Ed, you are a damn liar!

The BBQ Pit
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I am a member of the BEST board on the web and it is FREE!

Members have asked so many times if they can make donations that after many years the board has begun to accept donations. The reason they did not accept donations is that is does not cost much to keep the message board going.

The board I am talking about has about 10K members and hundreds of thousands of posts - it is like this board (same style and options) but on a different, dedicated, subject.

If, at $15 per, you don’t make money, something is very wrong.

Since this is the third best MB I know of, yeah I will join, but don’t give me some Chicago Reader is poor and can’t keep a simple MB going crap! - This board better run fast, or at least run, if I’m gonna pay for it.

When are you going to change the name to The Straight Dope.INC?

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Dissention in the ranks!

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Too bad we can make donations, this place is going to go down the crapper.

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I am curious Blown & Injected, how exactly did you get your hands on the Readers financials?

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so, uh, what are the better boards?

I’m just asking!

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Does this other board with a different, dedicated subject have another revenue stream? Something like the Car & Driver boards, perhaps? (Guessing based on your user name). Because they make money off of magazine subscriptions. The Chicago Reader is distributed for free.

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Q: Do you know what the IRS calls donations to a non-charitable corporation?

A: Money laundering.

(A little ignorance fighting for ya…)

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Of course, Chicago Reader, Inc., has its own (rather large) revenue stream – advertising and classifieds. (If you’ve ever seen the paper you’ll know that it’s essentially one big fat block of advertising and personal ads – with a few excellent articles and columns up front, and a great “directory” of current stuff to see and do in Chicago.)

I wonder though, does the fact that Jane Levine (current publisher and COO) is “being replaced” (stepping down, retiring, getting fired, running off with Cecil to the Bahamas…) by Michael Crystal have anything to do with this little change?

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Sure. But consider:

  • Customers have to pay for a monthly issue of Car & Driver, ($4.50 USD), and customers don’t have to pay for the weekly issue of The Reader.
  • C&D is distributed all over the world - the Reader is only distributed to 1400 locations within the Chicago area.
  • C&D probably gets way more money from their ads and classifieds, being one of the premier magazines in the car enthusiast market.
  • C&D is owned by the media conglomerate HFMU.S., which owns 17 different magazines, including Road & Track, Flying, and Travel to name a few.

So I’d say the CarandDriver.com message boards (or similar boards that deal with a dedicated subject run by an enthusiast magazine) can handle mantenance costs more easily than The Reader can.

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You’re absolutely right – I’m sure C&D makes a hell of a lot more money than The Reader. And for them, the idea of a place where car enthusiasts can chat about essentially what they’re selling, it makes a great deal of sense.

I was just pointing out that The Reader is a for-profit company that does pretty well for itself. Now, if they’ve decided they don’t want to spend any more money here (or at least less than they already do), that’s their business. Can’t really fault them either – it’s not like this board will in any way increase their revenue, as is the case with C&R.

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So go back there, you ignorant fucknozzle, and stop rubbing the sandpaper of your stupidity across the testicles of my eyeballs.

Or something.
It sounded better before the rewrite.

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Oh, I agree. I was only pointing out that for the OP to base his evidence on calling Ed a liar by comparing one board’s speed with another’s is pretty stupid - there are things behind the scenes he didn’t consider, as well as varying levels of what “poor” is.

Especially in light of what you bring up about how those boards increase their revenue - by his own admission the board he’s comparing us to is a dedicated subject board, so of course it’s in their best interest to keep their members happy.

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That in itself is no problem–just spin the part of the corporation that’s intending to take in donations into its own 501(c)(3). Your non-profit org then has to be separate from the corporation, but in this case it could have been a possibility.

Not that I think the SDMB is wrong to go the subscription route, far from it. (And to be technical, I believe the charge would be “tax evasion” or something similar…“money laundering” implies something else.)

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Since the SDMB is still free, I assumed that you were talking about us!

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I suggested that exact plan, twice, over a year ago, and was ignored. I’m not a tax lawyer, but I don’t know of any particular reason why the message board couldn’t be run by a non-profit.

Ah well. I can afford the five bucks. Whateva.

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Are you insane? The bandwidth for a popular forum probably costs hundreds of dollars a month.

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At least. My site costs about $130 per month, and I only have a couple thousand posts per day, and between 30 and 50 users on at once at any given time during the day. I imagine the SDMB could be ten times that.

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Not just bandwidth, but maintaining the servers, buying the servers, etc. costs a heck of a lot.

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I don’t think Ed’s gonna like you too much…you might want to wait a bit before you pay your money.

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>>I am curious Blown & Injected, how exactly did you get your hands on the Readers financials?<<

You can’t figure that out for yourself?

>>so, uh, what are the better boards?
I’m just asking<<

They are MB’s that deal with a few rare cars. The members share information on restoration, modification, and racing. So, they would only be considered better if one owns one of the few types of cars discussed.
>>Does this other board with a different, dedicated subject have another revenue stream? Something like the Car & Driver boards, perhaps? (Guessing based on your user name). Because they make money off of magazine subscriptions. The Chicago Reader is distributed for free.<<

It is owned by a garage owner/mechanic. It is only a small, one shop business, but they do sell banner ads for $100/year.
>>So go back there, you ignorant fucknozzle, and stop rubbing the sandpaper of your stupidity across the testicles of my eyeballs.
Or something.
It sounded better before the rewrite.<<

Clever :rolleyes:
>>Oh, I agree. I was only pointing out that for the OP to base his evidence on calling Ed a liar by comparing one board’s speed with another’s is pretty stupid - there are things behind the scenes he didn’t consider, as well as varying levels of what “poor” is.

Especially in light of what you bring up about how those boards increase their revenue - by his own admission the board he’s comparing us to is a dedicated subject board, so of course it’s in their best interest to keep their members happy.<<

OK, maybe my choice of words was a bit strong but I felt insulted by the implication that a MB like this is an expensive venture, and that it may not make money. On second thought, a good thing, like this board, deserves to make money.
>>Are you insane? The bandwidth for a popular forum probably costs hundreds of dollars a month.<<

That’s what I’m talking about. It is not a lot of money!
I’m sure Ed can take it or there would not be a section that asks for it:
The BBQ Pit
If you gotta flame, do it here. This is the place for all complaints and other discussion regarding administration of the SDMB