The SDMB survey asks this question. I said “no”. But now I wonder.
I like the fact that some things are free.It’s not the money. It makes them seem, well, freer.
But, If you could get better service on just any old message board (This is not an ATMB question) by paying a couple bucks per month, would you?
Peace,
mangeorge (Reconsidering)
Teach your kids to bungee jump.
One them might have to cross a bridge someday.
What survey? Where can I find it? I love toast AND surveys (not to eat).
What about just giving us a place to send donations?
sure I would pay a few bucks, if I could get into ALL THE MESSSAGES BOARDS!!!
:mad:
It’s right here, the first bullet thingy. At least I think it is. Am I hallucinating this thing? 
http://www.straightdope.com/
Peace,
mangeorge
I’d pay. I’d even throw in a couple bucks toward paying the Mods. The SDMB is important enough to me to spend a few bucks on, especially if it meant the site’s continued existence. But, what would it do to the SDMB?
Would we get a lot of “I paid good money, so I’d beter post even though I have nothing to say” posts?
Even worse though, who wouldn’t pay? If enough people (or even a few of the right people) were not here, it would not be the same SDMB.
So, I’d pay the first month, but if the character of the boards changed, I’d be gone.
The question asked if you would pay for receiving SD articles via e-mail in advance of when they were published. I answered “no” because I don’t like getting e-mail from anyone other than friends or family that have something to tell me. If the question had asked if I would pay for using the message board, I would have said “yes”. Treat the SDMB like… well… dope. They’d have to give newcomers a free trial period, but it’s easy to get hooked, and once they’re hooked, they’ll be willing to pay. Although, they can probably get more money out of advertisers if they can just attract a few.
The big problem with charging even a small fee for the use of the message board is that it will shrink the member base, and I think that (at least up to a point) the more members there are, the better the message board.
Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them.
No…
Hell no, man. Fact I believe you’d get your ass kicked trying to pull something like that.
Seriously, I think if a fee is instituted, then there will be a bunch of pissed off folks, including me.
See, I wouldn’t mind paying a fee, but if I was paying for this and couldn’t access all the forums and had to read “We’re sorry, this message board is temporarily unavailable…” then that would suck. I don’t get bent about it now, as it’s free, but I was paying for it, I would definitely not be prepared to tolerate system outages or other such stuff.
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”