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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2329 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 4, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Jump in the discussion.

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Would you pay one-time $5 fee to be able to post on a forum you like to read?

What if it was $5/year?

I prefer a one-time fee, but that depends on the forum. The great thing about paywalls is it filters out most low-quality and low-tier posters.

One time, probably. Annually, probably not.

Yes and maybe. I like to avoid stacking up subscription costs. I'd pay up to a $20 one time fee though.

Would you pay one-time $5 fee to be able to post on a forum you like to read?

I did, on MetaFilter. Twice. The one-time fee served to keep some of the riff-raff out. It also gave users a feeling that they had a piece of ownership in the forum, which would inflame the dramatic 100+ reply threads on MetaTalk when unpopular mod decisions would be handed out.

What if it was $5/year?

Probably not, maybe if it were here. It's hard for me to justify the benefit to my wellbeing of finding more reasons to sit in front of a screen instead of doing anything else.

Yeah, definitely. Depending on the forum, I'd probably pay a lot more than that if I had to.

I paid for SomethingAwful back in the day, one-time fee. I might do it again but it better not turn into SA.

Not annually though, that requires keeping some method of billing active.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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