# A modest proposal for the Straight Dope **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 11, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-for-the-straight-dope/944055 "2021-06-11T15:48:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 244
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-for-the-straight-dope/944055/244 "2021-06-14T22:11:31Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Just give us a dollar amount you think you need to keep the SDMB running each year Based on **codinghorror** ’s [revelation](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-copy-blizzards-blue-tracker/931637/2) that we are _not_ on an enterprise plan, the [Discourse pricing page](https://www.discourse.org/pricing), and the assumption that moderators are volunteers, the cost to run the message board should not exceed $3,600/yr ($300/mo). That would be 120 subscriptions at the new price of $30/yr, or 180 subscriptions at the old price of $20/yr (I don’t know how many charter members we have but [apparently](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-economics-of-trolling-the-sdmb-and-moderator-decisions/843474) the discount was 50%). I believe Google AdSense pays about $0.15 or so per pageview on average. So if there was an ad on screen at all times for every person, an average of 2,000 pageviews per month would cover operating costs _for the message board_. Assuming your average site visitor visits eight pages per month, that calls for 250 active site visitors each generating $1.20/mo in ad revenue. That would be with all users seeing ads. A more realistic scenario, with $20/$10 member/charter subscriptions and total revenue of $304.83/mo: - 400 monthly pageviews from lurkers or signed-out users ($60/mo), - 800 monthly pageviews from registered guests, or about 100 guests with 8 pageviews per month each ($120/mo), - 50 member subscriptions ($83.33) - 50 charter subscriptions ($41.50) In this scenario increasing the base subscription price to $30/yr, assuming the same number of subscribers, nets an extra $62.67/mo in revenue. I have reason to believe the _message board_ is or could become sustainable. Unless my numbers are off, I’ve never been too good with numbers… None of the above applies to funding a columnist. ~Max --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-for-the-straight-dope/944055)._