We have hashed over this several times (read dozens) the best we can figure is the dope ran at a loss for years before P2P. Since P2P it probably has been doing a little better than breaking even and the Google ads should have put the Dope further into the black. That appears to be the best guesses we can make. So, as it is iunlikely to be more than a small profit, I don’t gazpacho posts is completely out of line.
We don’t know the exact user count but $30k might be a little low. Hopefully it is.
Tuba has mentioned (and What Exit seems to have done some research) that there are about 3,000 active members at any given time. She’s also said that the split is roughly 50/50 for Member vs Charter member, giving an average fee of about $11. I don’t have time right now to search out her posts, but I did get that straight from Tuba’s comments.
Chargebacks? Those are evil and should not be used unless they ban you from posting or reading or something. Anybody who expects to be on the Internet without seeing ads is crazy. The bills have to be paid.
Is it really so fucking bad? Get Firefox and Adblock if you’re so pissed at the SDMB.
For some reason, the new OP from the kinder gentler **Tuba ** reminded me of Queen Elizabeth’s speech when Diana died. Maybe it had to do with the Queen coming back to London as her subjects were on the verge of burning down the mission, so to speak.
What do you mean by “evil?” Immoral, illegal? I’m absolutely not suggesting anyone do anything illegal. Banner ads have already been described as “evil.”
And I don’t see any ads, so I’m not going anywhere and most likely taking no action other than to wait and see what everyone else does.
I’m mostly saying a boycott or strike probably isn’t going to do much.
You know how I know I’m getting old? Because my ability to muster outrage over this sort of thing has all but vanished. Back in the day, I would have been on the barricades, screaming the Marseillaise at the top of my lungs. But now I just block the ads and shrug.
I don’t ignore it at all. In fact, i specifically mentioned it.
But while her tone in that thread was, as you note, “more measured and sympathetic,” nowhere did it contain an apology for acting like a jackass in the other thread. If it had, i wouldn’t have brought the issue up. And nowhere in the original thread has she explained her initial dismissive attitude.
Get over yourself. It was just a quote that i happened to agree with, and still do. Her subsequent thread doesn’t change that, and nor does your response.
Not only that, but she realized that it wasn’t just the usual suspects who were rioting, but also the staunch monarchists. When the ass-kissers start getting on your case, it can be a wake-up call.
You know what, mhendo? I will be damned if I will stop expressing my opinions out of concern that some asshole with an agenda will try to make it seem like I agree with them when I don’t. And when I feel you are co-opting anything I say to assist you in maintaining your irrational hard-on again Tuba, I will distance myself from that, because I don’t want to be involved.
Leave me the fuck out of it, or I will ask you to do so. And as for you inviting me to “get over myself,” I in turn invite you to kiss my rosy red ass.
I’m certainly not going to boycott, but I think you’re off base about thinking someone is crazy to expect not to see ads on a site they PAY for. From what I understand from people around back when it happened, the P2P was a way to keep the board going so they wouldn’t have to do ads. Then the Google ads were added, now banner ads. It certainly seems as if they’ve gone back on their word.
If you signed up for XM Radio because you’d hear music without commercials and after you paid they started running commercials, wouldn’t you feel as if you’ve been ripped off?
I have no irrational hard-on. I merely think that there are times, such as this, when she is far too quick to be dismissive of member concerns. And your response to her post was, i think, perfectly appropriate to the attitude she displayed in that thread. You wrote:
Did you mean what you wrote, or didn’t you?
If you didn’t mean it, then why did you post it?
If you did mean it, then fucking own it, bitch.
Sorry, but once you write something, it’s out there for other people to see.
You might have changed your mind since then. TubaDiva’s new thread might have convinced you that her attitude in the first thread was excusable. Nothing wrong with that. We all change our minds about things, or alter our opinions as circumstances change or new information becomes available.
But you said what you said, and if i think it’s appropriate to bring it up, then i will. The fact that you changed your mind doesn’t mean that i need to do the same.
As for kissing your ass, i think i’ll pass. Your bitching and moaning suggests that there’s something extremely uncomfortable up there already.
mhendo, it’s pretty simple: Everytime I think my posts are being co-opted, I will correct it. If you want to write a fucking book to try to defend it, be my guest; my point isn’t really for your consumption anyway. Let me the fuck out of it or go fuck yourself. Period.
Feel free to post a line-by-line response, if you can take your hands of your dick long enough. I don’t think I can clarify my point any further and I’m done responding to you, because I think you enjoy it and at this point I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, much less add one iota to your enjoyment.
My concern is not the ads themselves, nor any boycotts or threats to not renew.
Nope.
My concern is that this may be just the start of changes from the new Chicago Reader overlords. I mean have they at least come around here and sat on the broken down sofas and observed this place for a spell? You know, soaked up the ambiance of the place. Perhaps all they know of the SDMB is from their glass-lined offices in Atlanta that the balance sheets being emailed to them every week just don’t add up. So the executive decision for ads is straight from Herb Tarlek.
