And who are you to decide what people’s motives are? You think that time is the only factor determined your ability to work? In case you haven’t noticed, jobs aren’t very easy to find right now. Most require training or experience. Those that don’t, often require a healthy strong body. How many of the jobs that you got in HS to earn a few extra bucks could be done by someone in a wheelchair? Or by someone with fibromyalgia?
Someone mentioned “stuffing envelopes” in another thread. You are aware that those are all pyramid schemes, don’t you? The number of at-home jobs that aren’t scams or marketing is incredibly small.
One of the things I have liked about this site is the number of people with severe disabilities that have been able to give their insight into their world. Even 5 dollars could close the door in their face.
No, no movies. The last movie was in July.
Groceries? Well, we went to the store last night for the first time in three months. Up to that point we’ve been living off of pasta, rice, and Top Ramen. Our one splurge is the groundbeef we get for the rice and pasta. (you can buy it pretty cheap in bulk.)
No, no cable. Wouldn’t even consider it.
I purchased one book since July-but it was less than 20, and it was before we got the internet anyway. I needed somehting to do.
Weekend trip?!?! HAHAHHAHAHAHA. Oooohh, that’s a good one. chuckle weekend trip. I work on the weekends.
No, we don’t eat out. We live off of rice, pasta, and Top Ramen.
The long and short of it is, I pay 20/mnth for the internet. That’s my entertainment budget. It would be pretty silly to cut my entertainment budget in order to afford the SDMB, wouldn’t it?
Are there any other criteria to “being poor” that we need to satisfy before we can bemoan the fact that we can’t afford to pay for entertainment?
Well apparently it is natural selection at work, if one goes and reads the pit thread.
Ouch :(. To be quite clear about it - I’m not naive about the realities of keeping the SDMB running. I am also not naive about my own personal finances and the exchange rate between the US and Australia. It’s not probably going to be possible for me or several other Antipodeans to keep on posting.
I don’t know what the solution is but I’d love to see a sliding scale of subscription. Of course that might be offensive to those of you who can prioritise subscription to this site and those of you who do have spare dollars available to subscribe. I don’t expect a free lunch but damn, it’s gonna be hard not posting and going to read only.
I’m having trouble seeing this as a personal failing either. Likewise I can see that being a student and working part time doesn’t automatically raise one to the level of having spare money.
OTOH if this place is going to become a place where people are flamed for not having spare money and where this is referred to as survival of the fittest I don’t want to be a member!
With all due respect, I don’t believe this for one minute. Why? Because in the 2 years I’ve been registered here, I’ve seen one advertising banner, ever. One.
If the Reader’s advertising staff had truly tried everything they, or we, could possibly think of, then we’d surely have seen banner ads on the top of every page a long, long time ago.
There are companies out there, like Burst Media, that will provide this site with banner ads from companies that they go out and solicit advertising from. IOW, they do all the work - all The Reader would have to do is sign up.
How do I, a mere reader and not an advertising “specialist,” know about Burst Media, when, apparently, The Reader doesn’t? Because I participate on another message board that has had banner ads supporting it for over 5 years now, and they’re using Burst Media to provide their advertising revenues.
Yeah, but how much money could that really bring in, you ask? Well, I know the site owner of that other site personally, and, although it was about 2 years ago that he told me this, he said he takes in approximately $40,000/year.
And even if that’s a gross exaggeration, and the revenues would only be 1/4 of that, the fact remains that The Reader hasn’t even tried it.
And now they’re asking for me to pony up, pretending to have exhausted all other avenues, when it’s clear they have not.
And I resent that.
Uncle Beer: You say you want our suggestions? Here’s one. Sign up with Burst Media, or some other similar banner ad company, and try it for 6 months. If then you come to us and say the ads aren’t paying enough, then you’ll have the right to hold your hand out to your members.
I do believe Demo was sneaking in a quote from George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”! He was haranguing Martha at the time.
My vote:
Welllll, I will pay if I have to. If I had my druthers, then I druther not, but I would. Actually, I do read much more than I post here, but it would kill me not to be able to if the urge arose.
I am not fond of the credit card thing, but oh well. It happens.
I love this board. I love its members. And whoever said the best things in life are free? Oh wait…that was Barney Fife…never mind.
I had initially responed the to survey that I would be willing to pay, as long as it was reasonable–no more than $20.
Then I found this thread.
After reading about the number of people who would be forced to depart if the message board becomes subscription-based, I’m not so sure I would want to stay. It definitely wouldn’t be the same.
I definitely won’t stay if the majority of the remaining members have attitudes similar to those presented by Demo and obfusciatrist. You guys need to lay off. Now. Believe it or not, there are lots of people who simply cannot give up $20 or more for a message board, magazine subscription, or anything else of that nature. That doesn’t make them pathetic losers–in fact, it only marks them as people who are responsible enough to know their financial limits. And I respect that.
It’s already been explained sufficiently, if you can’t accept that they’re telling it like it is, well… Deal with it. They have no card, and their reasons are their own. Not everyone lives your lifestyle (or mine, FTM). Little jabs like the one you just took are totally uncalled-for.
As for your kind offer to act as broker, well, that’s just a non-starter, and I think you knew that when you posted it.
Mr.Visible has brought up an excellent point, and I’ve changed my mind. If we go pay, I will not stay. I will not pay to provide content to this site. I’ll do it for free, but I won’t pay. Look at the bottom of this page:
The Chicago Reader is asking me to pay them for the priviledge of me granting them license to use my content. Uh-uh.
I’m of mixed feelings on this one. I have no problem with coughing up the cash. I pay for Live Journal, why not here?
But I can also say that if I had to pay to post the first time, I wouldn’t have. I was firmly in the starving part-time student/full-time work but underpaid camp. As demo has said, yeah, I could have found an extra 10 bucks, but the occasional dinner at McDonald’s over beans and rice would have been more important to me at that point. It’s all about priorities, and we all have different ones.
I am afraid that this place will wither and die, because not many new people will have the same priorities as I do now.
I’m curious as to how much money we need to come up with, in total?
I know that donations are not considered feasible, but put me firmly in the camp that would donate a lot more than you would possibly think of charging, if that option was available.
If this really works, then I’m all for trying it. Even though I love the SDMB, I don’t know if I would stay if people had to subscribe in order to post. I could probably manage to pay $20 per year. But the reason I love this board is because of the diversity of viewpoints, and I’m afraid that many people would be unable to contribute.
BTW I would definitely not pay to post. I belong to quite a few message boards and although this one is better than most, it is by no means the most important to me. I just discovered it late in life is all.
I believe the motto will have to change.
Old: Fighting Ignorance since 1973
New: Fighting Ignorance since 1973, and charging a fee since 2001
I am not emotional and fragile. I am poor. I can have a lot of fun (and I do) on a budget of $5 for one night a week. In case you couldn’t tell, most of mny free time is dedicated to school and work. I only have one night a week.
I did detect judgement in Demo’s comments, and a lot of other posters do too. I refuse to be denigrated on this Board because I cannot afford $20 a month. If my poverty gives someone permission to tell me that I have a lousy and disappointing life because I’m trying to get a college education, than I probably don’t need this Board anyway.
Money truly causes people to show their true colors.
As an Australian the cost to me in my dollars is double that in US dollars. I don’t know whether I would be willing to pay now that I’m having fun here - maybe, but I certainly never would have registered. After lurking a while my first post was simply to offer encouragement to someone giving up smoking. I wanted to let them know about the book that worked for me. I am not saintly enough to pay to tell them.
With all due respect, Shayna, I can think of more ad banners than that. Altoids and Blue Man Group both spring immediately to mind, and I seem to have vague recollections of others.
Not that this changes your point at all…I was just saying.
Sorry if I miss anyone in this post. I really do love and care about each and every one of you.
Nacho:
As to the single parents raising special needs children, I’d consider them in the 1% that I wasn’t addressing. As to the starving college students, I was a starving college student once, too. I was in the army, and was making shit. I was going to school full time and working more than full time at the time. I had about $10 disposable income per month. I, too, had about 2 hours a day when I wasn’t busy. One time, a group of friends was going to an amusement park. I didn’t have the money, so I spent 4 of those two hours (two days worth) doing laundry at $5/load to raise the $40 I needed to go. That was in four hours. We’re talking about $20-$50 per YEAR. That’s just one example. Like I said before, all my life I have done whatever it took to get what I wanted; Anything from selling plasma to paper routes to digging ditches to folding literature and stuffing envelopes (in a legit setting. Yes, I realize most of the ads you see are bogus), etc, etc… If you’re not willing to give up a few hours to make the money, then you’re not. Your decision. But say so. But don’t tell me that people CAN’T afford it. Most are just choosing not to. Zyada,
Have you ever heard of a temp agency? They have plenty of jobs you can do for a day, or even a few hours, that require no experience whatsoever. Many can be done by people in wheelchairs or with fibromyalgia. If you need some help locating a job that will pay for your subscription fees, let me know. I bet I can find something for you that fits within your time and physical constraints.
Cnote Chris, that’s exactly the definition I was talking about, thanks.
pepperlandgirl, you live off rice, pasta and top ramen and you spend $20/month on your ISP? You know, people can get pernicious anemia from not getting enough vitamin B12. I hope you suplememnt your diet somehow. If not, you might want to spend that $20 on some meat products. Ground chuck goes for about $1.90/lb around here, you might want to look into it. Living off just starches can have some serious health implications!
Don’t they have paper routes anymore? Can’t mow a lawn for 5 bucks? Can’t wash a car? Sorry, being fourteen doesn’t mean you can’t come up with the money. It just means you aren’t willing to seek it out.
That said, I also think the board would really benefit from charging a subscription fee. I believe it would help weed out trolls and other undesirables. I don’t think losing a large chunk of people would hurt either. The board reached its “Golden Age” when there were SIGNIFICANTLY fewer posters. Also, there is something to be said about a group or club or place that one has to “sacrifice” to be a part of. It means that the people who are there really want to be there, even moreso for the people who had to work harder to be a part of it. It means they had to actually do something to be a part of it other than just typing a few words into a form.
One last thing on “special circumstance” people. Everyone who has been here for a while knows the giving nature of this board. I know, for a fact, that someone who really wanted to be a part of the community and WHO HAD NO POSSIBLE WAY TO PAY FOR IT, would get “sponsored”. I myself would be willing to do that for one or two people who had a legitimate need, if the situation arose.
Regarding Burst Media and the figure of $40,000/yearly. I’d be very surprised if that same person were making that same amount of money for the same number of page impressions.
Banner revenues have taken a dive from where they were two years ago.
It really works. And for the life of me, I don’t understand why The Reader won’t even try it. For heaven’s sake, IT’S FREE !
From the Burst Media website:
It just cheeses me off to no end that they claim to have an advertising staff that’s “tried everything,” yet we never, ever see banner advertising on the SDMB. If their crackpot advertising team was on my payroll and made that claim, they’d be making it from the unemployment line.
And demo, what century do YOU live in that you cannot understand the concept of civility? There are ways of expressing yourself without being offensive. Clue: If your post has the word “fuck” in it, in any form, you should probably re-word it.
While I wish this didn’t have to happen, for many of the reasons above, I will certainly pay. The SDMB has changed my life. The friends I’ve met here are well worth $20.
He was haranguing Martha at the time.