This post is pretty much the definition of jerkish behavior, Biere. Would you not agree.
Also, if you’re still reading this thread, I’ll miss your contributions to our weekly threads, athelas. I hope to eventually see you and **kasuo ** again.
This brouhaha has decided it for me. I’m not paying a fee to engage in conversation with anybody. This place has been a real learning experience in a lot of ways. I’ve never laughed as hard as I have at some of the things I’ve read here. I’ve been coming to the SDMB for about a year, but I haven’t got to know anybody - so it’s not like I’d be losing a lot of friends.
I don’t think I can bear to watch as the level of discourse caves in on itself after the riff-raff have been weeded out, the ‘gee whiz, it’s quiet in here’ threads die down, and you have only the core of regulars, who have already discussed everything under the sun so many times they’ve memorized the URLs to the threads.
First they take away the Dilbert forums, and now this. It’s been a slice. (knocks slice off the table)
[Homer]Mmmmmmmm…floor pie.[/Homer]
This post is pretty much the definition of jerkish behavior, Biere. Would you not agree?
Also, if you’re still reading this thread, I’ll miss your contributions to our weekly threads, athelas. I hope to eventually see you and **kasuo ** again.
Sorry for the double post. I caught a coding and grammar error after hitting submit and stopped the transfer, hoping to fix it before it went through but obviously didn’t.
You must be a SDMB agent. If I read the mod’s posts prior to the link, which you conveniently provided, DrD’s response, in context, was completely in line. Sorry
Telling someone to screw themselves somewhere other than in the Pit is somehow appropiate?
I suppose this is the right place to put this.
In so far, I don’t know what I’m going to do. $5 is hardly unreasonable, but as some others I don’t own a credit card, and thus no PayPal.
Also the whole suddenness of this decision rubs me the wrong way. I know they have been entertaining ideas of subscription fees for a while. However it is the 19th today and according to the ATMB post the update is on the 22nd. Three days hardly seems like a reasonable amount of time. It seems like they administration sprung this on us. I know there is a 30-day margin of error, but I’m sure some will sign up before then for fear of losing their post count etc.
Also, my impression is that the major change to the board will be the payment. It doesn’t look like we will be receiving anything new for our fee, other than a service they have been giving for free for the past 5 years. I understand that the board is expensive to maintain, but what has changed from prior years? Has the period of grace from the Chicago Reader run out?
In this thread and other people have expressed fear at losing the diverse amount of people you get from a free board. Sure, an open door policy gets you trolls, but it also brings in others who would have otherwise turned been turned away. Those others can be informative, insightful, or just plain good people. Additionally, as the flow of newbie’s slows to an almost stop, the community stagnates with the same group of people. With the quality of people currently on the dope this isn’t a huge concern. But I have noticed in recent times, especially in GQ, that those that have been posting there for a long period of time no longer bother giving good responses. They just say, No you’re wrong, or yes you’re right, then don’t bother giving any more information. I fear that without new people this will be an increasingly common occurrence.
Furthermore, I post very little. And what I post is hardly ever significant. It is nice to be able to give my opinion, but it is just one among many and I doubt my input has ever had a drastic effect. In other words I don’t see my absence being too great of a loss.
Well thus far I haven’t made any choice either way. It is a great community and one I would like to be a part of, but I am still apprehensive about the path this new decision leads to.
So this is being monitored by the FCC too? Move on …
FWIW, the usernames of all the people in this thread who have said they’re going to bow out are familiar to me (with the exception of the banned sock). You’re certainly not unknowns; you will be missed.
FTR, if members have privacy concerns about releasing their credit card information to the board, I’d suggest the following: (i) ask another trusted Doper if they’ll put your payment on their credit card; and (ii) send said Doper a $5 cheque (or money order, if you wish to remain completely anonymous).
I’m not subscribing, although I’ll probably lurk… I’ve been a lurker since the AOL days and, while I sometimes manage to insert my opinion, I’m not prolific enough to be recognized or revered or anything. And I guess I’m against the idea of paying money to chat… I mean, isn’t that what local-access TV is all about? 
I think I have a level-headed view on things, but there are plenty of people here with level heads.
I think I’ll miss the familiar names NOT posting more than I’ll miss posting myself… and that’s really what I’d be willing to pay for 
I’m hauling myself overboard and swimming back to shore. I don’t pay for anything on the internet as a matter of principle. I don’t post that much anyway and I doubt I’ll be missed. I’ll still be lurking though.
I’m another poster who doesn’t have a credit card and so will not be subscribing. As you can see from my post count I’m more of a lurker than an active poster but I will miss the place.
I’ll guess I’ll probbaly spend more time at Wikipedia…
According to this thread I can find the answer to pretty much any factual question I might have by just surfing the net.
I guess I come here because I like the human conversation. But I can get human conversation elsewhere.
Just perusing this thread I’ve seen two people get banned. Not that they didn’t probably deserve it, but I’ve seen this before. The mommies start taking over and the board becomes this sugary marshmellow soaked in cream group hug and the moderators start getting really twichy “ban” fingers with anyone that doesn’t conform to the PC group hug paying to post mommie atmosphere.
I think we’re going to lose a lot of the cold, hard, factual “straight dopeness” of the place.
Who knows? By the time you read this I may be banned for stating a contrary view in a thread where that’s “technically” not allowed.
Hope not. I’m not in the definitely won’t stay crowd, but I’m definitely in the probably won’t pay to stay crowd. Partly for the genuine can’t pay by credit card/pay pal issue, and party because well, like I said. I’ve seen this before. Whatever happened to the boards at Salon.com? I used to like hanging out there but they went pay, I left and never looked back. Did they stay interesting? Or did it become a small group of “in” people just talking to themselves?
I’m not sure how paranoid you are when you say you’re paranoid about security, but this seems very secure to me:
(1) find a doper in one of the ATMB threads who is willing to sponsor people
(2) get yourself an anonymous email address (through hotmail, for instance, or using an anonymous remailer if you’re super-paranoid)
(3) email said doper your account name and password
(4) that doper logs in as you and signs you up
(5) log back in and change your password
it’s not obvious to me how you can get screwed by this…
Yea, this whole thing has a stink to it.
I, for one, shant be subscribing.
I spend too much time on this damn thing anyway!!!
I haven’t fully decided yet, but I think it’s unlikely I’ll subscribe. For one thing, I’m largely unknown here. For another, almost all of my posts that I put real time and effort into are answers to GQ questions. I certainly have no objection in principle to paying for online services, but I’m less keen on the idea of paying to answer other people’s questions for them.
Psssst, levdrakon, if you check on the joining date for Biere, and read his posts, it seem pretty obvious that he’s a sock for DrDoom,
especially considering this quote from our (heh) esteemed “Dr.”
So, really, reading this thread you’ve only seen one person banned.
As for me, I’m not trying to argue any of you into staying (although I still wish you would), but I look at it like this (in terms of paying for conversation): let’s say I frequent a neighborhood bar where I enjoy the beer but enjoy the company and coversation even more. But the beer is cheap. After some introspection, the bar owner decides he’s not making enough money to keep the bar running, so sooner than close the doors, he starts charging a minimal cover fee at the door. He’s not offering me any more than I got before, but I’m helping to keep an enjoyable place functioning. So I pay the cover charge. Sure, I’m paying for the privilege of being allowed to buy beer, but if I like the beer and like the atmosphere of the bar, then to me, it’s worth it.
I won’t be subscribing. It’s just not worth it, considering my low post count. I’ve been here several years and read posts every morning but I only post a few times a month, and sometimes I feel like even then I’m just parroting someone else.
I did like representing the few Rush freaks out there though. 
Good analogy.
First off, the only time I pay a cover charge is when there is entertainment provided (like male strippers).
If my watering hole started charging a cover, I’d stop going. Plenty of other watering holes without one.
Also, the difference there is that giving cash at the door for cover charge is totally anonymous. Yes, there may be an elaborate way of getting around that here, as others have described, but how many newcomers are going to go through all of that just to sign up? I think the real effect of this is not going to be felt until a year or two from now.
My apologies to Cajun Man for not being very dilligent in checking the link.
I also think that this thread has decided it for me. I don’t really see the point, as Mr. Visible has stated several times, of paying to contribute to something. We make up the content of the board, and we are going to be charged to provide that content.
I love the Straight Dope and will miss the interactions. I do know that I would never have registered if there would have been a $15 fee, and I don’t see many newbies coming in for the same reason.
Post crazily until Monday!
moejuck