The Good Patrons of 750 Words

4 cups

Hey there! I can’t honestly tell if any of the stuff we write here gets considered or even seen by the powers that be (hi Kellianne and Buster!). So that would be my first request – a bit more interaction so it doesn’t feel like we are tossing pebbles down a bottomless well.

Secondly – I thought it would be nice to have new people paying a bit less for monthly membership – maybe $2-3 – BUT to make up for the money you wouldn’t be making, to give options that everyone could opt in for or not, as they chose, to enhance their experience.

For example – we could pay a bit to unlock new badges or new writing challenges. Or to have a way of tracking how many times we’ve attained each badge, rather than having a one time only thing (example – state how many times I’ve gotten to the albatross level, or how many times I’ve done more than 50,000 in a month etc).

The site is a wonderful one that I am grateful for. However it was designed with far fewer users in mind, and hasn’t been expanded for wider usership, OR for what happens once people have been using it consistently for a year or two. What do you do after you’ve gotten 500,000 words and after you’ve attained the space bird. Wouldn’t it be fun if there was ALWAYS a new level to attain?

The site needs some refurbishing – getting rid of things that seem extraneous now that there are so many users (the point system and “people writing this month” list of 100 for example don’t really add all that much to the experience when there are thousands of people. The monthly challenge is great – but once you’ve won it once, there isn’t as much incentive to try it again – etc) and expanding other things.

There are all sorts of ways to improve the site but I realize this would take time, money and hiring someone you trust both to program and to brainstorm about the layout and functionality. But I think it would be worth it. Even if you kept it really simple – just to streamline it all a bit, get rid of what’s not necessary, and add a bit more badges and tracking statistic capacity.

People who really love this site and use it every day, and have for a long time are incidentally also the ones who aren’t paying anything to use it. Give all those folks the opportunity to invest in the site in order to make their own experience here even better. I think a lot of people would be willing to put a bit of money in for more badges for example.

Best wishes!