On the Internet - What are you willing to pay for?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Nothing.

Unless you count "stuff I buy from iTunes", in which case yes, I'll pay for that (it's where I get all my music).

 

[Warp Coil]

I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay for much of anything. Definitely wouldn't pay to use Facebook. It's been free for all this time, and I don't see everyone ponying up the money to keep visiting the site if they implemented a charge. Another free social networking site would rise up and become popular, and everyone would migrate to it.

The only thing I pay for right now is Netflix, which offers unlimited web streaming in addition to physical DVDs in the mail. So it's a good enough service that it's worth paying for. If Netflix switched to a strictly online/streaming format, with no physical DVD rentals, I may or may not keep my account.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Actually, there is one other thing I'd pay for: MLB.TV. Once I get my iPad.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

I do a lot of shopping online, Amazon.com, Landsend.com, etc., but as far as paying for access to a website? Forget it!

I already pay a fee for Internet connection. I've never encountered any site that I thought was worth any additional payment on top of that.

 

[nevermore]

I've got enough bills. If it's not free, forget it. I'll go someplace that is free.

This.

The only thing I pay for online is my premium membership here and that is only because the ads are profoundly, stupifyingly annoying.

There is nothing else I'm attached enough to to shell out for it. I'll just find an alternative (which will pop up for anything that starts charging a fee) or skip it entirely and do something else.

 

[Kestra]

I wouldn't pay for Facebook and I can't really think of any sites I would pay for, unless all the news sites stopped being free.

Aren't you a Premium Member here?

Sorry, I meant pay simply to have access to. I have a paid subscription to both TBBS and LJ at the moment, but if either of these sites required paid accounts to use them at all, I would probably drop them.

I also neglected to mention I do pay for WoW and Netflix, but I don't think of those as websites really. Netflix streaming is useful but I am more interested in renting DVDs from them, and WoW is a game that uses the Internet ... I'm not paying to use the WoW website.

I too the OP more in the sense of ... Out of the daily websites you use now for free, which would you be willing to pay to access?

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I enjoy having Facebook but if they start charging I will be so outta there.

 

[Holdfast]

I've got enough bills. If it's not free, forget it. I'll go someplace that is free.

I already pay a fee for Internet connection. I've never encountered any site that I thought was worth any additional payment on top of that.

Agreed with both these posts.

I've bought plenty of things over the internet, but haven't yet found a site I'd pay to access.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It not just sites that you have to pay for access to that I am asking about. I am also including sites that have free access but also premium or pro membership that allows you to do more or gets rid of ads etc.

All the sites I mentioned as paying for in my OP have free membership but I choose to pay for extras i.e. I pay Flickr so that more than 200 of my photos can be seen in my photostream. I pay the genealogy site so that I can put more than 400 people on my family tree. I admit the genealogical site I pay for mainly to please my sister.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

It not just sites that you have to pay for access to that I am asking about. I am also including sites that have free access but also premium or pro membership that allows you to do more or gets rid of ads etc.

It all depends on how valuable the added benefits are. If I thought they were worth the cost, I'd consider paying. So far, though, I've never found a site where that was the case.

 

[Holdfast]

It not just sites that you have to pay for access to that I am asking about. I am also including sites that have free access but also premium or pro membership that allows you to do more or gets rid of ads etc.

OK, but even so, I've never bothered upgrading to the "pro" membership on any website either. I just hate paying for things, period.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

The only thing beside the Premium Membership here that i pay monthly on line for is for porn.

 

[SeerSGB]

Meh, if a site is "pay to play" I just don't use that site. If the site has free or pay, I'll use the free side. Frankly, I can deal with ads on a site, no different than commercials in a TV shows as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I hate commercials.

I rarely look at commercial TV. I either watch things on DVD or else on the ABC (Australian) which is government own and doesn't have commercials.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

On TV, I just consider commercials a chance to go channel-surfing to see if there's anything better on another channel. (And most of the time, there is! )

On a typical ad-supported website, I'll just give the site owners a quick mental attaboy for being smart enough to let the ads pay for the site rather than trying to get me to do it, and then pretty much just ignore the ads.

On those sites that have an extra cost ad-free option - and throw up a bunch of annoying pop-up to try to convince me to get it - it just makes me even more determined not to pay.

 

[RJDiogenes]

But I wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee for deviantArt or YouTube.

Why is that?

YouTube has a rare gem, but I can't search for anything without getting pages of terrible fanvids, thousands of videos of people falling over while their friends laugh and the odd baby laughing for three minutes on end.

DeviantArt has some good stuff there, but the bulk of it I've seen is hopeful/less teenagers filled with woe.

Plus, if both services charged - we'd find somewhere else to go.

I'd pay because I get good use out of them; I have several videos on YouTube and a pretty huge gallery on deviantArt. I wouldn't pay just to look at stuff.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I've actually registered one piece of trialware- TMPG Authoring Works for $100. Out of the many DVD authoring programs that I've tried I like their software far and away the best. None of the free programs I've tried for authoring are any good.

For actual editing of video Virtualdub is great and free so there's no reason to ever buy a premium software.

Of course these are software apps and maybe not the intent of this thread but who gets video editing apps anywhere but the internet? So I think it kind of counts.

I was actually unaware that there was a premium membership on this board until this very thread. I may have to look into it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That thing about Facebook supposedly charging a monthly fee?

TOTAL HOAX.

Not only that, but the "We're against the 4.99 fee" 'protest' page set up supposedly to respond to that? Virus/malware. Don't go there.

 

[Shikarnov]

I'd pay for just about everything, but only so long as the price was commensurate with the value and if it was somehow tied to actual costs. Too many content providers have inflated ideas about their products' value, and fail to pass on the savings they enjoy with electronic distribution to consumers.

Also, paying should not be an enormous pain in the balls. I do not want to have to swipe my card (literally or figuratively), or have a million little accounts all over the 'net. In the best case scenario, I think ISPs should set customers up with a single device of some kind to act like an EZ Pass. When you watch a TV show on Hulu, your EZ Pass is charged 10¢. Log onto the Wall Street Journal and choose between reading one article for 5¢ or buying the day for 25¢.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And what happens when that "pass" gets hacked?