Shacknews Mercury subscription service relaunches

We decided over a year ago that programmatic advertisements and banners are not the future of online publishing. Since then, the Shacknews development team has been working on ways to implement a subscription service that would offer a value while helping to keep the lights on. I am so happy to unveil the latest iteration of Shacknews’ native subscription service.

Why not Patreon?

Shacknews is not a charity, and we don’t need to go to our readers with our hats in our hands asking for money to create specific content. We went a whole year without ad revenue, and we released all sorts of great articles, guides, long reads, and videos. This is a business, and we believe we can do our own thing with higher margins and a better user experience for our loyal Shacknews community. 

It’s time to get Mega

New Shacknews Mercury is launching with four tiers:

Mercury Mega ($1/month, $10/year)

• No Advertisements
• Download Access to Long Reads
• Mercury Mega Lightning Bolt Emblem on the Chatty

Mercury Super Mega ($50/year)

• No Advertisements
• 1 Limited Edition Shacknews T-Shirt delivered annually
• Download Access to Long Reads
• Mercury Super Mega Lightning Bolt Emblem on the Chatty

Mercury Ultra Mega ($100/year)

• No Advertisement
• 1 Limited Edition Shacknews T-Shirt delivered annually
• 1 Shacknews Hoodie delivered annually
• Download Access to Long Reads
• Mercury Ultra Mega Lightning Bolt Emblem on the Chatty

Mercury Ludicrous ($1000/year)

• No Advertisement
• 1 Limited Edition Shacknews T-Shirt delivered annually
• 1 Shacknews Hoodie delivered annually
• Download Access to Long Reads
• Mercury Ludicrous Lightning Bolt Emblem on the Chatty
• 2 VIP tickets to an annual Shacknews Special Event

Shackers can gift each other subscriptions by purchasing and sending Mercury codes for redemption. This will also allow for users to stack subscription payments.

Additional Shacknews.com June 2019 Update Patch Notes

Here are some other features we have added to the site with today’s update:

LOL Script Integration

Thanks to the help of ThomW, Shacknews has integrated the 12-year-old LOL Script into our website. We look forward to improving the gamification of our site and the integration of the LOL Page is the first step.

Improved Login OAuth with Social Integration

Shackers can now link accounts from Facebook, Twitter, Steam, Battle net, Github, and Google. This will improve the onboarding process for new users, and also sets Shacknews up for our upcoming projects.

GDPR Compliance - Delete Account function

Shackers now have the right to be forgotten. Any shacknews.com user can now go into user settings and delete their account. This will also delete their entire post history. You can thank the European Union for this new feature. Shackers should beware of the delete account function, because once you confirm deletion, your account and post history will be gone forever. No need to message Duke Nuked, the right to be forgotten is in the hands of our users now.

Shacknews Chatty Search repaired

We have moved the Chatty over to a new AWS server and have a brand new SOLR search that actually works. Thanks to Shackers for their patience as we fixed this very important feature. 

With completion of Phase 2 of our Shacknews redesign, we will be shifting our focus to our next projects. The dev team will be watching for community feedback and addressing bugs as needed. Please understand. If you like what we are doing, please consider signing up for Shacknews Mercury today. Do it for Shacknews!

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.