With the Interface Initiative just around the corner, we’re getting ready for the largest overhaul of the website we’ve had in our three-plus years of existence. We’re using this period to update a lot of things-- many visual, some functional, and in several places we’re focused on semantics. One of the things that will change with the go-live of the Interface Initiative will be the names of upgraded accounts on Roll20-- the “Supporter” will now be “Plus” accounts (in part because we’ve long thought it odd that both subscription levels are certainly “Supporters”) and “Mentor” accounts will now be “Pro.” There are a great many reasons for that switch, and we want to be transparent about how we came to the decision. When Roll20 began via Kickstarter, Mentors were high-level backers who shaped the initial look and feel of the program in numerous ways. Richard, Riley, and I had little tabletop experience outside of 4th Edition D&D, and our only guiding design star was to make choices that mimicked a tabletop instead of specific gameplay. Mentors helped us keep that on track. As time as has gone by, we’ve become better equipped to handle big design decisions while still needing input as to how implementation happened-- thus the use of the Development Server and Mentor feedback. We’ve also done a lot more to make the subscriptions increasingly robust-- the Supporter-now-Plus account truly is an expanded Roll20 experience, and the Mentor-now-Pro account takes things to an entirely different level via features like the API. What’s also occurred has been a slow cultural change as population has increased. By sheer numbers, we’re no longer a place where everyone can possibly know everyone-- or everything. This has increasingly lead to confusion in regards to why someone on the forums with the title, “Mentor” might be unhelpful towards a new user. As our growth has continued, we’ve consistently made choices that put the virtual tabletop and related gaming tools above having a wide-ranging message board. We’d rather have a strong platform where diverse games can happen via small communities than try to referee the range of opinions to be found in what is now a small country’s worth of people. There are no upcoming depletions to service-- Plus accounts will still have Dynamic Lighting, additional “Suggestions” votes, etc. and Pro accounts will have a dedicated forum for feedback on new items, API privileges, and so forth. We are intentionally trying to reinforce the idea that users are paying for a product as opposed to a title or position within the community-- which comes with an added focus on our part of increasing the power and capabilities of the tools we provide to the Plus and Pro level accounts. Hopefully all of this makes sense. Thanks for growing with us, and hope you’re all looking forward to the next few weeks of updates and cool announcements...
