I feel very uncomfortable about limiting access to the Today chat threads to Subscribers only, for several reasons.
1. I particularly value reading contributions from non UK. based members as I’m interested in what’s happening in other parts of the world, whether sewing related or not. I think anything to do with Quilting and Patchwork for instance, would be very bland with the US contributions as they have an enormous wealth of expertise over there.
2. I don’t think ANYONE should ever post anything online that is particularly sensitive because I think it’s gives the poster a false sense of security. Hackers can get into anything and regularly do so. Even if you delete stuff, it can be resurrected by IT experts.
3. It’s actually quite a faff for overseas users to pay £10 in Sterling, inc. EU countries. Luckily, I still have a UK. bank account but PayPal won’t let me pay in Sterling because I’m based here in Ireland and they automatically set my account for euros so I get charged added fees when I use it to purchase from the UK. This site is overwhelmingly made up of UK. based members so I think allowing non U.K. members who have posted an agreed minimum number of posts free access, seems perfectly reasonable to me. Their contributions in terms of knowledge is easily worth £10.
To clarify, I’m still happy to pay my £10 subscription/(donation towards the maintenance) using my UK bank account and will continue to do so.