You’re mentioning large urban centers. Yes, Kampala, Uganda has the internet (dial-up). Go two miles outside of the city limits and see if you can even find electricity. I think my highest connection speed in Kampala was about 28k. Try keeping up on a message board at that rate. Computers in Africa are for the 1% of the wealthy who can afford them. The rest are busy trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.
This isn’t “every other board” this is Straight Dope Message Boads. Fighters of Ignorance. This is not Bob’s Moped Forum. They would be able to charge for their fee. At SDMB the theme is fighting ignorance.
Well under 13 year olds maybe vulnerable to the strong language in here. There’s language in here that my brother hasn’t heard since he was in the Marine Corps. In short no 13 year old or anyone with a pacemaker should be in here. Again I am sure a 13 year old has seen worse than this board (But there I am generalizing).
Maybe there’s not a huge population of Inernet users in Africa. So what? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear from some South African’s or Indians (India has a growing internet infrastrcuture just as Africa does). Again why do you want to oust a culture who would contribute positivly and bring new ideas to a growing board such as yours. Sorry I can’t cite the number of African internet users, but when i find a credible source I will post. Africa and India aren’t the only developing nations. Users of these boards of all people should know that.
Wow big man! You can swear, and repeat exactly what you said YET again. Did you even read what I said? Do you have a poorer comback or is your programmed response to hit ‘reply’ and tell people to F off.
How about you quit posting to this thread?
You really are a patronizing little shit, aren’t you? Perhaps you should work on losing some of that arrogance once you’re out of school before someone slaps it out of you.
I have to keep repeating myself because you aren’t listening.
Nah. I won’t be doing that.
With any luck, 18 days from now we’ll see if you’ll put up or shut up.
Guess which one I’m hoping for?
You like the sound of your own voice don’t you?
No, but I like the sight of my own words.
Seriously, though, how old are you?
Chronologically, that is.
Your point being? Why is “Bob’s Moped Forum” different from here in terms of whether they get to charge or not?
So you’re advocating selective speech based on age? Seems a little worse to me than doing it over money, as at least money is something you have a little control over.
Of course it would be nice to hear from them, and I certainly DON’T want to “oust” them. I just don’t happen to think they deserve special treatment. They get to pay just like we had to. They could’ve joined for free before too, but they didn’t (not in mass numbers, anyhow).
Well, despite your promise, you provided no further illumination regarding what you mean by “selective speech.” As far as i can tell, you’re accusing the Board of restricting new membership to people who are prepared to pay $14.95. Well, guilty as charged.
I’m curious to know where you expect the money to come from, if not from members. You say that you believe in capitalism; if that’s true, then why should the Chicago Reader provide this board as a free service and lose money in the process? Sure, it would be great if we could have a fantastic community like this and not pay a single cent for it. But the fact remains that the servers, the software, and the bandwidth all have to be paid for by someone, as do the salaries of the employees who help to run the Boards. Personally, i’d be reasonably happy if we could construct some sort of socialist utopia where we could have stuff like this for free but, as i said before, even socialist economists realize that goods and services ultimately have to be paid for by somebody.
Wow, so you have enough money to buy all our subscriptions. Well, instead of telling us all how we’re being ripped off, why don’t you contact the Chicago Reader and offer to underwrite these message boards. That way, the Reader could afford to stop their outrageous subscription charges, and you could live happy in the knowledge that you had protected all of us morons from our own stupidity.
Glad to hear you enjoyed my little discourse. Unfortunately, this paragraph suggests that you didn’t actually understand it very well. If you are a believer in capitalism, as you claim, then whether or not the Board actually costs less (or “way less”) than $14.95 per person to run should not matter to you.
Firstly, if you believe in capitalism, then you should believe that a corporate entity like the Chicago Reader has a right to make a profit on its investment. And to make a profit it is necessary, by definition, to charge more for your product than it costs you to produce.
Secondly, if you believe in capitalism, the fact that you do not feel that this Board is worth $14.95 a year should not blind you to the economic reality that others do, in fact, believe that the price is reasonable. Economic concepts such as opportunity cost and marginal value rely, in considerable measure, on each person’s subjective judgments about the value of a particular product to him or her. In making these judgments, any production cost or intrinsic value the product might have is only tangentially relevant.
The fact that Ed Zotti’s sales technique does not impress you is also irrelevant to the more general issue of whether the Board represents good value for money. Obviously, you feel that it does not, irrespective of what the sales pitch is. Others feel differently.
As someone who was born in Canada to an English mother and a Hungarian father, and who lived most of his life in Australia, i can tell you that i appreciate that America is not the only place around. It’s just where i happen to live right now. Also, if you spent some time on the Boards, you’d know that many members here, whether from the US or elsewhere, have a strong appreciation of the diverse cultures that make up our world.
Furthermore, this Board was free for about five years before the subscription fees started, and i haven’t noticed a whole lot of difference in the cultural diversity present here since paid subscriptions began. In case you hadn’t noticed, one thing that characterizes the the “developing nations” is that they don’t have as many computers per head as we do in places like the North America and Western Europe. Developing countries are even further behind when it comes to the installation of telephone lines and high speed internet connections. Sure, this issue is being addressed in many parts of the world, but the fact remains that the technology gap still exists. If someone in Africa or wherever doesn’t have access to a computer with an internet connection, the issue of whether the SBMD charges $14.95 a month is rather irrelevant to that person.
If we had a whole bunch of African or Asian or South American members who joined when the Board was free, but who had to quit when the subscription fees began, then you might have a point. As far as i can tell, however, this wasn’t the case, and you’re just pissing into the wind.
Well, in the end, two points need to be made here:
-
You have yet to demonstrate that there are, in fact, “all the extra $$.” All we have is your unsupported assertions that the Boards don’t cost much to run. Furthermore, you continue to ignore the fact that the Reader would like to recoup some of the money it has put into the Boards over the last five years, during which time we all had free memberships.
-
Even if “all the extra $$” do in fact exist, the administration of the Boards is under absolutely no obligation to tell you what’s being done with the money. Even for those of us who’ve already paid, all we’ve paid for is the privilege of using the Boards, not for the inside information on the financial dealings of the Chicago Reader Inc. Unfortunately for you, you’ll have to make a decision about whether or not to subscribe the same way we all did: by asking yourself whether or not the service is worth the cost. Right now, the answer for you seems to be “no.”
Do you think we’re unaware that there are more noble things to do with our money? Sure, if i were a better person i’d donate all my spare dollars (which doesn’t add up to much) to worthy causes. As it is, i do my best to give to Amnesty International when i can, as well as supporting some smaller organizations on occasion. The fact remains that, right or wrong, i choose to allow myself some luxuries. These include magazine subscriptions, the occasional CD or DVD purchase, a movie now and then, an infrequent meal in a restaurant, and the SDMB. You want to judge me for that, fine. But it’s really irrelevant to your argument about the cost of these Message Boards.
And if you’re going to counsel us about helping worthy causes, then right back at ya, pal. Surely you could be doing something more useful than hanging around here berating us for choosing to use this service.
If you do, in fact, decide that you want to pay up and join the Boards, i’ll be happy to welcome you, and any disagreements we’ve had will not change that fact. But while your sole purpose in being here seems to be to denigrate this forum and its members, and to dismiss out of hand the value of our little community, i really don’t feel to inclined to welcome you to that community. I hope you can understand that.
Just throwing my 2 cents in. My financial situation is such that $14.95 would have been too much to pay to post here. I’m a relative newbie, but liked this place enough to scrape up the $4.95 for one year. However, I have to wonder how many poor newbies will just be discouraged at the $14.95 price, and leave? The current price is such I have little doubt that this will in fact reduce diversity around here. IMO somewhat a concern when fighting ignorance is what this place is about.
Just an observation submitted for your consideration. I do realize that there are bills to be paid to run this place. I’m just pointing out that charging will indeed be detrimental to diversity, and thus IMO quality.
Fighting ignorance is absolutely free now? Does that mean I get a nice refund from my university?
You say 13 year olds may be vulnerable to the language…and then you say you’re “sure a 13 year old has seen worse.” That’s just a broken statement.
By the way. comparing yourself to P_T_ isn’t going to help your cause (and neither will insulting him - looking at his profile, his posts per day stat stands at over 13; hardly “low in quantity” as you claimed earlier).
From this thread:
It’s obvious that the board is not designed with you in mind either. We get it. You don’t like the SDMB. You don’t like the people, you don’t like the jokes, you don’t like that your African philosophy thread crashed and burned,you don’t like the cussing. Rather than go off and find a board that does suit you, you have chosen to improve us. Good luck.
I understand it’s difficult to find the history of the board without a search capability. If you had any serious interest in what the culture here is, it would not be that difficult to trace some links, and find that almost everything you’ve argued has been argued before. (Deja vu! I’ve said this before!)
You did come up with one new one though, to wit:
As stated earlier at least twice, and ignored by you is the fact that despite this board being free for five years, there has not been an influx of members from the third world. That’s true, and I don’t know why. Perhaps they’re just not interested in it. The bulk of the membership comes from English speaking countries. There’s a wider variety than you think though - some South America, Carribean, Middle East, at least one from South Africa, though I can’t recall the name, a few Indians showed up in an outsourcing thread, at least one Chinese, and you know - this is ridiculous - why am I typing all this?
And the door/ass thing? You think we’re all chuckling as if it’s a joke? It’s not a joke, pal.
Yeah, we’ll beat a joke into the ground here sometimes.
I got plenty sick of the 1920’s Style Death Ray references in no time flat. Even bitched about it a few times. Then I got over it and started using it myself.
Repeating jokes is something old friends do.
Okay, someone please unchain PorkChop47 from his computer desk? The man’s had enough. It’s not fair to make him sit through all this abuse from the SDMB clique. I mean, REALLY. Forcing all this on him is more than uncalled-for.
Wait a minute, iampunha. He’s not chained to his computer. That’s absurd! He comes here under the influence of nothing but his own free will! None of us are forcing him to do any-
Oh. I see what you’re doing… you…(points finger) you’re very good. Yes, you are. Yes, yes you are… I’ve got my eye on you. You’re very good.
Oh, well why didn’t you just say so? The extra money is going to the Chicago Reader. Period. If you’re looking for them to justify to you what they’re going to do with it, I doubt you’re going to get an answer. They’re under no obligation to provide you with a financial statement.
There. I guess we’re done with this thread now, and it can be locked right up! That was easy.
So PorkChop47, we can safely assume that any time you buy something from someone, you want to see some sort of financial statement?
You must be disappointed quite often.
[sub]Sssssh, Jimmy, don’t tell him![/sub]
Wait a minute! I always thought that the money was used by Cecil to light his cigars! That’s why I sent in $4.95 several times…I wanted Cecil to be well-stocked for tapers. If the money is just going to the Reader to make up for their generosity for the last 5 years…well, I’m just going to have to send more! 
Pigparts, a lot of people here will tell you about their concern for Africa and the views of those who live there. I will be just a straight with you. I couldn’t care less about Africa or African problems. I have enough of my own, thank you very much!
Still doesn’t change the fact that you are an idiot.
What a GREAT mixed metaphor! 
[aunt libby]
PorkChop47, Why can’t you be more like P_T_? He’s such a nice young man.
You say he said a bad word??? No one likes a tattletale, PorkChop.
[/aunt libby]