I assumed he meant what we (royal we of SDMB) are paying (to the folks that host our DB server), not what we (members) are paying (in subscription fees).
Could be. Like I said earlier, I’m sure the people who make those decisions are aware of their options.
Sure, it just renders Twicksters comment irrelevant if you interpret it the other way.
I think Ed has accurately communicated to the users exactly what he thinks of us. Keep cashing those Google Ads checks, guys!
There’s always crap around the corner for anything to do with hosting or computing and it just has to be waited out: it’s like complaining about a sudden rainstorm; it’s gonna happen and won’t go away just because people don’t like it.
Saying which, the whole last week since the 90,000 botnet thing started ( which did not affect my sites personally ) my WP site was up and down continuously — but mainly down — due to a cascade of hosting errors and I became more aware of the variety of 404s, 500s and 503s different causes could give as outcomes.
Including among others Host Not Configured To Serve Web Traffic, * Internal Server Error*, Server Temporarily Unavailable, to the magnificent There was a problem processing your request and I was stuck at the sheer effortless skill involved in making astoundingly useless notices.
So? Members don’t see ads. That’s one of their perks. Only guests are forced to look at ads. So don’t we also pay by clicking on them? Or doesn’t that make up the difference that would otherwise be made up from a subscription?
Most don’t click, and ads pay very little.
But if they were worthless, we wouldn’t have them. Since we do have them, they must have value.
And members don’t see them, which means any value they have is provided solely by non-members.
So either non-members contribute to the financial well being of the board, or we’re looking at a bunch of ads for no apparent reason.
eta: That said, a little outage here and there isn’t something that’s a big deal to me. Stuff happens.
Thanks, that’s what I wanted to say. And I was a member up to 2 weeks ago. I’m waiting before rejoining to see where this goes.
Like has been said, this level of availability could be expected of a free service. Are “we” sure our ISP isn’t scalping us? Is this the best deal?
It’s not enough compensation I say! 
Although it’s a perk for being a moderator and not compensation (IMO).
( Not related, but I make more than that with Bing points in 2 months that what she gets for a year for moderating the dope considering I get about $10 a month. She probably has to put more time in a day and more headaches than I have to! :eek: )
Yes, but very little. IMO (since I don’t have access to the financials) their biggest value is annoyance to guests making them become members and pay.
Thank you, that’s what I was getting at. I just didn’t see the need to snipe at a poster for not “paying his dues,” as if that means his question is invalid. I also interpreted his post to mean “we the SDMB,” not “we the posters.”
This.
I would absolutely love to see the financials on this place. I suspect they make significantly more on the ads than membership fees just based on how reluctant they are to ever complain about malware ads.
Unfortunately, I have it on good authority that the balance sheet is actually a stained cocktail napkin with the phrase “web hosting - $24/year” scrawled on it.
They don’t call it the Dope for nuttin’…
**Yeah, MODERATORS!! Why aren’t you complaining to us about malware ads… **
wait, wha?
Cite?
No, I mean the SDMB admins refuse to complain to the ad companies who give them shitty malware ads. I assume this is because they like the ad revenue too much to make waves.
But speaking of the ownership, has it ever been clarified just who owns this place? Is it 100% owned by the Chicago Reader? Does Ed Zotti have an ownership interest or does he receive a stipend? Just what is his stake in this place? Wouldn’t it make sense to clarify just who profits from the SDMB since you actively solicit membership and money?
Well, that’s a pretty baseless assumption.
It would be similar for me to say that you make that assumption because I assume you like money and thus you want everything to be free out of a sense of entitlement. Now, would such an assumption be fair to make?