If your favorite social networking site started to charge a monthly fee, what would you do

[kranky]

Let's say your favorite social networking site - myspace, facebook, whatever (edit - not Anandtech) - decided to charge a monthly fee to remain a member.

I've read a few thoughts by different industry people. Some say the majority of users would just dump it and switch to another site. Others say people will pay because they have all their contacts, messages, etc. trapped in the site and won't want to lose that.

 

[BoomerD]

I don't use any of them so they could charge $1000/month and it wouldn't affect me in the slightest.

 

[clamum]

I have Facebook and MySpace accounts, so if one started charging I'd just switch to the other.

However, if I only had one account, I would probably pay up to $5 a month to use it.

EDIT: And that is assuming all of my friends don't drop the service when they start charging.

 

[sao123]

I only use 2 networking sites...

I already pay for Wow... and if I had to pay for Anandtech forums... things better get a lot better first.

 

[Fenixgoon]

negative. i'd leave the second news broke of that.

 

[LS21]

short of buying digital content (movies, music), ive never and will never pay for access to anything on the internet (news, etc) , aside from actual internet connection fee

 

[I Saw OJ]

Dont use them much anyway, so I would say cya to them. Probably would be for the best too.

 

[Anubis]

facebook could start chargeing and it would talke me months and months to notice, and i hardly ever check it, about the only time i go there is if i get an email from them

 

[ElFenix]

what did i pay to access subscriber.anandtech.com all those years ago?

 

[mugs]

Not pay, not really care.

 

[meltdown75]

I might pay for facebook depending on the fee. If it was $30 or so per year then I could consider it.

 

[pontifex]

i have a myspace and facebook account. i never use the facebook and i very rarely use myspace. i only talk to one person on myspace and she's a co-worker, so we can just talk during the day or whatever.

 

[FoBoT]

you mean anandtech? i did the subscription thing back when they had that, what was it around 2002 or 2003?

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: kranky
Let's say your favorite social networking site (myspace, facebook, whatever) decided to charge a monthly fee to remain a member.

I've read a few thoughts by different industry people. Some say the majority of users would just dump it and switch to another site. Others say people will pay because they have all their contacts, messages, etc. trapped in the site and won't want to lose that.

I fit the bolded part, and thus voted for the 3rd option

 

[OdiN]

I have a myspace. If they charged, I'd just drop it. I only use it because it's free, and I don't really use it that much anyway - just to keep in touch with a few people back home that have it.

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I don't use any of them so they could charge $1000/month and it wouldn't affect me in the slightest.

 

[OhSnap688]

I wouldn't ever pay. Nor would I miss it. I rarely ever check them anyways.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i have a myspace and facebook account. i never use the facebook and i very rarely use myspace. i only talk to one person on myspace and she's a co-worker, so we can just talk during the day or whatever.

YOU!

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I'm a Facebook whore, and I'd drop it the second they started to charge for it.

 

[mindmaniac]

Hells no, then I wouldn't be bugged by all the people that treated me like crap in high school pretending to be my friends now.

 

[kranky]

Evening bump.

 

[sandorski]

Find another one.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
you mean anandtech? i did the subscription thing back when they had that, what was it around 2002 or 2003?

I was posting the same thing.

It depends on how much was being charged. For something like Facebook, if it was more than 1 cent a month, I'd ditch it.
But for Anandtech? I'd sell my plasma. I'd sell other people's plasma. Then one day, I'd sell you your mom's VCR!