I've been a member of the ACM from 2009 to 2012 for the only reason that it was a prerequisite to get the printed version of the CACM (which you have to pay in addition to the membership fee).
I cancelled my membership the day I realized I had one year of unread issues sitting on my desk. I'd found for long that the quality of the publications in CACM was no better than what I was reading on specialized blogs. It only had additional prestige — or so I thought at the time.
After I had cancelled, I developed a growing uneasiness with how much effort (and money!) was spent in getting me renew my membership, with a lot of (international) mails on high-quality paper. No wonder the membership was so expensive.
I'm still wondering about the actual benefits of such associations.
Me too, and for approx the same period. I ended up with about 2ft of CACMs realising the amount I'd actually read was tiny. They're fascinating to dip into though. Worth the ~100 USD/y to someone, but, I concluded, not me.
I think these decisions are interesting for early career software engineers. Then, sometimes life takes you a direction where a professional affiliation makes sense, sometimes it doesn't.
I cancelled my membership the day I realized I had one year of unread issues sitting on my desk. I'd found for long that the quality of the publications in CACM was no better than what I was reading on specialized blogs. It only had additional prestige — or so I thought at the time.
After I had cancelled, I developed a growing uneasiness with how much effort (and money!) was spent in getting me renew my membership, with a lot of (international) mails on high-quality paper. No wonder the membership was so expensive.
I'm still wondering about the actual benefits of such associations.