I was going to wait until mid-January to announce this, but a friend convinced me that it's best for all if I give people more than two weeks' notice.
Effective January 31, 2003, we will no longer sell new Lifetime Subsriptions. The longest available subscription period will be one year. Of course, we will continue to honor existing Lifetime Subscriptions. They just won't be available for purchase after 1/31/2003.
As I've said many times here and on SI, the Lifetime Subscription model is the financial Achilles Heel of SI and I had planned from the outset to do away with it eventually. That time has finally come. While we're large enough to be attractive in the marketplace but not so large that everyone who would ever join is already here. I expect stronger growth in the first quarter of next year, and, being a businessman as well as a geek, want most of that growth going toward a recurring revenue stream.
If you have a subscription that is for a shorter period, I will credit the cost of your *current* subscription toward the cost of a Lifetime Subscription. If, for example, you're on your second renewal of a monthly membership, only your most recent renewal will be counted toward Lifetime, so you can buy a Lifetime subscription for $123.00 ($129.95 normal fee minus $6.95 for your current monthly subscription). Those who are in that situation will need to make the purchase before their current subscription expires.
I will implement code this week to automatically take current subscriptions into account so when you go to the Subscribe screen, you'll see an option to convert your existing subscription to Lifetime.
I'll also see to it that everyone affected gets a system-generated PM this week and possibly an email.
If you're not a subscriber now but think you might be, you'll want to jump on the Lifetime offer before it's gone. It costs less than 2 years of Annual subscriptions.
If you know people who haven't decided to check the site out, they should do so soon so they can spend some time getting a decent idea whether or not they want to jump on the Lifetime Subscription before it's unavailable.
Bob
PS. There are a number of Grandfathered members who have taken advantage of an offer to "upgrade" to a Lifetime Subscription. The completely unnecessary handing us of money that doesn't increase your available features is definitely appreciated and we don't anticipate ever changing or doing away with that "upgrade" path.
PPS. Since no rate hikes are planned for anytime soon, I'll eventually offer a self-renewing subscription option. For example, a monthly membership that renews itself monthly if you choose to let it, without you having to go through the subscription process from scratch every month. When I recently implemented account aging and expiration, a number of people expressed surprise because they assumed we were already automatically renewing them.
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