Right, we have decided to introduce a new membership system to help pay for the servers. These memberships are very cheap and give lots of benefits on our website and servers.

Please note that to give any of the server features to you, we will need your STEAMID. Clan members should have filled in their details on the site, and we will contact non-clan members (and those who haven't filled it in on the site) when needed.

Features written in white are currently available instantly.
Features in yellow are not currently available but will be very shortly.
Features in red we want to implement but can't at this point in time.

Techious Silver Membership @ £40/year or £10/quarter;

• Given admin on all server;
  
  • Reserve slot.
  • Extra chat privileges.
  • Start votes.
• 1GB Webhosting with PHP enabled and 1 mySQL database. "Unlimited" bandwidth (we theoretically have more than anyone will ever use, but if it causes problems for us we will be forced to take action). Also, no adult or illegal content (filesharing).
• More say in use of servers (for example, our 3rd server).
• Custom user ranks on forums (with 150x20px maximum sized rank image) requestable. No misleading ranks, such as ranks that already exist for admins and moderators.
• Can have a silver forum username.
• Access to the memberships forum.
• Double votes for Community Friday (through membership forums).
• No adverts on site/forum (the forum can be strange when trying to modify it).
• IRC/TS perks.
• Increased voting power on servers (2 votes instead of 1) for end of map votes and RTV starting.
• Other perks introduced over time.

Techious Gold Membership @ £60/year, £15/quarter (£5/month);

• All features of Silver plus;
• Given admin on all server;
  
  • Kick players.
  • Slay (and harm) other players.
  • Change map.
  • Execute configs (warmode).
• More leniency with webspace usage.
• Request addition of webspace features (implimented on a usefulness and ease of implimentation basis).
• Request forum name change. Limited to once per month to prevent conusion.
• Can have a gold forum username or request any other colour (excluding Orange, Green and low visibility colours for all people, Blue for non clan-members).
• Request custom forum colour scheme (must be for phpBB3. No requesting of loads, you only need 1).
• Free customisation of Techious merchandise (when available) - Get your name added to Techious merchandise for no extra charge!
• Further increased vote power (3 votes).
• Other perks introduced over time.

Buying a subscription;

To buy a subscription, follow the instructions here. Gold membership can be bought in months, though we advise against it as it just makes our life difficult. Silver membership must be bought in quarters.

Questions

Q. I have the best idea for a new perk! Can you add it to the list?
A. If you have suggestions, please post them here and we will look at their feasibility. We always want to offer more!

Q. I'm not a clan members, can I buy a membership?
A. Of course you can!

Q. Do I lose features by not being in the clan?
A. Not at all.

Q. Why is it so expensive?
A. It's not, it the cost of about 2 games per year, which isn't much at all. Remember, you're supporting your clan and getting a lot of features for your money, that would typically cost a lot more in general. For example, similar webhosting would cost atleast £30/year at best.

Q. This is not fair, why do I have to pay to get admin/reserve slots on my own clan's servers?
A. If I don't get enough money to pay for the server, there won't be servers for you to get admin/reserve slots on.

Q. I don't like feature X, can I get a discount?
A. No. Not only would this make it a headache for the admins, but this system is designed to bring in about the right amount of money to pay for the servers, having people buying bits of membership will make it much harder to afford to keep the servers running. Remember, the cost of these memberships is relatively small, it's not something you should be trying to get discounts on.

Q. I have done XYZ for the clan, can I get a discount?
A. No, the rules are the same for everyone, even all the staff. Things you do for the clan get you other benefits, such as being liked by us more, so we would be inclined to give you more admin and such.

Q. Why can't I pay for a non-quarterly amount of silver?
A. As silver effectively costs £3.33/month, buying in months makes determining the amount of months to give. Also, it prevents the massive Paypal fees as mentioned below.

Q. Why do I have to buy 2 months of Gold at once?
A. Sending small amounts over Paypal is subject to a large fee. Paypal charges 23p+2% per transaction, so if you send £10 instead of 2x£5, we get an extra 23p. It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up.

Q. If I promise to donate soon, can I start my membership now?
A. No. This is unfair on those who did pay immediately and leaves us open to getting stung by people not paying. You will not get any membership until we get the money.

Q. How long will it take to receive my membership?
A. Depending on admin availability, up to a week. We will endeavour to get it going as soon as possible, and our current track record is less than a day for forum perks and a few days for server admin.

Q. When is my membership measured from?
A. Your membership will be measured to the day of the month. If you buy a 1 quarter membership on 23rd January, your membership will run out on 23rd April. If we take particularly long setting you up, we will extend your subscription by an appropriate amount.

Q. When are fees due? (Can I add to my subscription before the time runs out?)
A. Payment is due before the end of your current membership. Paying before the end of your membership will extend your membership the appropriate amount. For example, you buy a quarter on 26th January and then another quarter on 15th April, your membership will then be valid until 26th July. We will try to remind you up to two weeks before your membership is due.

Q. What happens if I don't pay in time?
A. Your membership will stop. You will lose all special features and your website will be disabled. Your files will be kept on the server for 1 month. Service will be resumed on further payments.

Q. What is the maximum amount of membership time I can buy/have in my possession at once?
A. There is no maximum membership length. Generous donations are massively appreciated.

Q. I want to send more than any of these memberships cost, do I get anything else?
A. There are no set extras or sending more money than the cost of Gold membership, however it will mean we will like you more and will favour you when picking admins and other things. You will receive the appropriate length membership for the amount you send. If you send £80, you can get 1.5years of Silver or 1year 4months of Gold.

Q. Why aren't you (Skillers) paying anything?
A. I am, just it would be silly to donate to myself. I will always consider that I should be buying Gold (or more) membership when looking at the financial situation.

Q. What happens if you get more money than the cost of the servers? Will you steal it?
A. No. I will never take profit from Techious. If I receive a small amount over what is needed to run the server, that will be kept as a buffer. If I receive a large amount over, that will be used to upgrade the server (Quad Core, +2GB RAM) so we can offer you, the members, more for your money. However, it is worth noting the cost to run the server is very high in the first place, so this would need to be very successful.

Q. You need a Silver membership to have admin, but you can't have servers without admins, how will you deal with this?
A. Any admins that do not get a membership will be removed around 1 month after the introduction of this initiative, depending on it's success.

Q. Can you guarantee my membership for its entire lifetime?
A. No. If the server starts costing me (Skillers) too much (my limit is about £100/year), I will cancel the server for obvious reasons. Please remember that you are donating to a fund and are receiving these memberships as a reward for donating. At present, however, the financial situation of the server is mostly secure, which should mean we can keep providing you with membership.

Q. What if someone abuses admin?
A. If someone is abusing their admin powers they will lose them either temporarily or permanently, depending on the severity of the offence. Admin is a privilege, not a right, and the servers are there for everyone to enjoy.

Q. I want to ask something else, can I?
A. Of course, fire away!

Can I just point out the definition of "instant"

The next time Si gets on the net, I am not sitting here 24/7 just in case someone sends money.

Already covered that, Si, don't think I said instant.

I like the idea, but not the prices . I mean i'll be paying ALOT more for EQ i know, but for that money i have a nice game that i can go play whenever with lots of content and stuff to do etc.

The forum well i suppose to me half the perks feel like gimmicks, i could easily do without, especially the webhosting i've never made a proper website let alone hosted one.

If i find a spare 40 or 60 pounds from a lottery win maybe but my wage packet is limited

IMO it's not that expensive, it just looks a bit expensive as it is per year. It's calculated on the basis of getting enough money to pay for the servers more than anything else. If you think of another feature that you would like to see that would make you more likely to buy a membership, please suggest it.

The forum features (name colours etc) weren't part of our original offer when we were discussing it, but we realised that we could offer them so did, to add to what you get for your money. I've had people requesting many of these kind of things before.

As for the webhosting, remember that you can use it however you want, aslong as you don't do anything illegal (or indeed use large amounts of our resources). This means you don't actually need a website to make use of it, you can use it to host pictures (in my experience our server is a bit faster than PhotoBucket and a lot faster than ImageShack), videos you have made (though be careful with how big they are) and other files, maybe game saves, configs, document backup etc.

Also, just another thing, would people think more of the webspace if we offered requesting setup of various things (Wordpress etc) with the Gold package. (Side note to Si: Don't worry, if I do offer this, I will have a look at doing this myself unless so you don't have to).

i will cut down on my alcohol to help pay for it

btw i are suggestive pro and demand royalties, or some thanks ^^ (this is a joke before flaming starts! :O)

1.) the pound or so you save from buying a beer wont help much, teetoller!

2.)No need to say this everyone knows you talk utter rubbish

1) Well 5 beers a month is enough for Gold membership then. 1 a week.

2) A large amount of this idea (the basic outline) was suggested by Wynney, though he most certainly won't be getting royalties!

And even if Wynney did get royalties, theyd be donated straight back

In the prcess losing us little bits of Paypal fees

oh damn! xD bloody paypal!

I'll be going for Gold and donating more than necessary when I get a job
I have no ideas or suggestions as of yet but I will voice them when I do get ideas

Hmm, who voted bad idea and why, out of interest?

Kyhas is the only negative comment we've had, but ater his first comment there wasn't any votes for bad.

I don't like it.

Sooner or later a moron is going to come by, donate and pay for admin.

He is going to wait until the time comes when no one is watching him and start randomly banning people, hurling abuse, even damaging the server.

By the time you get the server logs the damage will be done.

Ogris, banning powers will only be given to those who are trusted. The only admin you can buy is initiating votes.

i would also suggest a vista gadget with clan events that people can have on the desktop. maybe the download could cost £2 or something like that (which could be included in a membership). This would also make it easier for people to track events etc. I'm not sure how easy this is to achieve but I would buy it

Also, look at merchandise (on top of hoodies) maybe pens? stuff like that that people may be willing to purchase

The event thing is an interesting idea, could be something for Event2 (whenever that may be )

As for merchandise, it is still being looked into.

Actually i voted for good idea. i do think it's a brilliant idea. Jut for me personally i'm not iterestedto buyor have thought of any ideas yet to make me buy .

payed up ( hopefully ) so should b able 2 aford next month ok lol

Thanks Wigo.

come on peeps donate for the servers you use <3. its only £3-5 per month, and you saved that buying l4d on play/amazon instead of steam (im assuming you would have been willing to pay the full amount before looking around elsewhere)

Thanks Wynney. And yes, you save £13 buying L4D on Amazon now!

yeh, everyone donate a fiver or something lol ^^

Well £13 is nearly enough for 1/4 Gold membership!

I'll start donating in the new year as I am going to be super marginal on making it to xmas on the money I have anyway!