A Few Changes to the Website

Hello All,

Some of you have noticed a few changes to the website recently.

Some posts have been made “subscriber only” i.e. for paid subscribers to the site (as opposed to WordPress free subscribers)

In future there will be a mix of paid subscriber and free articles on this site, and subscriber only pages across the top menu bar.

There are a number of reasons I have done this – part of which is the cost of maintaining a domain name, a hosted website, a wordpress plan etc – all of which of course increase in cost each year, making it difficult to maintain this website financially.

Another is the large amount of unique information here which has taken a lot of time and resources to research and update regularly . Much of this information exists nowhere else on the web now, and is often referenced by other sites.

The other not so positive factor is that simply because this information exists on the web, some people think it is their right to copy, use, steal, republish and pass off information here as their own without a second thought…. which is always disappointing and frustrating. The emergence of new technology and software which can “strip” information from websites is also concerning – it is yet to be seen if putting up a paywall will stop this from happening, but better to try and protect the information I have here, rather than just hope it doesn’t happen.

Until the end of this month all my current wordpress subscribers will have the chance to subscribe for just $5.00AUD per month. From June 1 it will revert to $7AUD per month to access to the premium articles. Paid subscription gives access to all information on the website, and is cancellable any time after the first month.

New Feature – you might also see a new page tab at the top of the site called “resources” – this will feature web links to updated information I find useful….and will be updated regularly with new information…..one reason I am doing this is most of the major ceramic brands now no longer have historical information on their websites as they see it as now irrelevant – much to the disappointment of collectors -so I need to try and find some alternative resources. The other is that within the hundreds of posts on this site, some of the links have changed or broken and if they are all in one place it will be much easier to maintain them with accuracy. These resources will be paid subscriber only as well.

Also coming: A new page with book recommendations for Ceramics Lovers and Collectors – yes real printed books are now even more important, and becoming increasingly so as the internet becomes less reliable with information and its accuracy over time.

It would be great if just a fraction of my present subscriber list become paid subscribers….so please consider even if only for a month or two.

( I have contacted WordPress about giving subscriptions to those generous people in the past who have made donations towards the running costs – but unfortunately there is no mechanism for me to do this as it is all handled by WordPress.)

You will find the paid subscriber button on the about page, a number of posts and below.

Feel free to contact me in the comment box with any questions at all.

Thank you, Ray