Say, 10 bucks a year?
I would… even 20 bucks maybe.
How many active members would be prepared to pay, and would it be enough to make a significant improvement to the servers and their upkeep?
I have not been here all that long and do a lot of lurking but I think I would be willing to pay 10-15 dollars a year. I check in most every day,have learned a lot and had a good laugh. There are also no banner ads on this board which is much appreciated.
Although I’ve said before I wouldn’t be able to pay – nowadays, yeah. $10-$15 USD sounds good per annum. Even if I had to beg or borrow the cash t’ do it.
I like this place. It’s big enough that I can feel welcome here. If subs would help keep it going, I’m all for it.
Here’s last year’s discussion on this issue, just for reference. (No, not for a “Hey! This has been gone over before, people!” There are links here that are relevant.)
Obviously this is a repeated subject of discussion here, but I think that there’s one model that I don’t think we’ve explored in much depth, free basic service with voluntary pay upgrades.
It seems that several online services are using this successfully now. For instance, LiveJournal.com has a basic free service, but members can subscribe and obtain some small extra features such as polls and additional use pictures.
I think that this model could work here. I think that there are enough people that want to support the boards that the “extra features” provided could be fairly trivial. Perhaps it could be as little as having your user title upgraded from “Member” to “Paid Member.” If we wanted, we could have additional titles like “Silver Member” or “Gold Member” for contributions in excess of the minimum, or just keep it as “Paid Member” if we don’t want to set up different “levels” of member.
I could see the “Why Join?” page as saying something like this:
Why Become a Paid Member? Well, if you become a paid member of the SDMB, you get one single benefit – you get the title “Paid Member” under your user name. You don’t get any other rights or privileges. Your posts won’t be any smarter or clearer or taken any more seriously. Don’t expect to use it to suggest you’re superior to a non-paid member. We can ban you for the same reasons as we always have banned people (or even at whim, as the Registration Agreement says), and you won’t get any money back. We don’t know why anyone would rationally want to do so, other than to support the SDMB. But anyway, if you want to sign up as a paid member, feel free to do so. We’ll change your user title when we get around to it, and in about a year, we’ll change it back if you don’t pay up again.
I like that idea, Billdo. It would be a good way of showing people that you support the SDMB enough to actually contribute money. Plus I think it would encourage other regular users to become paid members.
You could actually give paid members some extra privilages such as: avatars, and maybe a limited “edit” button that could be used to correct spelling mistakes for 10 or 15 minutes after posting (in the same way as the unaboard do - this seems to work there).
The avatars aren’t very likely, from what I understand. Besides the questions of server space, page load time, and judging avatar appropriateness, the Primary Concern, from what I’ve read in ATMB, is one of copyright. The board belongs to a newspaper, which has a vested interest in copyright issues, and plus, in theory the Chicago Reader could be sued if a stolen image apperas on its server or its board.
I rather like the Billdo idea. Would I pay? No. I’m a starving student who has had a lot of trouble just buying food. When I’m older, and have fifteen disposable dollars a year? Perhaps. Probably. Especially if it kept the Board afloat.
The charm of the Billdo Plan is that there is no discouragement to new posters. As soon as there is a plan which requires people to pay to read or to post, the board, I predict, will stagnate. (I, for one, would never have signed up if I had to pay. Not that I’m what’s keeping the board fresh. ;))
The Billdo Plan also, to my eye, gets around the Reader’s problem that it can’t easily accept doantions. It’s not a donation, these people are paying a small fee for a prestigious privilege.
As long as a culture of ‘Paid/Unpaid division’ doesn’t develop, I think it’s great.
(PS, if I didn’t have to pay by internet, I might buy a T-shirt too… once I have money)
I would.
I don’t need any kind of special priveliges for my paid membership, just the knowledge that I helped out a good cause.
Beyond which, there is one wonderful reason why this idea keeps being brought up, and shot down again: the SDMB is a possession of the Chicago Reader, Inc., a weekly newspaper published in Chicago – despite our feeling of “ownership” and “membership” it’s their baby, and for whatever reasons they have, they’ve chosen not to make it a pay-to-belong or pay-to-access-particular-areas or whatever; they won’t even take straight donations for the board’s upkeep.
BTW – when was the last time you expressed your thanks to the management of the Reader for doing this? It’s been a long time for me – EZ, would you kindly convey my appreciation for one of the finest services any newspaper anywhere ever provided for its public?
i’d pay $15 for the Billdo Plan
oh, and THANK YOU Chicago Reader
Good on you, Chicago Reader. I’d expect no special privileges either, for a subscription – except the opportunity to keep reading, posting, and sharing ideas with a wonderful collection of people here.
Thanks for the comments, we appreciate hearing from you on all issues.
I really have no news to impart on this front except to say that the situation is still under review. We’ve entertained a lot of suggestions on the issue and this is far from the first time such a plan has been floated.
Please remember that this is by no means the main deal of the Chicago Reader; they are first and foremost in the newspaper business. This is not to say we might not be more to them at some point, but that’s not happening right this second.
In the meantime, hang out and enjoy!
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Oh I will.
But (and I quote Hoggle), “If you need us…”
I’d definitely be willing to pay.
Polycarp you’ve given me an idea. Could you check your e-mail please? 
Checked and responded to, favorably. Scotticher and Lynn Bodoni, if you see this before you look at your e-mail, would you please check same?