How much would you contribute each month toward SDMB as a member?

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1

Continuing the discussion from How do you become a member of the SDMB?:

I’m curious how many people here would contribute per month as members of the SDMB – and get the member badge on their account.

Let’s take a quick poll to get a sense of the appetite for a monthly SDMB membership drive. How much would you be willing to contribute to SMDB to keep it alive?

  • no thanks
  • $2/month
  • $3/month
  • $4/month
  • $5/month
  • $10/month
  • more than $10 per month

0 voters

(We can’t offer $1/month as the credit card fees become a bit too large relative to the rest of the payment)

This would be a recurring monthly charge, and it would enable the optional member flair shown next to your name, All funds (minus Stripe processing fees) would go directly toward monthly site hosting fees, which are substantial. We would handle this completely independently, no need for the Sun staff to do anything, other than pay less per month for hosting.

User subscriptions / membership is something we’re discussing with Ed, Matt, Andy behind the scenes – and we just had a successful trial run of the subscriptions plugin with another UK based Discourse instance, who reached their goal of funding the site.

That said, this poll is informational only at this point, no promises, etc… but I want to see the SDMB thrive, and a little data helps.

2

I’d do the $10 a month, though I’d much rather be able to pay $120 once a year.

3

Also the ability to gift subscriptions/memberships at $120 (or whatever) / year

4

I’d do a minimum of $10/mo. I’d pay more, and I’d also rather pay it annually.

5

$ 5 - 10 monthly, preferably annual payment.

6

For as long as I can afford it, I’d gladly pay between $5-$10 monthly. I pay that for Amazon and Netflix and I’m sure I spend more time here.

I do have a question though. If the dope is going to have to go away someday, will there be notice given? I’d really hate it if this place ever just disappeared.
I’d want a chance to say goodbye or something.

7

$5 is about right for me but it would all have to go to the board and not to pay for Ed/Cecil new content.

8

I’d go to $10 a month, with a similar kind of stipulation as @hajario - some kind of clear plan about how the SDMB is going to operate with the approval of the owners (or independently), full transparency about exactly where the money is going.

9

I would not do a monthly subscription.

I would consider a one time donation, I would consider paying for a year and decide at the end of the year if i want to do that again, I would not consider a monthly subscription.

10

What does the T shirt look like?

11

Yes! Ed was never big on that which led to a lot of resentment.

Does the money go the the owners or straight to Discourse? If it goes straight to Discourse, what happens if there is an overage?

There should definitely be an option for yearly or one time donations. Not allowing one time donations would be a major mistake.

12

Annual payment, please. I’ve got enough trouble with credit card information being hacked at vendor sites that I have no interest in putting a card on file.

13

As I recall, the last price for regular members was $20/year or $35 for 2 years. That seemed like a fair price. I’d be willing to pay $24/year or maybe a bit more, but that price should include a custom title as opposed to adding it on as a separate extra charge.

14

You should check out Privacy…com

They allow you to make as many credit cards as you want. You set the limits and how many times the cards can be changed.

The cards I make are for one time purchase then I delete the card after use.

I love it.

15

I do not really care.

16

Money is fungible. Your contribution going entirely to board costs might free up some other money from other sources to pay for that new content.

As for me, I might be willing to pay more than I marked, but I too would prefer an annual option.

17

I will!

18

Annual payment, please! I hate the trend toward monthly subscriptions, of which I now have approximately three gazillion. It limits my ability to control my monthly expenditures. With things like groceries or gas, if you want to rein in spending you can buy cheaper food or drive less. But when you’ve got a recurring monthly bill from Adobe, Netflix, Hulu, Outside Magazine, Hawaii Public Radio, Doctors Without Borders, and Civil Beat (to name just a fraction of the institutions that have roped me in), you can’t just say, “well, I’ll only read half as much Civil Beat this month” or “I won’t make as many .pdf’s” and save cash. I get that it is a terrific model for businesses, but for individuals … not so much.

19

I’d say that $5/month is acceptable, $10/month definitely too much, maybe $7/month is the max I’d agree to. I also echo the general sentiment that there should be an option to pay it annually as a one-time fee.

On the bright side, with a monthly subscription, if you ever become dissatisfied with the SDMB you get to withdraw your support a lot quicker.

20

This. Once a month would be silly. Once a year, automatic renewal with a reminder at least a month in advance in case of cancellation.

This is how my Cook’s Illustrated subscription works, and I find it convenient.

Also want to be able to gift a subscription.