How does one upgrade from GDNet+ Basic to Pro? Am I even a GDNet+ member? I know I have been paying, but my profile page says I'm in the Crossbones+ group, member title is GDNet+ though. In the client area under purchases it shows an expired GDNet+ membership (expired in 2013).

How does one upgrade from GDNet+ Basic to Pro? Am I even a GDNet+ member? I know I have been paying, but my profile page says I'm in the Crossbones+ group, member title is GDNet+ though. In the client area under purchases it shows an expired GDNet+ membership (expired in 2013).

Your assignment to Crossbones is due to your reputation points, but the confusion of having GDNet+ at the same time is a great example of why this needs to be addressed.

Upgrading to Pro should be pretty straightforward for you. Having said that, payments have been going through for GDNet+. Unfortunately it looks like they haven't been in sync with your account since 2013, and your support ticket for this was never addressed. I will fix that now so your account is up to date.

I found this very confusing, even though i have been following gamedev since 1998 , i have never signed any membership options apart the free one, what kind of advantages i supposedly should get ? being in a elitist group where everyone thinks he is a genius and act as a superior , imposing mind upon others just because he has a badge? thanks you but no.

I found this very confusing, even though i have been following gamedev since 1998 , i have never signed any membership options apart the free one, what kind of advantages i supposedly should get ? being in a elitist group where everyone thinks he is a genius and act as a superior , imposing mind upon others just because he has a badge? thanks you but no.

It's not for everyone. In addition to the removal of ads and the option to show your own ads on the site (e.g. for your game), this page shows the core site benefits: http://www.gamedev.net/subscribe/gdnet_plus_benefits.html

The regular membership is fine for a lot of people since they don't care for more than basic use of the site.

We offer GDNet+ for those who want to show support for GameDev.net and receive additional services and product discounts with an offering that will continue to grow in the future.

These seem like great tiers to me, and the included add impressions make it a steal if you're going to use them. The yearly prices are quite fair regardless, and the ad-lite/ad-free stand-alone subs are nice for people who want to support the site directly but wouldn't use the Pro features -- Maybe they too should get some other forum badge in recognition of that.

Speaking of badges -- will crossbones go away entirely, or just no longer confer the benefits of the old Plus membership? I'd be cool to keep it around just as a marker of people who make regular contributions in the form of articles, journals or making significant reputation gains during some window of time.

These sound like really positive changes and having more value associated with GDNet+ might just make me sign up!

For now, I have some questions though...

I see one of the perks of GDNet+ is to customise a forum signature. These have always been something that normo users can alter so does this mean signatures are becoming a GDNet+ exclusive thing? As a non-GDNet+ member will I lose my signature?

Similarly, it looks like I have the capability to create a journal which I presume is afforded to me because of Crossbones+. What will happen to people's existing journals when they are moved to the Standard Members group?

it decreased the value of GDNet+ by providing Crossbones members with many of the same perks GDNet+ members received.

I dont get it. What benefits I had, that GDNet+ users had, besides a blue title? Or Crossbones is different from Crossbones+?

These seem like great tiers to me, and the included add impressions make it a steal if you're going to use them. The yearly prices are quite fair regardless, and the ad-lite/ad-free stand-alone subs are nice for people who want to support the site directly but wouldn't use the Pro features -- Maybe they too should get some other forum badge in recognition of that.

Speaking of badges -- will crossbones go away entirely, or just no longer confer the benefits of the old Plus membership? I'd be cool to keep it around just as a marker of people who make regular contributions in the form of articles, journals or making significant reputation gains during some window of time.

The Ad-lite and Ad-Free will also show GDNet+ badges (blue and green) as recognition of support. I guess I could have made that more apparent.

Crossbones will go away as a group. However, I 100% agree that we need to recognize contributions and activity - and it can be an additional tag in some cases (in addition to GDNet+, for instance). We just don't have that clearly defined yet, so we're taking a 2-step process. 1) Introduce the new GDNet+ tiers and shift paying Crossbones to GDNet+. 2) Address Crossbones as a reward/recognition group.

These sound like really positive changes and having more value associated with GDNet+ might just make me sign up!

Glad these are more positive. We hope this trend continues.

For now, I have some questions though...

I see one of the perks of GDNet+ is to customise a forum signature. These have always been something that normo users can alter so does this mean signatures are becoming a GDNet+ exclusive thing? As a non-GDNet+ member will I lose my signature?

Similarly, it looks like I have the capability to create a journal which I presume is afforded to me because of Crossbones+. What will happen to people's existing journals when they are moved to the Standard Members group?

Customizing forum signatures is a GDNet+ only thing now. I'll update the blog post to mention that. Having said that, many members have signatures - those will not be removed (we won't delete data from your profile except in extreme cases). But changing/adding new will only be for GDNet+. I can see this becoming an issue for people who already have signatures, so if it does then we'll handle it on a case-by-case basis.

All members get 1 journal (GDNet+ gets 5 plus team capabilities). So when they're moved from Crossbones there won't be any changes - unless anyone has more than 1, which we'll deal with case-by-case.

it decreased the value of GDNet+ by providing Crossbones members with many of the same perks GDNet+ members received.

I dont get it. What benefits I had, that GDNet+ users had, besides a blue title? Or Crossbones is different from Crossbones+?

Good question that deserves more clarity. Crossbones/Crossbones+ (same) has most of the same benefits as GDNet+. Very few things were different until now.

We're 100% on-board with the concept of Crossbones, but we need a better implementation - specifically a better way to reward/recognize contributions that doesn't cross over with paid memberships. Addressing the issues with Crossbones and more specifically the way we reward/recognize members for their contributions is the next phase of improving GameDev.net membership.

I'm a big fan of these changes, especially the ability to support the site and be ad free. Great work!

Upgrading to Pro should be pretty straightforward for you.

Err, I'm not really seeing any way to upgrade, I can sign up for Pro, but it seems like I'd be having two subscriptions then. What are the actual steps in order to upgrade properly?

Upgrading to Pro should be pretty straightforward for you.

Err, I'm not really seeing any way to upgrade, I can sign up for Pro, but it seems like I'd be having two subscriptions then. What are the actual steps in order to upgrade properly?

The system is setup to handle upgrades properly, but there seems to be an issue with the display of the upgrade in the cart. Looking into this but no answers yet.

Great news! i always wanted to be in the crossbones, now i do not have any more excuses to jump in the band vagon !!!! well done again gamedev.net !

Will GNet+ members be alerted when their ads have reached their impression limits? Or will their be a way to get the statistics from the site?

Will GNet+ members be alerted when their ads have reached their impression limits? Or will their be a way to get the statistics from the site?

That's not implemented yet, but it is in the backlog to be addressed. For now, any GDNet+ members who want to get information on their impression counts or CTR's can contact me directly.