# Please place all SDMB subscription complaints in this thread, you cheapskates! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 18, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100 "2004-03-18T22:30:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/281 "2004-03-21T04:49:45Z")
> [@moejuck](#): > > I realize that it wasn’t specifically spelled out, but with the quote that was used by **Czarcasm** , and his response to “please e-mail me”, I felt it was safe to assume he was going to help out **Buckleberryferry**. Even if he isn’t going to pay directly, but simply direct her towards some help, I have not seen him offer this same service to other posters who have claimed similar circumstances to **BBF**. The _only_ thing you can safely assume is that I wanted to talk to **Buckleberry Ferry** , and that it was none of _your_ business. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/282 "2004-03-21T13:02:41Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by pulykamell_ > > > [@](#): > > > > _Originally Posted by gex gex_ > > The NYT subsidises its website because it considers that subsidising a website will boost its profits. The Reader does exactly the same thing with the SDMB. If it doesn’t, its fucking stupid. > > Your musical input will be missed, **gex** , but I think you’re mistaken about the situation. I sincerely doubt that running the SDMB contributes anything at all to the Chicago Reader’s profits. Why the Reader does run it is beyond me. Anybody’s who’s stumbled upon this website in Chicago probably already reads the reader. Anyone outside of Chicago is not going to bother to pick up the Reader…why would they? While it does contain informative articles, it functions mostly as a “Time Out”-type weekly arts & entertainment newspaper. Most of us get the Reader to see what concerts are going on this week, what movies, what theater, and perhaps to browse the classifieds. The content is almost completely local – even the cover stories are predominantly local. There’s no reason anyone outside Chicago would pick up the Reader. > > Add that to the fact that the vast majority of Dopers are not located in Chicago, the Reader has absolutely nothing to gain by having us here. In fact, they’d almost certainly be better off rid of keeping up this message board yet, for whatever reason, they continue to contribute to its upkeep. Well, thanks for the compliment, and really, I pretty much agree with you. I’m assuming the Reader must have some sort of economic reason for running the board, because I don’t see a business doing it just because they’re good folks. It’s just not smart. If the SDMB does owe money to the Reader, I don’t even see why they’re keeping the board going. If I had a business, I wouldn’t want some bunch of people on the internet sucking a hole out of my profits. Even with the subscription model, I just can’t see a business running a service unless it promotes the company or makes a profit. So, I agree. I have no idea why the Reader keeps the board open, subscription or non-subscription. But I’m sure they must see some benefit to it, and I assume there will be an extra benefit from converting the board to a subscription service. It’s a shame, but it’s their decision. It’s also my decision that I don’t want to make the effort of making a payment overseas when I don’t have a credit card or use Paypal, particularly for a service that I don’t think is worth paying for anyway. I’m really not whinging (much). Just saying, this is what I’m doing. I probably should have tried to say it in one post rather than three, though… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/283 "2004-03-21T13:27:08Z")
> [@gex gex](#): > > I have no idea why the Reader keeps the board open, subscription or non-subscription. I have no idea what type of business arrangement Cecil and the Reader have, so it would be unfair of me to illustrate even theoretical business models knowing full well I could be off base. However, while the board may not seem to offer the Reader any direct benefit, it does a fairly competent job of marketing Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/284 "2004-03-21T17:50:01Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > No, it’s **complaints** in a thread that’s been duly created and set apart for… complaints! **If you don’t want to read complaints, don’t open a thread of complaints**. That’s just a no-brainer. Sure, but how many of these snivelling threads are we going to have to wade through? Jeeeeezuz, stay or leave, just STFU with your bitching and whining and $4.95 is going to force me and my family into a cardboard box. If you can pay, swell! If you can’t for one reason or another, there have been many solutions posted here, including donations. If you can’t or won’t for some reason or another, the door is right there. We’ll miss ya. Bu-bye. Gawd, it will be nice and quiet when the pay-status goes into effect. Right now it sounds like a hospital nursery. ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/285 "2004-03-21T18:16:26Z")
> [@Grousser](#): > > After reading [this complaint thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=246188) by **CheekyMonkey613** , I was only willing to say him this: > > Ed and Dex comments are fair. I will pay gladly the fee, too… CheeseMonkey only tries to be radical. I respect your opinion. Obviously lots of people agree with the fact that EVERYONE can find $5. I don’t think so, but that’s not the point. The point is, it shouldn’t be coming from Administration. It appears very unprofessional to me. Imagine going to McDonald’s and the girl saying, “WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO SUPERSIZE IT? PUH-LEEZE!” Admittedly, that’s a bad example because the people I’m talking about can’t even afford a McHappy Meal. Open your eyes. It’s all around you. For the freakin’ umpteenth time, I’m a woman. Should I change my name to “Boo Bees 4U”? And I’m not _trying_ to be radical. I speak my mind. Sometimes people agree with me. Sometimes people think I’m off my face. So be it. I won’t curb my thinking to fit into anyone’s comfort zone. Plus, if everyone thought like you, you’d be (in essence) talking to yourself on the boards. In the long run, it might save you the $5, but then you couldn’t _accidentally_ screw up members’ names. And that would take away your fun, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/286 "2004-03-21T18:18:13Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > For the freakin’ umpteenth time, I’m a woman. Should I change my name to “Boo Bees 4U”? Only if you’re willing to back it up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/287 "2004-03-21T18:18:40Z")
“I’m a woman” would be a cool user name. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/288 "2004-03-21T19:37:36Z")
Any old-timers out there who wont’ be signing up might note that once the subscription model goes into effect, you will never see anything you wrote on these boards again. The search function will be disabled unless you pay up. Want to reference something that you wrote a year ago? Good luck. That’s right, you’re going to have to pay to access stuff you wrote when the boards operated on the understanding that you were writing it for a public forum. I just spent the past few hours archiving my old posts to text files. You may want to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/289 "2004-03-21T19:42:28Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > For the freakin’ umpteenth time, I’m a woman. Should I change my name to “Boo Bees 4U”? No, but that’d make an _awesome_ license plate. ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/290 "2004-03-21T20:01:59Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > For the freakin’ umpteenth time, I’m a woman. Should I change my name to “Boo Bees 4U”? > [@Ilsa Lund](#): > > Only if you’re willing to back it up. 😃 > [@Libertarian](#): > > “I’m a woman” would be a cool user name. > [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > No, but that’d make an awesome license plate. You guys are FREAKS! And in some masochistic way that Freud didn’t have time to write about, that’s why I’m staying. That makes me the bigges freak of all. xoxo Boo Bees 4U ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/291 "2004-03-21T20:32:24Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > That’s right, you’re going to have to pay to access stuff you wrote when the boards operated on the understanding that you were writing it for a public forum. You won’t have to pay anything to access your past posts. You just won’t be able to mooch CPU time off the Chicago Reader to have them all sought out and wrapped up for you. If your past posts are so valuable, you should be grateful that the SDMB stored them in a searchable index for free for so long. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/292 "2004-03-21T20:38:20Z")
> [@Berkut](#): > > You won’t have to pay anything to access your past posts. You just won’t be able to mooch CPU time off the Chicago Reader to have them all sought out and wrapped up for you. > > If your past posts are so valuable, you should be grateful that the SDMB stored them in a searchable index for free for so long. So all this time I’ve spent creating content for these boards, I’ve been mooching? Even when I was begging the Reader staff to consider other ways of raising capital, when I and hundreds of others were offering to help in any way we could, to keep the message boards alive, I was mooching? This is the sort of idiocy that we were trying to prevent. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/293 "2004-03-21T20:39:43Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > That’s right, you’re going to have to pay to access stuff you wrote when the boards operated on the understanding that you were writing it for a public forum. Wow, are you a bitter bitter man. You make it sound like the adminstration is doing something inherently dishonest here. They aren’t. Going to subscriptions does not make this a private forum. And just because one of the pay perks will be a search engine, doesn’t mean they are cheating you out of access to “your works”. Who the fuck are you anyway - Shakespeare?! I guess I missed the fact that one your inaliable rights as a human being was a search engine. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/294 "2004-03-21T20:44:50Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > So all this time I’ve spent creating content for these boards, … I wish I was better at speaking my mind but I’m just stunned by the overwhelming EGO of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/295 "2004-03-21T20:49:03Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > I wish I was better at speaking my mind but I’m just stunned by the overwhelming EGO of that sentence. And I’m unsurprised by the nastiness of that one. If we’re not creating content here, what are we doing? If you’re not proud of what you write, why are you here? ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/296 "2004-03-21T20:59:14Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > So all this time I’ve spent creating content for these boards, I’ve been mooching? Yep. > [@](#): > > Even when I was begging the Reader staff to consider other ways of raising capital, when I and hundreds of others were offering to help in any way we could, to keep the message boards alive, I was mooching? This is hilarious. You offered to help in any way you can, but you won’t pay $4.95 a year. So how are you going to help? Let me guess, your contribution towards the bandwidth bill is all the valuable content you have provided the Reader, free of charge. > [@](#): > > This is the sort of idiocy that we were trying to prevent. This must be another one of your valuable little nuggets of content. Maybe I will put it on a T-shirt and make a fortune. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/297 "2004-03-21T21:01:42Z")
> [@Berkut](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > This is the sort of idiocy that we were trying to prevent. > > This must be another one of your valuable little nuggets of content. Maybe I will put it on a T-shirt and make a fortune. It’d look good on you. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/298 "2004-03-21T21:13:06Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > That’s right, you’re going to have to pay to access stuff you wrote when the boards operated on the understanding that you were writing it for a public forum. In the spirit of fighting ignorance, I’ll point out that this is completely and utterly false. You’re still free to access anything you wrote. Simply set the viewing options for the forum to display threads from the beginning, and have fun clicking “Next Page.” Also, please point out any guaratee made to you by this site or the Reader which states they would keep your “content” accessible for free and forever. I didn’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/299 "2004-03-21T21:14:11Z")
> [@MrVisible](#): > > It’d look good on you. Nah, it wouldn’t match. I will gladly send you one, however. One size fits all, including whiners. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100/300 "2004-03-21T21:16:47Z")
I just thought people might like to know that if they’re looking for their old stuff, they’ll have to subscribe to avoid scrolling through the three million plus posts on the boards to do so. And with that display of the insular and viciously defensive future of the boards out of the way, I’m going to say my goodbyes, and leave. Yeah, I know. I won’t let the door hit me in the ass on the way out. Very clever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-place-all-sdmb-subscription-complaints-in-this-thread-you-cheapskates/235100.md?page=16)