Membership Revisited

Membership Revisited

It has now been roughly a year and a half since we tried to move to a membership based model for Real World Technologies. Unfortunately, we were not wholly successful in our endeavor; hence we are revising our model again. In retrospect, there were several problems with our membership based model. It is our hope that we have fixed these issues, without introducing any new ones.

So how will things change? For members, the changes will be primarily added features. In the near future, Real World Technologies will begin displaying advertising again. We will not use pop-ups, pop-unders, and we hope to avoid the more obnoxious ads. Most importantly, members do not have to see these advertisements. By logging in, members can choose to browse Real World Technologies ad-free.

Membership Levels

In the past, we had three levels of membership, and unfortunately there were almost no features to differentiate between ‘full’ and ‘basic’ members. We have chosen to eliminate this distinction; going forward there will be three levels of membership: members, corporate members and contributors.

Members

Members will pay $20 annually, and will have access to the new Engineering Roundtable program at Real World Technologies. Every month, we will bring in guest engineers from a different technology company, and members will have the opportunity to chat with them in real time. More information about the Engineering Roundtable can be found here. Members will also be able to login to our membership page and set viewing preferences for Real World Technologies. One of these options will be whether they wish to view advertising or not. To do so, we will have to use cookies; we promise not to use the cookies for anything other than maintaining preferences and logins. All Real World Technologies articles will be made available to members in PDF form, through email. Non-members will be able to purchase articles in PDF format, but at a rate of $4 per article. So, if you plan on purchasing five or more articles, you are much better off getting a membership. In either case, redistribution of articles in PDF form is prohibited. Members will still be able to get discounts from Crucial and Ultra-X. However, to do so, they will have to contact membership@realworldtech.com. In the past, very few people exercised these discount options, primarily because better prices could be found through Pricewatch and other similar tools. Due to this low volume, we have agreed with manufacturers to deal with discounts individually, rather than through a set channel.

Corporate Members

At the moment, we have no need or policy for corporate memberships. This level of membership is intended to be used for corporations that wish to purchase memberships for multiple employees, or obtain benefits for multiple employees, i.e. distributing PDFs to employees or having employees attend the Roundtables.

Contributors

Contributing membership is the highest level of membership possible. This is reserved for those who have either published an article or contributed substantially to the development of the Real World Technologies. Contributors will enjoy all the benefits of members, as well as the ability to moderate at Engineering Roundtables and a Real World Technologies email address. Contributors either have direct industry experience in a technical field, or must be a post-graduate student doing technical studies and/or research. Publishing on Real World Technologies may not be as prestigious as some other professional publications, but you can be assured that it will be seen by many in the industry, as well as by serious enthusiasts. Not only will you get the satisfaction of helping others to understand current technology, but it will look good on your resume as well.

All pre-existing ‘full’ and ‘basic’ members will have the privileges of a member under the new mode for the duration of their subscription.

Where Will the Money Go?

The overhead for this site is currently about $2000 per year, and has always come right off the top of any revenues generated. This means that about 100 members would cover the costs of running the site for a full year. Any additional revenues will be used to compensate authors and pay for site improvements, in that order. Our goal is to be 100% self sufficient, from advertising and membership, and also be able to return some of our profits to our authors.

Where Can I Sign Up?

Joining is an easy process for members. If you don’t already have a login, you can go here or simply click on the ‘Join RWT’ link on the left menu bar, read and respond to the membership agreement, choose a login name and password, and select a method of payment (we accept Paypal, Amazon.com and personal checks, with the latter being preferred). When payment is received, your membership will be activated and you can log in to the member page to take advantage of your member benefits. If you have a log in, but have not paid, please go to the activation page and choose your method of payment. If your membership already expired and you would like to renew it, you can go to our renewal page, or click on the appropriate link in the sidebar, once you have logged in.

As noted above, there is no policy for corporate memberships currently. If you are interested in obtaining a corporate membership, please contact membership@realworldtech.com and we will work with you to design a package that fits your company’s needs.

If you are interested in becoming a contributing member, then you should email membership@realworldtech.com and we will discuss the possible ways you can participate at Real World Technologies.

All questions and comments on our new policies are welcome and should either be discussed in the forum, or by contacting membership@realworldtech.com.