Annual Fee For Your Comment?

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?"

Comments

Huh? Ridiculous? That's rich.

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

I seem to remember Slashdot wanting to remove features that used to be free when it planned to introduce its subscription service... it took a fair amount of whining from Slashdotters to change the editors' minds about that one...

Well

[koreaman]

BOO HOO. Honestly, you can't bitch and moan that you don't get to take up bandwidth for free anymore. Do you think Thomas Paine complained when no one gave him free paper to print his ideas on? Didn't think so. And his ideas are probably a lot more important than yours. I'm likely to be modded down for this, but it needs to be said.

Re:fees happen

[Xarius]

That was a pretty shit analogy. No-one benefits from a telephone call except you and the recipient, it's a completely different thing. I don't know what you were talking about with the book, there are free books out there. check out BookCrossing.

I see the parents point completely, contributers shouldn't have to pay to create content.

Re:It's not even just a matter of money

[isil]

IAAFMA*

What are you complaining about? A MUD admin decided to keep others from spying on your code without your permission? A MUD admin decided to prevent you from peeking at solutions to every quest and from learning the wc of every weapon, the ac of every armour, the location of every magic item?

If you are a talented coder, exactly what files are you going to need to see? You should have access to the base libraries already. If you do not know how to do something, ask a more experienced coder to help you or spend time actually reading the documentation.

Any well run MUD is going to have a policy on code ownership. YOU choose to join the ranks. If the MUD doesn't have a clear policy on code ownership or you disagree with it, then leave.

*(I am a former MUD admin)