celtic
join:2001-02-08
USA
1 edit | [Poll]What are your plans for FWD's pay to play?
| What are your plans for FWD's pay to play? |
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| | | I'm out - too many alternatives |  32 (45%) | | I no longer used it any way | 31 (43.6%) | | Pay the $30 to support Pulver | 4 (5.6%) | | Pay the $30 - I use it | 1 (1.4%) | | I would pay $10/year | 1 (1.4%) | | I would pay $5/year | 1 (1.4%) | | I'd pay for new services | 1 (1.4%) | 71 participants.
results as pie chart in flash |
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meb
join:2002-12-12
Potomac, MD
| FWD claims a million members, but their web page shows a little under 35,000 users online. I don't remember it ever being higher. I've been registered for over a year but I don't get or make any productive calls. My.FWD logs show 4 calls, all under 2 minutes. This was a great experiment, but it just never went anywhere for me. |
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mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
| said by meb  :FWD claims a million members, but their web page shows a little under 35,000 users online. The highest I saw in the past few months was about 43K online users (registered SIP lines). I looked at posts here and FWD forum, most current active FWD have stated that they will not be willing to pay $30/year for free services. Such an indication is really not good for FWD and/or FWD members who plan to pay. If less than 5% (of 35K active members) are willing to pay, honestly I don't know if FWD will be able to survive. Perhaps, FWD should show on its website how many members have already paid the $30/year dues. 
--
Mazilo always prays for FREEBIES!
US Phone: +1-678-601-0907
UK Phone: +44-703-194-2574
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burgerwars
join:2004-09-11
Northridge, CA | reply to celtic
I'll give them $5 for the way the service is now. If they add services that are worthwhile, my value of the service would increase. |
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Slobtogs
@hosteurope.de
| reply to celtic
At this point, I wouldn't pay a cent for a voip service unless it connected to the pstn.
How many people - relatives or business people - or anyone - do you know who have a fwd account or any sip-sip account?
Even among people on this board, I bet there are very few.
Until voip matures and replaces the landline system, fwd is a nice toy, but worth nothing.
It's ludicrous that fwd is asking people to spend $30/yr for their toy service. |
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celtic
join:2001-02-08
USA
| reply to burgerwars
said by mazilo :... Perhaps, FWD should show on its website how many members have already paid the $30/year dues. I suspect revealing those numbers might not be an inducement to hesitant prospects.
said by burgerwars :I'll give them $5 for the way the service is now. If they add services that are worthwhile, my value of the service would increase. What would it take to make FWD worth $30/year? |
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cbrain
join:2000-05-21
Silver Spring, MD
 ·VoicePulse for Bus..
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Comcast
·Future Nine Corpor..
·VoiceStick
| reply to celtic
Those results are about what I would expect except the -0- for would pay - I use it. Isn't anyone using FWD?
You'd think the people who work there would be good for a few votes.  |
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mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
| reply to celtic
said by celtic :said by mazilo :... Perhaps, FWD should show on its website how many members have already paid the $30/year dues. I suspect revealing those numbers might not be an inducement to hesitant prospects. It depends. If FWD gets a lot of members to participate in paying $30/year, it may motivate others. OTOH, it may be a disaster. So, FWD may want to gamble here in this matter after all it already is.
--
Mazilo always prays for FREEBIES!
US Phone: +1-678-601-0907
UK Phone: +44-703-194-2574
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garys_2k
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI | reply to celtic
I moved my IPKALL incoming number from FWD to Callcentric last week and experienced a pleasant improvement in call audio quality. G'bye, FWD. |
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usa2k
Please PRAY for Rebekah
Premium,MVM
join:2003-01-26
Canton, MI
clubs: | The more I think about it ... the $30 seems like a way to get people to voluntarily quit the service, so they can quietly shut things down. |
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PX Eliezer
Premium
join:2008-08-09
New Jersey
·Callcentric
·Optimum Voice
·callwithus
·voip.ms
1 edit | (Reply to usa2k):
Do you really think so? Because it has been a free service, and they have no contracts with anyone, have made no promises to anyone, wouldn't they be able to just shut down at will?
For that matter, even companies which DID charge can suddenly close down---SunRocket and many others.
Might it be possible that, even if they only get (say) 5000 people to pay up, that still yields $ 150,000 which is some nice working capital.
Will be interesting to see what happens. |
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meb
join:2002-12-12
Potomac, MD
| reply to usa2k
said by usa2k :The more I think about it ... the $30 seems like a way to get people to voluntarily quit the service, so they can quietly shut things down. To force a decision anyway. Either profitable and expand or shut it down and move on. |
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soitgoes2
Premium
join:2005-01-14
·Future Nine Corpor..
| reply to usa2k
said by usa2k :The more I think about it ... the $30 seems like a way to get people to voluntarily quit the service, so they can quietly shut things down. And pocket a little bit of cash in the process, perhaps. |
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cbrain
join:2000-05-21
Silver Spring, MD
·VoicePulse for Bus..
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
·Future Nine Corpor..
·VoiceStick
| reply to usa2k
said by usa2k :The more I think about it ... the $30 seems like a way to get people to voluntarily quit the service, so they can quietly shut things down. So the FWD visionaries could claim a shutdown was caused by the public failing to grasp the future and not to poor execution or neglect on their part.
Interesting speculation. |
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edmidor
6th Kyu
join:2008-05-19
Montreal, QC | reply to celtic
Does FWD offer anything that Voxalot doesn't? |
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meb
join:2002-12-12
Potomac, MD | »What does VoXaLot bring to the table
»VoXaLot looks pretty interesting |
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nitzan
Premium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| reply to PX Eliezer
said by PX Eliezer :Might it be possible that, even if they only get (say) 5000 people to pay up, that still yields $ 150,000 which is some nice working capital. $150k is nice considering they don't have termination expenses, but as a pay service they will have to hire employees to provide customer support, manage the servers, etc.
They've had a lot of volunteers over the years, and people let them get away with a lot since it was a free service - but when they turn it into a pay service, the volunteers will be gone, and customers will expect customer support and better server availability.
Obviously, $150k is better than $0, but it is not enough to make it sustainable long term... IMHO.
Either way- I don't see them getting 5000 people to pay up. The value is just not there and most people won't pay based on some vague promise that there might be "new features" in the future. Once and if they implement these features - maybe. But as-is, I just don't see the masses pulling out their check books...
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Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation |
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meb
join:2002-12-12
Potomac, MD
| reply to celtic
For an organization claiming 1 million members $150,000 is insignificant. Sixty two votes on this board, even if they were all good, is even less so. I just did a Google web & news search and got less than a hand-full of mentions. None of the key people are promoting the new plan. Seems like FWD is all but dead already. If they had a great idea to set FWD apart from all the others, wouldn't this be the time to announce it?
Maybe they are using the fee as a way to end things. |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28
| reply to celtic
I guess so; but I too don't see the need to go through all those motions to justify pulling the plug on a free service.
Rather, I think the rationale is simply "getting paid something is better than getting paid nothing". As the subscribers dwindle they also save lots of infrastructure costs, so it's a self-regulating downscaling.
I can't vote as I've never been a FWD user. Still surprised to see that, as of this writing, the votes for "Pay the $30 - I use it" are zero.
-- B
--
In a realm outside causality and function |
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celtic
join:2001-02-08
USA | reply to celtic
Votes for "Pay the $30 - I use it - 0 (0%)"
Everyone wants to save money but how much effort is it worth? |
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