> -=> Quoting Sue Matthews to Michael Hughes <=-
 >  SM> No need Michael...  running a BBS, hopefully to make a profit, is a
 > SM> legitimate Home_Office endeavor after all...
 > The problem with that idea is that of all the wonderful Sysops
 > that I count among my friends ... none of them even come close
 > to breaking even - let alone showing a profit!
This is true...
 > About the problem of folks contributing, sorry I can't offer a
 > solution.  Much of the time, I simply can't afford the expense
 > myself but that cannot be the problem with all the users (esp.
 > since so many of them are bragging about the upgrades and such).
I hear the "I can't afford to subscribe to a BBS" excuse a lot. Sure there 
are some folks who are legitimately short of funds. We have a number of users 
for instance who are retired, on fixed incomes, and using pieced together 286 
computers to keep in touch with the outside world. It's interesting that a 
number of these folks have mailed checks to subscribe (though we returned 
them with a nice note about their "Honored Citizen" status here). We also 
have some disabled members, folks who found themselves suddenly unemployed, 
and a lot of young kids and have no problem offering them free access to the 
BBS we maintain.
The excuse is completely empty and hollow however when it comes from people 
who are not in the groups I listed above. Subscription access here for one 
month costs about the same as a Value Meal at any of the fast food 
restaurants. Most people spend far more than that and have no idea what they 
got for it, yet they can't justify spending $5/month to help support a BBS 
they call and spend an hour or more on almost every day.
If I was calling BBSs, and my budget was limited, I'd just decide which 
boards were more useful to me and divvy the budgeted amount accordingly. 
Those are the BBSes I would call on a regular basis. It would not occur to me 
to tie up someone's BBS night after night and NOT support it.
Just some food for thought...
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