New OptiBoard Subscription Options

I am pleased to announce that I have added two paid subscription options to OptiBoard:

OptiBoard Bronze Level
This premium subscription allows members to post ads in the Optical Marketplace forum and allows access to the new Eyecare Professionals Only forum. This does not hide Google Ads for those that still want to see these.

OptiBoard Silver Level
This premium subscription allows members to post ads in the Optical Marketplace forum and allows access to the new Eyecare Professionals Only forum. This subscription does hide Google Ads for those that do not want to see these.

As noted, the only real difference between the two is that the Bronze level still displays the Google Ads for those people that still want to see them. The Silver level hides these ads.

The cost for both subscriptions in the same - just $5.00/month. You can choose either to pay monthly or to pay 3 months at a time. The payment is made through PayPal and you can sign up for these in the Paid Subscriptions link in your User CP.

As per this announcement I have also added a new forum - the Eyecare Professionals Only Forum.

For many years members have requested a special forum that Eyecare Professionals can discuss confidential information, including wholesale prices and other business costs, without making this information available to those outside the field. This forum is that place.

Note: This is not intended for price-fixing or collusion. It's merely a way to share basic information about the cost of providing services and products to patients and consumers along with other topics only of interest to other eyecare professionals.

The Eyecare Professionals Only forum will be visible to any Eyecare Professionals purchasing one of the subscriptions.

As for a potential OptiBoard Gold Level. That will be added in the future with even more benefits. :)

FYI, I have added the OptiBoard Gold Level at a cost of $10/mo. At this time there are no added benefits over the Silver level but that will change in the future. I did this because some members have already started their own personal subscriptions with this amount.

I will be manually updating the status of everyone you has made these personal subscriptions. However I suggest that you stop these and use the OptiBoard subscriptions since this will automatically take care of your new features.

Update: Most subscriptions are going through but some of them are not updating correctly. If you have paid for a subscription and do not see the new Eyecare Professionals Only Forum, then please email or PM me about this so I can take care of it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Also please be sure to use the Paid Subscriptions link on the User CP when ordering a subscription.

There has been some confusion over how to cancel your subscription.

Recurring PayPal subscriptions must be cancelled from within your PayPal account. Here are the PayPal instructions for doing this:

Question. How do I cancel a subscription?

Answer: Cancelling a subscription cancels all future scheduled payments of that subscription. A subscription can be cancelled up until the day of the next scheduled payment.

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Profile near the top of the page.
3. Select My money.
4. In the My preapproved payments section, click Update.
5. Select the merchant whose agreement you want to cancel and click Cancel.
6. Click Cancel Profile to confirm your request.

If you still have a problem doing this, then please send a Private Message to me with the following info and I will be happy to do this for you:

- Your PayPal Email Address (to search for the transactions and subscription)
- The approximate Date of Subscription