UPDATE AS OF 5/11/2008: As of now a subscription is still required to post. We’re not ready to switch to free posting yet - June or July is more like it. While dropping the fee is simply a matter of changing a software setting or two, we need to have an alternative revenue stream in place before we do so, and getting that set up is proving to be more complicated than I thought. So if you wish to keep posting once your subscription expires, you need to re-up, knowing that free posting may start within a month or two. If you’d rather let your subscription lapse and wait for free posting, that’s up to you. I remind you that free posting means you’ll see display ads, whereas subscribing means you won’t. I’m sorry I can’t be more definite, but felt it was better to give you what little information I have than simply surprise you.
I’m happy to announce that Creative Loafing Media, owner of the Chicago Reader and the Straight Dope website, has tentatively OKd a plan to upgrade and expand the online SD. Among other things we’ll be moving to a new server platform we hope will solve the problem of frequent timeouts and board crashes due to use of the search function. Jerry can provide more detail if he cares to, but the gist is that searches will be offloaded to a separate server and won’t shut down the whole system while underway. We’ll also be modernizing the look of the SD website.
The other major change is that we’ll be switching from the current pay-to-post business model to a pay-for-no-ads model. We started subscriptions in 2004 as a way to bring in some cash at a time when there were few good ways to make money online. Subscriptions enabled us to keep the lights on, but board traffic, which previously had been increasing annually at double-digit rates, flattened out. Now that the online ad market is developing, the potential revenue we can pull in from banner sales far exceeds what we derive from subscriptions. Once we revert to free posting, we expect the previous steady traffic growth to resume.
That said, the uproar that greeted our initial introduction of ads on the SDMB last fall made us realize that a lot of our users really, really don’t want to see ads. So, as we suggested we might at the time, we’re switching to a two-tiered approach. You can either pay nothing and see ads, or you can pay an annual fee and have your SDMB experience remain ad free. CLARIFICATION: We’re talking about DISPLAY ads here, the ones in boxes with graphics. Subscribers will continue to see Google text ads at the bottom of the page.
All these changes are likely to raise questions, which as usual we’ll try to address with a FAQ:
How soon will you be installing the new server?
Barring disaster, within the next couple months. In addition to purchasing and installing new hardware, there’s a lot of back-end reconfiguration that needs to be done - for one thing, we’ll be serving up Straight Dope column pages off a database, as opposed to the static HTML pages we use now.
Will subscriptions be eliminated simultaneously with the installation of the server?
That hasn’t been decided. They’ll probably occur reasonably close together but not on the same day.
I’m a charter member and my subscription expires April 30. I definitely don’t want to see ads. When my subscription comes up for renewal, what should I do?
Renew as you’ve done in the past. You won’t see ads for another year.
I’m a charter member but ads don’t bug me. I’m going to let my subscription lapse. Will free posting begin by April 30?
We can’t guarantee that. If it seems like we’re close, we’ll probably just extend everyone’s subscription a week or two. **SEE UPDATE ABOVE ** - Free posting probably won’t begin until June or July.
I subscribed two months ago. Will I get a refund?
No. The message that came through to us loud and clear during the controversy last year was that our subscribers expect not to see ads. In switching from pay-to-post to pay-for-no-ads, we think we’re giving our subscribers equivalent value - literally. The revenue we forego by not showing ads to subscribers is likely to at least equal our subscription revenue. Also, to be frank, trying to refund small amounts to thousands of users would be a logistical nightmare.
If I pay the no-ads fee, do I get any perks besides no ads?
No. It’s important to understand that we’re offering a no-ads option as a convenience to our users - we’re not trying to encourage you to go this route. The no-ads fee going forward will be adjusted so that it offsets lost revenue. As banner income increases over time, the fee will rise. But the choice is yours.
As a charter member, will I receive a 50% discount on the no-ads fee?
Yes. Strictly speaking, we’re not going to have “subscribers” any more, so arguably we’re not obligated to continue offering a 50% discount to charter members. However, we’re grateful for charter members’ support at a time when we had few other revenue sources, and we don’t want to get into an argument over semantics. That said, charter members (for that matter, all current members) will only be able to renew for one year at a time.
Do we have to wait for the new server for search to be restored?
Search has been restored now, although to limit the strain on the server we’ve imposed a five-minute wait between searches per user. Once the new server is in place we expect to be able to remove this limitation.
Why do we need ads at all? I thought the SDMB was covering its expenses since we went to subscriptions.
If you consider only online costs, the SDMB breaks even, more or less. But we’re not making money. Newspapers, including alternative newspapers, have lost millions of dollars in ad revenue since the advent of craigslist and the like. If we’re going to continue producing a quality editorial product, we need to find alternative sources of income. The online SD potentially is one such source. But making money is only part of what we hope to accomplish. We’re also trying to create an expanded online community we think will transform the business. We think it’ll be fun, and we hope you stick around for the ride.
