[Foundation-l] Membership fees proposal

[Delirium]

Anthere wrote:

> The proposal is available at 
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Membership_fees.
>
> This proposal was set based on discussions with many editors, on meta, 
> on irc, by email. Though it is probably not perfect, I believe it is a 
> fair proposal trying to take into consideration all comments made.

I haven't followed most of the discussions, so this is just a first 
impression, but a fee of $60 seemed a little bit steep, so it surprised 
me when I first saw it.  I'm not sure it's actually a bad idea, but it 
was a bit surprising.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's more common 
to have a somewhat lower minimum membership fee, and then have higher 
levels with additional mini-benefits for those who can afford them.  Of 
course, part of that is my personal budgeting: I can see myself buying a 
$20-$30 membership right now without too much thought, but a $60 one 
would require a bit more consideration, and I might end up just not 
joining at all if there's no intermediate $30 option.  If that's 
something that a lot of other people would also do, that could be a 
problem.  (Of course, it might also be balanced by some people who maybe 
would've only given $30 but are now encouraged to give $60, so I'm not 
sure which one results in the foundation raising more money overall.)

-Mark