The Boston Business Journal is reporting that Boston.com will not longer be free.
I was just curious how many of us will pay to keep coming here? I am a Globe subscriber (maybe the last one left) and don't like the idea that I will have to pay the Globe twice. Do you think people will pay for Boston.com? Do you think this will cause subscribers to cancel their subscriptions to the print edition? I can not see paying for both. It will be a shame to lose or diminish the wedding community on Boston.com; the people who post here are so much more sane that The Knot posters. Here is the article from the BBJ:
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass_roundup/2009/08/bostoncom_may_soon_come_at_a_price.html?ana=e_boston_blog
Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
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Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 11:45 AM EDT
- november2009
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Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 11:49 AM EDT
- Goodness1
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If it's true, that's a real shame. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 11:50 AM EDT
- Peonie
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What? That makes me very sad. I am so looking forward to one day asking you all for advice :( I really don't want to have to pay for it. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:00 PM EDT
- pinkkittie27
- Posts: 3467
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Boo. It depends on how much the fee is. I feel like having the milk for free for so long makes me not want to buy the cow. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:00 PM EDT
- wendy98
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I won't pay for it. You can always set up a proxy by establishing a group on Facebook, the catch is that everyone will have access to your real name etc. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:08 PM EDT
- Goodness1
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That's true, Wendy98. I don't know about anyone else, though, but I like the anonymity.
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Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:09 PM EDT
- samanthastevens
- Posts: 37
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Why do they have to have access to your real name? You can set up a dummy account that you use for your group, just like you do here. I know lots of gamers on Facebook that have 6, 7 accounts so that they can "give" themselves food, tools, etc. in the games. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:12 PM EDT
- Peonie
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Wait till they start charging for FB. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:20 PM EDT
- lucy7368
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I would imagine that, if you pay for the actual paper, you won't also have to pay for online access.
I wouldn't pay for it. I would join a free group elsewhere, and I don't really care if y'all know my real name. But then I feel like it would become more of an isolated group, unless we found some way of advertising it ourselves.
Also, it could be that you would pay for online news, but not the message boards. For example, the NYT only gives you a couple days of news online. After about a week, you have to pay to search the archives. That's not really a big deal. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:25 PM EDT
- Sept2010Bride
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Wait, your name isn't Lucy?? And I will not pay. And you all know my name is Liz. I'm not really private at all. I am friends with KMT on FB, she knows everything about me. That would be pretty annoying though if we did have to pay, what gives?! -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 12:27 PM EDT
- framerican51008
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I wouldn't pay, but I agree with Lucy that it will probably be like the NYT website where you pay for archived articles, not today's news. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 2:08 PM EDT
- cicirose
- Posts: 678
- First: 7/22/2009
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I would absolutely not pay. I was a Boston Globe subscriber until they sold my cell phone number to a marketing company that called me a minimum of 3 times a day. I will gladly go to their website and help them earn advertising $$ but I'm never giving them another dime. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 3:35 PM EDT
- wendy98
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In Response to Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?:Why do they have to have access to your real name? You can set up a dummy account that you use for your group, just like you do here. I know lots of gamers on Facebook that have 6, 7 accounts so that they can "give" themselves food, tools, etc. in the games.
Posted by samanthastevens
I suppose you could do that but I would find that too bothersome. I like the idea of this being pretty anonymous, granted it is not full proof but I just don't want to deal with multiple personalities :) -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 3:40 PM EDT
- whatawagSBNy
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I guess since the paper is up for sale, we have to wait and see.
Now that I live in N NH, I would rather pay a small fee for use for say 24 hours, when I want it. It makes more sense than the cost of the paper and either postage or dealer fees that add up to a cost 365 days a year. I miss the real paper, and hate some aspects of the online experience, like articles on video where you see someone read something - and could have read a 4 sentence synopsis in much less time. I hate the time waste of 4 page turns to get a 6 inch single column story out, because of the many ads, manufactured celebrity news and such. Hate the articles on someone who got arrested for erratic driving because they had snakes in their pocket, and newsflashes about twitter, like that is news.
For visuals that mean something, for lists of vendors you can contact with a click, or the immediacy of short posts and forum exchanges, I prefer e Globe.
If they charged every time you dial up, I would not pay. To get on and off 6 times in 24 hours and pay 6 fees, for what might be a total of 16 minutes? no way I would read and post here, or stay current on Boston area news.
I expect that when I finish helping my cousin plan, and no longer come on line as often to the wedding sites, or to read and send her wedding info, I will be back to checking in a few times a week anyway, not as regularly. We shall see. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 3:54 PM EDT
- kargiver
- Posts: 21966
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I guess it depends on how much it is a year. I'd consider it part of my entertainment budget. If it's $25/year that's only $1 week for all this fun. It would be a shame to have to pay, and I suppose if all you ladies left there'd be no point in staying...sigh. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/7/2009 3:58 PM EDT
- lucy7368
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I hate when there's a story I really want to read, but they only have a video link for it.
We're at work, people! I can surf the internet, but it's a little too obvious that I'm not paying attention if the news is going. Also, I like to listen to music, and I can't do both at the same time. Plus, like you said, I can read it in about 1/8 of the time someone else can read it to me. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/11/2009 7:47 AM EDT
- ALF72
- Posts: 3257
- First: 5/30/2008
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No freaking way. There are plenty of free sites out there that offer the same things as BDC. They'd be fools to charge. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/11/2009 9:38 AM EDT
- Brighton1
- Posts: 644
- First: 5/30/2008
- Last: 2/14/2013
There's no way I'd pay for this. These boards are ridiculously slow, plus there are so many other free boards out there.
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Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/11/2009 10:34 AM EDT
- princess-cal
- Posts: 1881
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No way would I pay. The hate the Globe anyway, but I would miss the boards. I'm sure there are other places we could migrate to though. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/11/2009 12:50 PM EDT
- lucy7368
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FWIW, had I been considering paying before, I certainly wouldn't now that the Weddings Discussions page is all jacked. I'm actually considering going away until it's fixed. -
Re: Boston.com soon to charge fee; will you pay to post here?
posted at 8/11/2009 1:39 PM EDT
- trex509
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Oh, I'm sad! I just discovered these boards! And I know I will need help with wedding planning, so I hope they don't start charging soon. I don't think I'd be willing to pay for it. <sigh> If you guys do start a group somewhere else, please let me know! This board is actually useful as compared to the other useless boards I have found.