I decided that I would add some features to OSN4 that are “subscriber only” features. I won’t lie, I did it up subscribership, not because it gets me rich (it doesn’t, I make no money from it) and not because I’m a jerk, but rather because OSNews is a better experience without those pesky ads and I want other people to see it. Plus, the longer OSNews is profitable the better equipment we have, the more attention we get from our admins, etc.
Thus, I have implemented some subscriber only features. Like v3, the most obvious benefit is that all ads go “poof” and you never see them. Period.
The most requested feature is the “ignore list.” You can now ignore a user, and their comments will be automatically collapsed and highlighted. This is great if you want to ignore a troll or someone who really bugs you.
Thirdly, instead of changing each page to “view -> all comments” in flat mode, you can now set this in your prefs and just see all comments on each page in one shot. This is VERY useful to people who are married to flat mode.
I may add additional site skins for subscribers. I’m not sure about this one, because it’s more work, but then, replicating all of the v3 skins ought to be easy now that I have the classic skin mostly complete. [update: I have already added “Orange Platinum” from v3, and will be adding more in the coming week]
And lastly, links in your profile (both your website and any links in your bio) will *not* be tagged rel=”nofollow.” By adding a rel of nofollow, the links are not followed by search engines and therefore do not benefit from our standing in their index. This is less something I removed from users and more because it prevents spam. Instead of fake dummy accounts who do not visit us but continue to have a valid user page, only subscribers will benefit from our indexing. I am going to add rel=”nofollow” to links in the comments too. [update: this is done]
These may not be the only subscriber only features we see in OSNews version 4. I intend to make it more attractive to be a subscriber without making the non-subscriber experience anything less than complete.
