Members soapfan770 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Brian! So good to hear from you again! Ah yes thank you for correcting me and I had just about forgot about a certain stalker of yours from Noblesville, Indiana. Bothers me that he's still out there. Hope your doing well post-WoST! I have to say pretty much agree with SFK's post there. I suppose the message boards could have been free, but I could also see them being jammed with messages from users who refused to pay to see the classic soaps. Alas WoST forums were a tight-knit community filled with wonderful and knowledgeable people. But yes it did for whatever reason it cause inexplicable psychosis for some posters. I haven't even told the B&B production assistant tale yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 SFK, that was my main point. The amount for a yearly membership was way over what was neccesary to operate the site, I'd have much rather had 300 members pay 5$ a year, than have 50 members pay 25$ a year. 25-30 dollars is alot of money for something like that to some people. It depends who you are. Some people can barely pay for the internet service as it is. It was originally done to pay for the hosting of the site, yet after a while there was excess, and some money was given to charity... which was not a bad thing, but also not what people were supposedly paying for. It never affected me as far as footage went, because I already had most everything that was out there that I wanted on VHS... and I live 10 miles from the nearest gas station, so I only had dialup (We have DSL here now, wer'e steppin into the next century!). So for me, 30 bucks a year JUST for a message board was something I wasn't going for. I just saw a bunch of hooey that didn't have to be waded through if things would have been approached differently. And if the site was such a good thing, why did it have to go? If he was tired of it, and didn't want to do it anymore, he could have always gotten someone else to take it over who wanted to. If I created something cool and nice and then tired of it, I'd much rather someone else carry on with it than just erase it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Frankly, I'm not easily convinced that $2.50/month is breaking anyone's bank. Not someone who has the time and luxury to be sitting at a computer with internet access watching classic soap clips anyway. Having said that, I can still see where you're coming from alphanguy, it really didn't make sense for you given the material you already owned and the fact that you were dealing with dial-up, plus your valid opinions on the cost of membership. It's been a few years now, but when we were having open discussion about the site change, I think my issue was with the folks who had in past discussions talked about money they'd spent on boxed sets and classic soap material from other sources, and now they were getting all pissy and indignant over a monthly fee roughly the cost of a single ride on the subway. And maybe you're right, $5 in retrospect may have attracted more members, but perhaps Brian set the price point based on the number of vocal, active participants who he assumed would actually participate. I don't know, perhaps he'll refresh our memories. I do remember someone saying that they were a student visiting WoST from Africa and couldn't afford the price of membership. I mean, at that point at WoST who knew WHO was telling the [!@#$%^&*] truth, but I remember suggesting sponsoring (oh my God, sounds like "Feed the Children" ) folks who couldn't pay through the donations of those who could, but of course that's dicey and potentially very unfair as it's almost impossibile to prove such things (and as I said, there were already people lying and trying to get over on the rest of us... all of the lies and creepiness is why everything went on lockdown to begin with. LOL, I remember Brian looking at the chatroom transcripts and finding people practicing with their sock puppets. Nuts.) BUT HEY, YouTube has put much of this drama to rest. I miss some of the material that isn't up on YouTube as of right now, but mostly, the unique site and experience, some fun times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GoldenDogs Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Actually, I think the membership fees were $15 a year, $25 for two, and $30 for three years. And SFK remembers correctly that all members were gifted with free extensions. As for the money given to charity, it was for the Red Cross following either Katrina or the tsunami, can't remember which... it was promoted that membership fees for all new members would go in full to the Red Cross and we did pretty well with that. All members were supportive of the decision to round out the donation to $1,000 with money from the site's bank. Given the ruckus that "premium membership" generated, I wasn't sure that membership fees as they stood initially would be enough to carry the site. I was shocked when we grew to around 1,000 members over the course of those years. The other thing is that I was also concerned with bandwidth... I was getting hammered on price with the dedicated server and was advised by our internet host how much we could generate and that factored into setting membership costs... not that I wanted to price anyone out, but people not willing to pay meant keeping bandwidth at an acceptable level so as not to incur higher costs -- and uninterrupted service to members. Even still, the price went up about halfway through the first year of premium membership. Alpha, you say the price was way over what it needed to be for the site... maybe so, but when it all began, who knew? All I can tell you is that the bulk of operations of the site for some seven years were incurred by a very small number of very loyal, generous people as well as myself. I just couldn't ask them to continue to fund it at their expense for everyone else's enjoyment. Water under the bridge.... SFK, life since WoST is awesome. My work is satisfying and precisely what I want to do... In fact, some of the work I did for the site ended up on a demo reel that ultimately got me into the work I'm doing now! The computer that once served as the main computer for encoding video, doing graphics, etc. for the site is now in my 15 year old stepson's room now filled with his favorite .mp3 downloads and computer games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 I was a member at Wost until it went to pay to post That's where I met a lot of SON'ers like EricMonteral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Sock puppets? I don't understand. But yeah... Youtube has made most of it moot. i'm so glad we have youtube, it's an invaluable tool in illustrating points during discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soapfan770 Posted January 22, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 I don't remember the sock puppet remarks either, but I do remember some of those chat transcripts Brian aired out and some of it wasn't pretty. One poster during a chat session revealed they were obsessed with Johnathan Frid's feet, while another chat session is where the B&B production assistant I mentioned made some lovely remarks about Susan Flannery, so lovely they got him in trouble at work. Then there was the poster who carried on a full conversation by themselves.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ClassicsSoapFan Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Brian-- WoST was one of the first sites I discovered after I bought my first computer. As some one who enjoyed old soap themes and clips I never thought I'd see again, ypur site brought me a lot of enjoyment. I miss it now. You Tube doesn't really compare. It was through WoST that I discovered Matt Smith's site,SON and Danfling's site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Oh, these sound juicy. Foot fetishes aren't that unusual. I have a STORY. One time I sold a used DVD on ebay which had a portion which featured Bernadette Peters tap dancing a production number. This kook that bid on it kept PEPPERING ME with questions like "Oh, she's so SEXY... TELL ME, what is she wearing? Can you HEAR THE TAPS? " This guy emailed me about 5 times with questions about Bernadette's tap shoes and/or her feet before the auction ended. And in every email, he included a picture of his legs in gold satin pants and tap shoes, with one foot up pointing toward the camera. It takes all kinds, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 There may have been more than one incident, but that's what I meant by a poster practicing with his sock puppets ("sock puppet" is an internet term for an additional screen name/faux persona created by an already existing forum member). It seems that we had a member who was masquerading as some very well-known soap personalities in the chat room, doing double duty as the guest and as himself. Brian, I remember you interviewing your stepson on Snark Cast, wow, he's fifteen already. Do you still keep in touch with Snark? I hope he's doing okay, his blog was good fun. I was SoapFoxKirby at WoST, my SFK is a WoST homage/carryover. That is hilariously disturbing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bright Eyes Posted January 23, 2010 Members Share Posted January 23, 2010 I back SFK's question. Do you still keep in touch with Snark? I miss his blog immensely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GoldenDogs Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Hey SFK.. Of course I remember you. Couldn't forget a future and forever star. Yup, I did interview the boy regarding the serialization of manga and anime... He held his own in that interview. As I type this, he is sitting on the sofa playing a game on the Wii - he's almost all grown up now. He'll be 16 in May! As tall as me now, deeper voice... And my best bud. He even got a job working with me part time... I'm proud of him! As to the question both you and Amello posed... Snark who? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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