Lifetime membership award decision

[bmuskett]

I'm surprised there's nothing in here or on the home page about the announcement that was made in this morning's newsletter.

[MaFt]

We mentioned this in yesterday's Lifetime Awards post:

[bmuskett]

[JohnTT]

I thought the lifetime membership was an excellent incentive. I was willing to pay £20 per year for the chance of a lifetime membership.

I only downloaded a fresh database when going on holiday once or twice a year however as I know my regular area's cameras - so it would have been cheaper to download as a one off for £2 a go but the lifetime membership was a good incentive and kept me keen spotting cameras.

I finally managed to be first with a camera spot after many attempts. The award of a year's free membership only really represents one or two downloads to me and only serves to highlight that I've been wasting my money.

I've cancelled my annual subscription now and don't intend to renew it as I have no real incentive - nor will I be inclined to do any reporting for the same reason. I've already spent enough money to have lasted many years into the future at my rate of downloading had I been buying a download at £2 a go. Sad but true.

I can see that having everyone eventually turn into a lifetime member is self defeating but I wonder how may have dropped out of yearly subscription for the same reasons as me?

[DennisN]

I've paid close on £2,000 a year for my van insurance since 1999. Each of my three accidents in over 50 years motoring have not been my fault and the other driver has paid up for my repairs. I've never had an accident that was my fault. The only time I claimed against my insurance was when an uninsured 70mph deer wrecked my front end. That was back in 2005 and cost £1,500 to repair.

£1,500 claimed once in over 50 years, but I still waste money by getting insurance every year. I hate to think how many years worth of insurance money I could have saved by only insuring my vehicle in 2005. Clearly you would have stopped reporting cameras once you got your free lifetime membership, unlike so many who still report every week, week in, week out, so it wasn't much of a reward from PocketGPSWorld's point of view, was it? We had the discussions about value for money some eight years ago when the database changed from monthly at £2 to annual at £20, then we had the discussions about discontinuing the lifetime free membership award a couple of years ago. I guess you were a non-participating community member at the time or we could have heard your arguments about it. But don't worry, we already heard them without your two-penn'orth.

Goodbye and good luck with your licence. Peace of mind is obviously not worth £20 to you and no doubt you know of something which for £20 will offer you far greater value for money - three packets of fags, four or five beers, part of a meal for two at the seaside, a few hours parking meters in Bristol, two visits to London's Congestion Zone (until they increase the price next week), whatever.

PS I have lifetime membership, because they declined to withdraw it from exisiting lifetime members (and a helluva lot of us offered). But I still donate £20 each year. Of course, in my case the £20 is microscropic amongst my 60,000 miles a year, I can't even begin to factor in a cost per mile.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[DennisN]

To read the two penn'orths, Click here.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[JohnTT]

Thanks for the link - it's a good job I hadn't left yet following your warm invitation.

Road vehicle insurance is very unlike paying for information about the whereabouts of speed cameras. Having paid my Pocket GPS subscription; if I was flashed by a speed camera and was then fined I could not make a claim. It is NOT therefore an insurance scheme, it is merely the purchase of assisting and preventative information. The money you've paid towards your insurance isn't "wasted" as it went towards accident claims of others and in part would have gone to you, along with others' contributions if you'd made a claim - that's because it IS an insurance scheme.

A far better analogy would be buying a map to go on holiday with and choosing between a small one off map purchase or buying multiple copies and updates you'll never use all year round just to enter a prize draw. The prize draw incentive gets withdrawn - why would you not revert back to buying a one off copy when you actually need one. That's a far better analogy as it's almost exactly the same.

To presume I would not have made future camera spot contributions, having become a lifetime member, is very presumptive of you. I may have felt grateful, included, part of a community and wish to make contribution by such submissions as I have done in the past. As it is now I "feel" somewhat cheated of the opportunity - it's not what I signed up for. An annual subscription seems very little different from buying speed camera updates from TomTom now. A small one off purchase however is more worthwhile to me.

I have not contributed to these boards very much because my interests lie elsewhere and I don't have the time. I have only done so now to make the point I have made. I may have made similar points in discussions here had I been aware of them and had the time but it's too late now to prevent change as it has already happened. I can merely make consequential points and ask the question, that still remains unanswered; have annual subscriptions fallen since the lifetime membership incentive was withdrawn? How now looks the business model?

[M8TJT]

[JohnTT]

[MaFt]

The idea of the award was, and still is, to reward those who help improve the database.

The problem we were having is that someone who submitted a single camera over 5 years was being rewarded the same as someone who was submitting 50 cameras a year for 5 years.

I can't remember the full ins and outs that happened during the lead up to the change (which was nearly 2 years ago now) but basically the outcome of the current system is that those who keep submitting new cameras, corrections, removals etc will, essentially, get a lifetime subscription (you get a 1yr sub for each successful submission (max 1 per user per week)) - keep submitting = keep getting a free sub.

Conversely, those who submit only a small number, will get a smaller reward. We felt, and still do feel, that this is the fairest method.

Admittedly there will be some non-standard scenarios, such as yours, where it doesn't quite 'fit', but it's impossible to have a system that fits every possible scenario.

Plus, how may other companies give you free stuff?

MaFt

[M8TJT]

[DennisN]

[JohnTT]

[bmuskett]

[sussamb]

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