Well, I pre-registered and said I’d pay, but only if it was about $20 (thats before the HUGE discount we all get :rolleyes: ) But if so many dopers do not pay, and the boards loses what makes it great, I’m definetly not going to continue to pay the fee.
I was just wondering, is there any way to make it less wallet-burdening? Like a monthly, or bi-monthly fee? It could be charged automatically unless the user cancels. That way, people could post for at least a couple months at a time, go away, earn a little money somehow (if that’s possible) and come back for a few more months. Having to pay $20-$50 up front is much harder than $2-$4 per month.
If it goes to a Pay-to-post, I’m out. It’s not an issue of money, it’s just something I won’t do. Hell, I’m about to lose my email account because the site decided, after coupl’a years, to charge for an account. Frankly, I love Ohio State and I really like that I can have the “thinksnow” handle there, but I won’t do it.
Thing is, I’d gladly make a donation, but I won’t pay a subscription.
I understand the business end of it, but heck, can’t you pick up a copy of the Reader for free? (and yes, I know the Reader has a lot more advertizing power than this site.)
sigh…
well, if it comes to pay, i will just have to pay it, even if it goes to something abominable like $100 American a year.
really, this place is one of the few things that keeps my head stable. all my friends I consider to be on a similar level of discussion are depressing suicidal bastards.
without the boards, i’d go back to being a complete social hermit who spends all his time doing work or just generally mentally decaying, through excess gaming and a total indesire for social contact.
Whoa, whoa, hold on there monkey-nipples. I never said I was the expert on everyone’s financial situation. I just think it’s awful brazen of someone to say they “can’t afford it” when what they really mean is that “it’s not important enough for me to spend the money on”.
I realize there are people here who actually can’t afford it, and I wasn’t addressing them in that post. I was addressing the people who obviously have plenty of time to earn the money, but expect everything to be served up to them for free on a silver platter.
To those who can’t afford $20/year: Sucks to be you. Get used to disappointment. Then again, you probably already are used to it.
But, frankly, I can’t imagine someone who couldn’t raise $20/year for something that was really important to them. I did it many times in jr high, high school and since high school, so, really, I have no pity whatsoever for anyone who says they “can’t afford it” because, 99% of the time, what they really mean is, “it’s not worth my time to go earn the money for it”.
To those people complaining about not having credit cards: What fucking century are you living in?
Here’s a solution to all those without credit cards: When the time comes to send in the dough, send me your cash and you can use my credit card to purchase your subscription. Happy?
I filled out the form, and I wrote that I’d be willing to pay 20.00, but I forgot to mention that I never, ever use credit cards. I hope that I’ll be able to pay by check or paypal.
I hate to see the SDMB having to charge a fee, and I know the board will lose posters, but I value this place too much to let it go. I have learned so much here. I was without a computer for the whole month of September, and the critical thinking skills I learned from here helped me sort fact from fiction in the days following 9/11.
Anyone else notice the irony of a free newpaper proposing a subscription-based site?
I don’t know jack about the economics of running media businesses, but I think the Reader probably needs to sell an ad or 2 every now and then to keep the doors open. I don’t imagine they worry about printing more copies over time either.
Here it’s different. Only rarely do ads appear. And without some revenue stream from either ads or user fees, member volume gets to be a real problem. Hardware gets pegged, software bugs emerge, mods/admins get over-worked, searching sucks and is actively discouraged, members post and repost variations on the same threads repeatedly.
I don’t know why the Reader doesn’t support SDMB by ad revenue. Maybe they have tried and haven’t been able to make it work. If I ran this part of the world and I wanted to continue to grow, I would reorganize the forums along clearly defined lines and start placing ads relevant to that forum’s audience.
I think in proposing subscriptions the Reader’s real goal is to reduce volume. I think what’s fun and cool with 2K posters can start to wear thin when membership approaches 20K. I think a fee-based system will drop membership back to the 2K level pretty soon.
It’s not like this hasn’t been clear to those of us paying attention for a while now.
For those who care, I’m marketing director for a publisher of magazines and newsletters. In addition, I run a game news site (which I don’t think I’ll mention here). I mention these facts to establish my bona fides when I say this:
**
Within 5 years the majority of commercial sites on the web will be subscription-based.
**
Just that bald statement. I’ve been on the bleeding edge of this for years now and I know I speak the truth.
I have, in the past, attempted to earn money on the web by:
Advertising
Sponsorships
Selling editorial (something no one in journalism should do)
Subscriptions to emailed newsletters
Nothing works properly. Demand is there but not the type of demand that leads to dollars.
Given that these sites are commercial, what purpose do they have other than to make money for the firms that establish them?
There are some things (co-marketing ideas and such) that can work. They just haven’t been proven to yet.
I do think that a corrolary of this will be a marked decline in membership. But what does that tell us?
It will allow the Reader to establish whether there is actually demand enough for the SDMB to justify its continued existence.
If enough people don’t sign up it’ll be a signal to the Reader that there’s no point in continuing the project.
Given that the culture of ad buying is that print ads work while online ads don’t work I don’t find it surprising that the Reader would need to change for the online system of the SD.
If everything I hear is true we’re looking at millions of impressions a month available here on the SDMB. If any of my magazines could offer advertisers 1,000,000 impressions per month I’d be getting $50,000 per page in print. Online? Maybe 1/100th that if I were lucky.
There’s a vast disparity in how the two forms are viewed by the business world. Online advertising hasn’t yet proved itself as a viable medium for communicating a firms message.
I’m sorry for lecturing. I truly am a publishing geek.
This is the most dispicable thing I have ever read in my life. I don’t care if I get this thread closed or not - how dare you Demo? Would you like an itemized report of my bills and racinchikki’s as well? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a poor college student?
This full-time college student who DOES have a job and works 30 hours a week simply cannot afford an extra $20 a year. I would like to be able to pay it, but books for winter and spring semester, a winter coat that keeps me warm, and a front-end alignment takes precedent.
I just can’t afford it.
I also wish people would stop using a condescending tone toward the whole matter, as if we all have $20 lying around at our disposal and choose not to use it, because many of us do not. I will seriously miss the place, and I will miss the release I feel when I get home from a long day at school and a long night at work and open up the forum page. But that’s the way it is.
And yes, there are LOTS of other things I could spend 20 dollars a year on-like my student loan payments? Hell, I turned down a college ring. I can’t even afford dental work that I need, so how could I afford this.
I hope I’ll be able to keep in touch. Seriously, I’m really really going to miss you guys.
I also agree that turning this into a pay site would kill it. They SAY that it won’t affect how troublemakers are treated, but I work in retail. Trust me-it will.
I love the straightdope message boards. However, I believe that the management is now turning into a sell out corporation. If I am ever asked to pay to post, even if it’s a dollar a year, you will never see a post by clayton_e again. This is truly a sad day.
Fuck you. You make me want to vomit. Single parents raising special needs children? Poor college students who work their asses off just to buy overpriced books? How dare you sit in judgement of us because you make more money?
I have no idea what has brought about this condescending, egotistical attitude in you, Demo, but I’ve never seen you act like this before. I’m more disappointed that you, a poster I once respected and admired, would even think this than I am that I can’t afford an extra $20.
No, what it means is, I have maybe two hours a day when I’m not busy working, studying, or at school. I should spend that time reading or writing, but instead I come here.
Short of selling myself on the streets of Baltimore or forgoing tampons and shampoo for six months, I cannot afford $20.
I hang out primarily in GQ. I rarely start new threads. When I post, it is generally to share my knowledge on a subject I know something about. I enjoy doing this, and I would probably pay $10-20 per year for this. Anything over $20 is absolutely out of the question.
Here’s the problem, though. If the SDMB starts charging a fee, say good-bye to the new members who post intriguing questions in the first place. They are the lifeblood of a forum like GQ. GQ will be left with nothing but the same old veterans.
In short, I will be paying money for a board that will soon be a faint shadow of its former self.
The last time this was discussed, the idea was floated of only charging for fora such as MPSIMS and the pit. Anything left of this notion?
I don’t see a judgment in the line you quoted Nacho. If you honestly can’t afford $20 in a year then it does suck to be you.
But before you say you can’t:
Have you been to more than two movies in the last year? Have you purchased groceries you don’t need? Do you have cable? Have you purchased any recreational books to read? Gone on a weekend trip with friends? Eaten out within the last year?
If you haven’t then that does suck. If you have, then you could if you really wanted to get together $20.
It sucks that some will have to make the choice, but most people saying they can’t spend it are exaggerating. They won’t spend it, and that is fine, we all set priorities and make choices.
And I’m sorry, but I respected you and thought you a good person, but you are obviously too emotional and fragile for that to continue.
