RMurphy

Everyone here knows there is no such thing as off-topic in Vintage. So long as it doesn't go political, threads here wander all over the face of the globe. Other than us having the old people issues we talk about (which is what the description of Vintage says it's specifically about), this whole sub-forum is Off-Topic heaven.

Now, I brought up alternative definitions of screwing too. How come no screwing poems for us, hmm?

I figured y'all could use a good excuse for being worried about member versus non-member and the weather seemed as good an excuse as any. I would have blamed it on the government (cuz they are frequently the root of many evils), but then...

RMurphy

Google: I have a Google Apps/Docs for business account for which I do pay. They also have some other apps for the phone (backup to google for sms/mms) which I have purchased.

AOL, local news/newspaper: no. I don't subscribe to those. I put up with the CBS radio affiliate's AM radio commercials in my car and streaming online though. The termite exterminator commercials are only beat by Sit-n-Sleep mattress commercials in ultimate annoyance factor.

Yahoo: I have a test account which is not for daily use. I think I touch it twice a year to literally "test" things when needed. So no, I don't pay for their free (and crappy, insecure) stuff.

Wikipedia: I have donated, but not annually.

Facebook: they only charge for if you want to use their "promote" function, which I don't. That stated, I have many times said that enough of my life is now in Facebook that I would pay if they charged me a nominal fee to keep my account alive or functioning at its current level with complete history.

I listen to the local public radio and I feel sufficiently guilty that I do not pay to support them whenever they have their membership drives. I like NPR and many of the programs on these two local stations, so I do feel like pond scum for not contributing to at least one of them.

I'm not weighing in on the s2ki membership pro or con discussion for reasons that are my own. I just liked answering the questions asked in this one post.

Looter

Short....& Sweet ...!!! I will continue to be a paying member, @ least as long as I own my "S".... and frequent these boards ...!!

Just for my own reasons ... Not to care whether anyone else, is a paid member ..... or not... I enjoy sharing stories, & posting with everyone on here ...!!!

dlq04

Would need a bigger lot to do that ice sculpture to keep the sex police away.

RMurphy

^^ Sounds totally chill, man.

Zippy

While I see your point on the Mega-Site/service providers, I am certain that AOL, Yahoo, Google, and the other giant sites that are out there have a significantly different business model then IB uses for this site. You can look at what AOL just did (~1 year ago) to their Patch division. If you are not familiar with Patch, it was a series of websites set up "locally", so that towns could have a "news outlet" that was highly localized. Because there was no profit coming from a number of areas AOL shut down 300 sites.

S2Ki is an independent profit center. If it is not profitable it will go away. They will not look for a big new way to save us, they will move on. I spent a career in start-up tech operations in sales and marketing, and when a product was not profitable it was shut down.

Catch me at SF (another shameless plug), I will share a cocktail and tell you how a salesman and a very small company in the fiber optics business SHUT DOWN the production of the Boeing 777 weeks before their sales launch. One of the many times I was thrown out of an office.

(I also have a great story about "unguided" guided missiles.)


For profit companies are incentivized only by profit, and when there isn't any they find something else to do that will make money. Let's hope their advertising revenue will carry them through, because if not we might all be on Facebook.

Now can we get more signups for SF (more shameless plugs), please.

dlq04

Excellent point Zip ...

Legal Bill

While I appreciate and agree with the premise that the site will close if it is not profitable, I have found no evidence that there is any problem or threat of closure at this time. Indeed, take a look at the Announcements forum, which I just glanced at. Other than some notices about updates and maintenance, none of the ownership or admin threads have even been updated for months. I see no thread encouraging people to join as paying members. No thread trying to sell the benefits of paid membership, and I get no notices or emails asking me to join. If there is some problem with the profitability of this site, the site owners are doing a terrible job of trying to correct it. The better conclusion, based on the absence of effort to encourage guests to join as paying members, is that the commercial members, banner adds and other sources of revenue are doing the job. In fact, I'll go so far as to suggest that without guest members they would not have the banner add revenue stream at all. Isn't paid membership the way that most folks avoid those adds?

dlq04

A large number of us use free software called "Ad Block" that stops it.

dlq04

I think Lainey started an interesting discussion. It pulled out some strong differing opinions. Each member or guest can and will decide on their own if the owners are just a business cynically leaching off the efforts of past owners, or if they are providing a service that relies on a $20 annual contribution from the majority of the members in addition to commercial revenue to ensure a profit that allows the site to stay healthy and ongoing.