Annual Fee For Your Comment? 553
CaptainThunderbolt writes "Imagine this: you read an interesting story on Slashdot and you have a comment to make, so you login only to be greeted with a message saying you will need to pay a fee in order to make your comment. Seems ridiculous, doesn't it? Why on earth would you pay just to make a comment? Well, that is exactly how thousands of Aussies feel right now. AtomicMPC is an Australian PC Magazine with a fiercely loyal readership and an equally loyal online community. Yesterday it was announced that access to the most popular sections of the forum will soon attract a $20/year fee unless you are a magazine subscriber or a high-ranking forum member. The reaction to this announcement triggered the most vicious backlash I have ever witnessed as the website feedback forum went beserk. Users baulked at the idea of having to pay to access a community which the feel they are responsible for creating and I must say I understand how they feel. Is this a trend I should worry about? Will I one day have to pay a membership fee to access other popular forums?"
Umm, Something Awful? (Score:5, Informative)
I think that people don't like paying for something they used to get for free, but there's precedent for it. The OP needs to stop pretending that there isn't.
going down hill (Score:3, Informative)
Trend forwards or back (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, if offered something good for free, people like it and will switch to it. But paying communities thrive today in both MMORPGS and things like Second Life (which does let you own the stuff you build in order to attract people who do have this concern.)
But this is nothing new, it's a competitive battle that will continue for a long time to come, with free and paid and people choosing.
mod parent up (Score:2, Informative)
Welll Slashdot Does it again (Score:5, Informative)
So you have 5 groups
1) Subscribers - They have paid money and get access for the length of their subscription
2) Mag Buyers - They get access every month they buy the mag. All they have to do is enter that months code. They have paid money for the mag and get a free months access with it. This is reusable for every month.
3) You are a God or Mod or SuperHero or Hero - You are at the top anyway so you get access free
4) You dont buy the mag - so there is a $20 year charge for something that is based around a magazine and is a commercial entity. Heck slashdots subsribtion cost money. You need to stay afloat
5) You dont buy the mag and dont want to pay so you just lurk
Taking advantage of your users twice (Score:3, Informative)
If they use my material, which I grant them permission to use (and they credit me, they don't transfer copyright to themselves) and they get ad revenue from putting ads on the pages showing my photos, why should I have to pay? I've already essentially paid by helping them get more ad views/clicks.
I let the "reservation" time out because I didn't agree with their policy.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2, Informative)
But that would actually make it seem like a reasonable deal, wouldn't it?
Not truely correct (Score:1, Informative)
* Those who buy the magazine - do not have to pay (they get a code on the magazine)
* If they subscribe - they have their subscribe id (and free use).
* Else they pay $20 - which is those who just go there for the site.
Also, do note that only -certain- forums- need to be paid to view/post.
All technology related forums are free for all.
some humble opinions... (Score:4, Informative)
no, i dont particularly want to be identified by those members of the forum being discussed that actually know me (though i'm sure a few will guess... meh)
i happen to be one of the "high-ranking" forum members mentioned, and though i get a free ride, i'm rather annoyed at the fact that a lot of my 'lower ranked' friends will now be charged to keep in touch with their mates, as there are a number of members of the community who either dont buy the mag, or live elsewhere in the world where the mag isnt sold...
at the same time i can see where Haymarket are coming from...
i did have something useful and constructive to post here, but all i'm really feeling is ambivalence, and cant make up my mind whether to support this idea fully, or be outraged...
oh, and i just thought you'd like to know that there's a small group of atomicans that are quite chuffed that the community made the front page of
Access fees. (Score:3, Informative)
You can also access these areas if you buy the Magazine at the newsagents, although then you do have to update the access code monthly.
Note the two parts of the forums that have been blocked are only general chat and trademart, all the tech related articles are still available free to everyone, so the comments that people have made to help the community at large are still freely available, it is only the general rubish that has been restricted. And trademart, but again that could be considered a premium service! Who complains about having to pay to use the trading post or similar??
The comment has been made that the loyal supporters of the mag are upset about this. Why? If they support it, then they are buying it and therefore will have access to all areas! Is it really such a problem for people to support what it is they use??
I'll say it again, the only part you miss out on if you don't buy the mag or pay is the general chat (The Green Room) and the Trademart. General chat is really just a forum based chat room. If thats all you use and now can't because you don't support the Atomic Magazine, what have you really lost? A chat room.
As a subscriber this doesn't impact me. I can't understand the reasoning of people who don't buy the magazine and refuse to pay a fee. If you don't support the place, why are you here to begin with?
Re:Welll Slashdot Does it again (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's not even just a matter of money (Score:4, Informative)
*please correct me if I am wrong!!*
anyway, it sucks but if every website was a ship, the captain's word is law and primate under god....
err, no (Score:5, Informative)
You can find numbers from 2002, when he was registered as Something Awful LLC in Washington state, with monthly revenue of around $60,000, of which only about half went to pay for server colocation and bandwidth. I'll let you do the math on what that leaves in profit.
In fact, he makes enough profit that the front page writers are also paid for their content, in addition to it being his full-time sole source of income.
Re:Let Capitalism run its course. (Score:3, Informative)
I wonder how much it would cost if Slashdot paid hundreds of worthwhile scientific people to make +4 and +5 comments?
Beyond the fact that, yes, that's precisely how markets work...
Rob and Jeff have explained repeatedly that the vast majority of Slashdot readers don't go past the front page, and that those are the cheapest, most profitable readers to serve as the front page is cacheable. In fact, the site's prominence is supported by the comments and losing them would probably wind up costing money in the long term, but in the short term, they make their money from submitted stories, not from the world's interest in your or my brilliant comments.
Re:err, no (Score:2, Informative)
er, I think you mean "It's a rather effective form of theft", except of course you have a ToS which legalises it.
I don't subscribe to SA because I'm an impoverished student, but I was having a look around a few months ago and spotted some sort of photoshopping thread. The rules were post images only, or get banned.
If you posted a comment on an image your account got banned and you had to pay to reregister. On any other forum you'd get ignored or at the worst your post would get nuked. But banned? you wouldn't get a temporary ban from any free forum that I frequent, so for a forum which will charge to unban you that's inexcusable. When you start pulling stunts like that it screams "money-grab!", I saw at least 3 people who posted 'wrong' and got banned, that's $30 income, it must be like shooting fish in a barrel to generate income.
For a free forum there's no real incentive to abusively ban people left right & centre for minor infractions unless you get some sadistic pleasure out of annoying people, but on a pay-for forum there's the lovely profit motive.
Sounds Like Meetup.com (Score:3, Informative)
But seriously a monthly fee for recieving what many other (most other) sites provide for free, is a great way to shutdown an active site. I think that making plees to the users to make a donation or offer new services at a premium price, is way better than charging for what was once free. Just bad business.
Something awful and metafilter do this (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's not even just a matter of money (Score:3, Informative)