bikejournal premier member fee increase!

[caligurl]

those of you that are member's of bikejournal.. what do you think of the doubling of the fees?

i, for one (at this point in time) am glad i JUST reupped for me and hubby at $10.00! he hasn't added anything new at this time... and had doubled the fees.. with the promise of more benefits... (which means $40.00 a year for me and hubby!)

now i LOVE bikejournal.... i use it as a motivtion tool ("if i go X miles futher than i planned.. i can pass X!" or "if i don't ride today... X will pass me!" )

but as of late... it's been disheartening to see so many year end (last week or days) add bulk miles (because they could enter a raffle for their club.. didn't need to be premier.. didn't enter all year... just come on and entered oodles of miles ) or people joining 2 or 3 (or more) times (i.e. inCOGnito and inCOGnito1) so that they could count their miles for two clubs.. thus pushing everyone below them down the list (and neither is a premier member!) no telling how many others do this!)

so what are your thoughts?

if you are already a member.. will you re-up at $20? if you aren't a premier member.. will you pay?

again.. i LOVE bikejournal.. just would like to see a bigger difference bwtween paid and unpaid members (and i, personally, would like to see being a member of a bikejournal club be moved to the paid side!)

[CorsairMac]

I guess it would depend what you use it for. I use it strictly as a logging tool, I do check on occasion to see where I am in relationship to the TE ladies and the other BJ members but I ride to ride and log the miles for my own personal satisfaction. I've joined several of the Virtual Rides as an incentive to reach or even exceed my goal. It also gives me a chance to see different parts of the world without ever leaving the comfort of home. I'm sorry Slantz had to increase the membership fees - but I pay $20.00 a year to play games online, I guess I can pay $20.00 a year to support Slantz! Heck I'd pay $20.00 a year to support this board if they ever decide it's too expensive to keep free.

[caligurl]

i obviously use it for a logging tool.. but i do have my polar software the i download to that also logs my info....

i like the "motivation" it can provide...... sure it's all just an number... but especially toward the end of the year when i was in the top 100... i would use those numbers to push to stay there! there would be days i didn't feel like riding.. or didn't feel like riding too far.. and i would think "well if i don't ride XX number of miles... i'll get passed or knocked out of the top 100!

[mary9761]

I was originally gifted my initial membership, but I will renew it when time comes. I use the forum and enhanced membership stats a LOT especially since I'm tracking mileage with my personal challenge that I have with a local friend.
I know what you mean about the multiple memberships though. I can say though I know of at least ONE that has paid premium for the two memberships he has jerrywebbonline, jerrywebb . I did see that he's duplicating his mileage under both names though. Now that said, who knows if he'll be willing to pay $40 for that priveledge?

[caligurl]

geez... and he's in the top 100.... (and i think inCOGnito) is in or just out of the top 100 too).. so they are bumping everyone below them (the majority of members) by 2 people (one for jerry and one for inCOGnito)!


*sigh* so in reality.. person number 102 is really in the top 100! (and who knows how many others up there are doing the same thing!

[mary9761]

his second id is 10 miles ahead of me sitting at 121 to my 127 right now too. I'm like you I wonder how many are multiples. I can't prove it but recently I'd seen someone named duck1, 2, 3, 4 ad naseum signing up multiples, but since some of them were added at different times and the membership isn't necessarily listed alphabetically, I can't tell if they are all the same person, just different bikes. I have several bikes listed [including my stationary] all on the same profile. I don't need a ranking for all of them separately.
Some days when I check my ranking, Jerry's are both on the same mileage, since the subject has been brought up he's not ALWAYS posting them at the same time so it's not quite so obvious.

[caligurl]

i'm set up for outdoor miles only.. he's at 89 and 110

i notice inCOGnito and inCOGnito1 have moved apart from each other 2! i just think it's so smarmy

looks like at least ONE of the ducks.. might be a wife? but two or three of them appear to be one person again

it irked me more in nov and dec when i was higher up and really riding... i've slacked off so far this year/month... but still... it's irritating to be be down 2 slots because of some double poster!

i REALLY hope he makes clubs part of the premier! that may or may not stop the double posting (and of course, he's said he's working on making it so you can post your miles to more than one club! that should hopefully help!) i love bikejournal and slantz works so hard.. but the few that abuse it like that... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Veronica]

I don't care how anyone else chooses to log their miles. It's their business. I'm not in competition with them. I only really pay attention to the people I ride with regularly.

How do we know that anyone logging on bike journal is honest about what they report - other than the people you regularly ride with. Cali for all I know you haven't ridden as many miles as say you have. How do you know I'm accurately reporting my miles? You don't. It makes no sense to me, to really care about where you are in the stats in relationship to unknown people.

As far as the cost, Slantz has saved me the trouble of having to create a spreadsheet to track my mileage and climb. My HRM software adds miles, but adds in those from the trainer. I personally don't believe trainer miles are real miles. It doesn't add climb. It's worth $20 to me. If the price goes higher, I may stop using it. I don't participate in the competitions for the above reasons. I prefer to find my motivation within myself.

V.

[Grog]

I will probably pay 20$ just because I know how much of a hassle it is to keep a web site like this alive.

However, I am a bit disappointed with that site in general. The great thing about it is the very high number of members. However, in terms of software and stats, I find it lacking. I have found one example of a much nicer interface with very cool stats at http://www.velotrainer.net/ . (It is in French but you can probably figure some of it out) Unfortunately, what I like about BJ is the fact that I can be "riding" with you guys. And I won't start logging my kilometers on two different web sites...

Hopefully, there will be significant improvements in the coming months! It's still a very cool site.

[SadieKate]

I'd kind of like to know why people wouldn't pay the $10 to start with. You can track an awful lot of ride and bike info without having to take the time to make an Excel spreadsheet and mess with it and back-ups. Who knows, someday you may be using the bike info to prove to someone you owned a particular bike. I know I'm not terribly good about documentation for insurance reasons.

[Deanna]

$20/year is still pretty cheap for what you get--that's less than $0.40 a week! Not only do you not have to develop your own spreadsheet, you get the convenience of accessing your log when and where is most convenient for you. I'd forget to log most of my miles if I had to remember to log my commute miles at home.

In regards to comparing yourself to others in the list, I think you can filter out a lot of duplicates by selecting "show premier members only". Whoopee - I jump over 200 spots in the ranking by doing this and I know I'm being compared to people who really appreciate the site!

[jobob]

Those who don't want to pay $20, no-one's holding a gun to their heads.

But those who think they're entitled to take advantage of slantz' hard work and out-of-pocket expenses without compensating him for his efforts, well, they're freeloaders in my book.

Like Grog says, there's a lot of hassle in maintaining a site like that. Maybe slantz will simply decide that it's not worth the effort to expend so much time and money with little or nothing back in return.

( yes V., I'm feeling snarky today, about this. )

- Jo.

[caligurl]

i agree with SK.... why wouldn't someone pay the $10????

as for the $20... i'll probably end up paying $40 for us next year.. it just irks me that the freeloaders.. (yes.. i agree with that term!!!!) don't pay and get the same things i use it for!

maybe if more people had given up the $10 bucks... those of us willing to pay wouldn't be paying 100% more to keep the site going for both the paying ane non paying members!

as for using the site for motivation... i'm sure a LOT more use it as a motivation tool than don't... just read all the comment on this board and on bikejournal's forums about riding to pass so and so... or to stay ahead of so and so....

i won't even dignify the comment about me not riding the miles i post...

[caligurl]

Maybe slantz will simply decide that it's not worth the effort to expend so much time and money with little or nothing back in return.

a good reason to go strictly pay... less members.. less hassle!

[SpinSis]

I just joined bikejournal.com after reading about it here on TE. It is really convenient, especially when I'm at BF's house and forget my notebook-log.
And I think BF is more into the "competitive" aspects of the stats than me--though I'll admit that is a fun form of motivation. I haven't gotten to my membership fee yet, but I'd definitely pay $20--especially now that I know it is such a "cottage-project".

I will say, it is disappointing to read that there are folks who mis-use the system--though I'm completely boggled as to why they would do it? But like others have said, the tool works for me because my greatest competitor is myself...