medtech

Very true, but if he can pay cash for a pcar, he can afford a "premium" membership

OCBen

You're missing the point.

If he has no need for a premium membership - i.e. no need to post items for sale or a desire to access the OT Forum, and is perfectly content with posting in the tech forums - why should he waste his money buying something he doesn't need? Are you in the habit of wasting your money on things you don't need and will never use?

Maybe that's why he was able to afford paying cash for his car because he was smart with his money and didn't blow it on things he doesn't need nor will ever use. Just a thought.

Soulteacher

Oops, Ben, I do that all the time!

Let's not debate over a post-and-run troll who obviously confuses a Porsche with a $25 million yacht. Plus, while he may have written that check, it could still have bounced! Oh, and didn't we establish that "Joke" was "Gatsby" anyway? And "Gatsby", in turn, really was "MMD"? Oh well, the anonymous playground that is called Rennlist.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OCBen

Oh I wasn't debating the character of a man.

I was debating the premise of an argument.

Graygoose997

Shouldn't you be in OT. driving them nuts over there ?
And I think you owe me a case of beer...

medtech

No, I'm not missing you're point, I just think it's weak. And with that I will end this pointless diversion.

wbgordon

This thread really is separating the Democrats from the Republicans. Having said that, $17.00 a year isn't a lot to pay for anything nowadays, much less a website that goes a long way to help every Porsche owner. Whether you need it or not, isn't it a nice gesture to "pitch in" $17.00 to help subsidize a great website such as the Rennlist? Just a thought.

OCBen

Maybe there's a little naivete at play here, but would you send a $17 check to General Electric just because you happen to enjoy a great program on NBC and really appreciate the fact that it's being aired? Do you really think your measly seventeen dollars is going to help subsidize General Electric and allow them to keep your favorite program on the air? Of course not. It's all about ad revenue, and the ratings that drive them.

In case you're not aware, those banner ads you see overhead are actually being paid for by the advertisers to Internet Brands, Inc. in the form of handsome ad revenue. That's why Internet Brands bought Rennlist, to profit from advertising revenue. It was purely a business decision, and you don't need an MBA to understand that. It's the same reason why General Electric bought NBC, to profit from advertising revenue. So when advertisers are paying over a million dollars for a 30 second ad during this year's Super Bowl on NBC, do you think your hypothetical seventeen dollar check to General Electric will amount to anything? Of course not.

Internet Brands owns many of these automotive communities, and many of them offer a premium membership (paid) and a regular membership (free). I would venture to guess that the cost of these premium memberships is barely enough to cover the processing cost of recording and documenting said memberships. I doubt much is going to the corporation after these costs are covered. But by and large the overwhelming source of their revenue is through advertisement in the form of the ads you see above.

So if it makes you feel better to think you are helping subsidize a major corporation with your measly seventeen dollar check, well don't let me disillusion you.

Soulteacher

WHO CARES?

Guys, if you want to discuss this, go to the OT. That's the place where my intelligently earned seventeen dollars subsidize dumb altercations with no purpose; that's the place where you find mentally debilitated morons who have arguments for argument's sake.

The poor original poster... we probably scared him off. Yo, Ferrariman, are you still there? We are usually much friendlier!

Coochas

You get my vote for excellent post of the year Wolfgang! Well put.
Please keep in mind that it's still the first week of the year.

wbgordon

May I remind that the definition of a forum is an open discussion. Moron? Congrats, Soulteacher. You just earned the title with that condescending rant.

Soulteacher

Thank you. But I hope you know exactly what I am referring to: it's those bitter, heated, opinionated, argumentative, polemic, meaningless, insulting, selfrighteous political/social/economic threads that are actually neither very open nor reflective of a discussion at all. Very apparently my "rant" excludes 95 percent of the OT threads and 99 percent of the OT posters, but if you look for those types of altercations, you'll find them there.

With my comment I wasn't even specifically addressing Ben or you, and this thread most certainly wasn't anywhere near those OT threads yet. I was addressing the nature and irrelevancy of content of our interaction, and the direction that this thread had taken. Ben knows that, because he and I know each other personally from my visit with him, and I hope you understand that, too.

I do agree, though, that I am hypersensitive in this respect. I'm not going to spend my time arguing over everything that I disagree with or that I'm bothered by, and I try to not provoke even when I know I'm right (of course, that doesn't always work, particularly not this time). I'm the same in traffic, I don't care if someone cuts into my lane or not. If beating a Porsche in traffic is an accomplishment for them, then they really have nothing going for them in life.

I live a brilliant life, personally and professionally, primarily because I have been able to surround myself with positive people who actively engage in conflict avoidance. In the virtual world, that's who I find here in the 997 forum for the most part, and that's why I hardly ever visit the OT (once in the past three months), which is probably why I overreact when this kind of attitude finds its way over here.

jplanaux

Some of us have paid our $17 and are still listed as non members (I am living proof). So go easy on the accusations (nice or not).

wbgordon

In 5 1/2 years of posting on the Rennlist, I don't think I've visited the OT once, didn't even know it existed prior to this. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I appreciate your comments as well as your desire to keep petty arguments off the board. This one got a little out of hand. Re your distaste of insulting, however, consider that it could be construed as such to display WHO CARES? followed by what appeared to be a dig to the previous posters, myself included, for being "mentally debilitated" and "morons", and then to suggest that the rest of us could have been more friendly. As to the original poster, I trust he got his answer. I know I went a long way to articulate why I thought using other people's money to buy a car in certain circumstances makes good financial sense. Being a Certified Financial Planner practitioner who owns his own business, I'm in a position to know.

Finally this: I realize this is a tech forum, but most guys driving 997s, myself included, have few do-it-yourself issues (unless it's a mod of their choosing) because we're almost all under factory warranty. I had to laugh reading a thread a few months ago about the "Chickability" of driving a 997. The true Porsche gearheads are posting on the older tech forums. The guys on the 997 forum are half torn between writing about modifying their rigs and how good they look driving down the street. There's unavoidably a lot of OT.

Either way, Wolfgang, life is too short, and to that I say ... truce.

points

I spend about 100 bucks or so on gas every month...more when the gas companies begin to gouge me.