the downfall of squirt.org.....

[concupisys]

as some of you may or may not know, squirt.org (one of the most popular gay cruising sites) just put new restrictions on free member access.... free members can no longer initiate IM conversations with paid members, they get 5 e-mails per day, and members with no photos (paid OR unpaid) appear by default at the bottom of 'online now' listings....

according to the site director, only 6% of members on squirt are paying for premium access.... that means as of yesterday, paid members just lost 94% of their communication initiated by other people.... (until yesterday, free members had unlimited access to e-mail and IM with paid members....)

has anyone here been affected by this change? will it stop you from renewing your subscriptions? have you already noticed a difference in how many people get in contact with you?

discuss.....

 

[PornForPatric]

They are hit by the same problems faced by many websites. Customers want it all, but they don't want to actually pay anything to have it all. But, you've got legal costs, hosting costs, advertising costs and you need to pay for programming, extra content, etc.

You can't run a successful website with only 6% of users contributing. Not unless they are all rich and don't mind being gouged every month.

Squirt will either acquire more paying members or end up being bought out by Manhunt or Grindr.

 

[manplay]

well said pornforpatrick.........

 

[The Shadow]

I don't know if I will get flagged for making this post a bit off topic...however, one thing that I can criticize squirt for is that you have to do the mobile log in to check out the cruise listings. That way you can see if it had been updated recently. The way they have it setup on the "full" site is to make you waste a cruise listing view, only to find out that its been 3 months or more since the last post. Does anyone think it would be a good idea to lodge that complaint, or just let it go?

 

[1Steve]

My own feeling is that the problem with websites including this one is the "monthly fee" design for premium memberships. I bet if they charged $10.00 a year, they would have so many premium members they would easily make their money. Very few people sign up for premium, because no one wants another monthly bill hanging over their head like the phone bill, cable bill, water and electric etc. Add to that the fact that many don't like an adult website on their credit card bill showing up constantly.