I’ve been using this board for a little while and certainly am getting some entertainment out of it. When I get so much use out of a site I like to contribute in some way. But even $15 a year isn’t peanuts to me, and the board doesn’t host images or anything that would put the cost of my using it anywhere near that level. I can’t even search more often than every 2 minutes (a pain when you accidentally search for the wrong thing). Really I want to want to subscribe but can’t quite convince myself. So if anyone has any convincing arguments for subscription, lay them on me!
Wow, that is some…faint praise. 
Nope. As a paying member you still get the two minute search delay. And you can block ads with adblocker.
The real price you pay is the time spent here.
You get the right to spend another $10 and get a custom title.
Everyone else gets to see how many posts you’ve made.
Ads go away, even without an ad blocker.
I can’t speak for other members, but a few days after I joined, a mysterious package of ice cream showed up in my fridge. It’s still there.
-D/a
Was it squid flavored?
I have some frozen squid in my freezer, but I don’t think it came from the Straight Dope.
You get the warm feeling of supporting a worthwhile endeavor. You do this in the knowledge that the SDMB is owned by a moderately sized media company and that someday someone might make money hand over fist with the brand. For the moment you are keeping the suits suspended in disinterest. If 400 more people joined up, maybe we could get some staff reports edited. Or not.
If it isn’t peanuts, consider buying a membership every two or three years. If it still isn’t peanuts, keep your funds, IMHO. Those who can afford it and value the fight against ignorance should pony up though. I find GQ pretty valuable and even GD is diverting at times. If posting on them was members-only (as it was for a spell) they would be less helpful.
Huh. I never subscribed, and a package of frozen dope showed up in my freezer.*
If being a member and accruing the benefits mentioned by others above is attractive to you, $15 isn’t much to pay for it. That’s less than a fifth of what we used to pay for satellite TV. C’mon, go for it and make Cecil proud.
- No, not really. Of course not. The management of the SDMB does not teleport dope into the freezers of unsuspecting guests.
I was here before subscriptions.
I subscribed when it was pay2post.
Went away for a while and when I came back, you could post as a member or as a guest.
I have an ad blocker in my browser.
I haven’t noticed any significant difference except for the upgrade that finally fixed the constant timeouts of the early 2000s.
Is it worth paying for? I view it like PBS. Sometimes I feel like it’s worth paying for, sometimes I get apathetic. Doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Lemme check. If I’m not back soon, it was probably alive. And violent.
Or was that violet?
-D/a
Ok..turns out it was a package of casu marzu. I’m not sure why they thought freezing it was a good idea, or why they packed it in an ice cream container.
-D/a
Subscribe or I will hunt you down and kill you.
Pretty much. One apathy over-riding trick is to pay for a couple of years at a time. But that’s easier when you have a charter discount…
I was under the impression that they didn’t really care if we subscribed or not, and in fact were expecting to get more ad money with non-subscribers than from subscriptions. I’m not sure when they changed their minds on that, but I’d already let my charter membership lapse, and I haven’t seen any point in renewing it. Of course, when the ads started playing sound and giving me computer viruses, I started using an ad blocker, but I still don’t see any point in donating to a for-profit that’s said once that they don’t want my money!
I’m pretty sure that was indigo.
Watch out for the subterraneans.
He’ll do it too! He got me already!
If you’re a woman, I’m willing to throw free sex in with your membership.
I’d do anything to support the SDMB.
Except give them money. My allowance is only $5 a week, so I really can’t afford it. 
Actually that’s not the case.
We never said we don’t want your money. To the contrary!
At one point several years back Jerry and Ed had hoped there was enough in ad revenue that perhaps we could dispense with subscriptions. This was an issue because the version of vBulletin at that time had no interface to charge for subscriptions, there was no way to process transactions. Jerry cobbled up something that piggybacked on top of the existing Chicago Reader classified ad system, which was itself some kind of Frankenstonian marvel of something or another. It was difficult to run and maintain and was potentially costing more in overhead to operate than it was generating.
So the thought was, go to ads for revenue and perhaps that would take care of the situation.
Well, it didn’t.
Today the Straight Dope requires all possible avenues of revenue and subscriptions and ads are necessary.
I’m sorry if you felt insulted or that the Straight Dope “didn’t want your money.” That’s just not true.
We greatly appreciate those who support the Dope directly through subscriptions.
We appreciate those who click on ads from time to time.
We don’t want to give grief to those who don’t contribute financially.
If you think what you get from The Straight Dope is worthy of supporting we hope you do buy a subscription and/or click on an ad. We’re grateful for whatever support we get.
Thanks for the response, Tuba! I won’t be subscribing any time soon; in fact I’m counting pennies right now so I won’t be donating to anyone. But I do appreciate the apology and the explanation.
I’m a '99er and from what I understand, I am still in the Squid To Post program.
Every February when the little notify goes out reminding me that my annual dues are coming up, I’m reminded that 50 pounds of flashfrozen on the open seas shipment of squid is due to “that” PO Box in Chicago.
If my annual compliance means that Dopers the world over will have no interruption to their access to Calimari Zotti, I say I’m good with it !!!
I hate to hijack, but does anyone ever click on ads on a webpage like this? I never would, even if I might otherwise be interested in the product. I would guess the click through rate is about the same as those who respond to emails for Canadian pharmacies.