[TheForge] why are people be being required to pay obscene USD to download blacksmithing articles?

[Ben Barrett]

I agree that this docstoc site deserves a servere anti-promotion,
but I thought private services were in fact free to (allowed to) charge
service fees for the service they provide... then their advertising
promotes their content more-so than the good and valid free public-domain
sources.  Free as in speech, not free as in beer.
I see that same semi-abuse in for-pay mobile apps that repackage free
content into a "new mobile format", and I think that the best we can do
within our subject area is to avidly promote all the good and free sources
among our chapters, regional site's archives, increase cross-site links,
etc.
Maybe some regional and local orgs can help each other with optimizing web
content for modern search engine standards (it has changed since the 90's,
haha), or ABANA itself could help gather such resources for the many
webmasters and content creators among its membership.  I'm no SEO expert
but I could help a bit or maybe 1/2 byte.  :)

Ben


On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 4:59 PM, terry l. ridder <terrylr at blauedonau.com>wrote:

> hello;
>
> i decided to search for the peter ross abana 1998 speech and the google
> search turned up a rather questionable site.
>
> i may actually have this speech squirreled away on a different computer
> that i can get to at the moment.
>
> took a look at:
>
> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27976206/New-Jersey-Blacksmiths-Newsletter
>
> MABA Newsletter Index - January
> January 1998 to October 2009
> http://www.docstoc.com/Docs/Document-Detail-14.aspx?doc_id=35700868
>
> New Jersey Blacksmith Association Application Form
> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/107616050/New-Jersey-Blacksmith-Association
>
> i serious doubt all the above documents are in the public domain.
>
> i have serious issues with docstoc.com charging obscene membership fees
> just to download any of these documents.
>
> <begin quote>
> Get access to:Premium Documents
> Select Your Plan
> 12-Month Membership ($119.40 billed in full, once every twelve months)
> $9.95/month was $28.50/month
>  3-Month Membership ($44.85  billed in full, once every three months)
> $14.95/month was $42.95/month
>  Monthly Membership ($19.95  billed in full, once every month)
>  $19.95/month was $56.95/month
> <end   quote>
>
> i find this offensive to the original authors of the articles. to have
> their work hijacked by this site for an obscene membership fee.
>
> --
> terry l. ridder ><>
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