Yo Steve:

>If everyone (including non-paying members) were given full functionality, why would anyone pay for PUTM?

Well, I'm not saying anyone would pay for PUTM. Then, I suppose I am questioning whether the logic of paying for membership is valid, period. The better the experience, the more people would use the UT. The more people using the UT would, I assume, generate better advertising revenue.

>Are you saying that you would donate money to the UT if full-functionality was given to everyone for free?

Now this is a different kettle of fish. When I dropped my membership, there were two issues that affected me. For a month before my membership expired and for a month after it expired, I got really pissed off (excuse my French) with the membership renewal reminder "nag screen". It nagged me so much that I thought long and hard about how I felt about the UT. When I thought it through, whilst there are a lot of excellent members here, there has always been a poor "signal to noise ratio" (in my personal opinion), and an awfull lot of "politics", sniping and backbiting. So, when push came to shove, I thought do I really want to pay for this?

Now, if I was given PUTM benefits for free and I used them and I gained advantage from the features that I currently can not utilise, then I personally would pay up, just because I don't have to pay up. I pay for everything else. This is a bit like the voluntary contribution fee on the Wiki. If you feel you have benefited, you pay. If not, you don't.

Before I frequented the UT, I was a paying member of Compuserve for many years. Now, I get full functionally on Compuserve by merely registering as a member. I pay nothing, I am asked to pay nothing yet the facilities are excellent. I get an e-mail when I get a reply and the forum layout is cool too. There are some great members there also.

When you compare the two facilities, there is some definate "arm-twisting" going on here by more and more restrictions to BUTM. This makes me view the UT less favourably.

Finally, the amount of down time I experience trying to access the UT from the UK woud be wholly and totally unsatisfactory if I was paying for the privilege, whereas Compuserve and West Wind (for example) are almost always accessible.

Go figure...