Addventure is Members-Only now?

[Zorlond]

I recently let my membership to the BEA lapse due to some financial finagling, and today I wander into the BEA as I often do to check out the Addventure... To find it is now marked 'Members Only'.

... I have no idea how to respond to this. Certainly not politely.

[JackVigilante]

I've never been a paying member of the BEA and I can access the Addventure just fine...

[Zorlond]

Yeah, looks like they changed the link from the front page, but didn't do anything about just jumping to the Addventure pages directly. That's probably not gonna last.

[Brugwine]

WTF this is total B.S. i mean people write the adventure adding to it  and don't charge anything for their work but now others can't read it  just anit right

[Catfish]

Let me try to be a little more eloquent than that...

I'm using this possible change (and today's news about the upcoming shutdown of Google Reader) to remind myself that I don't own the websites I use, even the ones for which I've created content; they're always subject to switch to paying-member-only, or be taken down temporarily, or disappear forever, without even an explanation.

That said, if it is the case that the Addventure is going members-only, it certainly seems a bit, well, arbitrary and capricious to make that switch now, after almost 15 years.  I can definitely understand why the BEA ownership/management might want to make the change, hoping that some significant fraction of the regular Addventure contributors could be persuaded to pony up for membership, or even drawing in new members with the promise of being able to read the existing almost-15-years' worth of content that hits not only BE, but pretty much every possible other fetish.

However, it seems to me the better way to handle it -- and I know this has been suggested before -- would be to merely make some of the Addventure's advanced features members-only; that is, either existing features (such as the tree view or the chain view) or new features (things like an Addventure search engine, or the ability to add new choices to existing episodes). Something like that would keep most if not all of the existing contributors on board providing the all-important new content, while still providing decent added value to drive membership sign-ups.

[JH_]

I seem to remember that in the early days of the addventure it did briefly go members-only, but not surprisingly that had such a drastic effect on the number of episodes posted that it pretty much died, and the decision was reversed. I think the addventure works as a valuable "loss leader" for the site, and that many people must have become aware of its existence who otherwise wouldn't have done so.

Maybe they've made it so that anyone can still read it but you have to be a member to post an episode? I hope not. My guess is that labelling the addventure members-only was simply an editing mistake by someone. Anyway, we'll soon find out.

[DruulEmpire]

I can attest that I first discovered this place via the Addventure (and Chili Palmer's stories) and within one year of contributing episodes I then decided to sign up.  Not sure how I feel about the reverse of that.

[Adama]

Sorry, I've been absent for a few days and didn't notice this thread.

As far as I know, the Addventure has NOT become members-only.  It looks like the main page has simply been changed so that the free link is no longer showing.

I have no idea how long it's been like that, since (I imagine like many people) I never use the main page to enter the Addventure, having bookmarked the Recents page a long time ago.  So I don't know whether that's an old or new thing.

The Addventure DOES have a members-only area that MarkT set up ages ago, and it does indeed have a couple of functions that are members-only.  The Addventure's members-only area accesses exactly the same episodes that the free area does, just with some additional features. 

The "free" main page should be linking to the "free" Addventure, and the "members" main page should be linking to the "members" Addventure.

I'm not sure who to contact about correcting the contents of the main page.  The Owner?  BEA Customer Service?

[JH_]

Take a look at the "Site Changes?" thread on the "Site Issues" area of the forum, and especially Palomine's post, as it might well be relevant. It sounds as though the site owners could be getting concerned at making possibly illegal content available to everyone (of whatever age) rather than just to members.

[gonZo]

That's part of the idea. The site's management is concerned about making possibly illegal content available to ANYONE, but rather than moving problem areas like the Addventure all the way offline, they're being moved into the Member area while they're being reviewed.

As Palomine said: What can be returned to where it was, will eventually be returned, but we've got finite manpower to do this, so it'll take time. Please be patient. Thanks.
_
gonZo