Martin,

Several thoughts. I would continue to support ETS if you offered a paid premium membership but I do not like one of your conditions. 200 Posts? Really?

I work, a lot, and often on the road (snow days this week are the exception). I have a wife, two kids and a lot of things to do. I only have 59 posts but I feel most are substantive. By the time I get to catch up on the weekends most of the threads don't need any additional responses. Should I make 140 more comments to this thread to get me past the 200 marker?

As for the anonymity question, I don't personally have an issue but I can think of some people who may have reasons due to their profession who might not want to list their full name. Also, how would you be able to enforce this? Even on Facebook there is nothing preventing a person from supplying a false name -- just a valid email that can be set up via many domain registrars for just a few bucks is needed for registration.

As for the amount, $1 or $2 monthly (yearly pay option I would hope) seems more than reasonable to me, even in these tough economic times (though I don't like PayPal). However, I have sent in donations in the past to ETS. Would need to double check with the DW, but I believe these have been well in excess of several years worth of the amount you are proposing. Not sure I would continue these if I was paying for a premium subscription -- Harder to sell the idea to the DW of paying and making a donation.
Boy, wish we had that real-time chat feature right now, we could have a back and forth on this topic.


Regards,

Michael