@RandMart This sounds right up your alley.
Iâm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and my criticism of him has been about specific actions of his only and not attacks on his character as a whole. As I said, Iâve never met him or talked to him so all I have to go on his how he presents himself here.
Still wouldnât give him a penny to be honest. Like wonât even consider it.
And I spend way too much money on a lot of dumb shit and have bikes and components I have no real âneedâ for.
As many on here have said already, it is this exact attitude from you @E_DUB/Eric which will drive many of us users with the easy ability to pay away from this model immediately. Feedback is a bitch but you have treated long serving and valued members here with an arrogance and holier than thou attitude which will do/has done more to destroy Danâs legacy than anything else you would like to blame. Whilst @Slowman and @rrheisler have always come across as a voice of reason, you have consistently shown disdain and snapped back at many members who you will now find you actually rely upon to make this model work.
Call this a personal attack if you like, but if you want my reasons and many other peoples reasons for refusing to even read any further into the â+â version of the site then you have it with some of your first few replies in this thread. Sorry @rrheisler and @Slowman but you need to hear that feedback.
$6.99 (I presume USD, you seem to forget you have a large number of international traffic on this site) is bugger all to most of us. However, with so many platforms moving to a monthly payment style system most of us look to see what value do we get for the money we are paying but also how reasonable does that money appear for what we know it takes to produce the product. When I look at what I get for streaming platforms, Zwift and the newspapers that I subscribe to, the + model gives me barely anything of value that I cannot find elsewhere, apart from the variety of topics in the LR, which as much as I love my mates in here, I am not going to pay $10-12 a month to have conversations with them.
@Slowman would run numerous polls on this site to help feedback to partners etcâŚam not sure why, we the core users, could not have been asked, polled, engaged etc etc with something like this beforehand. Once again, it points to an arrogance on behalf of the new ownership that they think they know better than the collective minds of the membership, for whom they rely on to make this a success.
It would be nice to get a considered reply to this message, but unfortunately I donât expect Eric to recognise or acknowledge his part in turning away so many valued members (I know you wonât think they are valuable), to recognise the damage he has done through his style of communication with members and to realise the damage that is done to the membership and to individual members with even a single poorly thought through snipe at specific people.
Sorry @rrheisler but you need to hear the above.
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Thanks for thinking of me!!! 
I must decline, regretfully, as I have so many projects on my table right now (including @sphere 's âSparkplug Groundhogâ), I canât take on any new assignments at this time
Thanks again, tho!!!
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I will stick around and hope some model, whether Ericâs paywall or one of Danâs ideas or something else, allows the LR to survive. My guess is that Eric will succeed in killing the LR.
I donât want to end this part of my life on a needlessly negative note. So, I will resist the strong temptation to say a few things about the way Eric has communicated with us. Others have said it already.
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Ike, when one of the most reasoned posters here is saying it, I really hope that gets the message across.
Some of us idiots like myself are easy to ignore and say we are being assholes and Eric has every right to be condescending/etc⌠to us. But when someone like yourself says it, there is a certain amount of weight to it.
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Iâm glad to hear youâre going to stick around and see how this plays out ike. Thatâs where Iâm at as wellâwait and see.
I also registered on the Reddit LR. Weâre up to 100 registered members already. If the ST LR survives, I probably wonât spend much time on Reddit. For now, we have two Lavender Rooms!
⌠and it appears we are all being T3âed in the arse âŚ
⌠raretime poster, long long time reader
ââ it needs a fairing ⌠oh, and your seatâs too high 
Id bet they would make more money if they had made it nominal plus a tip.
Ive been here +20yrs. I wont be paying any subscription. It will be sad when its over.
LR im betting provides a LOT of traffic numbers that helps support this site, just by sheer volume of clicks and posts.
I know nothing about the business of the LR, but from what I understand:
Unique site visitors are more valuable than recurring, long time visitors.
Apparently the LR scares away too many casual site visitors and discourages new ones from sticking around.
Advertisers and partners want this place gone.
It seems like that LR we all know and love is at odds with the growth of ST the business.
The exact opposite of what Disney does, if I might say
Even if someone comes to Disney once, and doesnât like it too much, thereâs a change coming along that will bring them back - but they donât burn the park down
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Really?? I kinda wonder if that is really the case.
A bunch of other sites (that host ads as well) that I frequent (some EV and PHEV forums) also have their own chit chat and politcal âlavender rooms.â And they are quite active. But those donât seem to scare anyone off at all.
Thatâs what Eric and Ryan alluded to during the last âweâre shutting down the LRâ threadsâŚ
How do I find the Reddit LR. Iâve been googling Reddit LR, Reddit Lavender Room etc. I keep finding reddit threads on how to make my room smell better with lavender.
Iâm never on Reddit, I canât figure out how to use it.
Yeah, I agree. But it seems really weird that other forums (also funded by ads) do perfectly well with similar âLavender Roomsâ, but somehow ST cannot.
Odd.
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Based on comments below the article, yes the LR will be behind the paywall.
A not so suttle way to get rid of the LR regulars.
Here you go:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LavenderRoom/
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