# What finally made you pay for SDMB? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 11, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951 "2006-07-11T01:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/61 "2006-07-11T19:14:41Z")
I had been a member for about a year and a half when the “pay-to-play” requirement was adopted. Since I don’t have credit cards or a PayPal account, I was planning to stick around as a lurker. Then I learned that a few **Dopers** had offered to sign up people in my situation. I e-mailed **EddyTeddyFreddy** , got her postal address, sent her a $5 bill and a temporary password to my account, and watched the board until I saw a post under my user name in which she indicated that my payment had been received. I now realize I’d go crazy if I could read the board but never post a reply, especially where the [Death Pool](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7566446#post7566446) threads are concerned. Once you start playing that game, you realize you’re a **Doper** for life (pun acknowledged). ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/62 "2006-07-11T21:43:42Z")
The diversity. There are intelligent threads on so many different topics. I’m constently discovering things I didn’t even realize I didn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/63 "2006-07-12T06:24:20Z")
You know that thing on the home page that says “Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.”? It is absolutely true. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better-informed, smarter group of people on any general discussion board anywhere on the net, let alone try to put together such a cast in real life. And the dipsticks add flavor. Or grit, or something. You get the idea. And the moderation does make a _huge_ difference. Places like alt.folklore.urban and alt.fan.cecil-adams can be great, but the nature of Usenet, and particularly the unmoderated groups, guarantee a fairly high noise level. Here the spammers and obvious trolls are chased out almost immediately, and even long timers get tossed if they flaunt the rules too much. Also, many other web discussion boards are so cluttered with icons, sig lines, dancing pictures, and other crap you can hardly see the posts. After seeing dozens of posts on a thread saying “Dude, you suck!” followed by 30 lines of signature including animated jpgs of the poster’s cat, skateboard, and lunch, I’m ready to scratch my eyes out. There’s a lot of silliness here, most, but not all, of the answers are right, and the wrong ones usually get corrected. Lots of chatter about inconsequential things, serious things, esoteric things, simple things, fun, games, sex, drugs, and rock and roll! What more could you possibly ask? The money was trivial in an absolute sense, and compared to the value I get, positively microscopic. I’d pay two or three times as much and consider it a bargain. So, given all that, it’s like the other guys said: The time came when we had to pay to play or lose the joint. I paid. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/64 "2006-07-12T08:18:44Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] I’d like to pledge the first $20 towards this noble effort. 😃 [/QUOTE] [Screech Powers] I bid my entire life savings. [/Screech Powers] ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/65 "2006-07-12T08:24:46Z")
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse] Add to that the fact that an awful lot of Dopers **get that pun**. 🙂 [/QUOTE] How unintentionally perfect in describing why I paid the first time. (Of course, you have to parse it a little differently…) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/66 "2006-07-12T10:04:15Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] …and I’m gonna throw in something off the wall. This is a _well-moderated_ board. I’m one of the moderators. While I don’t visit cyberspace that often, many of our posters do. And almost universally, they come back and report that the moderation at this board is well worth it. Yes, there are free boards out there. Some probably quite good. But the level of/lack of moderation on many boards means they are not worth your time. If my post seems self-serving, I don’t mean it that way. Just trying to tell you what I"ve seen others say here. [/QUOTE] Yeah right. There have also been plenty of other posts over the years which haven’t reflected the same adoration. I make no comment about this particular Moderator: the quality varies. A lot. I now rejoin each year for the Charter Member status. Pretentious, I know. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/67 "2006-07-12T11:34:36Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonix] I’m 20,000 dollars in debt because of my college education. I honestly think i’ve learned more useful things here at the SDMB. 15 dollars was peanuts. [/QUOTE] Well then, it might be best to send the twenty big ones to " Cecil Adams, c/o The Chicago Reader", now mightn’t it ? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/68 "2006-07-12T11:57:14Z")
[QUOTE=DonutSprinkle] I am a guest here, and I admit to being tempted to subscribe with my hard-earned money. Considering the availability of free forums, I was always curious what would motivate people to actually pay for the privilge. But I must confess that a small fee does seem to produce a finer crop of conversationalists. So my question is: what made you decide to pony up? Was it a particular thread, post, user, or did you just join right away. (I’m not fimiliar with the history of the board, so I don’t know if any users got ‘grandfathered in’ without paying.) [/QUOTE] The fact that the cost, amortized over my total time here, likely hasn’t even reached a penny an hour. Also, I have no qualms about paying for stuff like this. The infrastructure needed to maintain this board costs money, and who better to pay than the users? ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/69 "2006-07-12T14:30:03Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] I’ve been lurking for years, and I still mostly lurk… [/QUOTE] Unless Henry lets you out for holidays? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Webner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@Webner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Webner)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/70 "2006-07-12T15:35:39Z")
I’ve been reading the Straight Dope since I found a link to it on [Bored.com](http://Bored.com) 6 or 7 years ago. I finally glanced up at the navigation bar about 3 years ago and found this forum. I immediately loved the forum’s culture of wit, curiosity and intelligence. I remember thinking that if I spent all my free time browsing this board, which is really a pleasure anyways, I would become such a knowledgeable person. I was content with lurking for a few years. To be honest, I was afraid to post. I had seen so many guests embarrass themselves with their ignorance and then leave in disgrace. I wanted to pick up all the customs of the board before posting. I finally payed up about a year ago, partly to support the community that had given me so many hours of delight, and partly because I finally felt I was ready. Fifteen dollars isnt all that much, anyways. The SDMB is well worth the price of a movie ticket and popcorn, half a tank of gas, or a crappy DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/71 "2006-07-12T20:28:33Z")
I only stumbled across SDMB a couple of weeks ago, and I already suffer withdrawal symptoms when it gets too busy at work to spend some quality time lurking (and occasionally posting). I subscribed today and then found a link to the **18"DHIBJD** :eek: :eek: thread! That alone was worth the $15!!! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951/72 "2006-07-12T21:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=Dottygumdrop] I subscribed today and then found a link to the **18"DHIBJD** :eek: :eek: thread! [/QUOTE] Ah, yes. **Stonebow** ’s [finest hour](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=266235&highlight=dildo+smiting). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-made-you-pay-for-sdmb/363951.md?page=3)