OMAAT Rolls Out Paid Membership Points And New Community Tools

Fun fact: Tuesday is the most productive day of the week, and today is no exception. We’ve rolled out the latest round of enhancements to the OMAAT community. Here’s what changed today: Paid subscriptionsUpdated member profilesImproved Community FeaturesWhat’s next? Paid subscriptions Let’s rip this band-aid off, shall we? After reviewing feedback from y’all, we’ve launched a paid membership model. Both Ben and I thought it was important to design a program that allowed readers to unlock loyalty benefits without paying a membership fee. Now that the community-based membership is in full swing, we’re adding a layer for those who want a more streamlined site experience (and for some yet-to-be-named mystery perks), but don’t necessarily want to engage with the comments section. As of today, you can buy membership points in blocks to top up your community points. We’ve designed the subscription model so you can choose a plan that best fits how you use OMAAT. There are no recurring charges or monthly fees. You can simply top up your account at any time during the year to enjoy benefits for the remaining months at your current status. Prices are prorated in quarterly chunks to reflect that this is not an annual membership. If you’ve already hit Diamond status, we left the option in to contribute to the blog in the profile settings. If you’re channeling Smaug, you will be granted more OMAAT points for each contribution, but we did intentionally deprioritize the button placement in the experience. For example, if you’re currently a Gold member with 3,000 points, you can buy a Gold package of 2,500 points in September for $50, which will promote you to Platinum status through February 2027. For readers who are self-described lurkers and not posters, you can purchase directly into the Diamond tier. For those really looking to optimize, you can join the daily newsletter list and add OMAAT as a preferred source in Google for a combined 2,500 points, unlocking Gold status before opting to top off your account. What’s your optimization strategy? Updated member profiles New membership page An activity log highlights the points you’ve earned this year Your most liked comment of the year will show up on the left pane. Ability to buy OMAAT Membership points Track your status and most-engaged posts on our redesigned Member account page. Updated notification settings Track posts you follow and unsubscribe from email alerts Earn 1,000 OMAAT Membership Points – Make OMAAT a preferred source in Google Earn 1,000 OMAAT Membership Points – Stay subscribed to the OMAAT mailing list Change your email preferences OMAAT notifications are on, but my phone is on silent 24/7. Sorry, Mom. Follow comments from the blog Interested in a comment thread? You can opt in to get email alerts as new comments come in. Just a note, if you follow comments on a post, email alerts will drop you into the corresponding community page, not back onto the blog. Like and follow, please. Search results Search has been a pain point for some of you, and we’ve made some updates to our search functionality to make results more relevant. No posts from 10 years ago! What’s next? The next set of updates is going to be behind the scenes. Hopefully, you continue to notice improved site speed as we work through some tech debt and let the community features mature. That doesn’t mean we can’t pivot when we hear a good idea. I did want to quickly shout out reader Samar, who requested a forum to document his 2-week trip through Asia. Ben and I both loved the idea and set up a section in the forum where Platinum and Diamond members can share their trips. In addition to all of the cool things we’re working on, we still have time to try new things. Keep those community recommendations coming. If you have any new bugs to report or improvements you’d like to recommend, get those in here. I’ll be wandering through Germany for the last couple of weeks in September, so the sooner, the better.