Do you prefer your comics free?

June 19, 2002 5:46 PM

Do you prefer your comics free? Joltin' John Allison is a street level bloke who thinks he is better served having more people view his work for no money than he is with readers paying for it. I'm curious how you mefi kids feel about subscription sites? (Besides our beloved porn)
posted by clango (14 comments total)

People pay for porn?
posted by majick at 5:58 PM on June 19, 2002

they pay for porn with me in it- LIVE!
posted by clango at 6:02 PM on June 19, 2002

I'm curious how you mefi kids feel about subscription sites?

I have yet to pay for content on the net. Subscriptions are for those who can't get around them. If I wanted to pay for stuff I'd go to the mall.

Not to mention once something creative becomes paid-for, it becomes a business and then it usually goes straight to hell, in my experience.
posted by jonmc at 6:16 PM on June 19, 2002

Okay, so as not to ruin the party, here's a genuine response: I'm willing to pay for a select subset of quality content, but so far I've found very few things that would compel me to pony up the scratch for a subscription. Sites tend to fall into one of several categories in my view: stuff I'll look at, stuff I'll eagerly look at, stuff I consider central to my life, and everything else.

Of those, I'd subscribe to only a small portion of the "central." Not to say I don't make my donations and the like -- Romenesko gets a chunk from me every month or so -- but that even important stuff doesn't necessarily have a cash value to me. I'm more likely to pay for services or a community than words'n'pictures.

Even then I'd hesitate. If, to fabricate an example, I had paid a subscription to Kuro5hin back before the diary kids overran the place (not that subscription was an option at the time) I'd feel ripped off now that it's a lot less interesting place to be. Just as I imagine paying users of the Well from back in the John "Lyricist for the Dead" Parry "Lyricist for the Dead" Barlow, Lyricist for the Dead, days feel a little cheesed now that it's just some web board for a poorly made pseudo-progressive newsletter.

Or, in vastly fewer words: "What jonmc said."
posted by majick at 6:20 PM on June 19, 2002

I can almost see paying for a subscription to Modern Tales, but not quite. I may yet do it, but web comics, even ones I really like and read every day, are luxuries, not necessities.
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:39 PM on June 19, 2002

I got a "charter" subscription from an adult-oriented site in exchange for designing some banner ads for them. When it was a small site with only a few paying subscribers it was all fun and exciting, and the site owners updated fairly regularly, but as more and more demands were placed on them ("Hey, I pay for this stuff, so you need to update EVERY DAY") it ceased to be entertaining, and eventually I stopped checking in at all. I don't even know if they're still online or not, and frankly couldn't care less.

I guess that means I'm not too keen on pay sites?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:00 PM on June 19, 2002

Allison's former comic series, bobbins, just closed. i loved it, and i miss it. the archives remain, if nothing else. i've got a lot of faith in scary-go-round.
posted by moz at 7:01 PM on June 19, 2002

i miss bobbins too, but i have it on good authority that two of the main players are reappearing in SGR soon. a sweet lass and an inventor.
posted by clango at 7:09 PM on June 19, 2002

I'd pay for google, and that's about it. Google is probably the only site on the net which I not only use daily, but find endlessly useful and informative.
posted by milnak at 7:41 PM on June 19, 2002

i'd pay for google, metafilter, pa, and maybe pvp... other than that, there aren't really any sites that i feel i get that much out of...

and i promise, i'll pay adobe one day, too....
posted by lotsofno at 11:12 PM on June 19, 2002

I like the idea of paying one few to get access to a bunch of sites (as was proposed in this blogroots thread). To charge for access or use of a single site is to bet that the site's content will be consistently good and consistently worth the price of admission. It's easier to justify the price of admission with more choices (something Modern Tales does incredibly right)
posted by drezdn at 12:59 AM on June 20, 2002

I have a magazine subscription which I've latterly discovered gives me access to online archives of the magazine. That doesn't really count though, I wouldn't pay for Salon for example which I'd formerly read regularly.
posted by vbfg at 1:34 AM on June 20, 2002

I have a modern tales subscription and I've been very happy with it. Exposed me to lots of new comics that I wouldn't have run into otherwise. Some of those comics alone ar worth the monthly cost so I think it's a steal. But that's just me.
posted by Apoch at 3:32 AM on June 20, 2002

I'm curious how you mefi kids feel about subscription sites?

I sort of subscribed to MetaFilter. When I stumbled upon the site, I was disappointed to see that it wasn't accepting new users. After a few months of reading, I emailed Matt and offered to make a donation for an account -- and here I am, with all you wonderful kids. There are other sites I would pay to use (NYTimes, google) but, luckily, they're free.

As for online comics, I am completely and hopelessly addicted to The Boondocks.
posted by subgenius at 6:09 AM on June 20, 2002