Thank you for the update. It looks like very good news.
I would like the third the recommendation that the vBulletin Version gets upgraded.
A more open membership is a GREAT idea.
Why not also make PMs a benefit of paid membership?
I agree strongly with the first, but I question your second. I plan to remain a paying member and it would not be a convenience to me for non-paying members to not have PM. How about instead the benefit being a larger storage of PM’s for paying members? I hit that 50 limited often.
Because they don’t really WANT paid members. They want the greater revenue from ad viewing members. They’re offering paid memberships to keep those of us who would leave rather than earn them ad revenue, but they’re not going to offer more bells and whistles that would encourage paid memberships. They’d rather *discourage *paid memberships because, at least initially, they’ll get more money per non member than per paid member. Over time, they’ll raise the membership rate to equal that of what they project to earn for a non-member.
My wonder is: if I let my membership lapse and tighten up my ad block, will the SDMB still get paid for my page views? IOW, does the advertising software know if I’ve blocked it? If they can’t tell, I’ll let my membership lapse to get the SDMB more money off my non-member account. (And I totally understand if this gets edited to the cornfields by the moderators, so if someone knows the answer and this gets deleted, PM me!)
Alright Ed! That’s some great news and I know that this plan didn’t just jump up on the table during the meeting and say “Here I am, implement me!” so thanks for the blood sweat and tears that must have been a part of finding a way to sustain us. I also appreciate that we currently paid up folks will keep our “subscriptions” for lack of a better term until they would have run out normally and keep the price point that we Charters are used to. Good luck and godspeed sir.
That said, I too would like to be able to keep my Charter Member title even if it becomes anachronism. I believe those of us who’ve stuck by the board have earned a slight distinction, no matter how slight that may be.
This is good news.
We’re getting freed from the Matrix. Welcome to Zion! When come bring pie.
You know, I cannot tell you how nice it is to really feel good about the direction this board is going, for once. Well, I guess I can tell you. See first sentence of post. But seriously, this is great news, and I for one welcome our new Creative Loafing overlords.
The plan sounds good to me too - for the most part. I suspect the mods will be busier than ever dealing with increased riffraff.
Thanks for the update. Was there any discussion of bringing the old retired threads back on line as well?
Generally a positive development. Thanks for the update.
A couple of questions:
Since we will now be enjoying the contributions of screwballs and crackpots who take up permanent residence (as opposed to the current situation, where the expiration of the free guest membership encourages departure), will moderators be given an even freer hand to keep the yo-yos in line?
In terms of additional revenue sources, will we ever see a move toward the frequently-suggested expansion of features on a piecemeal-fee basis? For example, I’d pay a buck a year for a custom title, and another buck to expand my Private Message allotment from 50 messages to 100. And if we ever get graphical avatars, I’d pay five bucks to block them (though I’d prefer the reverse: the ability to see whatever avatars people have established should cost a buck a year). Just to name a couple of possibilities.
Also, seconding the question above about returning the old-thread archives to active status.
Thanks again.
I love to hear all of this. It is wonderful to feel both informed and positive about the direction of the board.
I look forward to more traffic, like back before pay to post, even though it will produce more wrangling for the mods.
Now I know you have other headaches too numerous to mention and far more important but still, I have to ask;
Any chance we’re ever going to get (as has been oft requested) a t shirt. Something simple and understated without the illustrations of what’s his name (thanks, but no thanks!). The general consensus, last time this was explored, was; the masthead and slogan on the front and the word, “cite” on the back.
Maybe we could put the money generated toward our 10yr anniversary party in Chicago?
I’m just throwing it out there because I’m confident we’d sell a lot of tshirts, and I want one dammit!
Thanks for the news! I’m glad CL values us enough to work out a way to keep the boards going.
I’d also like to be able to keep my Charter Member title – and I’d also like a non-tacky SDMB T-shirt.
Any discussion of an Amazon click-through so you get some revenue that way? There seems to be a lot of support for that.
Have you considered the support from the Dopers on this? I mean, why pay a contractor or grab someone’s 15-year-old pimple-faced brother/sister to redesign the SD web site when we have the expertise in house. There are a number of Dopers that come to mind that would probably donate their skills, a bit of time and come up with something purty nifty.
The SD is unique. Let’s not do a makeover that makes this place look like any other cookiecutter design you can buy off the web for $19.95 and a collection of Ginsu knives.
Just sayin’ …
I would also ask for clarification on this. As I understand it…join up free, see ads. Pay, no ads.
What else do I get for my membership fee? If I choose to let it lapse, does that mean I lose the ability to search and PM as well, but I’m still a Charter Member?
I know it’s silly, but I’m a Charter Member, dammit, and I want to stay that way.
Some answers:
To be honest, we haven’t given it much thought. It’s unlikely we’ll want to keep the title in perpetuity. As I say, we’re grateful for CMs’ support, but once subscriptions go away the distinction becomes increasingly meaningless, like saying your ancestors arrived on the Mayflower.
Probably, but I’ll leave that to Jerry.
I don’t see why ad providers would care. They only pay for ad impressions. If no ad gets shown, they don’t pay. However, we obviously care - if we deliver zero ads, we make zero money. There’s not much we can do to prevent someone from using ad blocking software, but we don’t want people using our board to tell the world how to do this. I’m not going to say the subject is totally verboten (now, anyway), but we’d certainly take down a thread entitled “Here’s how to block ads” and warn the OP to knock it off. No doubt our policy on this subject will evolve over time.
A general comment: Ads have been a fact of life in the media for a long time. What’s different about the Web is that the tech geniuses keep coming up with new ways to get ads in your face. Our expectation is that most SDMB users will decide they can live with ads but squawk if the ads become especially obnoxious. That’s OK. We’re all feeling our way in this business. Don’t misunderstand - this isn’t an invitation to complain, and it’s not like the ad industry is going to cave because we beef. All I’m saying is, this is more of a two-way street than traditional media, and we find the feedback useful.
No promises. In 2006, to improve board performance, Jerry deleted about a million posts from March 1999 to August 2001. He says he’ll look into restoring those posts when we switch to the new server. If doing so seems relatively painless, fine; if a major headache, then not. Let me be clear: We’ve got plenty on our plates and this is a low priority.
It’s not hard to do this and we might. It’s not a big moneymaker, though. We do it for the Reader; for one recent period we funneled about $14,000 in revenue to Amazon, for which we got a commission of about $550.
Not any time soon. We’ve sold merchandise for many years and it’s a lot of hassle for the amount you make on it.
We expect no change. The board was free for years, and it’s been free to guests for 30 days since 2004. We throw wiseguys out all the time, and I’m sure we’ll continue to do so.
I have a question which probably stems more from me not understanding the OP; for people like me whose subscription lasts beyond the possible switch time, will we get no ads for the remainder of that time?
And espresso for the capybaras.
Except that we’re still alive. 
Good news, Ed. I’m pleased with the move.
I only hope that the switch to an open model won’t make things too difficult when it comes time for the moderators to boot out spammers and trolls. If they can just sign back up two minutes later with a different name, it’ll be harder to keep things clean.
Please, please, oh please tell me that “modernizing” doesn’t imply avatars and animated smileys (or at least that it includes a way to shut them off).
That ability is already in our user options, so they would not only have to turn on avatars, but remove the option to turn it off for ourselves.
It sure sounded that way in the Op.