Possibility of Chicago Reader outsourcing this board

[Moe]

*Originally posted by Chronos *
**You can’t have it both ways. If the payout has monetary value, that’s gambling. If it doesn’t, then it’s a donation.
**

Maybe I just need a good clubbing over the head to get this through to me, but it would be considered a donation even if one were buying something with their money? Say I bought a mug. Now say Cecil is going to choose the topic of his next column from only those people who have bought mugs. Did my purchase suddenly become a donation?

Oh, and thinking about that, something a heck of a lot more obvious and simple springs to mind; something so obvious it has to have been mentioned 63 or 64 times, but what about selling merchandise at ridiculously inflated prices. Like a special limited edition tee-shirt signed by Cecil himself (snicker) for $500. Is there some point where the mark-up on something legally turns your purchase into a donation?

[leechbabe]

*Originally posted by Chronos *
****Now ask yourself how many dopers would be willing to buy $80 worth of Straight Dope merchandise, each and every year. **

And that is in $US, what about all the dopers who are based overseas. Depending on exchange rates I would paying up to $160 Australian/year.

[t-keela]

Sorry Mom, but I didn’t come here to impress you.

You started the thread with an idea. You have yet to provide any actual figures to back up this idea. You claim to be able to do it better. If you want your proposal to be taken seriously then stop trying to make everyone else wrong and show us why YOU are right.

Most of us (IMO) aren’t even talking about dues, outsourcing, or even turning a profit. I think it would be a terrific gesture on our part to voluntarily kick a little back to our sponsor. So what if we don’t get a $100K… I think they would be happy to see any amount in excess of what they consider “the usual”. AND if it did happen to be a LARGE amount and voluntary. Our board might be seen as a benefit rather than a leech of incompetence. (said for the few who feel this way)

Surely you don’t think sodomizing goats is appropriate behavior in a church do you?

About as appropriate as this response. My comment pertained to the fact that the Reader has more buying power than I do. They should therefore be able to purchase t-shirts at an even lower rate. Unless they are buying them in small orders (not likely). Storage on a few boxes of t-shirts? You make it sound like they need a full time stocker. If they did, then I know there’s a profit in them.

BTW When you pay for shipping and handling that figure is added on top of the retail cost. It pays the guy who pulls the orders & etc.

AND when I said the COST of the baseball jersey was $6 each, I meant the total cost (maybe purchase price would sound better). That is what everybody coughed up for every shirt they ordered. Actually, there was a little profit in the end. It paid me for my expenses, paid for a “team dinner” and I got a “free” shirt.

You might be interested to know that I recently bought a couple of nice t-shirts at Wal-Mart. They were both heavy cotton, double stitched, colorfast and decorated on both sides @ $4.96/ea.
imagine that.

Anyway Bill H. I wasn’t trying to piss in the pool here and didn’t mean to hijack your thread. I was kinda hoping to spark a little Holiday spirit. What I propose is something WE CAN do now. Not just bullshit each other and toss around ideas that will probably never see the light of day.

Who knows? The folks at the Reader might have gotten into the spirit with us. Oh well, maybe in another time or another thread.

I’ll leave ya in peace.

and I’m taking my damned egg nog with me.
PS There’s a rumor going 'round that if we did buy a bunch of “stuff” next month. The board could possibly benefit from our show of support. Still awaiting verification of this but I think we should do it either way.

[Bill_H]

t-keela wrote

You started the thread with an idea. You have yet to provide any actual figures to back up this idea. You claim to be able to do it better. If you want your proposal to be taken seriously then stop trying to make everyone else wrong and show us why YOU are right.

You must not have read my statement where I said:

I’m starting to realize though: the person who makes the decision about this sort of thing probably has never even seen the board. The people closest to the decision maker are Jerry (the tech god) and Ed (the editing wiz and source of all that is dopily straight), but neither of them are the decision maker. And the mods and admins are nowhere near that person in fact literally don’t even know who s/he is. It’s the typical sales situation. This isn’t intended to be insulting. Just a realization of the situation.

See, the thing is, your line “show us why you’re right” isn’t why I’m here in this thread. We can be fast friends, or maybe I can convince you I’m right but that wouldn’t make a bit of difference towards what I would like to see accomplished. The reason is simple: you (like I) are so very far away from the power-source here. In fact, even the very honorable TubaDiva and C K Dester Haven --who’ve both offered very valuable insights into this issue in this thread – even in their positions of considerable power here are nowhere near the person who could make a decision to cut a check or change a process or outsource a project or in any other way impact the performance. I’ll bet you a dollar they can’t even name the decision maker’s name, let alone have ever met him/her. And that isn’t in any way intended as an insult. It’s just what it is.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

<< I’ll bet you a dollar they can’t even name the decision maker’s name, let alone have ever met him/her. And that isn’t in any way intended as an insult. It’s just what it is. >>

You lose the dollar. Both Tuba and I have met various READER honchos (“decision-makers” if you prefer) and we know who’s who. But that’s basically a technicality, because the principle behind what Bill is saying is correct. It’s like, the janitor who cleans up the office of the President of Ford Motor Company probably knows his name, and may have even met him, but wouldn’t be invited to strategy conferences.