A Quick Thurrott Premium Update

We’re getting ready to start phasing in some of the Thurrott Premium features we’ve promised, so this is a good time to update you on where we are.

First, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has already signed up for Thurrott Premium. As I mentioned about a month ago, I’m moving somewhat nervously into this new world, but your support is greatly appreciated. Seriously, thank you.

And if you’ve not yet signed up, please review the Thurrott Premium FAQ and consider becoming a Thurrott Premium Alpha member at a reduced rate.

Next, we’re getting ready to implement our first Premium feature: Premium articles. These articles will be obviously tagged and will begin appearing on the site soon. They will be available in full to everyone who has already signed up, but those who have not will see something like the following.

Note that we’re not retroactively marking previous articles—like About That One Billion Thing, which I think is a great example of a Premium article—as Premium. So any articles you can view now as a non-Premium member will remain public.

We’ve also been hard at work implementing the other Premium features that we promised. And to be clear, that “we” part is very important, as there is a team of great, great people making this happen, some whom you know about, like Brad, and others I will introduce in the weeks ahead, since their work occurs behind-the-scenes and deserves to be recognized.

After Premium articles go live, the new article comments and forums features will almost certainly be next, and probably in that order. Each will be open and available to everyone, not just Premium members. But Premium members will have dedicated areas in each.

For those of you who are already premium members, each news post going forward will have no ads and a refreshed layout.

We’re also working on the upcoming daily podcast. If you follow Brad on Twitter, you may have seen some of the work that’s going into his home studio, and when I get back from Paris in a few weeks I’ll be transforming part of my own home office in a similar fashion. You can see Brad’s work-in-progress here.

There’s more, of course, including a great looking site redesign. But first things first.

So … exciting times. And if you haven’t done so, please be sure to check out our Microsoft Xbox Elite Controller giveway: All you need to do is sign-up for the free Thurrott Daily newsletter. And yes, it’s open to both Premium and non-Premium readers.

Thanks,

Paul