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:
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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.
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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.
