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It looks like this is a web forum, that is supported by user fees rather than advertisers. That's great! But then I look at the membership pricing, and see th

It looks like this is a web forum, that is supported by user fees rather than advertisers. That's great! But then I look at the membership pricing, and see that it's $15 per month. For a web message board. And an email address with only 500 MB of space allocated, if you even need that feature. Is this a for-profit venture for somebody? Or are they using the most inefficient hosting solution imaginable? Why does a text message board need to cost more than a Netflix subscription?

Taniwha 5y ago
The Well was around before the ubiquitous internet - think of it as a historical (but still live) object rather than a new and upcoming service
- tdeck 5y ago
  Interestingly the pricing indicates that they had a $10/month plan at one point: > Do you have an Essential Plan membership? This older membership type has been retired, but remaining accounts are grandfathered in at $100/$10 at this time. Contact Helpdesk (at the address shown at the footer of this page) to upgrade to our contemporary Membership offering.
Turing_Machine 5y ago
$0.20/megabyte for overages on web bandwidth, too. Ow! Better hope your home page never makes the front page of HN. :-)
Something1234 5y ago
I feel the same way.sdf.org includes web hosting and email for free, and if you want to support them recurring. It's only $36 annually. So it's significantly cheaper.
kristopolous 5y ago
The guy that did the Long Now Foundation and Whole Earth Catalog started The Well in 1985. It's now run by a group of longtime members. It's a different way to do things. Intentionally high barriers to entry protect against eternal Septembers and spam. At a low enough fee, counterintuitively, money is a fairly decent unbiased barrier. It's unbiased in that you don't need to know someone or have specialized knowledge, just the commodity of cash. It's not perfect but it's more blind than most other artificial barriers.
shalmanese 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL
- tdeck 5y ago
  > In September 2012, Salon sold The WELL to a new corporation, The WELL Group Inc., owned by a group of eleven investors, who are all long-time members. The CEO was Earl Crabb, who died on February 20, 2015. The sale price was reported to be $400,000 That means in order to recoup their investment, the WELL would need 2,666 paying member-years, to say nothing of expenses along the way.
ubermonkey 5y ago
Well, old users still ssh in and use the console interface. The web interfaced ("Engaged") is a late addition. The pricing has been stable since the 1990s or so. Sure, it's harder to defend that price level in 2021, but consider that (a) everyone is there with their real legal name and (b) the price keeps spam and trolls away for the most part. Re: the email limit, I think most everyone I know with an @well.com address forwards it elsewhere. Mine goes to Fastmail.

Taniwha 5y ago

The Well was around before the ubiquitous internet - think of it as a historical (but still live) object rather than a new and upcoming service

tdeck 5y ago
Interestingly the pricing indicates that they had a $10/month plan at one point: > Do you have an Essential Plan membership? This older membership type has been retired, but remaining accounts are grandfathered in at $100/$10 at this time. Contact Helpdesk (at the address shown at the footer of this page) to upgrade to our contemporary Membership offering.

Turing_Machine 5y ago

$0.20/megabyte for overages on web bandwidth, too. Ow! Better hope your home page never makes the front page of HN. :-)

Something1234 5y ago

I feel the same way.sdf.org includes web hosting and email for free, and if you want to support them recurring. It's only $36 annually. So it's significantly cheaper.

kristopolous 5y ago

The guy that did the Long Now Foundation and Whole Earth Catalog started The Well in 1985. It's now run by a group of longtime members. It's a different way to do things. Intentionally high barriers to entry protect against eternal Septembers and spam. At a low enough fee, counterintuitively, money is a fairly decent unbiased barrier. It's unbiased in that you don't need to know someone or have specialized knowledge, just the commodity of cash. It's not perfect but it's more blind than most other artificial barriers.

shalmanese 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL

tdeck 5y ago
> In September 2012, Salon sold The WELL to a new corporation, The WELL Group Inc., owned by a group of eleven investors, who are all long-time members. The CEO was Earl Crabb, who died on February 20, 2015. The sale price was reported to be $400,000 That means in order to recoup their investment, the WELL would need 2,666 paying member-years, to say nothing of expenses along the way.

ubermonkey 5y ago

Well, old users still ssh in and use the console interface. The web interfaced ("Engaged") is a late addition. The pricing has been stable since the 1990s or so. Sure, it's harder to defend that price level in 2021, but consider that (a) everyone is there with their real legal name and (b) the price keeps spam and trolls away for the most part. Re: the email limit, I think most everyone I know with an @well.com address forwards it elsewhere. Mine goes to Fastmail.