Suggestion Suggestion:> Employer Premium Accounts / Sponsored Premium accounts

Hey Shawn, staff and readers....

I would like to be able to purchase premium memberships for other members, such as my employees. I don't think that's really possible here, and I think it would be a win win for everyone... People who are serious here can conduct more of their business in the Premium only sections and avoid some of all the problems we've all been frustrated with. I am pretty sure that all the work Shawn's been up to here and everyone else, with all the new things and the introduction of the new Premium system bonus features and all, it's really helping turn things around here. Might still be a ways to go, or never possible, to make a utopia of DP, that's a tall order, but I think this would be one thing that would help retain true honest business people while also giving us a little more drive to help take care of this place and be constructive, and look after the people we bring here to help them learn and avoid problems. "Sponsor" accounts could be alerted of post reports on their posts and their sponsored users so that we can be more proactive in member moderation since we likely can phone the person up or have them on msn and alert them of their mistake and have it corrected before it has any negative affects on the community or anyone here.

This would be something that could contribute to the growing social aspect introduced here with the vb upgrade etc.

 

Excellent idea xInd! I don't think I've ever felt the need to reply to a suggestion before.. But this really is a good idea..

This could also turn into a method of payment here at the marketplace!

It shouldn't be too hard to do, depending on how complex the system in place is (I wouldn't imagine it'd be too bad but then I don't know how snazzy shawn makes things xD)

Rep for that suggestion dude.. If it counts in this forum?

Chuckun

 

Yes it does, I just left you some to show.

Regarding the suggestion well, you could just send them money and they could buy it themselves?

 

I don't mind the idea, but as Helvetii says, why couldn't you just send them the money?

 

Thanks! Glad to hear the great response on this idea.

I train people to get started online. Some of them are not setup yet, so they might not have a credit card or a paypal account that can do the subscription, is one. The other is, well, if they are new to this I don't really want to be sending money for these people to maybe decide they need it more than the premium membership, and I would like to retain some control over it if I am going to do that... Cause if it's my money, I don't want it wasted. I also don't want somebody I pay for getting banned, and I would like to be able to have some help to take some responsibility over them to ensure things go well. Protect my investments...

 

If you pay for a user, you wouldn't have control of it/be able to login to it... Duplicate accounts aren't allowed.

It's probably best for you to PM Shawn (or wait for a response here) and ask him if he's able to do this... It's sort of a unique concept.

 

Bk871 - not control of the account, indirect control over their fate by basically getting mod status filtered to be applied only to your sponsored members.

Thanks for responding Shawn. I do see your point, but I think you might be surprised if you try it out. There's a lot of people out there who have been working online for a while who realize the advantages of helping somebody new get started in exchange for some help with what you're doing.... By offering this on DP you might actually inspire more people to do just that by putting the thought out there to them...

In the meantime, is it at all possible to work around the system so I can pay for one user now?



Second edit: You know, with this idea... If new members could go looking for a sponsor, but pay for the premium membership themselves or work something out with the sponsor... It would also create another level of community preemptive moderation. Newbies worried about not understanding things can know that somebody's watching over them trying to teach them and help them instead of 'slap them on the wrist' Don't ya think that might help improve quality member retention and problematic member reform?

 

Sweet, thanks Shawn!

 

Did you try it out? One user tried to do that for me, but he got premium member himself only.

 

I haven't tried it yet I will do so in a moment. I attempted to do it day before yesterday, however I wasn't sure I had the username correct, and upon searching on dp for the username I seemed to have a typo, so I double checked with my guy on his username. This is one you will have to be careful to do properly, because if you don't enter the username exactly (and I'm guessing case matters) as it should be it clearly would not work.... I would imagine though, a request for help from an admin on that one right away can probably get it applied where it was intended... I just hope I haven't got something going that's going to get the admins overworked.

 

I have PM'ed Shawn already but he isn't online till now. I asked that guy and he told that he is 100% sure that he entered the username correctly.

 

Funny... Funny haha in a bad way. I went and typed the same typo. We should have the same ajax thing for the usernames as we have on the advanced search page... and perhaps a note advising members to make sure they see the full username come up before they submit the form. Sorry Shawn... :$ FavouritesBlog is the user I was trying to pay for... I'm pretty sure I missed the "u". New sticky note on screen - NO PURCHASING BEFORE COFFEE!~

 

Darn. Sorry Shawn. I wonder if you could make it a link on the user profile page rather than in the subscriptions section of the user panel... So that you go to the user you want to sponsor, click sponsor, and pay.. There must be a way to pass the user information through the system and send the buyer to paypal without a potential username error if the actual userID number from the database is there, which would probably work if initiated on the profile page? I would imagine that would be a lot easier than trying to do a facebook style member list to pick from... Or what about it displaying your DP friends to pick from that might be easier...
Well hopefully we can solve that one without too much trouble. In the meantime I'll get this new ad campaign stuff going.

 

So glad to see that this was (sort of) implemented after all

I really do think people will make use of the system Shawn - I think it might even help you (DP) earn money by people willing to "work for premium membership" kinda thing..

Chuckun

 

It is no more now.

It has been disabled due to some problems.

 

It's all my fault!
I was so excited about it I tried to rush in and be one of the first right away, before I had my coffee... Never do anything with money before coffee... Or rockstar... Or my secret energy formula mixture... Must be awake and alert, if I worked in a commercial office I would leave the house and do all that stuff first, so I'm working on not "entering the office" until I'm "ready to go to work". It's hard when I'm darn near hardwired in myself...

 

No, not only because of you failed. One person tried the same for me. But, also failed. So, Shawn took that decision.