Chews on one of JoBob's chill pills ...

I would never want to perpetuate a negative thread to this board because that's definitely what TE isn't about. I've always admired the way disagreements are resolved through discussion, rather than argument or flaming.

The ironic thing is, I had been thinking about eventually becoming a premium member, but would do so in a few months' time, when I'm in a better financial position; there are several projects and small fee-paying upgrades that I'd like to contribute to, but don't want to commit myself at this particular moment in time. I do understand the ethos behind supporting development of sites like Bikejournal, but also believe that what one person sees as an intrinsic part of their life, is superfluous to others - or not necessarily such high priority.
I don't know BJ's history, but stab a guess that it started out as an altruistic gesture, and a very basic facility - but as members became more demanding, the time and effort spiralled into making it what it is today.

My initial over-sensitivity about the freeloader thing was because I didn't think I was doing anything wrong by just using the basic membership for the basic use - and I over-reacted because I'm definitely not a "something for nothing person" - I don't use any of the features of BJ such as forums or statistical analysis, but would understand if Slantz did feel he wanted to make the site fee-paying only for all the hard-work he's put in there.

As I said, I don't want to blow this out of proportion and should probably have worded my reply less tersely. I simply wanted to put things from another perspective.

Thanks to JoBob and pkq for throwing the virtual bucket of cold water over me - just what I needed!!