Actually pencilpusher, I’d wanted to email you as well, but you don’t have your address listed. If you’d like to find out why (I swear it’s not spam, an offer for porn or any kind of other sordidness – well, not much anyway ;)) you can give me a holler because mine IS listed in my profile. I’m also glad it was okay to use what you wrote. Had me all worried there.
If not, I understand. The Internet has lots of creeps and I only stalk every Thursday after noon and Sunday mornings. So really, I’m harmless.
Seriously though, I again say that I hope all that really need this place to get through their day, find a way. I know I have to.
I have this thing about receiving gifts at times. I projected that and I’m sorry for it, I do feel guilty for getting the offer. I didn’t mean to assume and I was mainly posting things I thought other readers might think, not necessarily Metacom. But truly, these things are not what I want to be or how I present myself. I also think my hormones are kicking in for the month, tee hee. That’s all I gotta say about that. I need chocolate!
I believe that if a person really really wanted and needed to scrape up $5 for something, they could. I also believe that the key to financial security is prioritizing your expenses. You take care of your necessities before you splurge on luxuries. For those of us in dire financial straits, the SDMB may not make the cut, and for those, many Dopers have offered to help out, and keep the boards full of interesting members.
To say that ‘everyone’ can come up with $5 is probably true, but it’s unfair to assume everyone has $5 to spend on these boards, instead of something more important.
You know Sanguine, I was siding with you, and really feeling that Meta was being a bit of a jerk, but then I read your post in the Coco-Cola water thread
So it appears that we are talking about priorities. Spending a buck or so a day for bottled water (and not the ten gallon jugs that are fairly cheap, but the expensive crap) is something that you can swing. But a penny and a half a day for SD is too much because of your child’s disability. Tell ya what for one week live with tap water or for two weeks get by with one big bottle of Hinckley and Schmidt. That will cover it.
As for you Miss Spider. Join or don’t join. Accept a donation or don’t accept one. Do whatever you want but please, whatever you do, shut the fuck up about it already.
DSeid, was that really necessary? I mean, you criticize her for buying something to drink? Do you seriously think that she is obliged to drink tap water just because you decided it’s good enough for her? What about you? I can guess what you will answer: “But I pay my own $5.” Do you seriously think you have any right to judge whether someone else (not even you) should pay her $5 because they enjoy having her around although she doesn’t meet your criteria of economy?
Guess what folks, I’ve decided not to take the offers given for paying my subscription anyway. I felt bad from the start as I did mention in RNATB’s thread and in the emails to the folks who offered. I buy Dasani water, true, but guess who drinks it, too? My daughter. I’m not subjecting her to our nasty tap water, sorry. My main point is that some people have such a differing and sometimes very tragic life. I also said that some folks have it worse off than I do.
That was what got me riled up but now that I’m not staying (unless I pay), it’s not my job to fight it out. I know some folks are scammers, never denied that. I took Metacom’s post personally and I’ve explained why, faulty as it was at that particular time. I also have mentioned that I was sorry for projecting my guilty feelings onto an innocent poster. It’s kind of lame that Dasani water is my one big splurge, talk about a princess, right? :rolleyes: But very astute of you to notice and compared to other bottled waters, it’s not expensive. It’s not as if I buy Perrier or whatever brand is the “in” water for the snooty folk. I’ve given up a lot of things that I don’t actually miss so that my daughter gets everything she needs. That’s being a loving parent. Before she was born, I had my own phone line, a cell phone, bought clothing new. Now, I don’t need these things and boy, I shop around first before I buy.
Such a warm and welcoming fellow, is our haj. Guess what… I could care less if you don’t like my thread. I have as much right as you to post and if you don’t like all the threads on this subject, don’t read them… but you just have to put in your hostility, don’t you?
So sorry, sweets. The way it works is that you post and then people get to comment on it. Thanks for the shout out in your final good-bye, by the way. Made me all tingly inside.
Haj
PS You’ll be able to read the boards all you want even if you don’t have a membership. You don’t have to have your friends keep you up to date.
hajario go fuck yourself you insensitive, putrefied French fry eating freak from the 5th century. She can post here if she feels like it. Don’t like it? Then click the fucking X in the upper right corner. :mad:
Goodness, I can’t leave now! haj just loves me! Again, between my need to have the last word and my buddies requesting that I stay, you (dearest haj) tempt me so badly! Stop making me change my mind, darn you. If only I could erase my SDMB goodbye (intent, NOT content… I loves my buddies here). Stop it haj… I’m torn.
Don’t let this get to you. People are very emotional for all sorts of reasons about the changes occurring at SDMB. If some are willing to help others with membership fees in order to keep as many members as possible around, let them do so. I wish there were a way this could be done in total anonymity, I really do, so that we could avoid this kind of hurt feelings and bickering.
In a couple of weeks, things will have cooled down a bit. Stick around, and be good enough to yourself to accept the help. You have a lot on your plate, and could do with this break on the boards, so don’t think of it as a luxury.
I’m going to subscribe, though I’m more of a lurker than a poster, and I help that the board isn’t damaged too much by this change in policy.
Maybe not. I am sorry if it was mean. But these boards are apparently filled with “masses” of people who can’t possibly afford less than two pennies a day. A few I am sure really cannot. I had seriously been reading these and feeling that the Admins were being a little callous in their dismissiveness and wondering about fronting someone myself. When one such story then ups and admits that bottled tap water (!) is a luxury that they allow themselves daily but that they are accepting being fronted for for this, well I think that that deserves to be called on. Everyone needs to set their own priorities. If Sanguine believes that a few days of bottled water is worth more than being able to post on this board, then such is her call to make. But to imply that it is a choice between this board and her child’s well-being when she spends more than that in a week on bottled water is disingenuous. I do feel for her situation, but seriously, we are talking skipping just one six-pack of Dasani.
I said that sometimes five bucks can make or break your day. No one else has ever felt that at some point before? And no one notices that I feel badly for the offers? I guess I shouldn’t post anything because parts are left out anyway. Yeah, I’ll can go without my water for a week but my daughter drinks it, too. Is it fair to deny her that? Stop ignoring what I post.
Please show me where I ever said that you should leave. Stay or don’t stay. Pay or don’t pay. This is the Pit. You tell me to shut the fuck up, I tell you to shut the fuck up. If I don’t like you, I can ignore you. If you don’t like me, you can ignore me. Blahdi blahdi blah.
You’ve now declared your intention to quit and then not quit three times. Are you getting off on your friends begging you to stay? It’s not that big a deal. Shit, I’ll even pay for your membership if you’ll just make up your fucking mind and put an end to the drama.
I cannot believe some of you people. On both sides. Good frickin’ grief.
Listen: Sanguine Spider cannot, for whatever reason, rationalize the $5. I take her at her word. I feel no need to go poking around in old threads to find her admitting to buying this thing or that thing and I see no need to try to get her to explain herself. Dammit, it’s fricking water. I am allergic (as in I break out terribly) to tap water, so I understand the need for bottled water. Tap water can be nasty. But even if I wasn’t allergic to the local tap water, I concede that for some people, good-tasting water is a priority. I can accept that.
I really hate this game some people play of “You can spend money on this but not on that?” It’s so high school. (Apologies to the high school students who don’t play this game.) I can understand wondering about someone else’s spending habits when they owe you money but are instead pissing it away on something else—I can understand that. But to question what their spending priorities are when it really has nothing to do with you? Who gives a shit? I mean really, who?
I hate it when people do this. Admit it—we all have our own weird sets of spending standards. I might find it worth it to piss money on this one thing but balk at another equally fine thing. To an outsider it might not make any sense, but it doesn’t have to make any damned sense. It’s none of their business.
Since SS can’t see herself forking over the $5, if someone can help her out, I think she should take them up on it. It’s completely between her and her anonymous benefactor. If they have no problem with her personal spending priorities, then I don’t see how it matters to anyone else.
SanguineSpider, I advise you to read Primaflora’s post very carefully and consider what she has to say. Seriously, I think you should. And I think you should not waste one more brain cell fretting over what other people think of your spending priorities. You don’t owe them money and it’s got nothing to do with them.
Generally, I agree with you, but if someone is going to tote out the “I can’t afford it!” argument, they’re asking for people to look into what they apparenty CAN afford, especially if they’ve discussed it on the boards.
If she’s posting every week about whatever full price movie she went to over the weekend, or the new CD she just bought (I’m making this up) she can’t then tell us that a $5 subscription is going to bankrupt her, and force her child to eat dog food for a week.
But that would only matter if she owed us money or if it was any of our business. But it’s not.
I’ll be honest—if I was down to my last $5 and it was a choice between the Straight Dope and this rare never-to-be-found-again Jerry Goldsmith CD, I’d pick the Goldsmith CD. Someone from the outside might look in and say, “You can afford a Goldsmith CD but you can’t afford the SDMB?” And I’d say, “Yes.” Doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else, 'cause it’s not anyone else’s business.
If the person who is subsidising her SDMB habit is okay with her spending priorities, then that’s the only thing that matters. If she misrepresented her financial situation to them, that matters (to them). But it doesn’t matter to me.
From what I can see, it doesn’t sound like anyone’s given any evidence of her being extraordinarily extravagant or wasteful or silly with her money. She may have “skewed” (in your opinion) priorities on what little niceties she’ll indulge in, but that’s her choice. My Goldsmith CD preference might seem skewed to someone else, but they don’t feel about his music the way I do. I wouldn’t appreciate anyone second-guessing my buying priorities, and I don’t want to do it to someone else. Especially over $5 that I’m not spending.
