I’ll second (or third, or seventeenth) the notion that it would help to understand the scope of the “financial issue”. The best course of action is going to be vastly different if we need to generate $100/month, than it would be if we need $10,000/month.
With that said, it can’t be that expensive to run this site. The “board which shall not be named” seems to manage it without any ads. The membership there is about 15% of what we have here, based on the current ‘active members’ count, but even if you factor up the cost accordingly, it can’t be “unaffordable”.
How about Papal Indulgencies? 
Get rid of a few warnings, keep the board running another few days. Not the worst idea, but probably pretty close.
Does that include Mortal Sins?
Need answer fast!
just a thought cant someone create a e-mail list of past members and make a survey of why they left and let them know things have changed over the years ?
and we need to get rid of crappy ads like this ….Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
Honestly, if Cafe Society goes, I go. The shutting down of IMDB left a huge hole in terms of discussing cinema. I would appreciate no more shutting down stuff that relates to the arts. I also find it one of the least contentious of the boards. and quite frankly the most fun.
I do think this place is getting out of control with politics though. Extremely toxic.
Actually, that’s a good point. Nothing has yet replaced IMDb for discussion of movies and television. If the powers that be want to improve traffic, how about opening threads for every movie and television show?
Every show? That would be a Herculean task.
I do, however, like the idea of promoting Cafe Society. People love to discuss movies and TV. You should also promote book discussions.
Maybe Cafe Society could be broken down into subforums like video, books, music, plays, food, etc.
Music could be broken down further by genre. Books could be broken down into things like classic literature, contemporary literature, graphic novels, non-fiction, etc.
Politics by it’s nature will get nasty at times. Some people relish that. Others can just avoid those threads.
Far be it from me to sound elitist, but finances is finances. If something is going to cost you more, either you need to raise the price for everyone or raise it for the few who want the feature. If you raise it for everyone, then the rich keep getting richer and elitism expands. If you raise it for those who can afford it, then it helps to keep society more balanced. Sure, that means that there will be more symbols of wealth disparity around, but the actual wealth disparity will be lower.
Granted, the price for this site isn’t enough to really factor into that in any meaningful way, but as a general rule if you hate symbols of wealth, then I’d say that hammering the wealthy is going to do more from a practical standpoint than trying to force equal prices across the land. An avatar should bother you less than a personal space exploration business. No matter what, some people are going to have symbols of wealth. You just get to decide whether you want to localize them into larger things, or spread them out and do more to actually help minimize the issue.
If I ever come across that, I’ll let you know. 
Prominent “Donate” button. Don’t know how profitable it might be, but I can’t be the only one who browses drunk late at night. Better getting a “thanks for your support” email from SMDB than the “Your ill-advised Amazon order is being prepared for shipping.” :smack:
New Content
Enjoying tuba music is one of the smartest things I’ve ever heard of … how about you? …
Well, there is the Wagner tuba in *Das Ring der Neibelungen.
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Assuming 50 posts per page, only one post by a user per page, every user has an avatar of the max size of 19.5KB, and the user’s browser hasn’t cached anything, it’s a max of only 0.975MB per page. That’s also the most pessimistic estimate conceivable and nowhere near that will be true. It’s really not worth charging over. Maybe if avatars could be 100Kb or so, but the current size is so comically small that with caching, the many people who won’t use (or turn on) avatars, and the low board population it’s basically a non-issue.
With respect, I have never noticed that the elitism here had anything to do with paid members vs. guests. It has always seemed to me to be about the ability to entertain others – derived usually from wit and quick thinking, and some degree of familiarity with popular and board culture – rather than status. I don’t think my own standing changed at all when I became a paid member. I certainly did not become any more entertaining, possibly less.
I also don’t think it’s possible to have any kind of association of people that doesn’t have a large element of elitism. It seems to be part of human nature for some people to shine, some other people to act as their sycophants, and a larger number of other people who operate from the sidelines. Such is, as they say, life.
Go back and read the thread from the beginning. I could also link you to a few threads. And any threads mentioning ads that have malware get the, “why don’t you just buy a membership?”
I know what you’re saying, I’m just wish we could do something to stamp out the whole, “guests are freeloaders, I’m a CHARTER member, blah blah blah.” Maybe make it against the rule to start threads asking people why they’re NOT ponying up?
(NOT because I"m a guest. I used to pay, and it had nothing to do with not being able to afford it or whatever. I just find it really crass. Maybe I’m exaggerating it a bit, but it does happen, and it’s freaking annoying.
On that one issue, having to do with ads. And then the other half say “why don’t you get an ad blocker?” That is not the kind of elitism I react to here.
One kind is the dismissive voice when someone not in the elite says something that you disagree with. That’s pretty elitist.
Or maybe, people could, know you, actually put their money where their mouth is, and couch up a little support instead of just complaining? Nahh, crazy thought.