I know that ads can be annoying. I do my best to respond to ad reports about excessively annoying ads (audio, popovers, etc), and I think CougarBoard does a better job than most other ad-supported sites out there. Still, some would prefer to surf CougarBoard ad-free, so I've added a CougarBoard Premium subscription.

When you subscribe to CougarBoard Premium, you'll get some benefits not given to other CBers. First of all, as mentioned, your CougarBoard experience will be devoid of the normal banner ads. Second, your FO limit will be increased to 100 (from 80) for the duration of your subscription. And last (for now), you'll have access to the new per-user follow options.

You know how you can set global options for what kinds of things will cause a thread to be followed? Now you'll also be able to set those options on a per-user basis. Is one of your friends a bit prolific in their posting, and you don't really want to follow every thread they create? Just go to their bio page and change your follow options for that one person. Is there someone else whose posts you want to know about, but you don't want to waste an FO spot on them? Again, you can do that on their bio page.

Upgrade to CougarBoard Premium

What other Premium benefits will there be in the future?

I can't guarantee anything, but I am working on a CougarBoard app for iPhone and Android that will be available to premium users. I'm open to other ideas as well.

What does this mean for the donations program?

Well, it's been a long time since the donations were a significant part of CougarBoard revenue. The main reason I kept the donations program was to serve as a barrier to entry for politics and religion. It also served to give people a way to feel like a greater part of the community, and I have always appreciated those willing to donate to help out. With the new subscription model, I'm discontinuing the ability to donate in the future.

Those who subscribe for at least 3 months will have the same benefits as a donor for the lifetime of their account. If your subscription lapses, you will lose the subscriber-only benefits, but the donor benefits will continue.

Those who have donated in the past will (of course) continue to receive donor benefits for the lifetime of their account.

But I just donated last week!

If you donated recently, and feel a bit put out about donating right before this launched, just send me a boardmail and plead your case. We'll work something out.