ENWorld Liberation Movement - The Elitism must end

[Desdichado]

Let me ask you this: Would you still have donated to ENWorld or bought a CS if you already had the ability to use the search function?

I'm betting you and most others would answer this question "Yes".

I"m not sure what you mean here. When I first got my CS account, it was specifically so I could search and have the title. Well, sorta; I did want to "give back" but the incentive was what really made it happen, IMO.

When I donated again in the "crisis moment" we had a month or so ago, that had nothing to do with it, of course. I already had my CS account at that point.

 

[Umbran]

I'm just lobbying for giving the right to search to anyone on the new server.

Respectfully, before you start lobbying for what functions be available to whom on the new server, you might want to know what the new server will be, what kind of power it will have, and how quickly the added strain and site membership growth will call for yet another new server.

That whole counting chickens before they're hatched thing, and all that

 

[MerakSpielman]

I felt this thread deserved to have the opinion of a non-CS.

How 'bout another one?

I also have to watch my money closely. I had to tell my church I can't afford to pledge any money this year. If I had money to spend, I would gladly spend it here.

But yet, I've never really missed the elitist functionaly of the Community Supporter account. I've never really wanted to search for a topic. There's so much to read as it is, and if I'm curious about something, I just post a question and I can almost guarentee I'll get an accurate reply within 24 hours (on a slow day). I have no use for the CS functionality. If those that have it feel superior, good for them.

 

[darkbard]

i'll disagree with gez on the private messaging issue. i do feel less part of the community [that i've been a member of since the very beginning, even before the advent of the 'boards, if memory serves] when i'm playing in a PbP game and want to communicate directly with the DM or another player via PM and cannot do so. sure, there's email, but it makes more sense to have instant PMing that you're accessing while at the ENWorld site.

 

[Macbeth]

Really, is a CS account all that different? Since I've had mine I've:

Added a custom title.
Changed the Title twice (actually one was Pkitty changing it, but the effect is the same)
Searched MAYBE 15 times.

Out of the above things, The custom title is nothing but a bit of fun, and if I REALLY needed to search, i could have asked for somebodies help. I don't think there is any kind of "devide" between CSs and Non-CSs, these boards are just too tight knit for us to be devided over something so inane as who can donate (or do work around the site) and who can't.

 

[Mark Chance]

While I understand and feel you are right I just want to say that a few people here are gods and I feel honored to walk in their shadow.

Just don't get too much into my shadow. It's crowded enough in there.

 

[BSF]

I like having access to the Search function just because it has allowed me to find stuff I _should_ have subscribed to the first time I saw it. Then I can subscribe once I have relocated it.

The title, is a fun thing to play with when I am bored. I haven't used a PM yet.

I have seen plenty of people perform a search when somebody asks a specific question. Heck, I have seen Piratecat help out the "mere registered users" in that regard. So, you just can't try an endless number of searches unless you are a CS.

I understand what BFG is getting at. There is an enormous amount of information here and it is hard to mine it when you first start frequenting the boards. But, I haven't ever felt an overbearing elitist attitude from the board when I was a "Registered User" and didn't have access to all the bells and whistles.

 

[jdavis]

Maybe the problem here is that all us special community supporter people are not elitist enough, maybe if we lorded over the place more and put people without custom titles down then the community supporter thing might of worked? Maybe it's the lack of any elitism at all that is working against us here.

Seriously I've used the search fuction a couple of times just to try it out but it was something I never really wanted before I donated anyway, something I do want is for the boards to be as quick as possible, it's bad enough I'm on dial up hear not to mention the slow downs we already have, the server upgrade should be to make the place better and faster and more stable not so more people can search for stuff (if it's important to search for you can always post in Meta and somebody will help you out anyway). Besides if people are actually going to stop coming around because they don't have a search function well then that's sort of silly, they have sort of missed the point of the (non-elitist) community here.