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:
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 (more on buying points below)
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 1,500 OMAAT Membership Points – Stay subscribed to the OMAAT mailing list
- Change your email preferences
Earning Gold with newsletter subscriptions + Google Preferred Sources
It’s easy to earn Gold by adding OMAAT as a Google Preferred Source and joining the daily newsletter. Quick note on the daily newsletter: this is a daily rundown of all of our new posts from the day.
Google Preferred Source points will post within a minute. Newsletter confirmations take up to ~30 minutes to post. Both activities will post a confirmation message on the notifications tab of your member profile, points will appear on your activity log in the Membership tab, and Gold status will be instant once those two items post.
Improved community features
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.
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.
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 improvements you’d like to recommend, add them here.
More about buying points
After reviewing feedback from some of y’all, we’ve launched a paid membership option for readers who want the benefits of status without participating in the community features. Both Ben and I thought it was important to design a program that allowed readers to unlock loyalty benefits without paying a membership fee before introducing a paid option. Now that the free 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 opting out of community points, you can purchase directly into the Diamond tier.
For those 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.
Do you have to purchase a membership?
No, absolutely not. The paid option is available for those who want to remove ads from the site, but it is entirely possible to remove ads with a member account through community activities, like joining the newsletter, at no cost. If you don’t want to earn or buy membership points, nothing changes for you at all. This points system is just another way to engage with the site. More details on the community points program can be found here.
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.