I thought i'd give an update on a few changes we're introducing to the OC and how things have progressed over the last 12 months or so.
We're really proud of how the OC has grown, we started out in November 2015 as some of you will remember, and today marks our 3 year anniversary (Happy birthday to us!!). The team have worked hard to grow the club and with valued member support we now have over 1,500 members which is fantastic. The OC meets and events are steadily growing in popularity, the forums are an active source of information and a great social experience and something to be really proud of. So thank you to all who contribute to this experience.
With success comes challenges, how we manage the forum and keep content and user experience ahead off the game is important to the team, and with increased activity on the forums requires better infrastructure, more bandwidth and storage space. It will be no surprise that these all come at a cost to the OC. We discussed increasing advertising on the website, member subscriptions and other ways to help the running of the OC, but at the same time very conscious that we do not want a website full of adverts ruining members experience. We also decided that forcing members to pay to join was not where we wanted to be either. So, as of today we are introducing membership options which will provide 3 tiers of membership each with their own benefits and ensure we do not limit the experience to anybody.
Standard Membership will be free, it will allow use of the forum in much the same way as now, albeit with limited functions which generally are those that require using storage space on the servers such as gallery uploads, forum signatures etc.
Premium Membership, will be an enhanced package that will include among other things, access all areas, free classified adverts, newsletter and some goodies!
Platinum Membership will be the top tier and will provide members with exclusive benefits and goodies and less visible adverts when using the website and forum.
We will no longer be offering advert free subscriptions to the site, those that have paid for a year will continue with advert free until their subscription expires.
If you are currently a Club Contributor, you will be moved to Premium Member with a complimentary first year membership for free.
More details of the membership options are available here
Any questions, feel free to get in touch with myself, or any of the team.
T.
