Slashdot goes subscription

[Undertoad]

It's downright offensive, is what it is.

Not offensive that they'd go subscription. Offensive that they'd go subscription when it is just the next step in the downfall. Offensive that it is so obvious to everyone except Slashdot itself. Offensive that this site has been run so poorly. Offensive that there are no good ideas left in it.

You want to reward subscribers, right? This is not a reward system, it is a system wherein you pay to avoid punishment. You want to add value with subscriptions, right? This concept first subtracts value, and then gives that value back to those who pay.

This is a big step in the downfall, because the value of Slashdot is certainly not in its stories, its editors, its revolutionary status as a weblog... the current value of Slashdot remains where it has always been: in the contributions of the comments and the submissions of the users.

If I'm a subscriber, then, I want quality contributions and submissions; I in fact have a vested interest in it. Subscribers would be better community members than the rest of the lot, because after all, they're paying, which means they care harder.

But this model will have the opposite effect, I think. In this model, you aren't really a subscriber; you're someone paying to avoid ads. You may not have any special status in the comments or submissions. You're a dupe who hasn't figured out how to use a junkbuster-like system to do what all the 1337 people are doing for free.

So the subscribers won't necessary feel special about their "investment", and the NON-subscribers will have a very large and in-your-face reason NOT to write good comments, submit good submissions, or even moderate or meta-moderate. They will get the ads. They understand that committing time and wisdom in the authoring of good content is basically giving it away -- and now, giving it away to a site that will not return the favor.

Slashdot has an awful lot to give away to subscribers. The problem is that some of it will feel like a "poll tax" -- such as if only subscribers were allowed to moderate, or to customize their story selection, etc. But getting over that feeling, the one that tells you that people giving money aren't due any special status, is something we ought to do en masse. Subscribers are very special. They're due much more than your ordinary browser.