Sorry, but I call bullshit. Back in the ‘Improving the SDMB’ thread you said:
You’ve got the revenue stream established, and there’s no reason to shake down the existing customer base with a twelve month fee for a benefit they may only need for two or three months. Other than the 400-600% margin, that is.
Stop with the obfuscation, will ya? Admit that you’ve screwed the pooch and need to cover the service gap on your dime. Either that or change the motto to “Hosing subscribers since 1973-it’s becoming easier than we thought.”
I think you’re right about the margin. You almost can’t blame them: flip the switch on May 10, get no extra money. Delay it a couple of months, and get an extra few thousand bucks. Makes sense to me.
But it sucks for the subscribers. My subscription doesn’t run out for a while anyway (I’ve let it lapse a couple times), so I should be in the clear. But if it did expire on May 10 I’d just wait it out.
Well, for Charter Members, we’re talking about $7.50 per year or 62 cents per month. I really don’t see what the big deal is. [1]
Admittedly, for some every penny counts. But then again, waiting a couple of months doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. And if it is, there’s always the sponsorship option.
The War on Ignorance doesn’t come cheap, Private: buck up!
[1] Ya, ya, it’s $7.48 for 1-2 months of posting, plus 12 months of .gif ad evasion. It’s still cheap. Heck, I think that $14.95 is also a good deal, though for some reason I always balk at shelling out dough online.
Technically, there weren’t any “subscribers” until 2004, when members were first asked to pay.
Also, I repeat what so many others have posted in various threads since 2004: No one is forcing people to pay; if you don’t think you’re getting your money’s worth, don’t pay. And if $15 (or $7.50 if you’re a Charter Member) is such a financial hardship, there are members who are willing to subsidize you.
Just want to let you know that I agree with you 100%. I knew this crap would happen. My subscription is about to expire, so I’ll end up paying, and then a month or two later it will go to free posting… and instead of paying $.62 a month, It will actually end up costing $3.75/month to post, and that’s A LOT more than I would have been willing to pay per month…
You’re right, they’re just trying to squeeze the last few drops of blood from us before they switch over. That’s bullshit. :mad:
Thanks for the reminder. I just re-subscribed.
I think the ability to post for free is a wonderful thing, I hope it brings in some fresh [del]meat[/del] viewpoints. But if I can avoid the ads for a few bucks, it’s worth it to me.
Has anyone asked about pro-rated memberships? If what Ed has told us is true (and who could doubt it?), then you’re worth more to Creative Loafing as an ad-viewing non-subscriber. So if you could pay $1.50 per month* until free posting (re)appears, it would be a win-win, no?
That’s really funny. That means this place is going to be a complete wasteland during the interim. There will be about 100 members yakking to each other.
Who plans this stuff? That’s the kind of dive in activity that has killed other message boards.
You may be right, or not, but the pieces you quoted don’t conclusively demonstrate it. Saying that “the potential revenue we can pull in from banner sales far exceeds what we derive from subscriptions” is not the same as saying the revenue stream is established.
C’mon, you didn’t believe that “things are going to get better real soon, great things are in the works, you just need to be patient a bit longer and we’ll update you when they happen, but don’t stop coughing up the dough anytime soon” bit, did you? They’ve gone to the well with that “great changes are afoot” line a few times too many. I’ll probably pay to renew when my time is up, assuming service doesn’t significantly worsen, because I still feel what I pay for is worth the money, grievous faults and all. But do I expect Creative Loofahs to wave a wand and institute a business plan which will see revenue streams brimming their banks and washing up a shiny new board in the process? No; the board will fumble and struggle and stutter its way along as it always has, with the odd mumbled promise about “things taking longer than expected.”
What you grouchy complainers don’t understand is that it’s such a little amount of money per person that it [post=9728906]doesn’t matter[/post] if they screw you. I mean, come on… the [post=9734462]ethics of the company you’re dealing with don’t matter[/post]. How darn un-enlightened y’all are.
What is it that you disapprove of here? The sentiments in the linked posts, or the moral depravity of the site’s owners, glossed over by the linked posts?
