META: To create an account you have to pay an undisclosed amount of money?
Many comments in the "ads are unbearable" post yesterday mention the necessity of the ads to keep the site free. While this misses the point a bit (ads can be present without being as intrusive as they are), they are also wrong in saying that the site is free. I remembered seeing someone mention this a while back so I went on a different browser to check it out and you definitely need to pay to create an account. However, at no point in the process does it actually tell you how much money is being taken.
I feel like for transparency's sake it should say on the account creation page how much money it costs to become a member, even if it's just a one time $5 or $10 thing.
FWIW, I filled out the required fields (after I took the screenshot below) to see if it was just a "suggested donation" type thing and was still unable to create one.
September 21st, 2020 at 2:56 PM ^
Did you try clicking the green "Start" button?
September 21st, 2020 at 3:05 PM ^
Yeah, but the prince of Nigeria can wait until I get the mgoanswers that I desire.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
Also, there's clearly tech support right on that page. "Ask Tech Help Now" seems like the people you should be talking to... after you try the big green start button that is.
September 21st, 2020 at 10:50 PM ^
And don't worry about the wait. Huel will be right with you.
September 21st, 2020 at 2:59 PM ^
You forgot to display your bank account # and social security #.
Go back and try again.
/s (just to make this clear)
September 21st, 2020 at 3:01 PM ^
I can’t disclose the amount of money I paid, silly.
September 21st, 2020 at 5:09 PM ^
Well, I can't disclose the details of my settlement of the civil suit charging that I continually farted in the presence of co-workers. It's sealed. So there.
September 21st, 2020 at 5:24 PM ^
Could have avoided all that lawyer stuff if you had just sealed your butt instead.
September 21st, 2020 at 5:40 PM ^
And have all that flatulence back up?
September 21st, 2020 at 7:05 PM ^
Fecal aerosol explosion!
September 21st, 2020 at 3:01 PM ^
I think it’s 5 bucks.
Smart move by Brian and the boys IMO. Most trolls aren’t gonna spend 5 bucks to post stuff.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:07 PM ^
Agreed that it's smart. I just wish it would say how much it's about to charge you.
Also, I'd gladly pay like $20 to get rid of ads for a year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
September 21st, 2020 at 4:30 PM ^
Pretty sure the motivation behind a fee is not solely to keep out trolls
$$$ talks, especially with no football for so long hence people opining that the increase in ads is on purpose
September 21st, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
They constantly turn up the amount of ads until people complain then it goes back down. This is not the first time ads have appeared mid sentence in board comments.
September 21st, 2020 at 5:30 PM ^
Mine was free?
September 21st, 2020 at 3:06 PM ^
I cannot recommend enough having some sort of monetary barrier for posting. It could be for just $1. Just putting that sort of a barrier would reduce trolling to minimum and would really make banning something to think about.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:00 PM ^
I would be happy to pay, but I think there are other ways:
1. No posting for 30 days after creating an account.
2. Raise the threshold to post to the message board to at least 500 and 90 days.
September 21st, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^
These are not really barriers to someone creating tens or even hundreds of accounts for trolling purposes. I can create a bunch of new accounts everyday knowing that I will cycle through them regularly. Only having the monetary (real identity) barrier will ensure that someone cannot create multiple accounts for trolling purposes.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
Not to mention you could block bad actors by doing some sort of matching against cards on file. Hopefully by using a hash and not a card number!
September 21st, 2020 at 3:08 PM ^
I just created an account so this is pretty fresh. Once you go to paypal, it will display the amount. Its your choice to agree or disagree to this payment.
Also: If you dont like ads, run the site on Chrome and make sure the adBlocker extension is installed.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^
This site is the only reason I have adblocker installed.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Try the Brave browser. Built on Chrome, but with no ads, no trackers, and rockin fast.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:09 PM ^
Pro tip: search Amazon for lingerie. Then reap the benefits as lingerie ads fill your MGoBlog experience.
Full disclosure: I'm basing this off of my recent Amazon searches that were much less titillating. Think gear oil for outboard motors, chainsaw sharpening tools, and chainsaw safety chaps. On second thought, those orange chainsaw safety chaps sans undergarments could be construed as naughty bait.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:27 PM ^
Claritin D over here. I really know how to party.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
did not work - tried womens thong underwear and slutty sluts and am still getting the carmax raptor ads. i'll keep trying.
September 22nd, 2020 at 3:57 AM ^
yeah, nice try. Google's not buying your women's slutty sluts story. It knows what want. What you really, really want.
September 21st, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^
this reminds me of a reddit post asking why the person's wife computer kept showing ads for divorce lawyers.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:10 PM ^
I do wish it was $5 to sign up.
Would discourage all but the most foolhardy of trolls.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:31 PM ^
247 and other message boards would like a word with you
This is a financial move and not a move to prevent trolls
September 21st, 2020 at 3:10 PM ^
It's great in theory, but having been on the receiving end of Ace banning me, explanations should be provided. I reached out to see why my 5 year old account had been banned and didn't hear anything back.
Now that it costs money to create an account, explanations should be sent to the email of banned accounts.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
As a "rehabilitated" poster, I'm trying to get to 100K so I can take my celebratory screenshot and then retire from MGoBlog to spend more time with my family, because I've got a doozy of an OP planned for the big day in November.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:35 PM ^
The big day in November? The OSU game got moved to December this year.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
We post them in the mod sticky. Most bans are extremely obvious trolls and it would be a huge waste of time to start email conversations with their usually garbage email addresses.
Mod sticky is here: https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/moderator-action-sticky-2020 and there are links to old ones. Sometimes there are bulk bans.
September 22nd, 2020 at 9:11 AM ^
My OG account got banned back in 2012 for telling an offensive joke in a thread titled "what's the most offensive joke you know". Best part is that the mods kept the thread up all day..
September 21st, 2020 at 3:14 PM ^
I have a bridge to sell you, and you can get in early on this new Covid serum some body's of mine have create. Just send me your credit card info and you can get in on the ground floor. Seriously!
September 21st, 2020 at 4:09 PM ^
Is that the same serum that Putin used on his daughter?
September 21st, 2020 at 4:49 PM ^
Defenestration is the ultimate truth serum.
September 21st, 2020 at 9:46 PM ^
Overdosing is a real problem though.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:23 PM ^
1 Million Dollars!!!
September 21st, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
They are raising money to get HUEL to work on the list of bugs. Must not have much luck since the last update is still over 2 years old in the sticky thread.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
Pay the guys some more that did a horrible job bringing this website into the 21st century. makes sense.
September 21st, 2020 at 4:52 PM ^
I will not stand for criticism of Huel...
September 21st, 2020 at 5:04 PM ^
HUEL should be ashamed of themselves
Site is an embarrassment considering the amount of time to deliver
September 21st, 2020 at 7:37 PM ^
People need to lay off HUEL. Find it odd that Seth or Brian never comment about updates to the site? They likely paid for minimal upgrades, wanted to keep Drupal for Brian to be able to keep his ability to code. HUEL likely could have delivered something like 11 warriors, but when Brian isn’t paying and is requiring old software to be used, what do you expect? From a PR perspective, HUEL should have passed on doing this upgrade knowing the limitations.
September 21st, 2020 at 10:09 PM ^
Totally random observation. I love how you refer to Huel as if it's your younger brother. Just substitute Billy for Huel.
September 21st, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
I actually like the idea of creating a roulette-style wheel for payments that you have to just hope is low when you sign up. That way if it looks like you're just a troll creating a new account shortly after being banned they could list "HOOKERS AND BLOW LLC" for the company on your credit card statement.