Yeah, I gotta say $15 is way too high. The board has to support the occasional poster like myself. I hardly ever post, but thought that $5 was a small enough money that it was OK. I doubt I would have paid for $15.
Perhaps a better idea would be that everyone can post, but only subscribers can start threads.
Gotta say, I read just about 99% of the first four days of posts on the subscription subject, and was tossing various rationalizations back and forth in my head, allowing myself a vigorous join vs. don’t join debate.
Best one I’d come up with until yesterday was based upon paying for other people’s “content,” in that my five bucks would effectively get split up amongst thousands (I hope) of other posters who might answer my questions in GQ, and it came down to fractions of a penny for each potential answer. Contrived? Sure. I’m not sure that I don’t have a decent counter-argument to it myself, already.
Anyway, once I came up with that reasoning, I decided to wait a while longer, to see if someone on the “no way I’ll be paying” side of things could come up with a truly compelling (to me) reason for not doing so on principle. And I was prepared to give such people until well into April before making my own decision.
But, then yesterday it happened. I found an entirely new and powerful rationalization for paying up. My five bucks doesn’t go towards providing anyone with “content,” or anything else so grand. My five bucks went towards allowing me to easily search the forums.
Perhaps not coincidentally, it went towards searching the forums in an attempt to answer Ceejaytee’s question,
I figured it’d already been answered here, considering the amount of discussion there’s been about donations in the past. I couldn’t find anything, however.
And so, earlier today, I put in a call to the IRS, and asked if there was anything wrong with giving donations to a for-profit organization, so long as (A) the organization claims such donations as income, and (B) the donor doesn’t attempt to take the donation as a deduction. Of course, such constraints mean that even if the Reader did take donations, half (or so) of every dollar would go towards taxes, but still, I can’t see anything illegal about such donations. The IRS promises to get back to me within three business days. I’ll let you all know what they say.
1.Well, they’d actually be “voluntary payments” unless the CR set up a Non-profit Trust.
Yes but Starbucks would still let me drink my coffee that I paid for- even tho I’d be outside. I don’t say that “don’t be a jerk” can’t be a basis , but I think it needs some definitions.
No, I think Ed has done a great job.
draws katana
commits seppuku (and that’s a lot of stomach to cut, folks!)
Hey, feel free. 
(No free feels, though.)
Yeah, especially with those great colu…
What? I didn’t say nuthin’.
DaveW - great post. The only compelling reason I came up with was this: A part of me felt that if I didn’t pay up, I might stop spending so much time here. That part lost.
On the other hand, if the quality of this place goes to shit, then I’ll just leave. No big deal.
But I’m certainly willing to hand over five bucks and take that chance. Hell, I figure I owe a lot more, but since no one’s asking…
Hmmm, it looks like some got the charter member thing and some didn’t, actually. Mind you, a few different titles provides some flavor, perhaps.
I find it interesting that alot of “lurkers” are ponying up there five bucks, while some of the more prolific posters are swearing off (no pun intended) the dope because of the principle of the thing yeah right.When most people try to make a stand over principle, it’s usually the money. What a bunch of cheapskate whiners.
[sub]THis post is not directed at anyone who doesn’t have a credit card or paypal, or a legitimate reason that 5 dollars is beyond their means[/sub]
So, how much is a feel then?
**Dr. J ** I protest to your plan to catagorize this very subject into two seperate threads for these very reasons:
It makes sense.
It is logical.
The Whiners will all be crying on each other’s shoulders and possibly self combust.
The Suck-it-Up’ers could collectively dry out the world’s remaining supplies of Sarcasm sending out panic and hysteria across the globe.
I feel I have to get this out of my system, so here I go…
I think that this subscription thing is a bad idea, due to the societal stratification that will ultimately result.
“Oh STFU, Andros,” you cry, “It’s only 5 bucks!”
But will it stay five bucks? No. It rises to fifteen soon, which will stratify the board even more. With fifteen bucks you can buy:
[ul]
[li]A gently used video game[/li][li]Internet access for a month[/li][li]Two months’ supply of blank CDs[/li][li]A few days’ worth of groceries[/li][/ul]
15 bucks is just above my pain threshold. If subscriptions are here to stay, it would be best to keep them at a low level. Offering everyone a $7.50 subscription price (or even $10) seems like a fair middle ground.
Actually, if you sign up before April 22, you get a 50% discount on the subscription price after the first year, for eternity.
Daniel:
You betcha. Over the weekend probably.
Thanks for the kind words. It’s nice to see you again as well.
Regards to the missus.
Tim
This is the first time I’ve ever paid for anything on the Internet, but the utility that this place has provided me (mostly as a lurker) has been well worth $50, let alone $5. I figured that even though I think the subscription plan may be the beginning of a slow decline of the SDMB, I’d pony up this small bit of cash as a grateful gesture. Also, I hope my prediction is dead wrong and there will be something worth subscribing to this time next year. Vive le Dope! Et si le Dope meurt, vive…
le Crank?
W00t! I’ll say hi to burundi for you. Glad you’re sticking around!
Daniel
Me too. I thought us “first dayers” were getting the Super Duper Charter Member title. I don’t want to be associated with the undesirable types who signed up later then the first day.
leander wrote:
Okay, the fickle winds of rationalization just gusted in a different direction: now I’ve paid $2.45 to use the search engine, and another $2.50 to get a “great post” from leander.
Same here. And towards that point…
I got an answer back from the IRS pretty fast. Donations to for-profit entities, they tell me, are treated just like any other gift for tax purposes. In the case of people making donations to the Reader, annual gifts of less than $11,000 per Doper would not be taxable (or even, in general, require reporting) on anyone’s part unless the Reader provided a product or service in return. Such gifts are not, of course, deductible by the donors. More importantly, if such donations were to be taxable, it would be up to the donors, and not the Reader, to pay the taxes (thus saving them lots of accounting hassles). Many of the rules about gifts can be found in this PDF file of form 709 instructions.
With the subscriptions, it’s clearly income for the Reader, they’re obviously supplying a service in return, and they’re going to have to cough up taxes on the money they take in.
I suppose another call to the IRS might clear up whether or not an SDMB “server upgrade” would count as a product or service (since that’s what most people appear to be concerned about when in comes to handing money to the Reader in any form), but the one call was enough of a hassle for me. Here’s the IRS “contact us” page if anyone else wants to give this further hypothetical a try. The biggest problem I had was getting through the phone menus to a real person.
Oh, it should go without saying, but I will anyway: I am not a tax lawyer.
So, I’ve been busy for a week, enjoying myself in the Big Blue Room, and decide to check in with the Dope this morning.
Maudit Crisse!
HelenTroy, you lucky, lucky, bitch. *I * never got a welcome like that to the boards. You suck
Due to financial problems I will not be able to sign up until after the deadline. I was wondering if my username gets released when the deadline expires. If I have to wait a few months to signup will I still be able to register with the username Greathouse, or will it tell me the name is already registered? I’m not afraid of anyone taking the name (not that anyone would want it), but do the usernames of currently registered members get wiped out once the grace period has elapsed?
[The Reader’s Digest version]
Will I have a problem if I try to subscribe using my current username if I have to wait until the dealine has passed?
[/The Reader’s Digest version]