Recreation.gov.

[retired jerry]

they could pay for it with ads rather than a user fee

[Bosterson]

they could pay for it with ads rather than a user fee

Let's also line the highways with electronic ad billboards like they do in soccer arenas. Then we won't have to pay gas taxes! Do you really want all aspects of modern life to be like the horror of having to use the internet? Maybe every time you buy a permit on Rec.gov, you can also be entered in a drawing to see if you accidentally "overpaid" for a Norton antivirus subscription and you need to call a number in India for a "refund."

Relatedly, maybe since taxes already fund the government, then government appropriations could adequately fund government services without allowing scalping by a contractor.

[retired jerry]

I currently have a Norton antivirus ad on my pc, telling me I should renew it. I'm too lazy to figure out how to make that go away.

Yeah, I agree, taxes should just pay for it

I don't mind ads that just occupy a portion of my screen. I object when a video pops up and audio starts playing and I have to search around to figure out how to kill it. Or, I think sometimes my PC hangs, waiting for an ad server to figure out what ad to serve me. Or, an ad that moves around distracting my view.

[RobFromRedland]

I currently have a Norton antivirus ad on my pc, telling me I should renew it. I'm too lazy to figure out how to make that go away.

Yeah, I agree, taxes should just pay for it

I don't mind ads that just occupy a portion of my screen. I object when a video pops up and audio starts playing and I have to search around to figure out how to kill it. Or, I think sometimes my PC hangs, waiting for an ad server to figure out what ad to serve me. Or, an ad that moves around distracting my view.

Ad blockers in your web browser are your friend.... Google uBlock Origin.

And I think recreation.gov is the devil's spawn..... I don't mind paying a reasonable fee for online permits, etc, but their fees are ridiculous.

[happilyretired]

And if you like supporting Booz Allen Hamilton for federal reservations, I'm sure you'll love paying them for state reservations too...from today's Register-Guard (https://www.registerguard.com/story/tra ... 296011007/):

The state agency’s contract with website vendor ReserveAmerica.com expires in 2025 and could not be renewed. That opened up a competitive bidding process in 2023.

For the next website, parks officials decided on a platform called Recreation Hub, designed to “modernize and simplify campground management,” according to the department.

The platform is owned and run by Conduent and Booz Allen Hamilton, a multinational corporation that also runs Recreation.gov, the federal government’s website for booking campsites and permits across the nation’s public lands.

But wait there's more...

The new website would cost $2.67 million per year. OPRD will ask to sign a five-year contract for $13.35 million.

The previous website, ReserveAmerica, cost $2.1 million per year, Knowlton said, “but it did not include all the functions that the new site will.”

Knowlton said the cost of the website would be paid by reservation fees. If the reservation fees don’t cover the full cost of the website, additional funds would come from the agency's budget.

[drm]

I recently was visiting a state park campground on a week day. It was clear that there would be vacancies and the website said same day reservations were allowed. So rather than pay the exorbitant $8 reservation fee above the actual campground fee, I figured I would just go there. Usually when you do same day at campgrounds, you go and find an available site, and then pay at the registration box.

But at this state park, when I got there, it said you could reserve the same day - through the website. So there in the campground entrance area, I had to go online and do the same registration, with the same $8 fee, that I would have done at home. Forest Service campgrounds do not operate this way, and the recreation.gov fee of $2 is a lot less than the state $8 fee.

[RobFromRedland]

And if you like supporting Booz Allen Hamilton for federal reservations, I'm sure you'll love paying them for state

The new website would cost $2.67 million per year. OPRD will ask to sign a five-year contract for $13.35 million.

The previous website, ReserveAmerica, cost $2.1 million per year, Knowlton said, “but it did not include all the functions that the new site will.”

If I were smarter or more motivated, I'd build a replacement for this and tell the government "I'll do it for only 1 million"

What a waste - I never realized they paid for the site IN ADDITION to the extra fees they charge to get reservations. I thought the extra fees were supposed to PAY for the operation of the site.

[gallione11]

I think my biggest gripe is that I've never had an issue on ReserveAmerica when it comes to release time reservations. I've hit the "Sorry, too many users are attempting to reserve something" on recreation.gov a lot which has caused missed/non-preferred reservations.