Become a DinoToyForum supporter

[Crackington]

I'm in the Blog ok now too - turns out I'd already been signed up for it but must have forgotten 

Seems to be working OK 👍

[DinoToyForum]

I'm in the Blog ok now too - turns out I'd already been signed up for it but must have forgotten 

Seems to be working OK 👍

Great! Already signed up, what makes you say that? That should only be the case if you'd been made an author, and I don't think you were?

[DinoToyForum]

Thank you O @omgmarclol!  

[Crackington]

I'm in the Blog ok now too - turns out I'd already been signed up for it but must have forgotten 

Seems to be working OK 👍

Great! Already signed up, what makes you say that? That should only be the case if you'd been made an author, and I don't think you were?

When I filled in the form bit it said it already had a member with that name and email address. Perhaps it was the Forum sign-up instead? I was a bit dozy with it...

[DinoToyForum]

I'm in the Blog ok now too - turns out I'd already been signed up for it but must have forgotten 

Seems to be working OK 👍

Great! Already signed up, what makes you say that? That should only be the case if you'd been made an author, and I don't think you were?

When I filled in the form bit it said it already had a member with that name and email address. Perhaps it was the Forum sign-up instead? I was a bit dozy with it...

Ah, that sounds like it might've been your auto-fill details for the forum login popping up, because the forum is on the same domain as the blog. This means you've probably set up your blog account with the same password as your forum account, but that's fine, it makes things simple. I wanted you to use the same username and email anyway, so I know who's who. And you can change the password at any time. Just keep in mind the blog and forum account are separate, so changing the password for one won't effect the other.

[Crackington]

Thanks Dr Admin, will bear that in mind.

I tend to access the Forum/Blog on my mobile phone and with my dodgy eyesight can get a bit confused by small text etc.

It seems to have worked fine though and just voted on a Blog review 

[DinoToyForum]

Thanks Dr Admin, will bear that in mind.

I tend to access the Forum/Blog on my mobile phone and with my dodgy eyesight can get a bit confused by small text etc.

It seems to have worked fine though and just voted on a Blog review 

Glad it works! You should also be able to edit your profile there and add an avatar if you like to appear next to your blog comments). At the moment I can't tell if non-author DinoToyBlog profiles are supposed to appear on the front end or not.

[DinoToyForum]

I've updated the first post with instructions how to activate perks on the DinoToyBlog.

I've also removed the following original discussion, which I self-quote here for perpetuity.

I'm currently looking at options for a new paid subscription feature for the DinoToyForum. Essentially, this will be a way for keen members to make a monetary contribution to express their support the forum, and receive some perks in return. The biggest perk for subscribers is that the forum will become ad free for them (by design, no ad blockers required.). Here's what I suggest:

£10 (approx $13) for a 1 year subscription.

Perks:

• User added to a new 'Supporters' group
• Username appears a different colour
• Forum becomes ad free when logged in (affiliate links will still be active).
• Can add a custom title to your profile
• Supporters on the DTF, who are also members of the ATF, will also have their accounts there upgraded to Supporter status at no extra cost (and vice versa)

Possible perks I could also add if there's interest:

• A private VIP board, for supporters only. But I'm not sure if there would be much point in this.
• Access to view (but not necessarily post in) the hidden reviewers board.

I don't want to take away any existing permissions for non-subscribers but maybe another perk could relate to image attachments. I could increase the size limit for image attachments and make the feature available to subscribers only.

All of these perks are forum-specific and I can automate them, so I will launch the subscription feature for just the forum only in the first instance. However, there are other perks I could introduce related to the DinoToyBlog (and other blogs). This will require me to manually set up each subscriber with an account on the blog. Potential perks could include:

• A 'Subscriber' DinoToyBlog account, so the subscriber can log into the blog and have a blog profile to edit and post comments from.
• Blog becomes ad free when logged in (affiliate links will still be active).
• Permission to vote in star ratings. We've had problems with spammers and bots manipulating the star rating feature on the blogs. I could change the settings so that only logged in users can vote. At the moment this is too restrictive, but if it is opened up to 'Subscribers', it might solve our problem by allowing plenty of people to vote while excluding guests.

How does this sound? Any suggestions on other perks we could add? How does £10 for a year sound?

I calculated that a member would have to view about 16000 ads in a year to generate £10, and I don't think even our most frequent visitors exceed that (maybe?)! So, the subscription should easily compensate for, and probably exceed, any loss from removing the ads for that member. And that's not taking into account members using ad-blockers.

[SidB]

S @SidB I see you've successfully registered your DinoToyBlog account. I hope it worked without a hitch! Please Let me know if the perks work as expected, and if you can access any parts of the blog you probably shouldn't. I want to make sure opening up the blog to Supporters isn't a security risk. So, for example, you can't edit posts or anything like that, right?

An odd thing has just happened. I got signed out, though I'm certain that i didn't consciously do that, so I signed myself in again on the Forum. But now I can't vote on the Blog, though I can make entries on the Forum.

[DinoToyForum]

S @SidB I see you've successfully registered your DinoToyBlog account. I hope it worked without a hitch! Please Let me know if the perks work as expected, and if you can access any parts of the blog you probably shouldn't. I want to make sure opening up the blog to Supporters isn't a security risk. So, for example, you can't edit posts or anything like that, right?

An odd thing has just happened. I got signed out, though I'm certain that i didn't consciously do that, so I signed myself in again on the Forum. But now I can't vote on the Blog, though I can make entries on the Forum.

The accounts are separate, so you will need to log into each separately. The login page for the blog is https://dinotoyblog.com/login

[DinoToyForum]

Thank you T @Torvosaurus!

[SidB]

S @SidB I see you've successfully registered your DinoToyBlog account. I hope it worked without a hitch! Please Let me know if the perks work as expected, and if you can access any parts of the blog you probably shouldn't. I want to make sure opening up the blog to Supporters isn't a security risk. So, for example, you can't edit posts or anything like that, right?

An odd thing has just happened. I got signed out, though I'm certain that i didn't consciously do that, so I signed myself in again on the Forum. But now I can't vote on the Blog, though I can make entries on the Forum.

The accounts are separate, so you will need to log into each separately. The login page for the blog is https://dinotoyblog.com/login

Aha, suspected so! Thanks for the link, @DinoToyForum .

[CharlieNovember]

Members can now support the forum and blog by subscribing. Subscribers enjoy the forum and blog ad-free and benefit from several perks:

• Added to the DinoToyForum 'Supporters' group
• Invitation to register a DinoToyBlog account (necessary to activate the perks there)
• View the DinoToyForum ad-free when logged in (affiliate links will still be active)
• View the DinoToyBlog ad-free when logged in (affiliate links will still be active)
• Username appears aqua blue on the DinoToyForum
• Able to add and edit a custom title for your DinoToyForum profile
• Able to vote in star ratings on the DinoToyBlog and manage those ratings
• Able to edit a DinoToyBlog profile and comment on the blog using the DinoToyBlog profile
• Supporters on the DTF, who are also members of the ATF, will also have their accounts there upgraded to Supporter status at no extra cost (and vice versa)

Added to the DinoToyForum 'Supporters' group

A 1 year subscription is £10 (approx $13).

How to subscribe

In your member profile area on the DinoToyForum (the drop down at the very top) click the 'Subscriptions' option. That will take you to a Subscriptions page. There you will see the option for the 1 year subscription. Click the 'Order' button and it directs you to PayPal, where you make the donation. After paying, Paypal automatically redirects you back to the forum. Upon your return, you will automatically be added to the 'Supporter' group, and the perks should immediately be activated for you.

The best way to know if it has worked is all the ads should be removed, but if you have an ad-blocker that might not be obvious. So, the other way to tell is the font colour of your name should be different (aqua blue).

How to activate perks on the DinoToyBlog

As a supporter you will see instructions at the top of your profile page (https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?action=profile) explaining how to register for a DinoToyBlog account. Registration requires a secret invite code. Perks will be activated for you on the DinoToyBlog whenever you're logged in there.

Have you planned to shortly provide payment options by credit cards ? Actually, I don't/can't use PayPal

[ceratopsian]

I've registered at the Blog.  It says I'm logged in.  But I'm still seeing ads.  What have I done wrong?

[DinoToyForum]

I've registered at the Blog. It says I'm logged in.  But I'm still seeing ads.  What have I done wrong?

I can confirm you have registered successfully because your name appears on the Perks page: https://dinotoyblog.com/perks So it's probably something I've done wrong.

Do you see all ads everywhere as if nothing has changed at all, or are there fewer so you just see ads in certain positions?

Do any other supporters see ads when logged into the blog?

[DinoToyForum]

Have you planned to shortly provide payment options by credit cards ? Actually, I don't/can't use PayPal

I'm afraid not. I believe it's possible to use a credit card via the PayPal checkout without signing up to PayPal, but maybe not, and I understand if people don't want to do that anyway. I'll look into other options.

Edit: actually, looks like only PayPal Business Accounts can accept Credit Card payments, but I'm using a personal account. I will look into upgrading, and work out what the pros and cons are!

[ceratopsian]

I'm seeing ads just to left and right of my desktop screen @DinoToyForum.  I just logged in on my phone (not how I usually view the Blog) and that is ad free.

I've registered at the Blog. It says I'm logged in.  But I'm still seeing ads.  What have I done wrong?

I can confirm you have registered successfully because your name appears on the Perks page: https://dinotoyblog.com/perks So it's probably something I've done wrong.

Do you see all ads everywhere as if nothing has changed at all, or are there fewer so you just see ads in certain positions?

Do any other supporters see ads when logged into the blog?

[ceratopsian]

Just found an email in my spam account from this morning thanking me for registering at the Blog.  Despite putting email sender in my contacts list and constantly marking them as "not spam", I haven't yet persuaded yahoo to let me have Blog emails in my Inbox.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm seeing ads just to left and right of my desktop screen @DinoToyForum.  I just logged in on my phone (not how I usually view the Blog) and that is ad free.

I've registered at the Blog. It says I'm logged in.  But I'm still seeing ads.  What have I done wrong?

I can confirm you have registered successfully because your name appears on the Perks page: https://dinotoyblog.com/perks So it's probably something I've done wrong.

Do you see all ads everywhere as if nothing has changed at all, or are there fewer so you just see ads in certain positions?

Do any other supporters see ads when logged into the blog?

Aha! I forgot about those "side rail" ads. They're automatically inserted by Adsense so they bypass my user settings. I'll go to Adsense and turn them off for all visitors for now, while I work out if there's a way to remove them for logged in users. Thanks for flagging this!

I'm also curious, are you able to edit your DinoToyBlog profile on the back end? Any text you add to your bio should appear under your name on the front end. It doesn't need to be a bio, it could just be a statement (e.g. I Heart Dinosaurs!). And if you add an avatar profile image that should appear next to your comments on the blog.

[ceratopsian]

I've managed to add an avatar image for my Blog profile.  I tested making a comment on the Tlatolophus review, and the avatar shows for me (comment still awaiting moderation).  Computer illiterate here: "back and front end": I added a biographical note to my profile - innocuous comment about ceratopsians.  But though I can see it in my profile bio, I don't see it with my comment on the review.  Is that what you meant @DinoToyForum?