Hellobee Boards

I'll upgrade. I'm not overly concerned with privacy (although I probably should be), but I definitely want to support Mr. and Mrs. Bee. Hellobee has been an invaluable resource for me when I was TTC and now that I'm pregnant, and I'm sure it will continue once the baby is here, so for me, it's more about giving back as opposed to getting something out of it.

Uhg. So frustrating. 9/10 of the Gold Posts have literally no reason to be gold. Did you have sex until the end? We're not 12 year olds, it isn't embarrassing or private to say whether or not you were still having sex with your husband while pregnant. People in gold can still see who said what. It's already being abused.

This is so disappointing. I am all for paying, but I don't think this was a good idea.

@MrsTiz: I started that thread. In the thread I went into some detail then asked a question about certain positions. I did it in Gold because I thought I might get some more detailed responses from others if it was private and not searchable in Google. Sorry if it offended you that I made it Gold.

@lawbee11: It's not that it offends me, but what if I have the same question? Now I am unable to get answers from it because it is gold. What if I can't afford $25? I'll never be able to find out.

Threads being private is a big mistake. Maybe responses or users, but an entire thread completely ruins the whole point of the site for me. Bottom line, if you want to be private on the internet, stay off the internet. Once it is on here, it will always be. Someone has seen it, copied it, screen shotted it, etc. Don't give out personal information (name, location, etc) and then you can be as open as you want!

I went for the gold. I have absolutely gotten more than $25 worth of value in the year plus that I've been here and I think it's important to support family run businesses that I find valuable. Mr. and Mrs. Bee have created a community and product that I have taken advantage of time and time again. I feel that $25 is pennies compared to how much I'd spend on parenting books if I didn't have this community.
I rarely start threads and don't see that the gold topics are something that are really adding that much value, but it's important to me to support the Bee family.

@mrsaudi: Good catch on this!! I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it! @mrbee: Will you check into this to fix it?

ETA: Then again, maybe I can see them because I'm a Gold member??

@Adira: Already fixed!

@MrsTiz: nothing is stopping you from asking the same question in a classic thread. I don't think it's fair to accuse someone of "abusing" a feature they paid for. It's not up to us to determine what topics someone else feels require a little extra privacy.

@zippylef: please do at least give it some time. You're someone I really value in this site so I hope you won't go. I think things will calm down once the dust settles on this change!

@MamaMoose: It doesn't make sense. Why ask the same thread twice? It doesn't matter either way. People will use it how they see fit, because you are right..their money, their choice.

I'm going Gold simply because I appreciate everything the Bee's do for this site. I can't imagine how stressful this must be, and I support them and any future additions to the site. That being said, I still don't support the private threads. It just doesn't seem to keep in touch with the community feel that HB is so great at having.

@MamaMoose: I am going to give it a few weeks and let the dust settle first. I don't like to make rash decisions.

I don't understand why people are saying they will leave HB over this... It makes me sad...people are only posting things in gold that they would have never posted at all before so how are you missing out on anything? I know that I am in HB for all the wonderful advice and support HB gives me. How does having gold change that.... It only enhances it for people if they choose to. It's not like once you are gold you ONLY use gold threads. I'm am gold and 98% of my posts will still be in classic.

Are the normal threads and blog posts suddenly irrelevant because you can't see 5% of the threads?

Probably not. I think I would be more willing to do so if the people creating the actual content and helping out with the boards (bloggers, hostesses) were also compensated and if the content provided by a gold membership were more valuable to me (so printables, parenting book synopses, etc rather than board posts).

I will once i get by my computer gain; i value this site and what ive gained from it. i am troubled though- @mole I guess I sort of hoped and assumed bloggers and hostesses were paid. That's a ton of work if they're not! Is this a plan for the future @mrbee ?

@HabesBabe: We don't draw salaries... it's expensive running a site like this (graphic design, illustrations, programming, hosting/webmastering, marketing, etc.). We've been funding it all through savings.

We hope to eventually draw a salary... that will be a sweet day indeed!

@mrbee: thanks for being so honest!

How long does it usually take for websites to generate profit? I know that Weddingbee started out as a personal blog, so it wasn't profitable for awhile, but you never had premium features/pay accounts there. And with your 9-5 job-- how long after the initial launch were paid accounts part of the equation? I guess I am optimistic that the site will grow and you wouldn't "need" to have the Gold accounts to keep it running.

I joined bc I wanted to support mr and mrs bee and HB. So it's simple, join or don't join- end of story.

I don't think I'll sign up for Gold because I don't really read/post enough for it to make a difference for me. Maybe I'll feel different about that if/when I ever get pregnant

In the meantime - someone above mentioned an app. That is definitely something I'd pay for. Not that it's difficult navigating the site as-is on my ipad or phone, but an app would still be nice and I would be more willing to pay for that than for "gold" access.

@zippylef:

<< That being said. I wouldn't pay for a subscription to ANY forum. Not just HB, any. >>

I understand and respect that. We've worked hard to keep our premium subscription program optional, so that Hellobee will remain free for all users.

RE: PRIVATE MESSAGING:

<< Because it's a basic feature of every single other forum I've ever participated on. It's something everyone has been asking for since the site went live. I understand the logistics have been tough trying to implement it here, but to do it and then make it a paid feature kind of makes my blood boil >>

We do have a basic PM program we could just install, but I am not happy with it. It has several serious bugs, and when I've installed it on other sites it has become overrun with spammers and scammers. There are no admin tools available, so it's very difficult to deal with reports of spammers and scammers soliciting over private message. It also sends email alerts, which means that abuse of the PM system could result in the site emails getting blocked as spam.

As a result, we are going to have to write our own private messaging software from scratch, along with more tools to manage spammers and scammers. We have a lot going on now though, so won't be able to get to this (big!) project for a while. In the meantime, we've written a Walls feature that allows members to leave notes for each other. That feature will continue to be available for free for all members.

<< I think that would change my mind about it too, if gold membership was something besides just "exclusive" board posts. >>

We will be adding more Gold features over time... will keep everyone posted. If there are particular features you would like to see, please post to our suggestions forum!
http://suggestions.hellobee.com/

@mrbee: Thank you so much for taking the time to address my concerns. I know you have talked about the PM issue before and I respect and understand that it isn't something you guys have been able to do thus far. Perhaps adding in something like a minimum number of posts before you can use the feature would cut down on the spammer issue? I have seen other forums use that with decent success before.

I do like this website and it would make me sad to leave it behind. I would hate to see it become the same sort of clique-y nonsense that seems to permeate other sites. We do really appreciate how much work the two of you put into the site.