I'd have to make a flowchart.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

I can understand why you feel that way.

As it stands, the program and service offered by premium is NOT worth around a 25% increase in my WoW costs. Come on, compare the services, and tell me, with a straight face, that you think this is a deal which any sane customer would want. Fix all these, and I would probably be prepared to buy your program. BUY, not rent. I will not pay on a monthly basis for this program alone, so please take another look at your business model, try to come up with a "one time payment" option, and research "price elasticity".

If ad revenue is not sufficient to support the service, then it is to expensive for me as it stands. I'll be uninstalling curse client, going looking for alternatives, and if no such alternatives are available, forever curse curse ( ;-) ) for not being efficient enough to provide the service in a business model I can support.

It seems (tho this may not be the case) that the community is taking two steps backward and one step forward, and each step of the way is being led by curse...

I intend this post to be constructive, not a whine. I want the community to work.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by mtruyen

Your feedback is appreciative.  The value of this service (and of all services) is of course subjective to the users who choose to or not to pay for it.  

BTW: Why should curse.client be above the very addons that give it its sole reason for existing? Addons can't offer "premium" plans, addons can't force people to donate. But you feel you can. I, for one, hope blizzard looks in to this and takes the logical course.

Many many sites offer premium services and similar offerings to what we're doing.  It all boils down to cost vs income.  

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Goatbert

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaelten

We're trying to reach viability as company.  Everyone knows that if you have a pickle jar and take two pickles out and only put one pickle in you eventually run out of pickles.

 

 

You need to practice better pickle hygeiene. Putting used pickles back in the jar is madness.

lmao

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Goatbert

You need to practice better pickle hygeiene. Putting used pickles back in the jar is madness.

I think its ok if you don't lick the pickle first.  At what point does the pickle become "used"?

I'll try to touch on some of the things that haven't been answered yet.  Apologies for the delayed reply; my focus is World of Raids now and my schedule has been very hectic with 3.1, but I've been around for quite a while now and can answer some of your questions.  :)

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

I just logged into curse today and noticed the Curse Premium option.  I have been running Curse for about 7 Months now. 

Premium has been in the works for a very long time now.  There were a lot of technological hurdles to get around to ensure it was a consistent and reliable service.  The website redesign in .Net was one of these, to make sure the site is stable even on patch days.

And by the way, thank you for sticking with the client over the past 7 months.  I know how frustrating it was in its last major version (2.x) as a player, so again thank you.  :)

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

And also how much curse recieves and why they suddenly need the compensation after so many years of providing a free service with all the same options as before?

The main reason we wanted to do this is to allow the ability to get rid of the ads on Curse for those who don't block them.  Getting rid of the ads removes revenues to keep the site running, so we figured this was a perfect fit for Premium.

We've also greatly improved the quality of ads appearing on the site over the past few months for those who decide to not support Premium.  We have a sales team dedicated to working directly with major companies to only provide ads interesting to gamers.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

Are there new things Curse doesn't currently have for free that will be better if we pay?

Absolutely.  We have a few features currently in the works that will be greatly enhanced by Premium.  I'm sure we'll be releasing more information on them soon.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

Is it because you are supporting new games and the bandwidth is soooo much more?

The bandwidth from the newer games pales in comparison to WoW's -- especially on patch days.  I think the increased bandwidth costs are a side effect of the site remaining stable even under the heaviest of loads a patch day can throw at us.

Of course, we'd prefer we stay up and are challenged with needing more bandwidth, rather than the site being down (and ultimately the entire service) -- keeping players from being able to download their addons.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Innerpeace

Anyway, just had some questions and wanted some answers before I decide to pay you for this service.

No problem; we're happy to respond to any questions you have about Premium.  We can't always get specific on certain details (especially with the Author Rewards Program as it could lead to potential 'gaming' of the system), but we'll try our best to be as clear as possible.

Well you guys should have left the stuff that was free and called it "premium upgrade" and added more stuff to it that way instead of taking away stuff that was free to the user and charging for it.

What "Premium upgrade" should have been for Authors and people wanting to pay for extra stuff.

give an option to support the authors award program, not just making them do it, if they don't want to, they shouldn't have to and it should be something that is offer and paid by curse.com first.

Add the Beta Key give aways to the "upgrade"

Have the Upgrade have "ad-free", and even faster downloads on addons, not your BS about faster addon downloads...

Give us more than what is already given to us for free.

Not take away what was free and then offer to pay for it to get it back.

That is the main reason why so many people is upset.

You guys went the wrong way by doing this and now you losing alot of people.

First I would like to say I have been useing the client for quite some time an find it handy. Also, I noticed people complaining that it won't up date all their addons and thought I might point out that if the developers get paid a bit they will prob start uploading the here as well. My only complaint is $2.50 seems a bit steep for 5 to 10 sec of download time every few days. You might consider doing like allot of the games, offer 3,6, 12 month subscriptions at a much reduced rate? Just a thought.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by OtisMaxwell

My only complaint is $2.50 seems a bit steep for 5 to 10 sec of download time every few days. You might consider doing like allot of the games, offer 3,6, 12 month subscriptions at a much reduced rate? Just a thought.

I think they already have different subscription options? I signed up for a year $2.45/month seems pretty reasonable to me, not to mention I don't have to pay up for another year. ;)

I must say I'm quite happy with the Curse Client. Can't think of anything that annoys me with it (the Premium version) at the moment, but as with all software there's always room for improvements and I'm looking forward to seeing further updates to the client.

There was no visible proactive work done by Curse to forwarn us of this switch which is the primary reason for the outbursts I believe.  Not to mention, $2.50 a month for the cheapest plan is way over priced... That's 17% of what I pay for WoW a month and I dont use Curse near 17% of the time. 

Thanks for the Surprise... Thanks for not letting us know prior to going live! 

Thanks for nothing :D cuz thats all we got left.