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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, David Laswell writes:
> In lugnet.admin.suggestions, David Eaton writes:
> > It's been a long-standing problem where people have been confused about
> > how to sign up for posting privilages, and similarly for membership. People
> > tend to think (as would I initially) that membership == posting privilages.
>
> I certainly did. I can't recall how many people told me what I
> understood as "you don't have to pay for membership", but the member
> sign-up page clearly stated that there was a $10 minimum.
Ya, there seems to be a growing misunderstanding of what the word "member"
and "membership" means on LUGNET.
Back in '97 and '98, very few sites had "members" or "accounts" or even any
kind of personal configuration. And a lot of people coming to LUGNET then
were coming straight from USENET. In the old days, people came with the
expectation that posting must be free. (And it always has been here.) A fancy
word like "member" back then sounded exotic, and sounded exclusive, and
sounded like something that obviously you might pay for.
Nowadays, just about everywhere you turn, it seems that sites use the word
"member" in the more mathematical sense (e.g., member of a set). You sign
up for some account on some website, boom you're a "member" of that site.
LUGNET hasn't yet adapted to the changing times and to this new terminology,
and the result has been a growing disconnect between expectations and reality.
No, you don't have to pay to get news-posting privileges -- never have -- but
news-posting accounts aren't member accounts, which you may optionally pay
for. Very confusing.
> It sounds like that specific concern is at the heart of a lot of the
> current round of changes, which will probably result in a bloom of new
> participants.
Yup! That is one concern at the very heart of this round coming of changes!
We never intended to alienate anyone or discourage anyone from posting by
making them think they had to pay to post, or by having a horribly complicated
and overlapping sign-up interface.
> I know exactly how I found out about it. I read a post where someone
> was telling someone else how super-easy it was to figure out that you could
> sign up for free posting privs by clicking on the "Reply-To" link.
Wow, I want to laugh, but I'm embarrassed because their misunderstanding
was totally my fault. *Of course* you can sign up for free posting privs by
clicking on the "Reply-To" link. Posting is *only* free and you can't even
pay for it if you want to. Oh my.
Well, better late than never to fix all of this.
> I, for one, never even paid any attention to that button because my experience
> has always been that you need to sign up for membership before you can post,
> and I'd already investigated the membership angle.
Interesting. Wow! That's good to know...thanks for sharing so openly, David.
> On the plus side, the Bionicle-based flame-wars appear to have mostly
> settled down in that time, so I feel like LUGNET is a much more friendly
> place than it was a year ago.
I wonder... Once people realized that Bionicle parts could be used in some
really cool ways in non-Bionicle models, did it gain more respect in the eyes
of those who had previously disdained it?
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A Change
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| (...) Ah, but you have to understand that most forums (and whether you think of LUGNET as a forum or not, most newcomers are introduced to it via the web archive, which reads like a more traditional form) require that you sign up as a member prior (...) (21 years ago, 11-May-03, to lugnet.admin.suggestions, lugnet.admin.nntp)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A Change
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| (...) I certainly did. I can't recall how many people told me what I understood as "you don't have to pay for membership", but the member sign-up page clearly stated that there was a $10 minimum. (...) It sounds like that specific concern is at the (...) (21 years ago, 9-May-03, to lugnet.admin.suggestions, lugnet.admin.nntp)
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