Uh… “Missy” is a degreed professional woman.
Just fyi
Sorry if that post wasn’t up to snuff. This IS the Pit. Or do you mean that if she was a waitress, that I would have been OK in posting that? I’m confused.
My post was more about “money” as perceived by XJETGIRLX and MONEY as perceived my me and the Reader. She/he’s thinking about [sub]money[/sub] as it pertains to keeping the board alive, a la subscriptions, donations, etc.
I was thinking about MONEY as it pertains to making big moola.
Shit on a stick, what condescension. FWIW JETGIRL, you are spot on.
Ouch, you showed me. Sho’ nuff I’ll just mosey on back into the kitchen and start poppin’ out them young’uns. Did you want your eggs scrambled or fried, you big 'ol manly man, you?
Seriously, can we stop with the insult-weilding and get back to the topic here? We keep hearing that this place is a money sink but time and time again each and every suggestion made by members is shot down. When time, effort, skills or any resources are offered for free, we’re told “Sorry, we don’t need you.” This place is more than capable of turning a profit, in competant hands. Excuse us if we’re tired of hearing that we’re still such a big burden.
Actually Marjorie, he might have been referring to the fact that I have a degree in eCommerce, which, golly gee whiz batman! That’s got something to do with making money on the internet!
I do not recall anyone being told that they were not needed. My memory (subject to correction) is that there are specific legal entanglements that a private enterprise incurs when it accepts “donations” (labor or money) that the Reader management was not comfortable (or legally prepared) to accept.
Exactly. I have a long memory.
I apologize profusely for my condescending remarks.
Now, to your post.
You have NO fucking clue about how the Reader perceives this board as a money source. Period.
You talk of donations–piffle.
This ain’t about making the boards turn a barebones profit instead of a loss.
Yes, being barely in the black beats being in the red.
But why would a money-making entity like the Reader even bother with this Board if not to finally make it BIG.
That’s my take on the matter.
::taking bets on how long it takes for a post by Ringing Cellphone to show up.::
If that is, indeed, their strategy they’ve got an awfully strange way of showing it. What with the poor communications and threadbare ties between the boards and the parent company, lack of dedicated, trained staff, hodge-podge marketing campaign, lack of stated goals or vision, and the off-putting levels of customer service tolerated I think maybe signs point to this not being the most successful of ventures.
Unless, of course, you’re whooshing me? I always was very bad at detecting sarcasm.
And that would likely be either Rose or Andrew.
My, this thread has really wandered all over the highway.
They seem to have figured out away to get around this in allowing the admins and mods to donate their labor to making this place work and use said labor as an attempt to make the big buck off it.
I mean we are told on a regular basis that the mods and admins (except TubaDiva) donate their time and effort and labor to running this forum, right?
Don’t confuse the issue with logic and facts. There’s no place for that here.
I really wish someone would decide if this place is “just a message board” and therefore not worthy of serious concern or if it’s a business. Because it seems that it’s “just a message board” until we’re asked to spend more money to stay.
And speaking of donations, I think it would be a fantastic idea for someone to donate an “Introduction to Customer Service and Business Management” textbook to whoever’s taking responsibility for running this place.
Could be. I was responding to the claim that anyone had been told that their donations were"not needed."
On the other hand, I, at least, can perceive a difference between the actions of moderating (a task that involves no technical skills and which tends to be performed on a voluntary basis on (nearly?) all message boards) and the actions of marketing people, web designers, and systems engineers performing highly skilled tasks for which compensation is (nearly?) always provided.
I do not know what the “real” position of Reader management may be, but (leaving aside the fact that they are clearly not yet making big bucks off the message board), I believe that a claim that offers of assistance have been rejected as “unnecessary” are inaccurate.
Where did this idea that the SDMB is going to be a huge financial success come from all of a sudden? Are there a lot of message boards being traded on the NASDAQ? The Reader should be thrilled if this place breaks even 3 years out of 4.
And what marketing or web design work really goes on here? The board layout is determined by vBulletin, and all the “marketing” I’ve seen has been through stickies and board announcements by you guys. If there was a store selling SDMB merchandise (as has been suggested 140,000 times since I’ve been here) then I might believe there was some marketing work being done.
Well, it really depends on what you mean by ‘equals’ but I can point you to a board with a comparable number of users (46,00 registered users, most ever online 2,133) that was started in 1993 as a small offshoot of a major organization by a couple of individuals volunteering their time and efforts, and has become a separate, solvent organization and remains completely free for users:
Braintalk Neurology Support Forums
And, in a showing of great business acumen they include in their FAQ information that the Reader keeps insisting isn’t for public consumpAtion, things like their corporate organization and operational structure, as well as stated goals for the future, and how to donate.
In addition to being free to use, the board uses vBulletin, maintains a decent performance speed, and offers its users a number of features, such as private messenging, and the ability to use avatars and also utilizes google ads.
Was that what you were looking for?
http://www.transbuddha.com/osaka/osakaphone.html
(click on the face for the complaining kid)
It has not been “all of a sudden.” Despite the bubble burst of the late 1990s, there is still money to be made on the internet. Some of it may take several years to develop. The point that samclem was indicating in regards to the Reader is that newspapers have been failing for a number of years and many of them–including small operations such as the Reader–are looking for ways to get into the web so that as their newsprint revenue dries up, they can stay in business. Under that scenario, the Straight Dope home page and the Straight Dope Message Board are currently the only presences (of which I am aware) that the Reader has on the internet. As the pioneer presences, the Reader has an interest (of undetermined quantity) in maintaining these sites as placeholders from which they may or may not attempt to expand in the future. They may, indeed, be nothing more than place holders until a larger business strategy is developed. I am not invited to board meetings, so I do not know.
Now, under that (presumed and unproven) scenario, I agree that it would make sense for the Reader to invest in the assistance of experienced professionals to enlarge upon this presence. Whether they are doing so and we are simply not privy to the grand plan or whether they are dithering because they are unsure how to go about it or suffer from NIH syndrome I have no idea and I will not speculate.
The specific issue to which I alluded earlier was that whatever plan they are (or are not) pursuing, there have been statements made to the effect that there were legal issues to be untangled that has made the management reluctant to accept professional services on a volunteer basis or to accept donations to support the message board and that there has not been a claim made that such donations were unneeded.
(Among the various proposals in the past have been suggestions that the Reader accept volunteer services to enhance the web design beyond what is provided by vB and to maintain the servers and the board. I am aware that vB provides the base code, but members of the TM have offered help to do other things.)
Now, just as we can sit around and second guess the Bush administration’s handling of the economy, annual hurricanes, and the War on Terror, we can sit around and second guess the actions of the Chicago Reader management. However, since I have no more information than I have already provided in the last couple of posts, I will bow out and allow those who wish to indulge their speculative muscle to go on without me.
I think the management is just waiting until we have asked and answered every question conceivable. The Reader will then publish an enormous tome called The Answers to Everything and reap the profits. 
“By posting on this board you grant the Chicago Reader, Inc., and its successors and assigns a nonexclusive irrevocable right to re-use your posting in any manner it or they see fit without notice or compensation to you.”
AFAIK, there are no message boards that don’t either sell a product or a service that make serious MONEY. The Dope provides a service, but it would take a huge increase in subscription rates in order to make any real profit for the service (as it stands now) alone. That is, if we are to believe the numerous statements made by staff to the effect of “subscriptions barely pay the rent”. I buy that to a degree.
So, if the boards greater destiny is to be a cash cow, will the Reader 1) start selling merch, 2) add additional services (I smell a Doper Dating service), 3) raise subscription rates through the roof, 4) do something I failed to mention?
I’m not one to bitch about the way this board is run, and I won’t start now. I have to wonder though, why are the “this board is doomed” posts seeming a little less crazy recently?
Maybe it’s this: