Ars Technica Premier – Does Anyone Really Need This?

Other than the people at Condé Nast, that is.

I have not visited the site proper for at least 3 weeks, as I have been doing my perusing using RSSOwl, which by the way, has gotten to revision 2.0 and works without incident of any kind. The programmer’s really got it right with this one!

I was a bit restless this evening, and I got back up to work on the computer, eventually finding my way to the site. I happened to see the ad for the Premier membership, and though I’d hate to see Ars fade away, I wonder what it is that should persuade me to part with any money.

There are no promises of no ads (just no banner ads, which I find an interesting phrasing), which I would think would be the reason to join. What is promised is this:

Access to subscriber-only content, including news, analysis, interviews, and deep technical articles. Every month there will be exclusive content for Premier users, and you’ll also get early peeks at select blockbuster features and technical articles.

Moderated live discussions with Ars editors and industry players.

Full access to the Ars Technica PDF Library: a repository of all of our feature reports and reviews, in portable PDF format.

• I’d want to see how much of the first there was, and its quality, for after all, if I currently want in-depth articles, I go to AnandTech.

• Most industry players? Moderated content? If this is as useless as following the ‘insiders’ on Twitter, why bother?

• This might be very nice, but after some reflection, I think its use would be very limited.

then there is:

Membership in the Ars Editorial Roundtable. Join with editors to discuss, refine, and propose ideas for editorial and community betterment. Help guide our reporting focus, propose topics, and vote on our writers’ next research projects. Respond to previews of projects at very, very early stages. You’ll be the first to know new developments at Ars, and you’ll often time play a role in their design.

Exclusive posting access to The Lounge, the The Soapbox and Velvet Room forums.

No banner advertisements on the Ars Technica forums.

Special forums features including subscriber-only titles, HTML posting, and image hosting.

After having been in the Ars forums, I must say that these features don’t appeal at all – my trips to their forums are no better than those of anywhere else…fanboys fighting over their (usually) unenlightened positions.

and:

Banner-free browsing on Ars Technica means no distractions, just content. Better yet, the ad-free pages are optimized so there are no “holes” where ads used to be. It’s a tighter experience. Check it out for yourself!

Subscriber-only access to full text RSS feeds of Ars Technica news.

View long, feature-length stories on a single page, right in your browser. Or get a downloadable PDF for offline viewing or printing.

These might be worthwhile, but the half-page that the reader is taken to in the link to “check it out…” is smaller, and not truly representative, so it is not conclusive if it is a great as claimed.

Also, I certainly hope this does not mean the end to the feeds I get now, as I find the use of RSSOwl to get the feeds is much more conductive to my writing, and garnering information for my everyday use.

finally:

Get automatically entered into monthly drawings for prizes and coupons.

Get exclusive access to discounts and deals from partners, if you want them.

You’ll have influential access to Bizzaro Lounge bacchanalia, and the ability to vote other users into a hall of shame. (Bizzaro Lounge is a seasonal purging of civility in the community, but what happens in Bizzaro Lounge stays in Bizzaro Lounge.)

Drawings? I consider the eventual odds, and so I doubt this would be that helpful. Deals from partners? Perhaps. Bizarro lounge ‽ (you must admit, that deserves an interrobang) If I want to berate someone for their stupidity, I can do quite well with people I run into everyday – where I can control the conversation much more effectively, thank you.

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The subscription is $50 per year. Not that much really, if it is useful, but I don’t want to jump in and encourage this sort of thing – it might catch on – then where would we be?

What I’d like to see is a one or two month trial, and then the ability to sign up for the year at the quoted price. That seems the fairest way to establish quality, and intent (after all, this is Condé Nast, and they have been shutting down publications with great frequency lately – I doubt that they would be refunding unused subscription dollars, for there is always an excuse.

I think a trial subscription is what is called for, to establish worth, and engender customer good will.

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