# How can we help the SDMB? (aka "think of the hamsters!") **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 26, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691 "2002-09-26T06:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/63 "2002-10-03T18:57:28Z")
Yes! That’s precisely what I meant. CR gets potential bucks without at least some of the current hassles. Of course, like you, I’m not a lawyer. Or particularly knowledgable. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/64 "2002-10-04T02:11:38Z")
> [@](#): > > But let’s say half of it goes to benefit the SDMB. That means I’ve spent $108 to give between $5 and $10 to the SDMB. That is precisely why I have not purchased any Straight Dope items through [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com), **RTF**. If I donate to a charity, I expect a hell of a lot more than 10% to go to the beneficiaries. If my hundred bucks were split between the server and the Reader, I’d write that check right now. But I just can’t justify giving 90 cents on the dollar to vendors I don’t give a damn about. Hello, Chicago Reader! I desire to give you money in exchange for continued–and hopefully improved–access to the SDMB. Please advise soonest. ---
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/65 "2002-10-04T04:07:33Z")
when someone buys advertising space on the SDMB, does the money go to the reader or does it go to the SD. how much does it cost to advertise on this bord. if this bord gets the money from it’s advertisments, we could all help out by buying some advertising space. has this been brought up before? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/66 "2002-10-16T23:19:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Irishman \* > \*\ ***Happy Lendervedder** , splitting the board into a free section and a pay section has been discussed before, and it just doesn’t work. …Even well mannered posters will be saying, "I know I should really post this in MPSIMS… \*\* So split the board in a different way. The discussion of voluntary membership has come up here once or twice, why not make the solution be about problem? Buy another server, those who are members get to zoom along with the robo-hamsters, those reading and posting for free get to continue as normal. Allow for membership perks, there are enough crazies (mean that in a nice way) on here who will pay for their rolly-eyes and bold text, let them. Only pay members get access to the SMDB groovy search function, others get a scaled down version or can use external search functions. There are a thousand variations on this, none of which need to be a drain on the servers or create an internal class structure. In the long run tho, I think there is always a problem with having “pay sites”. It means that you now have customers rather than visitors, they are paying for a service and certain standards must be met. Voluntary donation however, is merely a goodwill action from the visitor (I am sure it is more than that in legal terms but Ianal) and does not require any “payback”. I think this is one of the major probs with pay-content on the web… Anyhow, the reason I came in here was to check something up. Somone told me once that we couldn’t just go sending money to the CR to help, that they had no way to accept it. I forget why. Could somone remind me? I think I was asking before whether or not we could donate directly by taking out subscriptions to the CR and having a little box on the check that says “please do not send paper”? Is that an option? Another wondering is whether or not I could “donate” by taking out an add in the CR, say a 1/32 page advert in the CRG for $47 saying “We love Cecil” or “Hamsters are people too”. Are these viable options? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/67 "2002-10-17T17:20:19Z")
**Iteki** : > [@](#): > > Somone told me once that we couldn’t just go sending money to the CR to help, that they had no way to accept it. I forget why. Could somone remind me? IANAL, but my understanding is that for-profit corporations can’t accept donations like nonprofits can, nor can they have nonprofit/not-for-profit subsidiaries. > [@](#): > > having “pay sites”. It means that you now have customers rather than visitors, they are paying for a service and certain standards must be met. They could be fairly minimal. For instance, if the board had the regular, free membership, and a first-class (paid) membership that allowed posting of polls, private messaging, posting to a SDMB calendar, and editing of posts within a 5-minute window (all feasible with vBulletin), the ‘standard’ would be that those who paid, would get these services, but those who didn’t, wouldn’t. They could specify in the membership agreement that the paid members would have no guarantees of the board’s running faster or more smoothly, or without service interruptions. > [@](#): > > Buy another server, those who are members get to zoom along with the robo-hamsters, those reading and posting for free get to continue as normal. Any idea whether that’s even technically feasible? I’m skeptical. > [@](#): > > Allow for membership perks, there are enough crazies (mean that in a nice way) on here who will pay for their rolly-eyes and bold text, let them. Only pay members get access to the SMDB groovy search function, others get a scaled down version or can use external search functions. There are a thousand variations on this Well, there are a handful of variations. A post of mine on the previous page has a list, courtesy of **Anthracite**. > [@](#): > > Another wondering is whether or not I could “donate” by taking out an add in the CR, say a 1/32 page advert in the CRG for $47 saying “We love Cecil” or “Hamsters are people too”. Are these viable options? These are options, but the incentive for trying them is reduced since what portion of the revenue would benefit the SDMB is less than clear. But that makes me wonder about what Ed Zotti said [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1822299&highlight=SDMB#post1822299) last year: > [@](#): > > Our publisher was rather taken with the idea of selling classified ads to SDMB users, but her guesstimate is that we could raise maybe $9K/yr doing this. That’s not a reason not to do it, but it doesn’t really solve our problem. I have no idea why they haven’t at least done that, whether it would solve our problems or not; any help is better than no help. I’m aware that the 9K figure is a guesstimate, but (a) whatever ads bring in for the SDMB, it’s better than nothing; and (b) it’s _their_ guesstimate. FWIW, I recently donated $50 to a baseball stats site that I occasionally use, and in return, I got my name on a few of their pages. Would I do something like that here? In a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/68 "2002-10-17T17:41:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > \*\* > FWIW, I recently donated $50 to a baseball stats site that I occasionally use, and in return, I got my name on a few of their pages. Would I do something like that here? In a heartbeat. \*\* When you say you got your name on a few of their pages, what do you mean? Was one page the “RTFirefly Appreciation Page” or something? I’m just curious as to how they worked it. After all, we can get our names on this site free just by posting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/69 "2002-10-17T21:31:12Z")
**dan** : [here’s an example](http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSA/1969.shtml). (I’m just this guy who wants to cheer “Go, Nats!” again someday. :)) ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/70 "2002-10-17T22:00:24Z")
Ah, that’s cool. You can sponsor a page. Hey, that’d be cool! _ **The BBQ Pit** brought to you by the fine postings of **december** _ ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/71 "2002-10-18T05:45:34Z")
Okay, I’m going to be annoying and propose this again… Let us buy advertising. Not banners; online classified ads. The SDMB classifieds could be set up for everything from merchandise for sale, help wanted, personals, shout-outs, love poems… whatever. The Chicago Reader already has online classifieds submission forms set up; it would be a minimal expense to duplicate their setup. It allows us to get around the problems with donating money to the Reader by buying ads, which cost the Reader virtually nothing. Allow linking to the ads in threads and in sigs, and you have an instant profit center, with no impact on the boards. Completely optional, and potentially very, very profitable. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/72 "2002-10-18T14:19:54Z")
That’s a great idea, **MrV**! I think banner ads would also work. People could advertise on the main page, the first, second, third,…,pages of the respective forums (with fee scales varying according to the traffic on each forum, which is kinda like the sponsorship scale on [baseball-reference.com](http://baseball-reference.com)), or have their banner pop up on random threads around the boards. Of course, we need to hear from someone knowledgeable on the question of what variations on this (if any) would work with vBulletin. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/73 "2002-10-18T14:34:56Z")
That’s a great idea, **MrV**! And that should be a cinch to do, technology-wise, because it wouldn’t be on the board itself, so it wouldn’t have to interact with the vB code at all. I still like banner ads, though. People could advertise on the main page, the first, second, third,…,pages of the respective forums (with fee scales varying according to the traffic on each forum, which is kinda like the sponsorship scale on [baseball-reference.com](http://baseball-reference.com)), or have their banner pop up on random threads around the boards. As always, we’d need to hear from someone knowledgeable on the question of what variations on this would work with vBulletin. The two other obvious things that they could try are: (1) charging for some sort of membership-with-perks (personal messaging, posting polls, posting to a SDMB calendar, editing posts within a brief (e.g. 5-minute) window), and (2) creating SDMB merchandise (distinct from the existing Straight Dope merchandise) and selling it. None of these would affect existing access to, or working of the board, but they’d all create specifically SDMB-identified revenue streams. This would allow us to support _the board_ in various ways, and it would allow them to (a) get revenue from the board, and (b) know that that’s where it was coming from. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2002, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/74 "2002-10-18T14:50:33Z")
Heck, with a lot of people here, there could even be SDMBauctions. You know, put your toaster up, someone bids and buys, and the board keeps a percentage. But that might be a little too intensive for what we’re discussing here (might be a huge, huge strain on the server, too). In fact, to get it started, you could take the latest Cecil book, have Cecil autograph it, then auction it off. Moolah. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/75 "2002-10-20T01:52:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Heck, with a lot of people here, there could even be SDMBauctions. You know, put your toaster up, someone bids and buys, and the board keeps a percentage. But that might be a little too intensive for what we’re discussing here (might be a huge, huge strain on the server, too). > > In fact, to get it started, you could take the latest Cecil book, have Cecil autograph it, then auction it off. Moolah. \*\* While I like the classified ads and other ideas, I can see a problem with them. Sooner or later someone will buy something from someone, be dissatisfied with it, and launch into a Pit thread about how **Poster X** burned them and manages to launch an Intra-Board War. Still, that situation’s preferrable than the continued slowness of Hammy or going to a pay-per-post operation. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/76 "2002-10-20T02:26:03Z")
So what if they do, **Tuckerfan**? Is that so horrible? Geez, we have dopey Pit threads about everything; if the person had a legit complaint about a product, then why not discuss it here, where it began? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/77 "2002-10-20T02:34:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*So what if they do, **Tuckerfan**? Is that so horrible? > > Geez, we have dopey Pit threads about everything; if the person had a legit complaint about a product, then why not discuss it here, where it began? \*\* I didn’t say that it was a “deal-killer” of an idea, merely tried to point out a downside to it that hadn’t been mentioned. ANY solution proposed is going to have a downside to it, and there are, of course, downsides to allowing the current situation to continue. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/78 "2002-10-20T02:52:57Z")
You’re right; sorry if my post seemed combative. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691/79 "2002-10-20T04:28:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*You’re right; sorry if my post seemed combative. \*\* No harm, no foul. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-help-the-sdmb-aka-think-of-the-hamsters/129691.md?page=3)