Ok, well good luck with monetizing the site. The new owners at Creative Loafing have got to be more forward thinking than the dinosaurs who were running it before. Couple of old suggestions:
One obvious way is through an Amazon or iTunes affiliate program. That could do some real numbers , especially if Amazon links made within member posts contained the affiliation info so’s we got paid. Perhaps get a couple members to get a book club going. Maybe get moderators to insert a iTunes/Amazon links for downloading episodes at the top the various TV series threads.
If you guys upgrade the software (which I can only assume you will if the new owners take the place more seriously) then I bet a lot of Dopers would pay a little extra to get that vBulletin blogging plug in. That would also slow bleeding members to LiveJournal type places.
Wow. I am very pleasantly surprised by this development.
Damn, now I have to take back all that stuff I said. :o
Anyway, I’m sympathetic to the plight of newspapers and I totally understand the need to generate revenue. I will endeavor to keep that more fully in mind as new developments occur.
Like many, I’ve been very upset and very worried about the future of the SDMB over the last day or so. This post makes me feel so much better. The number of page views is astonishing! Knowing that tidbit takes care of my fear that the PIC don’t care about the board and would shut it down out of apathy or irritation. Even if they just want to keep it running for the page views, that’s ok with me. A two-tier system sounds great.
I don’t know if the software takes this into account but when I browse the SDMB, unless I want to post something, I don’t log in. I wonder if that affects whether my views are counted as paying or non-paying.
The one other board that I go to is free to read and you can post for free as long as you register. There are a couple of sections that you can only browse if you are a registered user also. That might be something to think of as well for paying subscribers.
Ed, that’s fantastic news. Thanks so much for the update, and all your work behind the scenes. I’m very excited about the two-tiered idea - I think that will bring some of the vitality back to the boards that we’ve been missing since we went pay-to-post. Thanks again.
Thank you (and other mods and admins) for voicing member concerns and complaints to those with decision-making power.
The two-tier approach works well at other sites, and looks like it would solve multiple concerns about the future of these boards. I’m all for increasing membership. I’m also fine with added revenue for the ownership so long as some of that revenue is used to increase services and performance.
Thanks, Ed. It’s good to see that TPTB do listen to the subscribers, after all. I’m not a techie, but if by upgrades to the servers you mean more hamster wheels, or even hamsters on steroids, I’m all for the two-tier route.
One thing of note: while people hate ads, it’s possible (as we all know by now) to block them. Y’all might want to consider another carrot, one that can’t be gotten elsewhere, for pay: search. I’m envisioning a 3-tier system: Free to post, $15 a year to post and search, $20 a year to post and search ad-free. Most of the people saying they’d pay slightly more for no-ads were quoting $19.99 as their price.
I really wish people would quit suggesting raising the price for what we already get now and then retroactively say it’s paying extra for no ads. We already got no ads. If you want a three tier system something new has to go into the mix, like paying for avatars or blogspace.
Thank you, Ed, for speaking to the Dopers as not only the customers we are, but also, as many clearly see themselves, investors in the vitality of this community.
The respect you’ve demonstrated has renewed the respect we have for you and the others that run the place.
It’s probably mostly just relief talking. Lots of us would do whatever it takes to A. keep the board around, and especially B. revitalize the board back to where it was pre P2P (Every time I see or type that I think of the movie Stone Cold).
But **Ed ** was suggesting free to post in the future and then paying for no ads. I do like your ideas too.
I find myself strangely happy over the resolution of this whole incident. I went from very annoyed at first and the way it was a surprise to now very happy. I am hopeless.
Thank you one more time **Ed ** and everyone else.
I understand, but as responsible consumers and capitalists you should be ashamed.
eta: What Exit?: “But Ed was suggesting free to post in the future and then paying for no ads.”
Right, but that would be GIVING something extra to guests while leaving members with the same status. It’s an important psychological difference, IMHO.
I must admit that I don’t understand the bit about the two-tier system. Isn’t that what we had before? Hasn’t it been the case that registered guests saw ads, but members didn’t?
Sorry, Ed, but while it’s nice to see you make an appearance on this, we’ve been told in the past that “better things are in the works” only to have them never appear. This was a boneheaded move from the start, and if CL really does value the SD, then it should never have happened. Period. Paragraph.
We’ve been noisy in the past over various matters, so it should have been a given that we’d have something to say about the changes and the smart thing to do would have been to consult with the people who help pay your salary. Even Microsoft has focus groups to see what people want out of their software. Or hell, look at what the competition is doing! You know, Bad Astronomy (Remember when The Bad Astronomer used to post here? He left when the board went pay-to-post. That was a loss of a “high value” poster.) and similar boards (many of which have been listed in the various protest threads that were started in the wake of this matter).
Yes, the two tier approach could work, as long as there’s an appreciable difference between the tiers. For instance, if the distinction is only in banners or no banners then why pay a subscription for something that adblocking software takes care of anyway?
Still, I’m pleased to see that TPTB do actually listen to us sometimes.
I get the impression that the guests would no longer be limited to 30 days under the two tier, they’d just get banner ads.
ETA: And another money making suggestion I’ve made before: Get some freaking links to the SD store on the message board pages. People will buy the crap!
