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Unsurprisingly, Brooklyn breeders have worked themselves into a tizzy over their favorite bookmarked site and online soapbox, ParkSlopeParents.com, who have dared ask that their 13,000 frequent visitors toss some coin in the tip jar.
Yesterday Gawker posted about the announcement, deeming the Brooklyn neighborhood's stroller pushers as "the worst cultural subgroups this side of the Minutemen" who "sequester themselves in a twee, self-important doombubble."
Now the NY Post chimes in on the $25/year fee that has been proposed, saying some are claiming it's a form of economic discrimination. Meanwhile, the site's founder, Susan Fox, told the paper, "I can't continue to run it in this economy. Ads are down. I understand people feel betrayed, people feel I'm trying to cash in. It saddens me."
The site spelled out in a lengthy FAQ why the fee is necessary, and what the money will go towards, but the parents still aren't satisfied. Paying money for a service that you value and use on a daily basis? Absurd! This will never end, so how about for around $2/month, we can each sponsor a Park Slope Parent to STFU.
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This as further evidence of why Brooklyn and their stroller culture is delusional and backwards.
what is a "pricey bk t" in the sign above?
Brooklyn T-shirts?
"This will never end, so how about for around $2/month, we can each sponsor a Park Slope Parent to STFU."
I'm in.
Only if we can put them in a zoo-like enclosure, and study them.
Good article about this on HereisParkSlope.com as well.
I think some people forget the true value of a community site comes from the content and participation of all the members. Few sites going from free to subscription manage a conversion rate of higher than 25% or so. That's 75% fewer eyeballs on the street, commentary, etc..
I get that the volunteers want to make some money and it's pointless to debate whether or not they 'deserve' it, but community sites are poor soil for turning into even a break-even enterprise. Once you start saying they 'deserve' this or that, contributors start thinking about monetizing their contributions as well. Why not? They're putting in their time and effort too. Don't they 'deserve' some compensation as well, even if it's just a little?
People who participate pay into the site with their contribution of time and information. Tacking on anything but a nominal fee irritates people because it puts a price on their community participation but not the true value of their time. It acts as a big brake, and makes it easier to create social monocultures.
And for this to work, they'll probably have to disband the yahoo groups or they'll be competing with themselves. If they do that, another will be happy to try to take its place in the free-access vacuum they'll create with their departure.
As soon as you charge -any- fee though, you lose substantial membership numbers - if for no other reason that one of simple transaction mechanics. It's not a happy solution to retain the army of casual participants who provide up-to-date intel and commentary on relevant events.
An idea would be to keep the site free but have the volunteers do less and pare down the scope of the site. It existed for a long time without charging money. Maybe the ambition to do more, while laudable, isn't necessary.
Another would be to keep it free but organize value-added services (e.g., excursions, room rentals, museum trips, daycare?) that subsidize the community site.
isnt park slope where people who like to pretend they're rich live? pay the goddamn 25 bucks and shut up already
maybe gothamist should start charging
Now there's $2 i wouldn't mind spending!
i think gothamist should charge a fee
i wouldn't pay
or perhaps Jen Carlson should STFU
just a thought
I'd pay a fee if Gothamist would stop considering anything in the New York Times as being about New York.
Jen C = future Park Slope mommy!
I'd pay $25/year for a forum to talk about my two cats.
Many of us Brooklyn breeders actually support the fee, so STFU yourself (pretty hostile post btw).
I wonder how supportive the response would be to a gothamist fee proposal. It worked so well for the NY Times online...
Seems like the reaction isn't so much about the fee as it is about to the FAQ's overwrought justification.
All they really needed in the FAQ was this: Why are we charging? To limit participation to those who REALLY want to be members.
I don't even get the whole park slope parent thing. don't you have to parent? Your caribbean nanny is raising your kids for you.
Quoted for truth.
"Doombubble".
What a great band name!
park slope = the fake upper west side
park slope = the fake upper west side
I feel economically discriminated every time I have to pay my taxes. These people are just retarded-why is this even considered news?
Well you know what Rush Limbaugh would do...
I think it's weird to have children because it's trendy
Um, ouch. I live in Brooklyn and have children. Does that make me a bad person? Wait, don't answer that... I am a horrible, terrible, trendy, frivolous A-Hole. Sucks for you cool childless people though cause it's MY GENES getting passed on, suckas!
No, having kids doesn't make you a bad person, but doesn't make you more special than non-parents either.
Also if you "special" parents insist on barging through B&N the narrow magazine aisles with your SUV carriages, don't be surprised if your special brat gets knocked over by us "cool childless people"
It is precisely thinking like that that makes people think breeders are odious. It's not the fact that you have kids, it's the fact that you think your kids are little versions of you that you can shape into someone better than yourself. What do your genes have to do with anything except your ego? And do you really think that after 17 or 18 years of dealing with your insufferably smug, ego-driven, bizarrely abstract and delusional way of thinking, your kids will want to have anything to do with you? If you're lucky they'll come visit you on holidays (so you can see how nicely your genes are doing) but I wouldn't be surprised if they moved as far away from you as possible in a heroic attempt to be an individual, not a shadow of you.
Owned.
Sorry if you hate your parents or you hate kids or you hate yourself or all three such that your view of the world is overtinted. Not everyone is like Alex and her obnoxious kids in "Housewives of New York".
I can't expect anyone to cover this without making fun of it. Out of context it does sound petty and ridiculous and of course Park Slope Parents attracts a self-selecting group of stereotypical "Brooklyn breeders." Some of the Park Slope Parents people really should STFU and just pay.
A lot of the discussion was just that-- discussion. When it was announced that they were going to start charging a fee, the people in charge of PSP didn't really explain where the money was going to, what alternatives they'd already pursued, and all the other million questions. The FAQ was so long because it tried to answer everything.
If they had just simply laid it out the first time, I doubt the volume of discussion would have been as great as it has been.
The decision to have kids in this day and age — and the decision not to have them — have one big yucky human thing in common: self interest.
Be sure about that.