Hey, Diane, while you’re trying on your Mr. Spock ears for size over there, you might want to go back and review whether I ever said that I’m up in arms or crying into my beer because the SDMB as we know it will soon be extinct. Deary me, no, I believe you’re the one who’s having hysterics. The SDMB isn’t that big a part of my life to care much one way or another. “You mean you’re not willing to pay to hear George Takai speak on the technical challenges of navigating the Enterprise? Fine, get out of our convention, we won’t miss you!”
I have two reasons for sticking around and speculating whether the Reader is trying to turn the SDMB into a profit generator: (1) professional interest as an entrepreneur, and (2) morbid curiousity. Call me a ghoul, but I’ll stick around to watch a train wreck, any day. It’s amusing.
Somebody else was congratulating himself for realizing that the SDMB, as an offshoot of the Reader, has “always” been a business. I tend to disagree . . . we can assume that it has never been a profit center for the Reader, and in that sense it has never been run “as a business” in the sense that its revenues are expected to exceed or indeed meet its own costs.
You can see my view on this in my response to Diane above. Again, Coldfire and others going ga-ga over how people will become “hopelessly addicted” to the boards after having a chance to lurk here . . . sounds like an entrepreneurial pitch to me.
Again, for me it’s a matter of professional interest and morbid curiousity. The funny thing is, you’re saying that “they owe me nothing more”, but at the same time Anthracite is telling me to reflect on how much I “owe” the SDMB. Which is it?
And as far as my remark that I don’t like being played for a rube . . . that’s just my way of saying that posters here aren’t as naive as Coldfire et. al. seem to think they are. People can sense when they’re being taken advantage of, and the mods’ and admins’ strange way of communicating with us on this issue is giving us that kind of vibe.
Yeah, you’re right, how could I have missed it? I’m the one posting half pages full of paranoid insinuations of evil doings of the Chicago Reader in a quest to milk money from your vein.
You don’t want to pay? Big fucking deal, but I’ll say it again. Unless you have a personal financial interest in the Chicago Reader, they owe you exactly dick as far as making you privy to their costs and or profits.
Some people in this thread are exhibiting the rather unusual notion that everything on the Internet should be free, simply because it is on the Internet.
Think about it - this is a place to hang out, but how many (organised) places do you hang out at, offline, which are completely, 100% free? I’m guessing, not many.
I think of a message board as similar to a bar. How many bars do you go to at which everything is absolutely free (save for some adverts on the wall)?
Yes, most people have to pay for their Internet access. Going back to the bar analogy, this is how you get to the bar - paying for a taxi, bike, car, etc.
Put simply, something just being online does not necessarily mean it should be free.
Ah, but according to some posters I’m supposed to think about how much I “owe” the SDMB for all the good times I’ve had, and I “owe” them a year’s subscription “out of thanks”? Something doesn’t match up, dear.
While I think the Chicago Reader has been very generous in bringing you free entertainment (on a money losing site, no less) I’m not “some posters” and I don’t think you “owe” them a year’s subscription unless of course you plan on sticking around if it goes to a pay site.
I fail to see how this relates to your erroneously perceived right of knowing the costs and/or profit of the Chicago Reader. Simply, unless you have a direct financial interest, it is none of your business.
I agree with Diane that the costs the Chicago Reader incurs are none of our business.
Nevertheless I’d still like to know.
I’m not certain what costs the Reader is now all of a sudden incurring that it needs to charge for the use of its message board. Presumably if the SDMB was shut down the Reader would still bear the cost of a data center, network administrators, links to the internet and so on. Closing the SDMB, as near as I can see, wouldn’t save the Reader much money at all. Perhaps they could cutback on the size of their internet links a bit and they would have a free server or two sitting around and some free storage. Their biggest savings would come from firing an administrator but somehow I doubt that the Reader has an administrator or two devoted solely to the SDMB so chances are there are no savings there.
Certainly the SDMB costs money to run but when it is riding on the coattails of a larger organization I can’t see how it is a significant burden (as it would be if you tried to setup shop from scratch). Add the good will, sale of Cecil Adams books and so on that the SDMB generates and I think the costs become low enough to count as just doing business…advertising or marketing if you will.
I don’t blame the Reader for wanting to charge money. They aren’t a charity and have no obligation to give anything away for free. My guess is revenue in other parts of the business aren’t what they were hoped to be so new sources are being sought and this is just one of them.
My only concern is the change in dynamics such a thing would bring about. Some are happy to see the trolls and troublemakers go but I think that is a sad thing. Annoying though they may be sometimes they are part of the vibrancy and interest of these boards. Many people find free speech annoying but I doubt anyone would trade it.
A subscription fee would be a huge barrier to entry for many and severly dim what I think is one of the shining stars on the internet. Although already rejected by Ed Zotti I would seriously consider donating to a fund that would allow the SDMB to remain free. I can see how that has its own problems but I hate to see one of my favorite places altered…
This thread is too long. Start another if you want to argue some more. However, if the next thread is started by clayton_e, I will shut it down. Give someone else a chance to start it, clayton.