Just a thought …
What if the Reader really doesn’t want to keep the SDMB going, but just the static part of the web site, if even that? Rather than out and out kill the site, they institute a subscription fee to kill if off. So many people don’t pay it, the Reader decides it’s not a viable option and they kill it anyway, will a few bucks thrown in. After all, they could blame it on a downturn in users …
OK, Ok, I’ll put my tin foil hat away …
Email someone on this very thread who has offered to help you out by arranging to pay for you. Pick any one of the folks who have offered to do so, and limit your choice to the one you believe to be the most reliable. The only thing you are risking is your account here, which you can easily reclaim by emailing to Tuba Diva and telling them that you did so, and have them change your password back, and boot the other user forever.
It’s not a difficult problem.
Tris
Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into this, I may enlist the help of a friend with a paypall account. I was a bit ticked off by the response I received from a fellow member that I had previously held in high esteem, but I have calmed down considerably since then.
I am NOT paying an annual subscription. I would have paid a one time fee of $10 (like another website i could mention…), but annual fees is just stupid, plus everyone who gets a sponser this year will have to beg around to get another sponser in a year.
This is not about providing content for the boards, since the boards don’t make money from that content. This is about using resources. Equipment, software and manpower cost money. In this case, the people who use those resources are being asked to support them directly rather than being subsidized by third parties. If you decide it’s not worth paying for, that’s dandy, but quit whining about what a terrible fucking injustice it is.
It absolutely kills me the sense of entitlement some people have. “Everything should always be free on the 'net!” Christ.
It could also be the case that some who can’t afford it this year will be better off next year. And it could happen that some who can afford it this year will need help next year.
Hey, you stupid shit, I can complain about whatever I want. The Reader is a business. They have made a business decision that it is worth their while to run a message board related to one of their columns. They now think it is worth their while to run a message board related to one of their columns if they can raise money from those who contribute to the message board. I am a soon-to-be-former patron of one of the message board who has decided that their business practice will have an impact on the way I conduct my business with them. I can tell them that all I want!
And why the fuck shouldn’t I? I can read the New York Times on the net for free! That’s a national newspaper! If I wrote for the NYT, I would get paid. Why the fuck would I pay to write for a message board?
Oh for chrissake. Is the SDMB selling your content to others to make money? No. The NYT subsidizes its free website by selling newspapers. Idiot.
I’m poor but principled. Will anyone sponsor me for the next 4 years?
Straight Dope tuition over the next four years is only $49.80.
Send me a “Grant”.
Hmmm…that’s not chump change anymore.
The NYT subsidises its website because it considers that subsidising a website will boost its profits. The Reader does exactly the same thing with the SDMB. If it doesn’t, its fucking stupid.
I don’t give a fuck what the Reader does with my content. All I’m saying is that I’m not paying to contribute to it. And I’m saying this because I like what the NYT does rather than what the Reader does.
There are plenty of sites with professionally produced content that provide the content for free. The Reader thinks that the content of this board is so good that people will pay to contribute it. I’m one person who won’t.
shrug
In addition to my 30$ DSL bill, I pay 45 bucks a MONTH for our household’s 3 EverQuest accounts, and 13 bucks for my pay e-mail, which started out as a free email service, just because it’d be a big pain to try and switch my e-mail address and make sure everyone who needs it, gets it.
For 5 bucks a year, count me in, I get tons of entertainment value for my dollar here.
For the last year, for free, I have gotten from the SDMB:
I have learned alot about tons of subjects, gotten answers to questions faster and more thorough than many other resources would have been, and read some of the funniest things I have ever seen on the Internet.
I’ve read some things that made me madder than I have been in recent history, things that made me literally scream out loud from frustration at some blatant idiocy or another. I’ve read things that absolutely boggle my mind with how incredibly intelligent said poster is, and make me pause, to dare to dream to be that knowledgeable about anything.
I’ve read things that made me literally cry, either with tears of joy or sorrow, read things that made me want to reach thru my monitor and punch someone in the head, and others that make me want to hug someone.
And almost more enjoyable than all the rest, and something I very much prize, I feel I’ve learned how to think more logically and critically, and debate better.
I feel so very much bettered by having been a part of this board, and I thank you all.
5 bucks? For a year full of all that??
Jesus, I’d pay several times that, for what I’ve gotten so far in return. It’s one less crappy Blockbuster movie rental per year, for crissakes.
That’s a good way of looking at it, but where the powers that be have drawn the line is with providing content, not reading it.
To Diana, and everyone else who thinks “five bucks is not big deal, for a whole year deal”,
Not everyone can find a way to pay the five bucks online. And many have mentioned about issues about privacy and PayPal. So it’s not just the five bucks. It a canful of worms and serpents we are talking about.
(Sheesh, since I am going to lost my ability to post, I may as well join in the fun!)
Oh, for crying out loud- it goes a bit deeper than this. Of course I don’t think that everything on the net should be free; I buy computer parts online; I paid my subscription fee for playing EQ. That simple fact is: the SDMB is a message board. The vast majority (or if you don’t believe me, we’ll say “a lot”) of message boards on the web today do not have a subscription fee.
If one movie theater in town decided to give away its tickets, rather than sell them, I would think “Hey, wow… that’s umm… weird, but freakin’ awesome.” I wouldn’t automatically think “Hey, ALL theaters should do this!” But, if a large portion (let’s say 80%) of the movie theaters in town gave their tickets away like this, you can certainly believe that they would draw a LOT more people than the theaters charging money for their tickets.
LilShieste
Forget the concerns about the mods being overly banhappy. There’s no way I’m paying good money to stick around and have Milum tell me I’m a terrorist sympathizer every time his mom forgets to feed him his meds. If they want money for the boards, they’d best be prepared to provide a professional service in return.
You want we should hire professional posters, liagle?
Yeah, insulting people for making minor criticisms of your work… not a good way to bring in accounts.
No offense, but this is one of the more idiotic objections to the subscription plan that I’ve heard. Unless you also complain to your cell phone provider that you shouldn’t have to pay because you’re supplying the content. The infrastructure and recurring costs required to allow you to publish your valuable thoughts are pretty high, and, at least in my opinion, you severely over-value the content that you’re providing. Unless you’re James Lileks or Dave Barry in disguise.
It is how they’ve drawn the line: pay to post.
But you don’t get to listen for free on cell phones. This is a crucial difference.
I re-iterate: If 80+% of the cell phone companies out there provided their service for free, I would definitely think twice about the service I’m getting with my current cell phone company.
LilShieste