Pay to Post?

The BBQ Pit
21

I understand the reasons, and certainly there is some justification, but for the most part I’m not excited about the idea. No, it’s not that I don’t enjoy the board enough to pay; it’s not that I don’t have the money; nor is it the fact that I don’t appreciate what the Reader is doing. It’s that fact that it’s another small step towards eliminating what I like most about the internet: vast amounts of readily available free information.

Actually, I should take back what I said about being able to afford it. The SDMB is not the only purpose my internet connection serves, and if every site I enjoyed made a case for charging, there is no way in hell that I’d be able pay them all. Want to search the past article archives of some journal? Find a guide on converting mpeg to divx? How about researching the veracity of the latest urban legend? Play an online game? Imagine wanting to do all these things and more, but having to pay for each of them. Depressing.

I’m going to fill in my pre-registration form, but I am very much undecided as to whether I will actually pay if that decision is made. What about something similar to Amazon’s honor system? Granted I’m not thrilled with this system either, but it would still allow newbies to take the board for a test spin, those with no disposable income to continue posting, and those with money and good will to make a donation.

22

I understand why they want to start charging and I support them. I’m willing to pay to post, and I don’t even post very often.

23

I’ve already filled out that pre-register form…though I did put a comment that I didn’t think I’d be able to justify paying more than $25/year. But that’s just my opinion of what I consider a reasonable fee.

I thought this was a good idea a few months ago when all the shit was happening with the slowness … I think it’s a good idea now. They have to afford the hamster feed and coffee mugs for the mods somehow :slight_smile:

24

Almost instant user-population stagnation. Many won’t bother, as, IIRC, there are about 12000 non-active members, and I doubt even one of them will pony-up. Potenial newbies will almost all take a look and decide it’s not worth their dime.

I might subscribe if the fee is low enough, but a largish number of currently active users on tight budgets will drop out.

Much of our ignorance fighting amongst the membership is older posters teaching newer posters how to look things up, and how to think before posting. When the newbie population dries-up, who will there be to learn? That’s no way to fight ignorance.

This place will become a museum: Old Posts, and Old Members.

25

Nope, if it goes pay, I will have to leave. I post from work, so as much as I’d like to, I can’t do anything involving money.

Oh, well, looks like my reppearance here was to be but a brief one . . .

26

This is a repost of my response to the same question at “About this message Board”:

Hopefully this is a thread truly looking for opinions, not just a cheerleading thread, so. . . I guess this won’t make me Mr. Popularity, but as much as I enjoy SD, I’m not planning on paying a cent in Chinese money for access to ANY website.

I hate saying that since it sounds like a knock at the SD, which it is not, I think this is possibly the best website on the Internet right now.

But this is a disturbing trend that I see on the Internet: once free websites that would bombard you with pop up ads for years now suddenly holding their hat out for cash. I do believe the admins when they say the site is having a cashflow problem; the problem for me is I’ve also seen a lot of other sites using the same pitch when they are fine just to make a buck off their readers.

That said:

  1. I consider the SDMB a luxury, not an essential item to my life. As a matter of fact that is my opinion of the entire Internet. If it went down tommorow, I’ll go read a book.

  2. If the SDMB goes pay, less people will subscribe, and the amount of time it takes to get responses to posts will lag. That will suck. It will end up like fathom, which is a great site, but because it seems to have less readers, you post something there and have to wait 2 days for a response. Why should I pay for a site that is less enjoyable?

  3. With the brainpower on this website, someone I’m sure will simply create a free message board just like this one somewhere else. It won’t be as good as the SD, but it will be free . . .

  4. The reason websites are running in the red, if they really are that is, is because it costs so much to maintenance them. As more and more websites go out of business, web servers will see the writing on the wall, and either they or someone with better, cheaper technology will make the costs of operation much lower. Therefore, eventually “pay sites” will not be that common.

Unless everyone does want to pay, and my theory of supply and demand is wrong. Then I guess I’m SOL. Oh well.

  1. What is our guarantee that in 6 months like so many other sites SD will go belly up and we are out of our year subsrciptions?

Sorry, no offense, Cecil . . . I bought every one of your books, but unless someone can convince me otherwise, and I do have an open mind, I’m not into paying to hear the same opinions that I can get in a bar. Nothing personal, simply business, I’m sure I won’t be missed anyway. :frowning:
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How about $5 a year? :wink:

27

Well, I’m out of here then.

Sorry, but I have student loans coming up, I don’t have a decent job, and quite frankly, I think the board will go down hill.

sorry, but no way.

I pre-registered, but only to say I’m not paying.

Exactly. It’s insane.

:mad:

I have a feeling this idea is going to launch a thousand Pit threads…

28

Heck, sell your plasma if ya hafta. I am guessing the deeply discounted rate will be around a fiver if they impose one. Give em your comments now! I know I’d shell out five to Dope, and I’m a student. All the friendly and helpful assistance I have had with my homework is definitely worth it! Think of the Dope as a teacher or really cheap psychologist. Hell, if I had to pay for GQ posts I would. Knowledge has a tendency to not be free, so I guess this is just becoming like most other things. Think about it as more than just an MB and you might see why it is so valuable.

Besides, look at the people who have met eachother on the Dope! Racinchikki & gunslinger, Montfort and Anniz! It’s like Mensa without the dues.

29

I’ve been saying they should do this for years now. I think it’s a great idea.

I have a REAL hard time hearing some of you complain about not being able to afford it. Each time this comes up, I see many of the same people who complain that they can’t afford it spend hundreds of hours a year on the board.

So, here’s an idea: Use a couple of the hours you might spend on the board and earn the god damn $30 or so that it might cost. Oh! The board isn’t that important to you anymore? I figured.

30

I don’t know if I would pay or not. But I know that imposing a fee would eliminate a lot of people, and not necesarily in a fair and equitable way.

There are a lot of people here who make a lot of money. They could easily drop this “paltry sum” without so much as batting an eyelash.

There are a lot of people who are currently in University. Or who are not in the best financial circumstances. Paying the high end of this estimate would be simply out of the question. In a lot of cases, I’m sure the low end would be impossible, as well.

Then there are people with no access to credit cards or any other non-cash form of money. I’m speaking here mainly of high school students. I know that, until after my senior year of high school, I didn’t have a credit card. Anything I wanted on the internet had to go through my parents.

I highly doubt that my father would have paid for his daughter to participate in a forum where there are inside jokes involving felching. Assuming, of course, he knew what it was.

So, basically, the people who stay will be better-off, and, in general, will be older. New members will tend to almost exclusively be well off. A lot of the diversity here’ll be eliminated.

I’m fairly fortunate in that I can manage my own money, and that I’ve saved a not-insubstatial amount for backup. Dropping up to maybe 25 dollars at this point would be a stretch–a heck of one–but not impossible. Especially 'cause the whole Anti-Fred Phelps thing never went through…I now have 20 dollars set aside, waiting to be spent. But I never would have signed up if it was pay-to-post. It’s not that I wouldn’t have liked the boards, it’s just that I wouldn’t have known them very well, and wouldn’t have been able to join, anyway. Heck, if my parents end up disowning me like they’ve threatened, I’m not going to have two coins to rub together to make fire, nevermind money enough to pay for this place ;).

31

Without getting into all the issues here, because frankly, they’re yet to be worked out, there are just a couple things I wanna address.

This is just for the little “survey.” It’s a thing to prevent people from stuffing the ballot box, so to speak. We’re just trying to make sure we’re getting good data. If we do go to subscriptions, the charge would apply to an account, you’d be able to post from several machines just as you do now.

Free trial periods—yet to be determined. What concerns us is that some people would simply create a bunch of new accounts consecutively. Obviously, that would be undesirable from our standpoint. One solution might be to get a credit card number up front and apply the charges only after the trial period expires. A person would have to take some action to let us know they did not wish to continue past the trial period. Failure to do so would result in us billing their provided card.

The problem with this should be obvious; a person could still create and then terminate many accounts before ever entering the for-pay phase. Again, a possible solution. We simply keep track of the credit card numbers used, allowing only one or two uses. This may or may not solve the problem though. If you are like me, I have several credit cards and if I wished could conceivably avoid charges for quite some time. Likely forever.

So, those are the barriers to trial subscriptions. If you guys have solutions, please share 'em. We want your ideas.

32

I just filled out my form, and if need be, I will pay. However, I agree that charging over $20 a year for people is verging on ridiculous. There are thousands of members here. The higher the rates, the less posters that will stay. The lower the rates, the more people who will remain, thereby enriching the boards and giving even more subscription fees. Plus, $5 a year seems much more alluring to a potential newbie than $50.

I hope it doesn’t happen, though. I love too many people here to have to watch them leave.
:frowning:

33

Man, I’m going to miss the SDMB. I really will.

But this is a luxury for me, and I’ll learn to live without it.

34

Oh yeah. Hang on a sec while I go out and get a job!..

Wait! To get a job, I’d need to have some way of getting there, and this town has no public transportation. I know! I’ll buy a car!..

But wait, buying a car requires money! I don’t think I can get anything larger than a matchbox with what I have on hand. I suppose I could STEAL a car, or I could walk into town (it takes an hour; I’ve had to do it before)…

On second thought, screw it. :rolleyes:

35

If there were a charge to post, I would probably read but not write here. Cost is not the issue for me; other options are. It’s not like I post much anyway. I also think it’s relevant that were it not for the SDMB, I would have never heard of Cecil Adams and would not have bought a t-shirt or any of his books.

36

:(. I’m highly unlikely to be able to afford to pay (and Demo - shut yer trap, mate.) Fulltime student with 2 kids with special needs, I don’t have a lot of disposable dollars. Plus paying in US dollars is not a pretty thought. The Aussie to US dollar is approximately 55c to $1 at the moment.

37

I think the problem with a $5 fee is that if you are going to set up the effort and person-time to collect fees, you have a much lower rate of return processing $5, than you do on $20. Many other for-pay sites have found this out. One solution is to allow multi-year payments, such as $30 for 2 years registration, etc.

As I posted a long time ago - I was opposed to the SDMB charging a fee, versus accepting donations, for one reason only. It’s pretty safe to say, based on Labor Department stats for the general populace, that my income is in the top 3% or higher of the posters here. Even $50 is no big deal for me. But it’s very much a big deal to some people - people I know like pepperlandgirl, and racinchikki. It’s hard for some to imagine a case where $20 will make or break you, but I was in that position once, very long ago, where I was choosing between lunch and not eating lunch based on cost. So…I would have rather donated the money I pledged in that thread so long ago, if it would help out the less-fortunate. However, TubaDiva et al have explained at length why they cannot accept donations, and while I think it is a shame, I do accept their reasons, and support them.

38

Well, from July until October I didn’t have internet access. That means, I didn’t have the SDMB. Guess what? I survived. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even miss the place.
And I can imagine this would go over real well-
Me:Jaime, I need $50 to subscribe to the SDMB.
Jaime: You want $50 for that stupid board?!
Me: It’s not a stupid board!
Jaime: Well I want a new game.
Me: scoffing We can’t afford that.
Jaime: raising an eyebrow No? Then we can’t afford the SDMB.
Point, set, match.

Oh, and BTW, to all the people who say “spend more time working and less time posting” I currently work two jobs and go to school full time. My husband is working, and looking for a second job. I still can’t afford it.

And one more thing…the magazine subscription analogy really pissed me off. Look, I don’t have any magazine, or newspapers in my house. WHy? Because, (all together now) I can’t afford it!

39

If they start charging, then I’ll just have to leave. I’ll miss the SDMB, but newsgroups are free and I’ll just go back to them. Why pay the piper if there is free piping down the street?

I understand why they need to charge for subscribers, but I know the vast majority of people won’t pay. In a few months, the board will be a mere shadow of it’s former self after most everyone leaves, and few newbies sign up.

40

Another message board I frequent (behind all of your backs) was having real server problems and needed to invest in a new server. They asked for donations (through Paypal) and got a very good response, they were easily able to upgrade. May I suggest that SDMB try donations first, and if that proves inadequate, make it subscription with those who donated getting credit? I may be naive but I bet they would get more money by asking for donations.