FREE MEMBERS - now completely restricted

Hello, thought I would chime in on this one. Seems to me like a new member could have privileges for a limited amount of time and if they don't join at the end their profile goes away. I look at some free members just to see if they added kik or email in their profile which I know is not allowed. It's just that I have no other way to contact them if I have any interest. Maybe we could have a vote on how long, 1 month 6 weeks who knows. They do take up a lot of space and time away from the paying members when their just a pie in the sky if you can't contact them in some way. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for reading mobilemike1952

We were free for about 3 weeks and decided we wanted a bit more, so we paid $14.95 to test further. After 2 weeks, we purchased the lifetime membership. It doesn't take long to decide and if 15 dollars is a problem to even purchase one month to see if the added access is for you, then you have bigger financial problems and need to do some planning.

~Allen

Ok bear with me this may be long winded but worth reading I hope lol....When sls came online 20 years ago the management decided to allow free members here and allowed them to have some minor usage of the site as they needed and wanted people here and some of them to hopefully pay monthly or the "lifetime $99.00 fee " at that time . It made sense . It needed to grow and compete with other such sites coming on board or was already in place . As time went on sls grew as one of the best sites in the lifestyle world . They no longer needed to pack the house. Now years later there are many many lifetime members . But the costs associated with running a site as such are I would guess rather high . So now the idea is to generate monies to continue running it and to make money after all it is kinda a business .Sooner or later there will be no cash flow for this with the current business model they are pushing . The savior of a site like this is new members coming in and paying the monthly fee or lifetime membership . I agree if people can't pay the monthly fee then they are not really interested truly in the lifestyle. Hell same goes for the lifetime fee really IMHO . But some have NEVER done anything like this or even contemplated it. They may not know in their own minds if it is even for them. And lets face it single males especially have it harder in the lifestyle than anyone. If they can't do anything but just click on a few things and have no interactions at all who is gonna be interested to know if it is for them. The current set up is like going to a fudge stand and asking for a sample , they hand it to you and just as you are about to eat it they rip it out of your hand and say "hey first you must buy a pound of fudge then we will give you the sample to see if you like it and want to purchase some. In its current state My worries are they will run out of money and turn back to the lifetime members for the needed monies to continue on. If you think they can't do that you are delusional. We started here 20 years ago under redrobyninpa as lifetime members VIP members , charter members and helped run the SVMG's which were legendary here in this area. We shut down the profile temporarily which we thought for 2 years to deal with 2 sets of ailing parents and an ailing brother and an ailing sister. 3 of them passed in that 2 years. When we came back we had to repay the lifetime membership fee and go with this new current profile losing all the other status and friendships and contacts we had with the redrobyninpa . So before you are too quick to jump on either side of the badwagon there are other alt lifestyle sites who do NOT have these restrictions for free members and growing vastly. Not saying its a good thing as now it has the problems the free members caused here just know if you run everyone off sooner or later you will have to pick up the slack in order to continue on. We love this site and it is why we came back . Hopefully they come to a smart decision to make it even better for all but in the right way .

While it is correct that free members used to have much more access(SLS has now fixed this issue), that does not change the fact that they are non paying "members" and do not get the same benefits . Paying members, by default, also benefited from this and now that it has been fixed, no longer due. Look at it like this way, your cable company has been giving you HBO for free since you signed up and your friends have been coming over to watch Game of Thrones for years. Now, someone has finally realized that you were getting HBO for free and turned it off. Your friends are upset because they can no longer watch GoT and say that it is not fair to them since they have always been able to watch it and they should not be punished even though you didn't pay for it. It was a benefit that you got by accident and now you/they think that you deserve it for ever. The remedy is simple, pay for it(sls is $14.95/month) and you will continue to get the benefits. And as others have stated before, if you can't afford $14.95 then you either can't afford to be in the LS or you are too cheap. Neither of which makes us want to meet someone. -Beast

The only problem with your reasoning is that when we did pay for a lifetime membership, free members were treated as members from the standpoint of being able to be contacted and to limit extent make contact. So what we did pay for was to contact everybody including the free members. After the fact the rules were changed and free members no longer were treated the same. Initially free members could only post a few times a week they could not post Gallery shots and there were one or two other limitations. It was those limitations that caused us to sign on his lifetime members once we decided to go into the lifestyle. it was the contacts that we made as free members that helped us to make that decision.

No, what we all paid for is to contact other members of SLS. Again, "free members" are not technically members of SLS. A "free membership" is only for people to come and look at the site to decide if they want to become members, not(as they used to) get most of the benefits of a paid membership. Maybe, is SLS changed the terminology from free, to potential member people would stop complaining. If people are so upset that they can not contact free members, maybe they should join one of the other LS sites that give full access to non paying profiles... Oh wait, there aren't any. -Beast

While we did not pay to expressly contact free members we DID pay to contact whoever we pleased. Some of the time they were free members.

People need to stop saying that they PAID to contact free members. No we did not. We paid to contact SLS members and free members are not technically members of SLS(only paid members are). If you go to Sam's club you can go inside and look around if you don't have a paid membership but, you can't buy anything until you pay to become a member. If you want to have access to free profiles go to FB. Also, agree that if you refuse to pay the minimal fee for a membership then you are too cheap to want to meet. -Beast

Pitt boss , I agree we should be able to contact free members but they should not be able to initiate messages but able to answer a paid member

Suggestion:
Maybe a paid or lifetime member could 'sponsor' a free member for a short-term period (example: three-day pass) for a small fee.
In return we could contact the member and they would be informed who had 'sponsored' them.
Each free couple would be eligible for only one or maybe three 'sponsorships' in total.
I know several free member couples in my area I'd be willing to 'sponsor'.
Ideas?

Would be nice if Free Members could at least SEE that they have mail waiting. May be incentive to purchase at least a monthly membership to view who is interested.

Yes especially lifetime members should be able to contact free members... we PAID for that, and now we can no longer communicate at all until they come up with cash. I understand they want and need to make money, but this was a big thing for us. Limiting was one thing, but to not be able to receive an email is going to bring the site down fast!

Should paid or lifetime members be allowed to initiate contact with free members? At least for a limited time or number of posts?
I think it's a disservice for those of us who have paid for membership to be blocked from contacting promising and attractive couples.

As a business owner and someone who has done web sites free membership access to a paid site is a mistake. A nominal charge for a trial membership is the best alternative, otherwise you will end up with people creating a new free trial account when the other one expires. Paid membership is the only way to keep those on the site protected from as mentioned before undesirables. Now free membership does have its place, to allow new potential members a chance to look over the site without committing to buy in. Limiting their interaction is the only way to make sure if there is any spark of interest they actually do buy in, otherwise why would anyone pay for membership?

My 2 cents from a business management standpoint: They'd need to do a short period with a credit card needed to sign up, like most "Try us Free" models. The alternative opens the doors for spammers, prostitutes, and other undesirables.

And like others, I think the $14.95 monthly trial membership is more than sufficient. If that trivial amount is enough to stop someone from trying the site out, then it's served it's purpose by qualifying you (from a sales/business standpoint) properly.

I think the model that seems to work for the cord cutting services can work here. Some period of time where the user gets a free trial of the full featured site. Then after that period is over they decide if they stay on and pay or go elsewhere.

Access to features for a short time, 30 days for instance, may not create a problem. However, I’m not sure that it would accomplish much for the users here and/or the site.

In the end, the cost of a monthly membership is so nominal that it begs reasoning to imagine an objection to paying it which would not otherwise spell trouble.

As a lifetime member I find it frustrating to communicate with free members and really do not like giving up contact information just to communicate for more than 1 or 2 emails they get a day. I say give a 3 day pass to a free member if any paid members contact them twice. Then if they don't pony up, kick um out.

Ffc,

You are right about sls not owning your pics. But the TOD does state they can use your words anyway they like.

You grant to Dashboard Hosting, pursuant to your intellectual property rights, a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty­free, sublicensable right to use, copy, modify, adapt, display, perform, and distribute your Textual Content (the "Textual Content License"). Dashboard Hosting may, in its sole discretion, provide attribution should it exercise any of its rights pursuant to the Textual Content License.

I’ve had a lifetime membership for so long I hadn’t realized they now offer a trial membership for $14.95. Now there is simply no excuse for free members. Pony up the $15, try it out for 30 days to decide if it is worth it then either pay to play or admin should delete the profile.

~S~

"You need to switch banks. "

lol on so many levels.

Srsly. One that handles reality checks, though I’m afraid the free members supporter’s would bounce.

Don’t care if you agree or were insulted, that was funny right there.

You need to switch banks.

Free members add value to the site in one way: their presence means that we have more profiles to browse, more options, and more people closer to us on the site.

That added value disappears if they cant read the mail I send them and reply (at least once) to it.

When I paid for our lifetime membership, I was paying to have my messages delivered. I wasn't paying for the other users' content - SLS doesn't actually own my words or photos.. or anyone else's. I am paying for SLS to host all the data and make it available to me - but useless data, like from free members that I can't correspond with, has no value. But, it pisses me off that SLS - instead of delivering the message I paid to send - instead holds my message HOSTAGE to coerce the recipient into buying a membership.

It's sort of like at the bank. Forever, checking accounts charged a monthly fee. Many still do. Forever, that fee covered the cost of clearing the checks I write, and giving the recipient their money. But for several years now, banks have been charging a fee on both ends - double dipping - charging me a fee to deliver the money, and charging the recipient (if he uses a different bank, but goes to my bank's tellers and asks them to cash my check) a percentage for him to receive the same money. They're holding my recipient's money hostage in an effort to coerce them into opening an account at that bank. That's BS, and so is this. The sales pitch for membership said "send messages", not "have your messages hijacked and inaccessible".

It has been proposed for years that there should be a trial membership (30 days for $5?) with few restrictions.

The trial membership is $14.95

We say in our profile:
"To the free members who can't afford $14.95 to try out for one month, we feel badly for you but you would not be able to afford to meet us at a coffee shop or swing club either. "

Round trip subway is $5.50 or so.