Would you PAY to belong to a message board?

**amykhar** · #1 07-25-2001, 02:55 PM

A site that I check out every so often has decided to start charging an introductory rate of $6.50 a month to participate on their message board.

While I can understand the site's NEED to charge (boards use a lot of resources and tend to be the most expensive part of hosting a site) I really could never see paying to join a message board. I'll click banners for people until I turn blue, and buy things from their referal links, but I won't pay a monthly charge.

As a forum admin, I can't see charging for membership either. I believe it would SHARPLY cut down on the diversity of the membership. Because having a variety of kinds of people on a board is what makes it interesting, I would think that a paid board would soon grow extremely boring.

Amy

**hadassahchana**[$] · #2 07-25-2001, 04:24 PM

There are very few boards I would pay to use, but this is one of them.

Come to think of it, this is the only one. However, I do think you're right in assuming that it might cut down on board diversity, which would be a real shame.

Cindy

sibhreach · #3 07-25-2001, 04:35 PM

All of the boards I'm on are free - and if I had to pay for any of them, well, then, they wouldn't have me as a chatterer...

Which could be seen as a good thing, by some folks...

Cairlí
Wonders If There Will Be a Fee

poseidon · #4 07-25-2001, 04:40 PM

I used to volunteer for a message board called nowonder.com -- it was a fantastic resource where poeple could get all sorts of computer help -- be it for Win9x, MacOS, BeOS, etc. It just didn't matter, and there were some great people there who provided all sorts of unique answers to some fascinating problems.

C|Net took a look at it, and decided to purchase it. It still remained free for a bit.

One day I went to log in, and they decided that it would cost a fee to ask any question. Suddenly, the volunteers who were used to answering peoples questions weren't there anymore -- I was one of them and I couldn't find a way to even log in that way.

So, I dropped my membership and refused to pay them for this service. They ruined it IMHO because it was a wonderful free resource.

As much as I like this board, there's not a chance in the world that I'd pay to be a member here. There's a lot of great people who I'd miss but would likely jot down their e-mail address and just converse with them that way.

In fact, I can't think of a single website where I'd actually pay to be able to post or even read messages. Anything you have for pay I can likely find for free if I dig hard enough on the 'Net. It may not be exactly the same stuff, but it'd be close enough.

So, my answer is a flat "NO."

Jeff

**amykhar** · #5 07-25-2001, 04:42 PM

Hell, Jeff I wouldn't even pay to belong here

A really good message board that I frequent is going down. In a last ditch effort to save the place, they are planning on charging $10 a month for membership.

Of course, they use paid employees to moderate the site and not volunteers. That makes a HUGE difference.

Don't worry

EA isn't in any financial danger. Our new host is great and cheap, and all is right with the world.

Amy

frazzledspice · #6 07-25-2001, 06:22 PM

Another message board which is frequented by Epinions members has a "Community Chest" and has asked for voluntary contributions. Last time I checked about 8 people had donated $195, some anonymously. The board has 300 plus members.

Whether I would pay to participate on a message board would depend on three things--my personal finances, the importance of the board to me, and the danger of the board going down without my help.

I do try to click on advertisements here, and frequently will check out people's Epinions through Grace's system.

At the moment, I've started a business which is just a little smidgen over the break even point, and wouldn't currently pay to use a bulletin board.

KristenNC · #7 07-25-2001, 08:06 PM

My take?

TACKY!

It's tacky to hit your "friends" up for money - and a bulletin board like this is supposed to be friends, not commerce. Now, if it were a site that offered me a service OTHER than friendship (like, I could get computer help - oh wait, I get that here - okay, if I could advertise my own site - oh wait, can do that here too) if -- they offered me naked pictures of Matt Damon, then I'd pay gladly. But hey, I'm the one who turns down Pampered Chef parties cause I just can't stand the guilt.

As far as paying for a bulletin board... I'd donate to this one, only because I KNOW how much money has come out of someone-whose-name-I-won't-mention's pocket. But that's only because I've been here for a long, long time and NOW want to support Amy in any way I can. She won't take my money though.

Anything request for donations automatically turns me off completely... and I consider myself pretty generous with material goods in general.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

Kristen

**amykhar** · #8 07-25-2001, 08:27 PM

I honestly feel badly for the members of the board that made me ask this question. (Salon.com)

They are a rather close-knit group, and the economics of the dot.com world has forced the site to take drastic measures just to stay alive.

Many of the members are willing to pay, but quite a lot are not. Some simply don't have the money. Others feel like Jeff. It's just a sad sign of the times.

Amy

mtbat · #9 07-25-2001, 08:44 PM

I found one board the other night that offered for $1 a month no adds while surfing that specific board-now that I might be willing to do if that particular board meant a lot to me and I spent enough time there-(I don't I was just visiting)

I think that $6.50 or $10 a month is way too much for ANY board-particularly when there are still groups like yahoo.groups and yahoo.clubs available for free but I can see that perhaps someday there won't be ANY free boards-or very few!

I supposes if I loved any board enough I might be willing to donate like 1/2 my IS to them

maybe

edit to add a month

wivabef · #10 07-25-2001, 11:58 PM

This wouldn't be a matter of ethics. With my husband's voracious appetite for spending money at Best Buy and a mortgage, the former would have to subside and judging by the way he's been checking the speed of my computer and suggesting that a "blahbity blah mega hurts me processor would be much better", I know the Discover Cards gonna be a hurtin'.

So, no. I can't afford to pay to write when I want to get paid to write.

cerdo · #11 07-26-2001, 01:07 AM

No way in hell.

**pluckyduck** · #12 07-26-2001, 06:05 AM

Amy -

I feel bad for the folks over at Salon.com too. They are a lot like us; a lot of their conversations are like ours and they have a sense of community. I understand why Salon is charging...in order to keep the board (with waaaaay more active members than we have) in order, they need full time paid staff, or it would start to look like f**kedcompany.com's message boards....

Side note: I love Pud, the guy who runs F**kedcompany.com and am addicted to checking his site out every couple of days. But his message boards...gross, disgusting, filled with jerks. I need a shower after spending just a minute or two there.

So, would I pay a membership fee for a message board? For certain, very specific reasons I would. For instance, if there were a business think-tank kind of membership board that attracted me, I'd pay. I'd probably rather pay for a business board than just stumble on a free one that was full of people pimping their Amazing Home Business Opportunity! No start up costs! Make $50,000 your first month!

In that case, a membership fee would act as a gatekeeper, and that would be good.

But, as has been stated here previously, the gatekeeper of "membership fee" is exactly what I wouldn't want on a message board to hang out on, like this one.

Oh, and for clarification purposes, in case there is any doubt for anyone reading the thread EA will always be free. Come hell or highwater, seriously.

Amy and I are just feeling for the board members over at Salon.com. They love their board as much as we love ours...but it isn't theirs. The company owns it, and now they want to charge.

Andrea

hypotenuse · #13 07-26-2001, 09:20 AM

aohell

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #14 07-26-2001, 07:29 PM

Wow. I didn't know Table Talk was going to start charging until I read it here.

I went over there to take a look at what's going on. The thread discussing it had over 1400 posts. Now I remember why even though I've been registered there for many years, I've never posted. It's too busy! I can't keep up with any of the discussions.

As for paying -- I had thought, on and off over the years, about joining the Well, but never did. The price just seemed too high. If it had been a little less, I probably would have.

I guess now, though, the way they're setting it up, if I did join the Well, I'd get Table Talk along with it. Still not sure if it's worth it. Table Talk is likely to have a refugee camp kind of atmosphere.

Also, I don't like the way they've handled it. They recently started asking people to subscribe to Salon (the site overall, not just the boards). I had thought of doing that to support them. Salon's the first site I ever went to when I got internet access, and it's quite good, even though it's been going downhill lately. But again, I didn't get beyond thinking about it, and didn't end up subscribing.

But what seems unfair to me is that a lot of people did subscribe, and now they're being asked to pay again for Table Talk.

Also, I don't understand their math. They're saying they'll break even if they get 1,000 Table Talk subscribers. That's $10,000 a month. Why do they need so much to run a board?

Plus, Salon's likely to close down anyway pretty soon ...

I'll be sorry to see it go. I'd often wished they came out in a print magazine version. Now that's something I definitely would have paid to subscribe to.

**pluckyduck** · #15 07-28-2001, 12:51 AM

Auntie -

I thought seriously about joining The Well, too...but I ended up deciding not to....and that's the Catch-22 for Salon, and so many other people on the net.

For some reason, people don't want to pay for web content. I'm not cheap... I spend money on all kinds of things. If you took just a fraction of the money I've wasted on Internet purchases (I bought the Egg Wave on the net, need I say more!

) and paid some of these poor content providers for everything I've gotten from them, I'd be a start on the Internet Economy actually panning out.

Because "no one" pays for message boards or content, my paying to join The Well seemed so utterly decadent and elitist, I couldn't bring myself to do it....compare joining The Country Club vs hanging out at the public pool.

Maybe a site like Salon needs an NPR kind of model. Making a pledge/donation to NPR or public television feels a little bit, um, intellectually elitist, but um, it feels good too.

Andrea