Darn. I would've paid the $9. One day of overtime for me would have paid for 2 years and then some. Just 4 hours, that's it. Least I can do to show my support for keeping an open forum not run by vendors.
We all drive luxury vehicles, and we're complaining about $9? If we can't find $9 in our budget every month, us as a society is royally fucked because no one has an ounce of Financial savvyness about them.
Forgot to add as well, even in this market, you can give stuff away for free and people will still find something to complain about.
This is why I was hesitant to share my view, because sure it's "only $9" and you get called cheap. The problem isn't the price, it's what you get in return for that $9. Hulu is running a special for .99/month for a year. I didn't sign up because I didn't see the value in it. If that makes me cheap, ok, I'm cheap.
For some the increase in features is worth the $9 relative to what is free, for others it may not be. I'm all about value (Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits, you try to match wits...sorry trailed off there) and I don't know if $9/month is worth it to me for the added features relative to the free experience.
I'd ask
@doublespaces - was the VIP forum area going to be indexed by Google? I have found without that indexing, it limits searches for what can be valuable information. But with it, you can still "see" the information. My concern would be that paying members would confine contributions to the VIP area, and thus the only value on the forum would be in that section. Not that it would definitely happen, but it's a possibility.
I don't think anyone thinks you're greedy
@doublespaces. I think you've created something many people would love to have. You took a passion for a hobby and hopefully are able to make it a profitable venture. I commend you on your impartiality and desire to remain as 'consumer reports' like as possible and not have to worry about vendor threats. It's definitely difficult in the current "ad supported" model that so much of the internet is based on.
