Why Good Websites Shouldn't Be Free

[Mrs. Alendar]

A Newsweek article that seems quite topical to us right now...
http://www.newsweek.com/id/208163

[stillgoing]

A friend of mine is totally sold on Magic Jack.

I pay for some sites that I like. I doubt a package deal would work Pru, as someone has be able to control access to the sites. I would like to pay my cable bill for only the channels I actually watch though, instead of dozens that don't interest me. .

[ZenDog]

Cool. I have it bookmarked. Can't wait to test it. We had a phone book in this area years ago, the Basin Book. In the yellow pages you couldn't find certain local government numbers, but on the page bottoms there were little blurbs, some of them funny. Or not.

Generally Not, at least, not on the page bottoms of pages where you expected to find the local government number you were looking for. No no. On those page bottoms one finds what I call inducements to fear.

I still have it. I consider it Evidence. But of what exactly?

A social construct, bending?

[Dazzling Zoomer Gal Diana]

ZenDog, check this out. It works. Phone Free-ness.
http://www.free411.com/index.php

[ZenDog]

Too bad. I don't have any money.

the phone bill used to be, like, $20. / month, and tv was free. Now the phone system is automated and to speak to an operator costs a dollar, they save money and yet charge more, and to access the web I pay my ISP for the hookup.

Banks are doing the same thing. The ATM saves on overhead, yet banking services keep going up. I dumped Charter One years ago after they bought the bank that had my checking account. I started to see fees for services I never ordered, didn't want, and didn't have time to opt out of.

It seems like everyone wants everyone else to send them One Dollar, preferably on a monthly basis.

I don't oppose a companies profitability. But it seems that in some industries, most notably telecommunications, banking, energy, there seems to be an inevitable process that takes place, and it has a name:

monopolization.

[Dazzling Zoomer Gal Diana]

Excellent. The comments are equally interesting. I subscribe to three web sites with an annual fee. Worth every penny. There will be tiered sites, with restrictive access according to your subscription level. It's coming. Soon.