# Pay to Post? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 9, 2001, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487 "2001-11-09T18:54:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/321 "2001-11-10T08:54:03Z")
I’m not angry that they’re going to charge, but I’m disappointed. I understand they can’t keep giving it away. It’s been a great free ride while it lasted. Perhaps, next Christmas, I might ask Mr Cazzle to buy me a subscription as a present. At this point, I can’t justify spending so much on entertainment for me alone - and he doesn’t “get” the SDMB. The money would be better channelled into a DVD we both enjoy, or a couple of trips to the movies for us both. Spending it on what amounts to chat is hard to justify, and like I said before, until I’m able to earn my own spending money, I like to organise entertainment we can both enjoy. Thank you, Straight Dope, for many hours of fun. Your price is reasonable, but my budget is unforgiving! ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/322 "2001-11-10T08:54:21Z")
$20 times 10,000 members (about half of those currently registered) = $200,000. Give me a fucking break. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Defense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Civil\_Defense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Defense)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/323 "2001-11-10T08:56:14Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, what does TANSTAAFL stand for? There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/324 "2001-11-10T08:59:03Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Fenris** _ > > Um…I’d base any hypothetical sponsorship soley on the basis of whether I liked the poster or not. The end. > I’m certainly not gonna shell out my hard-earned money, should I choose to sponsor someone, to someone who I don’t like. There is no affirmative action plan for jerks or people who annoy me in the hypothetical FenrisFund. If sponsorship is facilitated, it might be preferable if both sponsoring and sponsored members were unknown to each other. A scenario in which the sponsor knows the identity of the sponsored, and vice versa, could create conflicts of interest. If the FenrisFund Coffers were opened to me, for example, on the basis that **Fenris** liked me (remember this _is_ hypothetical) I might find myself unwilling to criticise **Fenris** because I wished to retain his goodwill and patronage. Similarly, if I unwittingly posted something which annoyed him, **Fenris** may well decide to dispense his largesse elsewhere when renewal time came up. Hypothetically of course. I also think that there should be no visible indication on these boards that a member is either a sponsor, or is sponsored. In the above example, both **Fenris** and myself would continue to be described as members pure and simple ( **Fenris** being pure and me being simple). On the Pay To Post issue itself, I would pay and see how things panned out with regard to board population and content over a period of time. It is interesting for me to read so many posts concerning the desirability of new members for a successful board. I am not sure that new members have ever been so widely welcomed, albeit in the abstract sense. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/325 "2001-11-10T08:59:53Z")
Holy fuck. What a bunch of whiners. I think the horse is dead. Anyway, add me to the list that can afford to pay but won’t. Demo will. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Caiata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@Caiata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caiata)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/326 "2001-11-10T09:00:43Z")
The message board I left before I came to this one (is that convoluted enough? I can make it worse.) went pay-to … well, it went pay-to-play as it was a game site, and the posting remained free. But that’s hardly the point. It went pay-to-use, $1 a month, pay for 12 months up front and get a 13th month free. Within days the 10,000 members who had posted there and played there was cut by 2/3rds. People who were so inclined (not that there’s any here, I’m sure, that place attracted a strange brand of troll/cheater) would sign up and pay for two accounts just so they could cheat. The board’s administrators took the attitude of, “Well, they’re paying for both accounts, so who cares if it’s cheating, so long as they don’t hack us or something.” Back then I happened to be “rich” - that is, I wasn’t planning to move to Australia yet, so all my extra money could go to extra things like new clothes and nights out and fun. So despite the fact that I didn’t play the game - I just posted, and posting is free - I sponsored someone else, and paid their way to play, so I felt like I was doing something. The same thing that is happening here happened there - a lot of threads popped up where the “haves” were being condescending toward the proclaimed “have nots”. People from overseas said they couldn’t manage it, and people in America called them “assholes” for “not having twelve frickin’ dollars” to spare. People without credit cards said it was a hassle, and the admin quickly opened a PO Box for them to send their payments in to. I left that board because it went to shit, because it was dull and there weren’t new people coming in, and the only reason I was -there- was because of the -free- message board. Now that I am planning to move to Australia I could not afford to pay to post. I am living on $60 a month for my budget because the rest is going to the Australia fund, and I find moving to Australia to be more important than posting at the SDMB. I’m sure nobody will miss me 🙂 However I’m wondering there are a few things that might work: - Pay for the archives, but posting is free. Accessing the archives requires a minipayment of $0.25 - $1.00 for each archive accessed. Those of us (like me - I can find interesting but mildly sarcastic, humourous, and scientific-intelligent discussions of bizarre topics in plenty of places) who don’t read the archives are still free to post. Perhaps “comments on the mailbag” or “comments on Cecil’s columns” can be relocated to the Archives directory so that only paying users can view in part or in whole the Archives that so many are claiming we are usurping for free. - Prove you own one of Cecil’s books, get a registration number that keeps you from having to pay the fee. I agree that it is unfair to ask people who already paid money for the books, to now pay because the site offers, for free, that which they already have paid for. Perhaps all new SD books would have a registration number printed inside them so the person could register an account here. Registration number is required to bypass the fees screen, and obviously an “only one household per registration number” rule should be set up. No registration number could be used more than once - when you sign up you check whether you want more than one account name, kind of like AOL does with its screen names. Of course this will bring along the problem of people going to bookstores, glancing in to find a registration number in the latest SD book, and then coming here - but if that book was later bought and the buyer attempted to use his registration number but found it was “already in use”, he’d just prove he owned the book and the person using the false registration number would be banned. _shrugs_ It seems complicated though. Okay, I suppose that’s my wealth of ideas, all whopping two of them. Hi Opal, or something. 🙂 I think this is a great place, and I think it a shame that it must go to pay-to-post. I don’t know what things cost in this kind of business, but with so many posters it seems, _to me_, that they could charge a much smaller fee. $1 a month, I could pay, especially if it was a monthly payment. I think many people could pay it then. I honestly hope that what happened to the site-I-used-to-frequent doesn’t happen here if pay-to-post becomes a reality. It’d be a shame to see one of the coolest gatherings of people on the 'net be reduced so drastically by a paying requirement. Sure, maybe it was still cool when there were fewer posters - but those of us who weren’t around then think it’s pretty darned cool now, and don’t believe that just because it was cool “then” means that we should feel “okay” about people leaving, or about our own inability - or lack of desire - to pay for posting. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/327 "2001-11-10T09:12:07Z")
I am speaking most emphatically as an individual poster. Hang no one else for my sins. Or opinions. My lamentable screen name is taken from a howlingly weird, obscure economist. The _real_ Thorstein Veblen epitomized “the dismal science”. Possibly his words struck home with undue force because I was so perilously broke at the time; beans-and-rice poor, not out of trendy diet fads but grim necessity. (Yes, a student–for many hard years.) Maybe deprivation lent insight but that’s a gift. One gift was the realization that everything has a value but values are infinitely variable. Value–wealth, energy, time–is nothing more than a tool. It’s used wisely or foolishly–and very easily squandered, and devalued, by small degrees. Want to know someone? look at what \* they buy\*, with their money, energy, will–and what do they DO with them? It’s very instructive. Surly twit w/ your Big Mac Meal? Best Buy pissed ya off? Pizza? Cell phone hassles? Bad latte? Cable company ripped ya off? And those naggly co-workers? In my experience, some of the absolute _richest_ people were piss-poor in terms of disposable assets but TOWERED in ways that counted most. In my own opinion, it’s a _disgrace_ to expect something for free. Things of worth don’t just crop up out of a vacuum, ripe for the plucking. But guess what, chumps? For all the fine prosing and posing, _no fucking ANY of us have paid a fucking CENT_ so far but it hasn’t abated one whit the sense of absolute entitlement to whine, nitpick, carp, bitch-slap or bicker. **There ain’t no free ride**. We’ve ALL been cruisin’ on someone else’s ticket all along. Veb [Edited by TVeblen on 11-10-2001 at 03:22 AM] ---
**Author:** ![Krispy\_Original](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ec9cab/32.png) [@Krispy\_Original](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krispy_Original)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/328 "2001-11-10T09:21:10Z")
What is this crap about there being no free ride? WTF? There are plenty of free rides. I have hundreds of them bookmarked. Get the fuck off the no free ride threats…it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/329 "2001-11-10T09:26:22Z")
Maybe, if you are all VERY GOOD, Santa Claus will give you reduced rate subscriptions. Or Bobo Natale, or whomever you choose to wish upon. Myself, I’ll smoke 200 less cigarettes, and thank the SDMB for letting me live longer to post drivel. ---
**Author:** ![MysterEcks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MysterEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysterEcks)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/330 "2001-11-10T09:26:57Z")
Well, I haven’t posted anything in the last month or so (everybody who noticed I was gone raise your hands…yep, same as the number of liberals on the Taliban), so it would be safe to say it’s not much of a priority for me anymore. If the board remains free I might get interested again (quit booing, dammit), but I won’t pay for it–I can come up with thousands of ways to avoid productivity without shelling out bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/331 "2001-11-10T10:07:50Z")
**TVeblen** named h`self after an _economist_? I always imagined a Channel 11 news anchor with a speech-impediment. Well don’t I feel _ignorant._ Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/332 "2001-11-10T10:14:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krispy Original \* > \*\*What is this crap about there being no free ride? WTF? > > There are plenty of free rides. I have hundreds of them bookmarked. > > Get the fuck off the no free ride threats…it doesn’t work. \*\* ::sigh:: Try make a point… Sure, there are PLENTY of fun, “free rides” out there. A lotta alternate choices? gee _whilikers_, who’daTHUNKit? Thanks _soooo_ much; never woulda in the whole wide world thought of ::gasp!:: looking around! Sheeee-YIT. I my own self am ankle-chained to this one place alone. It’s a mind-control thing: succumb to the Illuminati and first your soul is eaten then your BOOKMARKS are toast… This is so damned pathetic. The economics are the same all over. Pop-ups, “donations”: nobody rides for free. The freight’s getting hauled somewhere along the line. HOW it’s hauled and by whom…well, it’s a wide, confusing world out there. But NO, there ain’t no free ride. Especially when looking for quality. Veb ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/333 "2001-11-10T10:18:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TVeblen \* > **But guess what, chumps? For all the fine prosing and posing, _no fucking ANY of us have paid a fucking CENT_ so far but it hasn’t abated one whit the sense of absolute entitlement to whine, nitpick, carp, bitch-slap or bicker.** Ever watch over-the-air television, veb? Sorry, but that argument is lame. Everything you state in your post could be said about TV- sense of entitlement on behalf of those that use it, whining, nitpicking, carping and bitching… all if it. It’s all been done and done on a daily basis… and it’s made billions. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/334 "2001-11-10T10:25:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TVeblen \* > \*\*This is so damned pathetic. > > The economics are the same all over. Pop-ups, “donations”: nobody rides for free. The freight’s getting hauled somewhere along the line.\*\* It’s not so pathetic. What’s wrong with a sponsored board? I don’t see anyone here saying they’re not willing to pay in one form or the other, either be it ads, pop-ups or whatever. But is **Shanya** say right earlier, that the options never been tried and they didn’t work? Has this place really reached the point that it needs to resemble a cable company and charge customers for its content, or can it sustain itself off of other means? ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/335 "2001-11-10T10:25:35Z")
If this place is THAT popular, and it is, then it should separate its self from the CR and go the PBS route…raise monies via donations, auctions, etc… Yes TV dear it can be done and I am more than willing to donate, when I can…but a pay for subscription for many is not in the cards financially or in this case a forced fee. If I can get it for free elsewhere then I will. I haven’t donated to my local PBS station in a few years but its’ still going strong. I donated at least $1000 in one year, after that I became unable to donate but still enjoyed the shows. It can be done and I agree with Shayna, not all the avenues have been crossed. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487/336 "2001-11-10T11:00:36Z")
This thread is too long. Start another if you want to say anything more. Lynn [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pay-to-post/92487.md?page=16)