put full forum access in Paragon Marketplace

I'm still iffy about going VIP again, but I'd happily shell out a couple of bucks to escape the ALL ACCESS forum ghetto- it's really cramping my style.

=P

Seconded

Not a Freemie, but I agree.

and on further consideration, it doesn't make sense from a community standpoint to restrict forum access so drastically. When you're dealing with online socializing the more the merrier.

I can see not wanting to deal with a flood of FTP newbies making accounts just to troll the boards, but I don't get the point of restricting longtime subscribers with an established track record. I see Bill Z Bubba is in the same boat as myself, and he's consistently been one of the more helpful, useful posters around here for a good long time.

I understand wanting to create incentives for VIP subscriptions, but this restriction seems to miss the forest for the trees.

Thirded

I wouldn't mind paying a couple bucks to unlock access to the rest of the forums. It'd be nice to able to ask for build advise on the AT boards or post on the server boards Or, maybe have it as an unlockable based on your Paragon Rewards (like Tier 2 or 3)

I like having it be a Paragon Reward. I'd rather not have it just be available for purchase. There's enough trolling on here as it is, that is to say more than none.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

When they initially stated their plans for Freedom, non-VIP accounts would have read only access to all open sections of the forums. Several of the forum members asked that it not be so restrictive and asked that they at least open up sections such as Gameplay/Technical Issue & Bugs and Player Questions so that they could get help from other players.

Paragon Studios and NCSoft saw how that would be beneficial so they worked out a system to allow limited posting access to non-VIP accounts. They tested it in Gameplay/Technical Issues Bugs then rolled it out to the current ALL ACCESS sections.

Part of the problem is that the forum software recognizes only two types of accounts. VIP and non-VIP. Just as on the Account pages it either shows the account as being VIP or Free. Since the forum login is tied to the game account login, there isn't really a way to make more types of accounts without having to rewrite much of the Account parts of the website. Then the web team would possibly have to change how the login scripts tie to the account servers to allow multiple levels of access.

Quite a bit of work for little benefit.

We don't want the web team monkeying with trying to hack something into the system to track vet status, they do enough damage as it is with their custom script to tie the forum login to the game account login.

It's highly doubtful given the web teams limitations as well as the limitations of vBulletin to have multiple levels of access such as what you are asking for, whether it be a purchase or a Paragon Reward.

In a way, they do sell full forum access. It's called being a VIP.

I have no issue with the current forum restrictions for premium players.

Just to point out - if you didn't pay before Freedom you had absolutely no access and now some of the main forum sections are available to premiums.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

While I'm not against the idea, I believe that moderation may be an issue if all the forums were opened up to Freedom.

/signed!

When this all first started I had suggested it be tied to Reward Tokens. Someone such as you or I Goat, that have been here for ages are not so likely to troll or spam or cause a ruckus. Set it as a high level tier like 7 or 8. Cut down on the problems. In fact tier the whole danged thing. 3 gets you x y z forums. 5 gets you even more. Then 8 unlocks all but BETA boards.

aannnnnnd, as a now current VIP, I still support this idea. Especially when my sub runs out in a month from now.

as I get more informed about the whole 'tier' system the stranger it seems that improved forum access isn't a slot on one of the higher tiers.

players with years of paid subscription time aren't guaranteed to be tremendous community assets, but they tend to be more involved, informed & active on the forums. Which is what community hosts should be looking for...

Since some Prems have unlocked access to the inf cap and Went/BM I can see how access to the market forum would be useful.

/signed