Allow users to set their own subscription amount

[socceronly]

How difficult would it be to have a subscription amount that was arbitrary? 

So people could set their own amount and change it at any time say in their profile. 

Rather than set up a bunch of subscriptions, people could just enter whatever they want. 

I know there are people who would put in a lot more than others, but I don't want it set up soley for those people as it doesn't have a good 'look' so to speak. 

 

[socceronly]

I didn't realize Patreon had added set up the tranaction fees the way they have it now.  It eliminates lots of small payements.

In that context, then maybe it would be better to allow 

a minimum amount + cycle time.   We already have the second part. 

So if people wanted to do $1 a month in six month incriments it would reduce the % going to transaction fees. 

Set a min of $6, but they can add on whatever they want. 

[bfarber]

What is the use-case for this? Why would you as an administrator let the end-user decide how much their subscription amount should be?

It sounds like what you are really after is the "Donations" feature already available in Commerce.

[socceronly]

23 hours ago, bfarber said:

What is the use-case for this? Why would you as an administrator let the end-user decide how much their subscription amount should be?

It sounds like what you are really after is the "Donations" feature already available in in Commerce.

In our case we have people spread all over the country. 

Many of our users will never personally get to a game.   We have kids, adults, professionals and people with very little money.   What I do want is those people to feel equal on some level that they have all joined the same group and contribute.     There are some people who can only afford 5 five bucks, and others that will donate 500 without hesitation.   I don't want someone signing up for a $5 subscription when there is also a $500 option.   I think it looks bad.  Making people do two things, subscription plus donation doubles the work, and almost certainly lowers the return. 

It could be the donation module, but we are looking for membership.  I guess you could do it that way, and I was stuck in the subscription model, though those will renew and a donation would not.

 

[Joel R]

So let me make sure I understand this: you want to give users total flexibility of payment amount because they may or may not be able to pay you any money, but then lock them into that amount in a recurring subscription?

 

[Tom S.]

If I understand correctly he wants something like what most charities offer. A way for people to create monthly donations of whatever amount they choose.

[Joy Rex]

I think this is an excellent idea - have minimum subscription amounts, but allow users to choose an amount above the set minimum if they wish to contribute more.

[bfarber]

What if you could set a donation to recur (or rather, allow your members to do so when making the donation)? Would that be a sufficient solution? Because at the end of the day the underlying feature here seems to be a donation, and I'm wondering if expanding functionality in the donations feature is a better solution than trying to shoehorn in a niche request for subscription functionality instead.

[Tom S.]

11 hours ago, bfarber said:

What if you could set a donation to recur (or rather, allow your members to do so when making the donation)? Would that be a sufficient solution? Because at the end of the day the underlying feature here seems to be a donation, and I'm wondering if expanding functionality in the donations feature is a better solution than trying to shoehorn in a niche request for subscription functionality instead.

I would agree with this.

[opentype]

Donations won’t help, since you still want them in a membergroup or subscription package to show their support to everyone or to gain certain features. 

A “requirement“ for such a feature is certainly a niche request, but I can easily see that many admins would activate it and profit from it, if it were available. 
I have a “supporter membership” and a couple of “donation products” with pre-set prices some people buy from time to time. If they could just raise their “supporter membership” price, some would probably do it and pay more for years to come. 

[socceronly]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:01 PM, opentype said:

Donations won’t help, since you still want them in a membergroup or subscription package to show their support to everyone or to gain certain features. 

A “requirement“ for such a feature is certainly a niche request, but I can easily see that many admins would activate it and profit from it, if it were available. 
I have a “supporter membership” and a couple of “donation products” with pre-set prices some people buy from time to time. If they could just raise their “supporter membership” price, some would probably do it and pay more for years to come. 

I have people telling me they will pay more, but if you make it a two step process, subscription and then donation....  you will get much less uptake. 

Minimum with an arbitrary upper value is something a lot of people would benefit from.  I don't think it would be that niche.  

[jair101]

Instead of having a minimum amount I think its better to have recommended amount. Letting members know how would you price the subscription normally, but allowing them to set their own price. If they are cheap enough to enter 0.01, let them have it, its not like they would have paid more otherwise. You can set the member benefits in a way that they don't impose additional resources to you, premium badge does not cost any money. 

I would really like to have this as well. 

[socceronly]

15 hours ago, jair101 said:

Instead of having a minimum amount I think its better to have recommended amount. Letting members know how would you price the subscription normally, but allowing them to set their own price. If they are cheap enough to enter 0.01, let them have it, its not like they would have paid more otherwise. You can set the member benefits in a way that they don't impose additional resources to you, premium badge does not cost any money. 

I would really like to have this as well. 

You have to have a minimum, of at least the cost of the transaction.....

If the membership includes some kind of swag, then there has to be a min.