Groucho: That's about a five year membership and you get a lifetime!

So if someone wants to really support Brainking it has to stay away from these black devils....!
Since if i stay for example 7 years as a white Rook at Brainking i will pay 270 € while as a black Rook i will pay only 150 €. And it gets worse as years pass.....

Personally another and actually the decisive reason is the: "you will have a membership for a lifetime"! This brings me in front of the devastating inevitable and i hate to see so far in the future
I prefer to see only 6 months ahead even if i also hate this..... 2 days ahead is enough!

Pythagoras: Well, you may be right but only from a long term point of view. For example, I need to purchase a new application server (or two to make a fail-safe cluster). The estimated price is, say, 3000 Euro. With 10 new Black Rooks I could buy it immediately and the site would be faster and much more reliable immediately as well (which is an undoubtful benefit for everyone and also brings a possibility to launch new services and enhancements without worrying about the site performance). With standard membership payments, I would have to wait for several years to accomplish the same deal. Yes, the final sum would be higher but the faster availability of the resources is more important.
Anyway, any help and support is always welcome, of course.

Pythagoras: I agree that in the end it does hurt Brain King, but Fencer's point about the short term help is very valid. Almost all companies that sell membership have some form of a discount to increase immediate profits. I personally wouldn't have given a lifetime membership for the equivalent of 5 or 10 years. I would have done it for the equivalent of 25 or 30 years or had something like buy five years, get two more free.

gambler104: .
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I personally wouldn't have given a lifetime membership for the equivalent of 5 or 10 years. I would have done it for the equivalent of 25 or 30 years

And the result would be that no one would purchase it....! ♫♪♫♪♫♪♪♫

gambler104: I'll probably stick with one year at a time. I have trouble believing the internet will be much as it is today or that my interests won't change in six years. If I get the money and don't mind being wrong, I'd certainly get the lifetime membership. It seems like a good deal to me. This site is still best that I've seen so far in a lot of ways. Plus the owner is a hands on guy that actually exists and talks to us. As Fencer points out, he can make capital investments now which might make him more money than he'll lose years later from the few people that buy the lifetime memberships.

gambler104: Actually, the Black rook helps BK in the end. With Black Rook funds up front, there is more money for immediately for needed applications and hardware resulting in more members over time -- so the investment on Fencer's part is stategically sound.

Pythagoras: Yeah but there are still brains to buy and still money to donate. And there is still the Maharajah......forever option. ;)