TD to Start Charging?

 People have used and are still using, the free forums to promote their businesses and/or their sites.  Not taking new members without checking them out first may be one way they cut out  most of that abuse. 

I just don't see why anyone would pay to read the TD online. There are so many other sources for local news out there for free that do it better anyway including but not limited to the Huntsville news stations websites. Off the top of my head I can also think of 2 locally run websites that provide excellent, up to date news for the Shoals area. 

As for charging to use the forum, I don't see it happening. Would any of you honestly pay to use this forum? Except for the occasional friendly conversation thread or news topics discussion here and there this place just isn't that interesting anymore. 

I wondered why the on line edition went from pretty good to not so good.

The Decatur paper started charging to view a certain number of articles per month but I think the forum is still free. If any one posts there, you can update.

As for new members, a friend of mine tried to sign up and was told that someone was  already  using that IP address. Only one person per IP?  I guess two people in the same household cannot post.

It took me over 2 weeks to get approved to comment here on the TNvallytalks. I work with my sister and she uses the same computer I use while we are at work. If they were vetting people by IP address sharing then that might explain why it took so long to get approved to join.

So far I have not seen anything here that would be worth it for me to pay for access.

Worth it when it's free, not worth it if there's a fee. Odd thought process.

Why is that an odd thought process? There are alot of things that I have gotten for free that I enjoyed. Yet, I would not have paid for it. I recently attended a beer festival and they were giving out free beer coozies. They were not the best of quality but they serve the purpose for the event. If I were going to purchase a beer coozie I would choose one of quality that would last me a long time.

Chit chatting about local or news worthy topics for free makes sense. I would never pay to just come on a forum and chit chat though. If I were going to pay for access to a site it would have to have important content I could not get anywhere else. A chat forum doesn't really qualify as something that is worth my money. IMO

Yes, chit chatting is one thing, using the free forums to promote a business or your web site is another. That was one point i was trying to make. I appreciate it being free, and I think it takes some nerve to complain about a free service or to use it for personal gain, or run it down. When they changed the format people actually got upset, and one I remember threatened to "quit" the forum. Of course he didn't, he'd die without it. 

I think it's just the idea of having to pay for something that you've done for free online for many years is what is kinda mind boggling for many(Including myself). That being said, every forum I belong to may start charging me to use them next week. You never know. 

If so though I'll definitely be thinning out my forum hangouts even more than I already have. Been too busy lately to stay current on most of them anyway but I do still enjoy them in my free time.

I would be interested in knowing if anyone who participated on the TimesDaily Forum and the Tennessee Valley Talks Forum prefers the latter. I have two friends who participated in the former and both preferred it.

Originally Posted by Kate Colombo:

Liked the original better. This one does not auto quote, you have to separate the quote and your reply.  The old one also showed your quote directly under who you were talking too, much better for the flow of conversation.