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Why Is The Mary Ferrell Website Always So Damned Annoying


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  • Richard Bertolino changed the title to Why Is The Mary Ferrell Website Always So Damned Annoying

Richard - I wrote both of my books up there for researchers, and I put them up there for free.  

You get several free click throughs a day, and you can download everything you click on.

Disinformation artists?  Or challenging your beliefs?

Annoying?  Maybe, if your belief system is challenged.

Sadistic?  Maybe, if you read too much JFK material.

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6 minutes ago, Bill Simpich said:

Richard - I wrote both of my books up there for researchers, and I put them up there for free.  

You get several free click throughs a day, and you can download everything you click on.

Disinformation artists?  Or challenging your beliefs?

Annoying?  Maybe, if your belief system is challenged.

Sadistic?  Maybe, if you read too much JFK material.

Bill - It's pay-to-play with the Mary Ferrlell site. It's annoying because it does NOT allow downloading, unless you pay. It is annoying because it allows very limited access unless you pay. But, you seem to need to put words into my mouth in order to attack me.

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Richard, no, I don’t want to attack you, I want to appeal to your sense of humor and collegiality.

i didn’t mean to spread “disinformation” about downloading.

Can’t you copy and paste the content on the screen?

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Bill Simpich said:

Richard, no, I don’t want to attack you, I want to appeal to your sense of humor and collegiality.

i didn’t mean to spread “disinformation” about downloading.

Can’t you copy and paste the content on the screen?

 

 

Bill - I can do screen captures, of course. That's how I showed the access denied page. But I cannot "download" any files. Apparently, payment is required for that privilege. "Downloading" by screen capture is annoying, especially because the site is designed to force multiple screen captures to acquire any document page ("designed by sadists").

Screenshot_20240424_002828.png

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I don’t mind paying the nominal, reasonable, annual charge to the MFF to have full access to all the riches there, the go-to site above all others for documents and resources. And MFF does not restrict any content from free access reading online although if you use up your quota of free access at one day or time you may have to wait a few hours but you can still see it. 

(Compare that to the atrocious world of academic publishing where—I am not making this up—electronic downloads of scholarly published articles of 2-20 pages are typically now costing $30-$40 per download apiece. And the author who did the hard work of the research and writing it up does not get any of that, it all goes to the middleman, the toll-gate collector for profit, the academic publishing house. And approximately 100% of scholarly authors write in order to have readers able to read what they write, ie open access, would prefer readers were not prevented from accessing the published fruits of their research by these outrageous costs to access for any not conveniently located in proximity to and have privileges at one of the major university research libraries. Of course the academic publishers feel boxed in with no other way to recover their costs and make a profit than by toll-gate collecting off the research/creative work of the producers of these scholarly articles which (some of them anyway) advance the world’s knowledge.) 

By contrast, the Mary Ferrell Foundation nominal annual fee is a complete bargain, a no-brainer, worth it many times over. 

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3 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

I don’t mind paying the nominal, reasonable, annual charge to the MFF to have full access to all the riches there, the go-to site above all others for documents and resources. And MFF does not restrict any content from free access reading online although if you use up your quota of free access at one day or time you may have to wait a few hours but you can still see it. 

(Compare that to the atrocious world of academic publishing where—I am not making this up—electronic downloads of scholarly published articles of 2-20 pages are typically now costing $30-$40 per download apiece. And the author who did the hard work of the research and writing it up does not get any of that, it all goes to the middleman, the toll-gate collector for profit, the academic publishing house. And approximately 100% of scholarly authors write in order to have readers able to read what they write, ie open access, would prefer readers were not prevented from accessing the published fruits of their research by these outrageous costs to access for any not conveniently located in proximity to and have privileges at one of the major university research libraries. Of course the academic publishers feel boxed in with no other way to recover their costs and make a profit than by toll-gate collecting off the research/creative work of the producers of these scholarly articles which (some of them anyway) advance the world’s knowledge.) 

By contrast, the Mary Ferrell Foundation nominal annual fee is a complete bargain, a no-brainer, worth it many times over. 

Seriously. An MFF subscription is a must for anyone doing actual JFK research. The annual fee is indeed worth it many times over. 

It sounds like Richard needs a Pro membership to enable .pdf downloads through. That is a bit more expensive - coming out to the extravagant price of $79.95 per year.

That’s less than $7 a month - literally the same as a single Starbucks latte. I’m not exactly swimming in dough either but c’mon guys. How much time does the average JFK nut spend studying the case? This isn’t exactly a casual hobby if you want to actually learn anything. 

Kinda funny side note though. I think the “designed by sadists” comment is ludicrous - from a pricing and web design perspective MFF is freaking phenomenal - but the actual monthly price of a pro membership comes out to $6.66. 

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6 hours ago, Richard Bertolino said:

Bill - I can do screen captures, of course. That's how I showed the access denied page. But I cannot "download" any files. Apparently, payment is required for that privilege. "Downloading" by screen capture is annoying, especially because the site is designed to force multiple screen captures to acquire any document page ("designed by sadists").

Screenshot_20240424_002828.png

Richard, Bill may have inadvertently sent you a link that is still in "review" and has not been copied over to the public access file.

The MF site is not free to run. Expenses include software, database licenses, hardware, network equipment, scanning all the docs, etc. Plus Rex's time. It's a bargain for sure!

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1 hour ago, David Boylan said:

Richard, Bill may have inadvertently sent you a link that is still in "review" and has not been copied over to the public access file.

The MF site is not free to run. Expenses include software, database licenses, hardware, network equipment, scanning all the docs, etc. Plus Rex's time. It's a bargain for sure!

So, what is this bargain price? I don't have money to throw around. How much do I need to pay in order to play?

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1 hour ago, Tom Gram said:

Seriously. An MFF subscription is a must for anyone doing actual JFK research. The annual fee is indeed worth it many times over. 

It sounds like Richard needs a Pro membership to enable .pdf downloads through. That is a bit more expensive - coming out to the extravagant price of $79.95 per year.

That’s less than $7 a month - literally the same as a single Starbucks latte. I’m not exactly swimming in dough either but c’mon guys. How much time does the average JFK nut spend studying the case? This isn’t exactly a casual hobby if you want to actually learn anything. 

Kinda funny side note though. I think the “designed by sadists” comment is ludicrous - from a pricing and web design perspective MFF is freaking phenomenal - but the actual monthly price of a pro membership comes out to $6.66. 

I don't buy Starbucks lattes. I have never bought anything at Starbucks. I'm just a poor old fart. $79.95? I guess I can keep on the way I am. The Starbucks customers can pay the fees.

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