I actually agree with this suggestion. Most people probably shouldn’t be posting from their workplace anyway. The board would only lose those “freeloaders” who wouldn’t pay a subscription in any case.
Forgive my ignorance on these matters, but…
I presume that there is some level of bandwidth use which the Reader considers acceptable for the board. Is it not possible to simply cap the bandwidth which can be allocated to the board? It seems like that’s exactly what needs to be done, no more nor less. Yes, it would mean that the board would be slower during the day, or that users might get occasional error messages telling them that it’s too busy and to try again later. But that’s a heck of a lot better than not having the boards available at all during the day.
As for subscription options, one thing to keep in mind: An Internet community without newbies is a dead Internet community. It might seem nicer at first, to not have to put up with questions about quackgry and missing ducks and echoing dollars, but just remember that you were a newbie once, too. Now look around at registration dates, and see how many people joined since you’ve been here. And while longstanding members of this board may consider the place to be worth paying for, nobody’s going to poney up a double sawbuck to join a group of strangers.
Well put, Chronos.
I’m kind of curious as to what the Reader’s goals/mission is for the SDMB. They are providing this place free of charge. To what end? To further Cecil’s divine mission to fight ignorance? To further their own publicity and reputation? To give a few IT guys with too much time on their hands something else to do?
I think understanding why the Reader maintains this board in the first place would be a great starting place as far as understanding where the board will be in the future.
Chronos that would simply be frustrating (was is the boards current state). You have to keep in mind people like myself that don’t have a lot of time to sit around waiting for pages to load, and then possibly fail loading. I would be happy to pay a fee. It’s the natural thing…I pay for services that I am provided all the time!
The only problem is that 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. US central standard time isn’t during the working day for all Dopers (European and Antipodean Dopers especially) and that there could well be a number of Dopers who can only access the boards from work and do so with their employers sanction. While such a move may be necessary to preserve the CR’s bandwidth, it should be realized that it would effectively cut off the participation of many people, for a variety of reasons, and it should never be presumed by any third party that they’re inappropriately posting from work.
Similarly, I think it ill-advised to suggest that only “freeloaders” wouldn’t pay a subscription. More than a few Dopers have posted publicly about their employment and financial woes, and there are certainly others who have never spoken about that issue, but would also find themselves barred from participating if a subscription became necessary, simply because of their financial status. It would be a crying shame if some of their voices were silenced because of money.
I want to see the CR able to maintain the servers, certainly. I’d hate to do so at the expense of Dopers who are in divergent time zones or don’t have the cash to pony up for something as enjoyable but ultimately unnecessary as a message board.
I’d also hate to see what happened on another popular board I monitor, when it went pay-to-post. Someone opened a “Too Poor to Pay” thread and people who were facing with the loss of their access posted what they thought were goodbye messages to the community. But other members of the boards Paypaled some (but not all) of the departing members enough money to cover a year’s subscription. Those who didn’t receive anything as a result of admitting their financial difficulties and couldn’t buy subscriptions were left feeling rejected, bitter and hurt when person after person came in and said “thank you to Janie and Muffy and Tom and Brian for sending me enough money to subscribe!” while they twiddled their thumbs waiting for the day they were shut out. It was nasty and awful, and the atmosphere on that particular forum has never been the same despite a continual trickle-in of new members.
There might be a way to fund it.
Amazon dot com will cut a deal with you. If you set up a special “link” page, that connects to Amazon, then 5% of all purchase funds made by people passing through your site to theirs will accrue to you. That is, we Dopers would go to a page, click on it, get transfewrred to Amazon, & anything we buy there, the SDMB would get 5% of the cash spent on Amazon in those transactions.
Here’s an example, hooked up to the Sluggy Freelance webcomic site.
With all the dough Dopers spend on books, it’s a shoo-in to pay the Board expenses!
I have to take issue with this … for a family on a tight budget it could come down to spending those “few tens of dollars per year” on a SDMB subscription or a child’s christmas present …
Many times it has been suggested here that voluntary subscriptions are the way to go, and I totally agree with this … but the reply is always that the CR cannot accept these due to “legal” problems. In that case, are mandatory subs even an option?
My favourite idea so far came from Chronos:
I presume that there is some level of bandwidth use which the Reader considers acceptable for the board. Is it not possible to simply cap the bandwidth which can be allocated to the board? It seems like that’s exactly what needs to be done, no more nor less.
I hope a solution can be found … I may not post too much, but being housebound disabled the SDMB keeps me informed and entertained for a large part of the day. 
Until, that is, I read Bosda’s simulpost! Of course! I used to frequent a message board which was saved by using the “Amazon link” … why didn’t I think of it? :rolleyes:
I don’t know if it’s technically feasible but during peak hours the software could only accept posts and search from paying members and off-peak could allow free access. That might help.
Or even tie membership into a premium. Buy a membership, get an item of SD stuff along with your membership. I’ve been in circulation/marketing for 10+ years and I’ve had great luck with such programs.
Heck, I’m designing one right now for my new gig.
Maybe because I am the living embodiment of the Confucian ideal of a Superior Gentleman, and you aren’t? <BELCH>
I’m glad you reminded people that there are costs associated with collecting the money. However, it occurs to me that there doesn’t need to be a profit. A fee requirement might be less about generating revenue and more about reducing the number of users. If it works to make usage more manageable, then it’s done its work even if it never brings in a dime.
Finding the right “price” to accomplish this is still as challenging as you’ve drawn out, of course.
Maybe they could do what salon.com does. To get into their premium areas you have to do one of two things:
- Buy a subscription. This gives you full access for the length of the subscription.
Or
- Click on a link and watch a multimedia ad presentation. Once you’ve watched it, you have access for that day.
I’m pretty sure that most of us would be willing to sit through 1 or 2 minutes of an advertisement to get 1 days access to the SDMB.
Shouldn’t it be possible to deal with all these issues using mechanisms already in place in the “buy stuff” section of the site?
I mean, the CR already sells stuff on the boards. Why not make the subscription just another one of the items the online store offers?
Dani
That’s a great idea! Lord knows I spend plenty at Amazon.com.
Let me be another person to advocate for the Amazon service. I received a large gift certificate for Christmas. I clicked on a link for another site, made my purchases, and I believe their cut was enough to pay for the website for a month or two. Granted, it wasn’t a site nearly on the scale of the Dope. But I spend roughly $1000 at Amazon every year (books, music, dvds). That’s what? $50 to the Dope from one person? My desire to support the Dope would be enough of a motivator to me, and I’m not one of the hardcore Dopers.
I suppose you could even add premium features to people who donate a certain amount. Assuming it was cost-effective.
Sure they could, but like I said, I’m reluctant to speculate too much on a few things because I’m not Reader Staff. There may be a financial “Chinese wall” between the Reader entity and the message board for many reasons, such as liability and/or journalistic influence. I’ve seen these barriers exist IRL business (especially when I’m invoicing clients, and there just happens to always be some barrier to paying me…) so often that I come to expect them, odd and redundant though they may seem. If there isn’t any barrier than what you say is likely true and valid.
There may be business or “political” reasons not to become an affiliate of Barnes & Noble or Amazon but there aren’t any financial ones. The nice thing about getting cash as an affiliate of Amazon or B & N is that you’re not asking people to do anything that they wouldn’t do anyway. Do you think it’s likely that people who visit the SDMB spend at least 20,000 USD on-line for books & DVDs every month? 1,000 USD/month will at least cover the bandwidth and the Reader can by a new server with the extra cash from the Christmas rush.
I couldn’t come up with an extra $104.00 a year even if I wished really, really hard. So a subscription fee, even one that nominal, would mean the end of the SDMB for me.
Of course, I don’t post very often but I read daily and I would miss it should the Board become unavailable to me.
I’m trying to phrase this gentlly, but I forsee troubles:
If you start limiting posting privileges to those who pay-to-post, I’m afraid the vast differences of opinions on these boards would more or less cease to exist; in essence, you’d be silencing the singlemost greatest thing about these boards–all the people that can either answer a question, foster debate about it, simply lend direction to a question, or even just bring interesting discussion to the table no matter how mundane it is. This board is about fighting ignorance. Stifling the minds behind that battle would more or less kill this board.
Like Chronos says, a board without newbies is dead in the water.
If you absolutely had to, make it $5 or $10 per year, for unlimited posts. But not a pay-per post kind of deal, like DirkGently mentioned. Even with 1,000 adamant posters, that’s a few grand for upgrades or maintenance. But please, not a pay-per-post kind of thing.
But I tell you what. If it cost $5 or $10 bucks, I’d “sponsor” two other ‘free Dopers’ that couldn’t swing it for the first year or so. Live ‘free’ or die! 
Tripler
Now if you had a bake sale, then I’d be all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake.