Wowhead launches Premium service
by Eliah Hecht 
Jul 24th 2009 at 1:00PM
Surprise! Well, it was to me, anyway. Wowhead announced on Wednesday that they are launching a new Premium subscription service. Subscriptions cost from $2.50 to $3.33 a month, depending on how many months you subscribe for at a time, and confer the following benefits:
- No ads.
- No CAPTCHAs when you post comments/forum posts, and an increased character limit on those posts.
- Custom avatars, with special badges and borders, for the forums and user pages.
- Prioritized placement in the Armory queue for profiler resyncs.
- A direct line to Wowhead's developers, in case you want to suggest new features or whatever.
- Premium access to the other ZAM sites (ZAM.com, Allakhazam, and WoWInterface).
Malgayne stresses that unlike some sites, non-premium users on Wowhead are not penalized. The site will continue to work just as beautifully as it always has for users that don't pay a dime.
There is a slight exception to this in the profile resync queue feature, although at the moment it's not a practical issue - not enough requests are being sent for the queue to be a factor.
So what do you think? Are you going to fork over a few bucks to become one of the Wowhead elite, or maybe just to show your support for a fantastic site?
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
nobag80 Jul 24th 2009 1:07PM
No, that's why there are advertisements on their site
Popowski Jul 24th 2009 3:40PM
That'd be a nice excuse if people didn't use Adblock/Noscript.
Eric Jul 24th 2009 4:06PM
Shhh
agnoster Jul 25th 2009 4:32AM
Yeah, but I *hate* advertisement. I used to use adblockers, but couldn't really justify it morally. After all, I get a great amount of use out of a lot of sites that run entirely off advertising. But if I have a way to support the site with a nominal payment and not have to look at ads with their blessing - well, that's a win-win.
TIberiusxix Jul 24th 2009 1:07PM
No
Xirifus Jul 25th 2009 6:31AM
Im with you here.
Siorra Jul 24th 2009 1:12PM
I can understand having the option. Doesn't change the fact that 99.9% of users won't use the service.
gari.rogers Jul 24th 2009 1:15PM
They now need to expand this to include some Guild tools. WoWHead + Guild tools would be KILLER.
Tweeder Jul 24th 2009 1:17PM
I don't mind them going premium as long as the current free features remain free.
Atleast in my eyes the premium features would only really jump out at the power users of the site. The guys who comment, share info, upload screens, etc. For someone who just does research this isn't really a mandatory purchase.
Please don't make it that way :(
I've always preferred wowheads clean interface, vast and current info to thottbots look at pain in the butt useability.
Ennaedwyn Jul 24th 2009 1:37PM
No, no and no
Dragundam Jul 24th 2009 1:18PM
Considering the profiler resync thing didn't work the last 10 times I tried it, doesn't seem like much of a big deal. My armory is up to date, but Wowhead's page still lists my characters from over a month ago.
Anyway, I don't really care about or use any of the features they listed. Minute they touch Lightheaded though, they're dead to me. :/
IrishViking Jul 24th 2009 1:20PM
Not a chance.
Retropally Jul 24th 2009 1:21PM
No chance, however I have to pat them on the back for not forcing people to make use of the service by destroying the "free" service.
I havnt signed up to wowhead and I dont plan on it either. Its a brilliant site to check for zones/loot and other things but thats as far as i'll go with them.
Urza Jul 24th 2009 1:24PM
I don't mind a service that allows you to support a site and you get rid of the ads.
Nick S Jul 24th 2009 2:07PM
NoScript or Adblock do the same thing for free.
I may subscribe just to support the site, but if your browser shows you ads, you're kinda living in the past at this point.
Cheese Rations Jul 24th 2009 7:50PM
Displaying ads in your browser is hardly "living in the past." It's a way to support sites that you like, and I specifically *don't* block ads in my browser because of that. I understand that it costs a LOT of money to run a site like Wowhead and I owe it to them to at least let them make a little cash off my page views. The ads are hardly annoying and I don't really notice them on most sites anyway. It's the little price that I can pay for having such a great service.
With that said, I don't like ads and do appreciate when sites offer the ability to subscriber to a premium service to have them removed. Based on how much I use and appreciate their service, I may subscribe. I totally understand that I could get around the ads by just blocking them, but that's not the point.
Keep in mind that part of the reason they may have offered a premium services is to help offset the cost of users viewing the site and them not making money off of ads. It does cost them "per visit" in a way since the server resources like disk space and network resources like bandwidth and staff to maintain everything does cost them real money. It would suck to see them have to start penalizing free users by limit access because they aren't making enough money to keep the servers online. At least do them a favor and let them show you ads. You don't have to click them. Seriously, how annoying are they anyway?
Darkharmony Jul 25th 2009 5:20PM
Ads for me = very annoying
No site I view shows me ads because a lot of sites have ads every place you look. After every post bam ad. No thanks. And as for the subscription, I can respect it but they sure haven't made it worth anything to me. Just like curse and their premium service. I'll pass.
Budahswrath Jul 24th 2009 1:27PM
When I had heard that Wowhead had a premium service the first thing that shot through my head was "Thottbot's still free"
admittedly the services that the premium service provides coupled with the lower than average price may convince some people, I think I'll stick with using the armory/regular wowhead
snowleopard233 Jul 24th 2009 1:28PM
No way. Just put up adblock if I don't want ads.
Lorem Jul 24th 2009 1:28PM
Don't make me laugh wowhead. I'm sure you charge a premium for your ad space. Don't play the "we spend so many hours on this site". Didn't the original creators get bought out anyway????