First off, although I think donations were a better idea, I understand the reasoning behind your decision process, and am not questioning it. I have two comments/suggestions:
I’m assuming you are going to now have to set in place some sort of structure/apparatus to process and receive money from the TM. I assume this will be either by Paypal, by direct Credit Card entry via the Web, and/or by check/money order. However you are doing it - given that you will already have the structure in place to process fees, can you please put an additional entry field, whatever, so someone can also make a one-time donative to the Board, along with their membership fee?
Will you accept American Express, please? This way I can get more Delta miles.
Are you (the mods/admins) going to post the progress of the “campaign” as it goes on? I’m thinking of something like those “thermometer” displays many charities use when working towards a contribution goal.
And can you tell us what the magic number of subscribers/fees it will take to get this thing going?
If someone is banned part of the way through their subscription, are they reimbursed for the rest of the cost? Likening this to a magazine subscription is iffy, since if Time suddenly decides that I’m a prick and stops sending me my issues, I certainly wouldn’t think that they’d keep billing me for the rest of the year.
Similar situation, but what if the person decides that the subscription isn’t really worth it and quits halfway through, or just tries it for a few days and wants their money back?
Can we pay just by sending chocolate, scotch, or appropriate bribes to staff members?
I started a thread about this over in MPSIMS. I wasn’t sure what forum a general discussion about this would go, plus I figured I’d hit a larger percentage of dopers who only hang out in MPSIMS-land. Hopefully between these two, we’ll get some good discussions going.
I really do understand the whys, I just worry that a fee would drive out some long-time posters, and prevent potential newbies (fresh blood!) from joining in the fray. I do think the monetary levels will play a big part in this.
I’ll gladly pay for it. The amount of friends and information I’ve gleaned off this board is well nigh to incredible.
But my fear is that if we thought there was mod bashing before, wait until angry posters play the “I paid a fee to be here and I think it should be run THIS WAY” card.
About time. I would suggest allowing a no cost 3 day tryout (with posts allowed) period for those interested in joining. There are number of sites that have pioneered this subscription approach already. It’s not rocket science. The only question is how much the perceived benefits and entertainment value of SDMB participation is “worth” to people.
I am assuming there will some degree of risk taking on the Chicago Daily Reader’s part to make a serious investment in the hardware, software and maintenance infrastructure necessary for a decently responsive board 24/7. The reader is asking for 20- 50 each. Before this happens I think the reader needs to invest at least $ 50,000. (minimum) in upgrading hardware and software. If the theory is "We’ll see if you’ll pay x for this access and then we’ll upgrade if we get enough money will be a a failure. If the Reader want users to get serious and pony up the Reader needs to get serious about delivering a responsive baord experience.
It was not my intention to have a thread be more “Do I like it/do I not”, which I think is what the MPSIMS thread is more about. This was meant to be along the lines of the “technical”, or execution aspects of it.
One thing that paid membership to post does is it virtually eliminates sockpuppets and trolls. If someone wants to make one new sock a day at $50 per occurence, well, it’s likely worth it.
As I said in the other thread, I don’t think it will work.
Many of the current “regulars” will be happy to pay the money. Sure, if you already have friends here and are part of the place you think it is worth the money. I don’t think that we will get new members.
I think a better way to determine demand is to find out how many people who are not already posters would be interested in paying $20-$50 a year to post. I don’t think that you will find many.
I hope I am wrong because I would hate to watch this board die. I plan to become a lurker only again if this plan goes through, like I was for a year and a half before I signed up.
Hopefully this is a thread truly looking for opinions, not just a cheerleading thread, so. . . I guess this won’t make me Mr. Popularity, but as much as I enjoy SD, I’m not planning on paying a cent in Chinese money for access to ANY website.
I hate saying that since it sounds like a knock at the SD, which it is not, I think this is possibly the best website on the Internet right now.
But this is a disturbing trend that I see on the Internet: once free websites that would bombard you with pop up ads for years now suddenly holding their hat out for cash. I do believe the admins when they say the site is having a cashflow problem; the problem for me is I’ve also seen a lot of other sites using the same pitch when they are fine just to make a buck off their readers.
That said:
I consider the SDMB a luxury, not an essential item to my life. As a matter of fact that is my opinion of the entire Internet. If it went down tommorow, I’ll go read a book.
If the SDMB goes pay, less people will subscribe, and the amount of time it takes to get responses to posts will lag. That will suck. It will end up like fathom, which is a great site, but because it seems to have less readers, you post something there and have to wait 2 days for a response. Why should I pay for a site that is less enjoyable?
With the brainpower on this website, someone I’m sure will simply create a free message board just like this one somewhere else. It won’t be as good as the SD, but it will be free . . .
The reason websites are running in the red, if they really are that is, is because it costs so much to maintenance them. As more and more websites go out of business, web servers will see the writing on the wall, and either they or someone with better, cheaper technology will make the costs of operation much lower. Therefore, eventually “pay sites” will not be that common.
Unless everyone does want to pay, and my theory of supply and demand is wrong. Then I guess I’m SOL. Oh well.
What is our guarantee that in 6 months like so many other sites SD will go belly up and we are out of our year subsrciptions?
Sorry, no offense, Cecil . . . I bought every one of your books, but unless someone can convince me otherwise, and I do have an open mind, I’m not into paying to hear the same opinions that I can get in a bar. Nothing personal, simply business, I’m sure I won’t be missed anyway.
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How about $5 a year?
It’s not a done deal yet, folks. Ya’ll should at least go click on Ed’s announcement and vote “Yea” or “Nay” for charging subscription fees (because that’s basically what it amounts to). They’re just testing the waters. It’s to Preregister for being a charter subscriber and then get a discount if they do decide to start charging, but you can also indicate, while saving your seat, that you do NOT intend to pay, if and when an Evil Fortune should decree that Zotti’s dart hits “Go For It!” on the cosmic dartboard.
There’s also a “comments” box, which I dunno how much it holds, but it held all of MY message (I think). It’s a one-line thing like a thread title, scrolling. So tell 'em whatcha think.
$20 to $50 a year is not that much money, IMO. The Goose family is currently paying, IIRC, $38 per quarter to subscribe to the daily Chicago Tribune, and all the Trib does for us is provide 10 minutes a day of “are they NUTS, or what?” reading, plus flooring for the parakeet cage.
Whereas the SDMB has sat here and patiently kept me company for more late nights than I care to remember, not to mention the priceless companionship of a chorus of sane voices the week of September 11.
I’ve got my “SDMB Charter Subscriber!” badge pinned on, plus I volunteered to chip in to the Daddy Deep Pockets Fund for Truly Impecunious Posters.
One question: Do we get different name thingies, or will it just continue to say “Member”? How about “Lord of the Board”? And the socks could pay extra to be a “Dark Lord of the Board”…
I’m “unplugged” at home and only post from the office, so I can’t do anything involving money. If the SDMB goes fee-only, I’ll have to say goodbye, and actually start WORKING at my desk.
This is a great site, and I’ll kick in $50 a year for it. But obviously new people won’t be anywhere near as willing, because they aren’t involved in it yet. Letting people read for free will help, but maybe not enough.
So, consider a free tryout (astro suggests this as well, just a few posts up). I wouldn’t mind seeing 30 days or so for free (posting included) for new members. Then if they want to stay, they have to subscribe before they can post.
I heartily second Anthracite’s request to allow subscribing members to kick in extra. Maybe the extra would help hold down the basic subscription price, and of course more people would then be willing to pony up for it.
I also second Anthracite’s request for AmEx. All my business expenses go on AmEx.
This may be a bit naive, but have the admins considered selling the name of the board to a corporate sponsor? Subject, of course, to a stipulation that content not be stifled in any way.
Last I heard, the idea was that some fora would be free, while others would require the subscription. You want to tell Cecil he’s wrong, be our guest (we need the amusement :)), but if you want to go flirt in MPSIMS, pay up. Of course, I’ve been out of the loop for a while now…
Another thing… Ed, you might want to say something about the amount in that survey thingamajiggy. There’s probably a good number of people out there whose answer will depend on what the price is.
Old Joke punchline: “Well, we’ve already established WHAT you are, now we’re just hagglin’ over the price.”
I will pay for the site. I can’t imagine not being able to post here. The number of new posters will fall dramatically. About the only benefit, IMHO, will be that I MAY be able to read a larger percentage of the threads. I’m now overwhelmed.
As far as The Reader going belly-up and not honoring the remainder of your subscription–They were around long before the internet, and they’ll be around as a paper for longer. You might have to worry about a .com company not refunding your money, but not The Reader.
Eve–Are you “unplugged” at home from choice or poverty. If the latter, I’m sure that about 25 dopers who worship your posts would chip in $30 each and we could have you posting from home. *This offer not valid for all posters. See your store for details.
And banning won’t be as easy as it is now, methinks, because those morons will have paid to be here, and some of them will seek legal (or extralegal…) means to ‘get their money’s worth’.
