$1 a month subscription to Luminous Landscapes

[michaelwj]

Did some members from the Argumentative Photography Users Group flock over here while it's down? 😀

Can you let me know when it's back up? Sounds awesome!!!

 

[willie_901]

Where would we be without so many great websites on photography. What is wrong with charging $1/month? Someone has to cover the cost of running a website. Stephen happens to have also a business. Some websites do not have a business in place.

Be gracious.

Are you saying the owners of LULA do not have a business other than LULA?

 

[willie_901]

Historically it is the new idea, that information should not be free.
Free information is actually the original idea. The origins of the internet just gave that very old idea a new boost for some time.

Exactly. A public library (you remember, those things call books, magazines and newspapers) is free. I can visit a public library and obtain information even though I don't pay local taxes in that city.

What people paid for was curation and peer review. On the internet the first is uncommon but often available for free when it's found. The later is extremely rare.

 

[krötenblender]

(you remember, those things call books, magazines and newspapers)

There's an app for that now.

What people paid for was curation and peer review. On the internet the first is uncommon but often available for free when it's found. The later is extremely rare.

Not true. It's extremely common on the internet. Only it's called "shïtstorm" there. You get it for free also.

 

[Hsg]

EDIT: I do want to clarify two things - I do not subscribe to LL and that I DO believe information (not entertainment) should be free. Howeverthis does not mean people who provide information should not be provided for by society.

If you add a condition to your statement in regards to free information, that is no longer a full endorsement of free information.

Secondly, capitalism in its true sense of the word, is not compatible with the notion of anything being "free", so free information and capitalism are incompatible.

Thirdly, communism is also incompatible with the notion of free information because the state decides whats free and whats not free, and history is a clear witness to what communists like to do with information.

 

[DominikDUK]

X-Ray and its discovery was a free scientific donation. It was Edison who commercialised it.
Daguerreotype was donated to the world except for one small part that is called Great Britain
Elon Musk donated all patents
Copyright is a British invention and everything until the 1500 was free
and the list goes on and on.
Most things that students discover is free to be used by their professors and universities under their name (negative example that is often practised)

But to expect that everything and every information has to be free is unfair. Daguerre received something for the discovery, so did Röntgen and Elon Musk profits from donating his ideas.
To ask money for ideas from someone else like Edison did and some internet sites do is also wrong.

Those guys and gal who do esoteric (lightreading etc...) do it right they ask you to give whatever you want, most often people will give more than the would have paid and some don't give them anything (the first are the norm though).

 

[Bill Clark]

It depends how you define free. This forum is free for us members, at least for now, but the iPad I'm using, the internet connection, wif fi, the other hardware and software I use wasn't free. This site has advertisements from vendors and members who pay here. Take that money away and see what happens. Facebook is free for users like me but, again like this forum, receives money from advertisemens and sale of other items like Facebook stock. I could point out other examples but suffice it to say, I have found that really nothing is free if you live in a modern society. Can you fnd places to live tor free? I suppose, even Tom Hanks, when crashed on a remote island, wanted to get home.

The worst mistake most pro photographers make is charging too little. After my coach and mentor helped me, I found that when I raised my fees people seemed to like my stuff better and better! Then I got clients who appreciated my work, could afford my fees and didn't expect to get things for free. The cheap ones were also the biggest whiners and complainers!

I have found, with my experiences, whatever that's worth, that free is usually worth not much.

 

[wakarimasen]

Lula have asked for people to pay $1 per month to access their content. I'm not sure about everyone else, but if I walk into a newsagents and try to take a magazine without paying, I fear it won't end well. Why shouldn't I be able to do so? The information within the magazine should be 'free' surely? The question becomes, why should the people with the knowledge share the information? Why should authors write books, or musicians produce music? For pleasure? For kudos? Perhaps to make a living doing something that they also enjoy?

Todays society continuously wants something for nothing, and expects to gain a lot without contributing anything personally.

Perhaps those disgusted with LULA can simply contribute $1 per month to their chosen charity and boycott the site.

...and yes: I have paid my $12 for this year

 

[Hsg]

I have found, with my experiences, whatever that's worth, that free is usually worth not much.

What about Wikipedia?

Its free and run with donations.

 

[wakarimasen]

What about Wikipedia?

Its free and run with donations.

You mean people pay? 😱

 

[btgc]

The slick iphone is made by semi-slave labor of migrant workers who have left their families and children and are living in horrible conditions working long hours just so the western consumers forget their sad lives and waste all their free time texting and staring at a small screen.


The world economy is in bad shape because the west wants to bankrupt Russia by keeping the oil prices low and secondly keep the energy cost low for china's economy, so that apple and all other western companies could continue to make cheap goods in china and sell it at insane markups to the western consumers.

iphone is phenomenon popular not only in western countries. Asia and Russia you mention buy it.
btw it's not West who wants to bankrupt Russia (imagine all the nuclear weapons they have, no sane people want them in hands of marginals which could evolve after collapse), there's a man who has wasted 16 years with high oil prices and now he has ended up with strong TV and weak fridges.

 

[giganova]

Not everything in life is for free, and why should it. It takes money to run a forum, so asking for a small fee or donation seems appropriate. It could be worse, just look at Nikonian.org: the membership starts at $24 (but goes up to much more depending on membership level), the site is full of commercials, and it's about one brand only!

 

[ferider]

There is a big difference between general "information" and intellectual property (such as copyrighted work, patents, etc.).

Any photographer should understand that difference, and before asking others to waive their IP rights, make her/his photography available for free her/himself.

Roland.

 

[Rayt]

If you don't feel the content is worth $12 a year then that's fine. But why the accusations? It's just a poor reflection on you.

 

[Lss]

Technically it works just as anything else. At the end of pages is request to pay $5 to have it legal.

Sure, he can write whatever he wants there. It means nothing.

That's $10 if you read any of this to have it legal.

 

[Jack Conrad]

I've often wondered why a forum member would contribute information,
such as how to service Compur shutters or Sonnar lenses, along with attendant photos of the procedures, for free.

Not that I'm complaining. Not that I've ever seen anyone complain about such a thing.

Maybe I should begin complaining about posters who offer free info
on forums. Anti-capitalist scum...😀

Sometimes I even wonder why I'm contributing "my two cents" for free
on forums like this one. Maybe I'm disturbing the sanctity of capitalism
by doing so. Cheapening the value of everyone's opinions by giving mine
away for nothing.

I don't know, maybe "free" is just another word for socialist with nothing
left to lose.

 

[willie_901]

Before the subscription model LULA advertised informational (training?) videos and photography excursions to relatively exotic locations. So it was a commercial site for many years.

 

[Mr. Fizzlesticks]

Personally I feel the content is barely worth my time reading it even being free (wasting time is sometimes worse than wasting money) so I barely ever go there. Paying for it seems like a bit of a stretch.

 

[Out to Lunch]

LL has a special place in my heart since it was one of the first sites to feature the Epson R-D1. I own and use three of them today. I'd gladly pay 1 dollar a month to use this site in the future.

 

[Hsg]

If you don't feel the content is worth $12 a year then that's fine. But why the accusations? It's just a poor reflection on you.

I don't mean to drag this any further, but if one gets out of the 1st world solipsism and thinks globally, $1 is a lot of money in most countries.

$1 is 18 pesos in mexico, which is part of north american free trade agreement. So, you don't have to go very far.