Please place all SDMB subscription complaints in this thread, you cheapskates!

The BBQ Pit
141

Wow. Thanks. That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.

Actually, it’s not. It’s going to the Chicago Reader. I’d love to keep posting, especially knowing that I move some people with my writing. But I still think sometimes about writing for a living, and paying to have someone publish what I write seems like giving up on that dream. If I have to pay to have someone publish me, then what good can I be? If I give away my writing, I feel good about amusing people and debating issues. If I pay to have it posted, I feel pathetic.

Yeah, I know.

I feel like I make a contribution here, however small. I’ve been pleased and proud to be a part of this community, and I’ve been mightily entertained by the discussions. I just don’t think it’s going to be around long, and I don’t want to be around for the decline.

The party analogy is interesting. Let’s say you throw a party. The guests are all having a good time. They’re nice enough people that they keep coming up to you and asking to help out with the costs. They offer to pay for the beer, they offer to pay for the chips, but you just keep saying no, thanks. Then, as the party is getting good, you have a friend stand outside the door and charge people to get in.

People walk in and out of parties all the time. All that the cover charge is going to do is keep people from walking in. Soon, you’ll have your house all to yourself again.

First off, they’re charging the people who make this place worth paying for. Those people can easily go elsewhere, where they won’t get charged. Chimpanzees could point out the flaws in that business model.

I’m hoping that this will be an incentive for me to start getting published, actually. And I’m completely grateful to the boards for providing me with the opportunity to refine my writing. Meanwhile, I’ll try and find another board, and try and contribute to a different community. One that I don’t need to pay to contribute to.

142

Truly entertaining…

And in response to that post…

Good job, gobear.

Do what you want, but stop talking about it.

Fucking hilarious.

-Joe

143

**
Your plight has moved me. I’ll fork over the $5 for you. In fact, I’ll go start the thread right now for people who can’t/won’t pay the $5 because their cell phone and DirecTV fees are too high.

I admire your courage in getting through every day. I hope you win a Nobel Peace Prize soon, because if anyone deserves it, it’s you.

[sub]Is this guy serious? Is he arguing for me, or against me? I can’t tell![/sub]

144

I said stop the malice and the backbiting, not to stop talking completely. Now if you feel that the only way to discuss this is to be hateful about it, then I’m sad for you.

You have the wrong end of the analogy, MrV, WThe porper analogy is not a friend’s house, but to a rented hall. Someone else has been footing the bill for you to hold your parties, but now they want you to help kick in the cost for the rent. If that makes you decide to hold the party someplace else, smaller, darker, not as fun, by all means go.

And as I said before, the donation route has always been a nonstarter–the Dope needs a steady, dependable revenue stream, and piddly dribbles of occasional cash just can’t be depended on for budgeting purposes.

See, I’m discussing this without being malicious. See the difference, Merijeek?

145

See, I take it that quixotic is bitching about people who are complaining about being asked to pay $5 for non-essential services that are here primarily for entertainment value. If it means that much to you, you can find the five bucks. If it doesn’t, then it’s your choice as a consumer not to subscribe.
I understand that it’s not worth five bucks to some people. That’s fine. But some people act like they’re entitled to have an avenue of entertainment given to them for free. They’re not. Personally, I don’t have cable. I don’t have TiVo. I have a cell phone, but cut the land line, because it makes no sense to have one. I barely watch TV. My entertainment expenses are better spent here. But, as the acronym goes, YMMV.

146

quixotic, I am going to post this reply and then be done with the matter. I don’t want or need any charity from anyone.

You seem to be operating on some superiority complex, that this fucking message board is so important that people should be begging to get in. I’ve got other things I need to spend to money on–and yes, as you point out like a fucking douchebag asshole, other things I prefer to spend money on. The $5 I’m not paying here adds up with the money I’m not spending at Fark, IGN, SA, etc. etc. etc. Your tone belies your strongly held belief that the SDMB is somehow more worthy than these places, or my satellite bill. That’s a matter of personal preference. Would you buy the fucking Eggstractor for $5? There’s no excuse for you not to buy one, c’mon it’s only $5!" Please.

147

Quote:
Originally Posted by Q.E.D.
You can’t afford 1.3 cents a day?

I gave considerable thought to whether this even warranted a response, I do not have a paypall account and the only working credit card is for necessities and emergencies. Where can I send my $.013 daily cash payment? I would be willing to send payment by check or money order but there is no mechanism to do that. Its not that I do not feel that I should not have to pay, I have no means to do so, I know that some of you can’t grasp this concept, but there is nothing I can do to change that.My unemployment benefits ran out in October, I have worked some low pay odd jobs since then, but they do not meet my basic needs, thus I slip just that much deeper into debt each day. I am not a cheapskate and I really do not need some arrogant ass telling me what I can afford, with that I must be going, fair well, I have enjoyed my time here.

148

Mr V, I too am a big fan of your posts, we need people like you to keep this place going.

You better fucking stick around.

149

I’ll be paying and my post count is still in the low three-digit range. I hope to get my user ID changed when I do as well.

That said, someone was asking about what Somethingawful.com offers for their subscription fee. Although it technically is ‘just forums’, they generally have a lot to offer with one room being dedicated to people buying and selling items (I find games cheaply this way), one room for deep discounts on the web, one forum for various MP3s, another for BitTorrents, etc. Combined with the usually funny (albeit unintentional and sometimes juvenile), I dig it over there.

150

Thanks.

Sorry.

151

That would be fine if he actually said anything like that. Instead, he rails against those wanthin to help people who seriously just may not be able to afford it (although I too have my doubts about how such a system would/could work, I don’t call anyone wishing to help an IDIOT). Then he says basically that there’s nobody out there would can’t afford $5 (or I guess $15 later on, or however the hell much %50 of the current newbie rate ever turns out to be). Get a clue, there ARE. Plenty of people who previously had good jobs and still OWN things from their previous good fortunes (like a computer, etc.) who are out of work now and living on a very strict budget. Suggesting to these people, or anybody else for that matter, that they should panhandle, donate blood plasma, “walk around looking for change,” or give up something else in order to join this board is just ridiculous.

He also seems to hold no distinction between those who can’t pay and those who won’t pay. Several posters seem to think something is WRONG with those who simply won’t pay the fee. I won’t pay the fee. I don’t need the SDMB any more than I need an Eggstractor, a BeDazzler, or a Fark membership (although with that, you actually do get access to more content). Would these things be useful? Possibly. Any more useful than things already available to me via alternate means? No. And that means no matter how inexpensive it is, I’m not buying.

152

What I would like to see is an entirely revamped user agreement, beginning with the notion that the Reader can’t arbitrarily publish what we post here for their own purposes without compensating the author. They have the right to store it, and to produce a copy when requested in these forums, but nothing else (not that I’m particularly concerned my stuff will ever be worthy, but it’s an honest agreement).

I would also like to see clearer rules than “Don’t be a jerk.” While I’ve only rarely come on the wrong side of a mod, I’ve seen some dubious decisions made in the past and feel that paying members deserve clarification.

I would like to express my dismay that less aggressive efforts weren’t tried first, like amazon linking in Cafe Society (seemed like the biggest no-brainer since “money for nothin’”) or purchasing add-ons (like custom “Member” titles for a fee, or public biographies, etc.) that weren’t bandwidth-intensive.

LiveJournal charges far more for little more than the dope offers, and apparently survives just fine. Internet entities can survive. While I’m not proposing something as draconian as leaving like MrVisible, I am extremely disappointed in this choice over others. The bullshit about “Buy more mugs!” is not the proper response to alternative suggestions.

Like the esteemed Mauvaise I feel that I owe the boards at least $5 and I intend to pay it for no other reason than as a salute to enabling the best community I’ve ever been a part of, physical or digital. But I am extremely skeptical about the future. I don’t expect to be paying $7 next year because I don’t think the boards will make it under this model in the form I currently enjoy. I’ll be happy to be wrong, but that’s MHO.

153

In relatively few words: what troub said.

In somewhat more:

I’ve been a registered member of this forum for a pretty darn long time, and I’ve visited the board just about every day during that period. Now, in all that time, I’ve barely contributed more than 100 posts, and considerably fewer than that on matters of substance. This has a lot to do with the relative slowness of our Internet connection here at work, from where I typically post; it takes forever to submit, entire epics get lost in the ether, so in general I’m only going to submit a post when I am extremely motivated to do so.

Now, is it nice to be able to throw my two cents in on an extremely sporadic basis? Yes, of course. Am I willing to pay to do it - to pay money for the chance to contribute 100 posts over the course of four years? No. Not because I can’t afford it - I mean, two trips to the bagel place for a cinammon raisin with butter runs about the same as the initial membership fee - but because it’s just not worth it. Yes, it’s only $5, but there are thousands upon thousands of diversions on which I can spend only $5 - renting movies, popcorn at the movies, a flower for my wife, a round of bowling, a round of miniature golf, the Straight Dope Message Boards, ESPN Insider, that fantasy football magazine I just saw at the drugstore today. At some point, you have to pick and choose which ones are getting your money, and for me - because my participation has been relatively limited over the years - this isn’t going to be one of them (more than likely, anyway; I may crack, eventually, if the discussion veers toward something in which I’m very interested).

And the thing is, most of you won’t miss me. I mean, I’m not anywhere near self-absorbed enough to think that my Friday morning analysis of Survivor tactics is especially significant to the readership of the board at large. To someone like gobear, I’d say, yeah, sure, you’re willing to pay; you’ve invested thousands of posts in the board - have developed real and valuable relationships through it - and are likely to continue to do so in the future, so of course it’s going to be worth the measly $5 to you. But I’d submit that of the many thousands of registered users who comprise the Straight Dope message board community, a considerable percentage are more like me - low post count users who post on subjects of particular interest but won’t pay to do so - then like you.

So the net effect, I’m guessing, is that many (not all, but many) of those low post count users will bleed away, and the board will lose the extraordinary diversity of thought that’s made it worth visiting for the last five years.

154

Unless they’ve changed their policy since this announcement you can get your username changed now. Just e-mail Lynn or Tuba with your current username and what you want your new one to be.

155

Hilarious! You are truly a man of the people, gato.

156

Also I don’t have much faith in the switch to a commercial enterprise. When it was free I never complained about the slowness or the halfassed repairs (IE HOW long has the new board been up? How baout fixing the : dubious : : smack: : wally ; j Smileys? Or at least removing these red X’es from the page.)

157

Beating around the bush? Pretty clear from here. There’s too many people on the boards for their current server and they hope enough of us (like me) dump it so that the few payers get a faster server. And good luck if 7000 people do pay 'cuz he doesn’t sound too optimistic about infrastructure upgrades this milllenium.

158

I’m fond of your Survivor takes, Storyteller. I’ll miss them.

159

17th time somebody has brought this point up. Still no answer.

This needs to repeated until ADMINISTRATION gives us an answer.

Well? I know you’re reading this. We deserve an answer.

160

I agree with that. I have lurked here for a few years before even registering, I just started getting into though. I think for a lot of people it is not a matter of the 5 bucks, but that they are charging for it at all that gets their goat.

The question remains that with anyone still able to surf the boards as “lurkers” the boards are unlikely to get any faster, right? Just look at the view to post count on the baords as they are.

I think if a promise was made to use the funds to improve the servers, and make it faster and more reliable, more folks would less of a problem with it.

I do think that a “newbie” would find it hard to put the $15 bucks to join though, maybe I am wrong, I hope I am. But I, like others, am worried about missing out on new posters with new ideas here.

Just my two cents.