Well, it’s good to know that the new owners appear to realise that they won’t make any money off a community by ring-fencing and milking it; a potential move back to free-to-post is the best news I’ve heard here in a while. It’s also somewhat relieving to know that they’ve realised that alienating the long-term members isn’t a brilliant idea, even if belatedly.
I have to say I’m skeptical that the banner ad market is going to be a long-term winner, though. Adblocking technology is well on its way to ubiquity, and honestly, I don’t know any bugger who buys stuff from them anyway. Advertisers are starting to get much sneakier about stuff; those hideous keyword-highlighting things, for example. But getting more prevalent is social stuff; MySpace campaigns, Facebook applications (and that godawful Beacon thing they just implemented). It’s hard to see how the SDMB could easily get in to that sort of thing within the context of a simple messageboard, but if it’s really serious about making money off a community while not pissing it off, then it seems to me that some real thought should be put into that end of things.
Banners are a highly unaesthetic and vastly inefficient advertising method that I’m sure will never entirely go away, but are IMO likely to end up in the category of through-the-door flyers and under-the-windscreen-wiper leaflets; high volume, low effectiveness, low revenue. Other companies have realised this, and are seeking better ways to advertise more effectively, without pissing people off with animations and noise. Creative Loafing must surely realise this, as (apparently) a devoutly New Media company.
I’d like to see this place become much more than a messageboard, myself. There are far more modes of interaction possible in an ostensibly intellect-oriented community than mere flat-threaded conversations allow. You could have collaborative article writing (including much more community interaction with Staff Reports), digg/technorati-style community feedback, ratings etc., localised content like city-oriented restaurant or gig recommendations, the list goes on. In particular I think with a global membership like this board has, the localised features could be very interesting. There’s also been interest expressed by some in dating features, and I see other Creative Loafing websites do indeed have “Creative Loving” entries; presumably furnished by a third party online dating provider, but still, it’s an example of the general sort of thing I mean. Anyway, the point is that with an increased level of interaction, advertising becomes commensurately more valuable, as it can be made more specific, benefiting both users and owners.
Obviously, this would all take a significant amount of customised software, and I don’t get the impression (looking at Creative Loafing’s other online efforts) that this is necessarily a strength of the company. I do think that relying on banner revenue for any significant length of time is a mistake, however, and that some real work will have to be put in to keep the community interesting over and above just restoring free-to-post. The internet is moving on, and while it’s definitely got a lot going for it, the SDMB is looking like a bit of a dinosaur. It needs to take a hint or two from some of the innovation going on elsewhere, or it really is just going to dwindle away to not very much. More importantly, the owners need to realise that new features are the only way to really make it grow, and that they’re not carrots to be grudgingly and biennially bestowed on the existing members to stop them fucking off. If they really do think this is one of the best assets of the Chicago Reader, then they need to stop running the place as if they were doing the users a favour by doing so.
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