New Membership Usergroups + Premuim & VIP Membership

Whats this then?

With TopDog.ie getting busier and more popular each day, the loads being demanded of both the server and the software are understandably increasing. The site is now averaging over 1.8 million hits a month with over 4000 unique visitors, and our monthly data transfer is passing over 6GB. We're now approaching 200,000 posts, and have exceeded 700 members.

While all these figures are fantastic (in our opinions) it does mean that we've had to examine how we're going to progress the site. It's a new year so its as good a time as any to try implement some changes to maintain and improve the site, so that we can continue to provide the service that people are currently enjoying.

The downside to trying to improve things, is the expense involved. We need to try figure out a way of generating some revenue to cover these additional costs, so we're bringing in some new user levels in the hope that some people might like to contribute towards the upkeep of TopDog.ie.

With this in mind, we've now come up with a 4-tier membership system as outlined below. Existing members will see some of their current privelidges curtailed slightly, and we can only hope that they see why we have to do this. Registering and posting will always remain free, but certain extras now have to be moved to the higher groupings as we need to ensure that we can cover the costs of these additional benefits.

Subscribing is a way of helping the TopDog community as it may have helped you. And most importantly you get a warm fuzzy feeling from the knowledge that you are participating in keeping one of your favourite sites on the internet.

So what are the different member ranks?

* Members progress from the Introduction to the Newbie group once they have made their introduction post/thread
** Fully registered status is achieved after 30 days or 50 posts and is an automatic system upgrade to the account
*** Only fully registered members may subscribe. If your account becomes inactive (you have not posted in 28 days) then your subscription will be forfeited and no refund issued.


How to subscribe
1. First go to your user settings page (accessible through the Settings link in the top right corner of the page)
2. In the menu on the left of the settings page scroll down to My Account
3. Under this heading you'll see Paid Subscriptions
4. Click on this and you'll be presented with the 2 options for Premium and VIP membership
5. Make your choics and process the payment through PayPal

6. Once the transaction is complete your account should be automatically upgraded through the system. If you come across any problems then please PM an Admin to investigate the issue.

7. If you've gotten this far - thanks for supporting TopDog.ie

If you've any comments then feel free to post them on the original thread which can be found here