Thank you, Ed, for a rational, sane, and even-handed explanation, if the board does go to free ad-served posting and a paid subscription model, I will still pay up my yearly memnership dues as I LOATHE ads (assuming the promise to keep paid membership ad-free is kept)
the adblockers in my Hosts file, however, will still stay, I’ve never bought anything from an online ad, banner, google, or otherwise, and I don’t see that ever changing, that’s just the way it is with me
thanks for your honesty and leveling with us, it’s appreciated
But my point was that you’d have to be an idiot to pay just for no ads, since you could just post for free and block the ads with other means.
Search seems to be the most requested feature by guests, so let that be the first perk. If I’m paying for that, it’s easy to let my conscience sway me into just $5 more for no ads, even if I could sneak around it without.
Hmmm. I guess I’ve just identified the price on my ethics in this arena - if it’s $15 and I could do it for free, I’ll do it for free. If it’s $5 and I could do it for free, I’ll pay the $5. There’s some interesting consumer psychology in there, I’m sure of it.
That’s how I’m reading it too. It’s an intelligent two pronged attack to getting more paying members. Some will pay for a cleaner surfing experiance and others will pay because of how charming and witty we are.
ETA: Not just the pre-existing stuff in the store though. I want some SDMB specific merchandise, even if it’s just a bumpersticker or a shirt.
Except this wasn’t Ed. It was Pat. Pat’s the new guy. Knows nothing about our history. Fucked up and apparently regrets it. I can understand lingering anger and resentment, Tuck, but from what **Ed ** said, the guy sort of flipped a switch and freaked out when all the bulbs in the building blew up. I’d reckon there’s a DO NOT TOUCH sign over the switch now.
I use Firefox with Adblock plus. So I never saw any of the banner ads, just like I never see any of the previous ads. Guess I missed out on the whole big fuss.
And since I’m going to continue with Firefox and Adblock plus, so I’ll continue to not see whatever ads TPTB try to inflict on us.
Thanks for the calm and clear explanation, Ed. I appreciate that the views of the members were listened to - sometimes it’s just nice to be told why a decision was made, and where you stand. Site needs money - we can all dig it. I agree that the two-tier system sounds like a winner - perhaps you could look at upgrading the features, such as broader searches {or even, and God forgive me for suggesting this, but some people like 'em, tiny wee avatars, providing you can switch 'em off}, for paying members. Once again, thanks for listening and taking up the cudgels on our behalves.
Or, you can recognize that money makes the world go round (and the hamsters run) and pay a fairly nominal fee to keep the boards going, even if you can get away with a freebie.
Sort of like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There’s a “suggested fee” that most people are happy to pay, but you can get in for free if you tell them you can’t afford it.
Someone posted another thread about an updated version of the board software that has lots of new features. A multi-tiered system (free: ads; pay: no ads; pay more: no ads + extra features) would likely bring in extra revenue.
In the past the sticking point is the capital investment on making a bunch of crap and having it sit in a warehouse until it sells. Not being in the clothing or novelty item business the Reader has been loathe to undertake the operation. Something like CafePress could do certain types of merchandise without the overhead.
I think this is a great idea. Most of my purchases are food and books. If there was a way to funnel a small portion of that revenue to CL for the polite fiction that this is how I stumbled across Amazon, I’m good with that.
Yeah, well, unless Pat’s some kind of wet-behind-the-ears-fresh-out-of-college-kid, then Pat should have known that if you’re in unexplored territory you don’t go poking about willy nilly because you just never know what could happen. Remember Jerry’s announcement about this that it was because of a “bug” and was only temporary? Sounds to me like someone knew that there was a good chance the unwashed masses would immediately head for the pitchforks and torches and was trying to cover their ass. Was that person Jerry or was it Pat? I don’t know. I do know that we’re being offered the same empty promises we’ve been offered in the past. If the rest of you are willing to swallow the Kool Aid, knock yourselves out, I, OTOH, am going to try and make a break for Rep. Ryan’s plane and hope I don’t get machine gunned.
3.5 million page-views per month for subscribers.
$10/thousand impressions
3,500 “kilo-impressions”
3,50010 = $35,000
$35,00012=$420,000/year
Assuming $15 revenue per subscriber
$420,000/$15=28,000 subscribers.
But the SDMB has nowhere close to 28k subscribers. More like, what, 6k?
$6k*$15=$90,000
$420,000-$90,000=$330,000
That’s a lot of money left on the table.
To be honest, given the numbers, it doesn’t pay to have a subscription base that can’t view ads if you’re going to do ads at that $10/thousand rate. Even assuming that 3/4 of us get po’d and leave, the CR would still make $8,750/month in ad revenue ($105k/year) in page views for subscribers.
I mean, hell - at that $10/thousand impressions rate, it doesn’t pay to give up impressions to subscribers at all. At 20 impressions per day for a heavy user (which is what you’d expect subscribers to be), you’d recoup your lost subscription revenue in less than 3 months. Over the course of a year, that 20 impressions/day heavy user is going to generate near $75.
Like most everyone else, I’m happy and relieved to receive a sane response to our concerns. Thanks, Ed!
(I don’t know why this is such a hard concept for so many companies to grasp - tell people what’s going on and why, and they’ll be calmer and happier even if they don’t like what’s being said.)
