On , Sue Matthews wrote to Laverne Reynolds :
SM>  > -=> Quoting Sue Matthews to Michael Hughes <=-
 
SM> I hear the "I can't afford to subscribe to a BBS" excuse a lot. Sure 
SM> there are some folks who are legitimately short of funds. We have a 
SM> number of users for instance who are retired, on fixed incomes, and using 
SM> pieced together 286 computers to keep in touch with the outside world. 
SM> It's interesting that a number of these folks have mailed checks to 
SM> subscribe (though we returned them with a nice note about their "Honored 
SM> Citizen" status here). We also have some disabled members, folks who 
SM> found themselves suddenly unemployed, and a lot of young kids and have no 
SM> problem offering them free access to the BBS we maintain.
SM> 
SM> The excuse is completely empty and hollow however when it comes from 
SM> people who are not in the groups I listed above. Subscription access here 
SM> for one month costs about the same as a Value Meal at any of the fast 
SM> food restaurants. Most people spend far more than that and have no idea 
SM> what they got for it, yet they can't justify spending $5/month to help 
SM> support a BBS they call and spend an hour or more on almost every day.
SM> 
SM> If I was calling BBSs, and my budget was limited, I'd just decide which 
SM> boards were more useful to me and divvy the budgeted amount accordingly. 
SM> Those are the BBSes I would call on a regular basis. It would not occur 
SM> to me to tie up someone's BBS night after night and NOT support it.
Seems many of them are sure quick with the credit cards though when it comes
to going over to CircuitCity or Best Buy for that new CDrom game at $79.95,
huh?
I even give them options of six different levels, the highest runs under 
OL's
monthly basic rate, and they can call everyday for 70 minutes/day, and
download an unlimited rate. During the slow part of the day I give 
ubscribers
"happy hour" where they get 85 minutes during the 9am to 2pm dead period, so
they can get those really big files.....
You're right about the lame excuses. When I didn't have a BBS, I tried to 
ork
with the SysOps did ask for help by uploading tons of files, while only 
aking
10% of what I sent up. Now they don't even have to upload, not with 7 full
cdroms and 4 gigs of file space on the hd's. People think this stuff is free,
thanks to the past when systems were small and BBS programs were to. I just
had to pop for registration of this, still wating for my key file. My last
phone bill was a mere $145 with only calls going out in the cheap periods.
- 
Russ Blakeman....Lost out in the woods...
Blue Moon of Kentucky BBS
Harned, KY 40144
BBS/Fax (502) 756-6991 24 Hours
FidoNet 1:2450/500
...Many possess the wisdom of many and only the wit of one.
--- ProBoard v2.15 [EVALUATION]
1:2450/500)
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