i’ll stay. but can’t you just make the official price $5? i would think straight dope, of all people, would resist the standard “$4.95 is SO MUCH LESS than $5” marketing ploy. (question for cecil: is there real evidence that people really buy a lot of stuff for, say, $19.99 that they wouldn’t pay $20 for?)
I think the Amazon link should be included as well.
And a massage. All dopers with over 6,500 posts get a daily massage.
What?
I’m definitely staying. I gave up fast food for Lent, so I’ve already offset the cost of a charter membership.
As for what will happen to the tone of the boards…Well, it will definitely cut down on trolls.
Then, as far as the projection that we won’t get any “good” newbies, look at it this way. If we don’t have to battle trolls all the time, the boards will be more appealing to the people we want to stay! This is why the better clubs have high cover charges and minimums: to discourage the yobbos. In the absence of drive-by troublemakers, a month may well be long enough for a well-spoken poster to get hooked.
Count me in. I am considering sponsoring a few people. Ideally I would like to pay for some low post count fence sitters. The established posters can figure it out. I want to help people I don’t recognize in the slightest. Should help with the new poster problem, that and my evil quest to draw them in until they are helpless to leave.
Only if they get free parachute luggage, a set of steak knives, and free long distance calls. 
What the fish said. Yeah, this is kind of a gamble. It remains to be seen whether this will cut off the board’s air supply, condemning us to a slow, stupid death, or whether this will be exactly the trimming of fat that turns us into a lean, mean, ignorance-fighting machine. To me, it’s certainly worth five bucks to stay and find out.
So I’m staying. Besides, my five-year anniversary was two days ago.
Wait a second. Five… years.
Damn.
Anyway, yeah, hell yeah I’m staying.
Heh. It could be worse. Two hundred years ago, your parents would be handing you a large maggoty tuber and sending you out to scare off the mountain lions. I think you can deal with a little credit card blackmail. 
I remember an (anecdotal) story in my psych class. They set up two bins with the same merchandise. One was marked “4 for $1.” The other was marked “25 cents each.” At the end of the week, the 4 for a dollar bin was empty, the 25 cents each one barely touched. Moral: Never underestimate the consumer.
Yeah, I’ll bite. I’ve received a tremendous boost in discretionary income by giving up beer for Lent. So 5 bucks 'tain’t nuthin…
Definitely staying. It would never occur to me not to stay. I’d go outta my mind (not saying I have much of one in the first place) if I couldn’t be here. I am not a big-time poster, but it’d just kill me if I wanted to and couldn’t.
Hell, if I can fork over the $10 for SA (where I never post, just lurk intensely) I certainly can fork over $5 for the greatest boards on the net.
Payment, for me, is not the issue. Five bucks is a pittance.
But I have, so far, avoided putting any credit card numbers online, and I don’t much care to do so now.
Non-electronic payment, on the other hand, I could work with.
Of course I’m stayin’!
If the pool gets up, I might just throw some cash in it, too.
“For only ten dollars-the price of a handjob- you can help two people post to the SDMB, instead of cheating on your wife with a transsexual hooker.”
It’s actually much safer using your CC online than it is in real life. In a typical online CC transaction, no human ever sees your card number.
You betcha, now that I can finally get on-line again (yay!!!).
Zebra, you’ve brought up an important point. One thing I like about this board (among the many) is getting to know teens and young adults and hear what makes them tick, which is an opportunity I don’t get much IRL. I also feel proud, if that’s the right word, that the adults here are able to give insight and guidance of the sort I wish I’d gotten when I needed it. As such, I hope the new policy doesn’t effect a change in age demographics.
Furthermore, I’ve decided I’m not going to tell Mr. Rilch about this. Because he will laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. I can see him now, flat on his back, pointing up at me. And I’m glad, now, that Friend doesn’t live here any more. There was a time when every time I went upstairs, even if it wasn’t to go on the net, he would start slapping his arm, in imitation of a junkie trying to bring up a vein. Not that any of this would dissuade me from subscribing, but I’d just rather not hear it.
I think you mean never overestimate the consumer.
I’m staying, as long as I figure out a way to pay that does not involve giving a credit card number to a source I don’t or can’t completely trust (including PayPal, which I’ve read many horror stories about).
Are ou kidding? This place is more addictive than porn.
Safer at work, too.
If I get a job by the 22nd, I’ll probably fork over the $5 to stay. I have a feeling it will be a one year thing, though, considering the amount of new members will definitely decrease significantly. I know for a fact that I would have never have joined this board if I had to pay from the beginning…
I’m staying. Like other posters have remarked, I’ve received an awesome education on a myriad of subjects on this board, the value of which far exceeds a measly $4.95. Besides, who else would take me?
<insert JavaMaven’s post here>
I haven’t spent the last four years of my life here just to walk away now because they’re asking me for five bucks.