Hi,

Thom is paying for this discussion community out of his own pocket and will continue to do so. Indeed, he made it members-only to discourage trolls and paid shills so that the experience would be more pleasant for people. This resulted in the Google bots being kept out too so they could not make the Google adverts relevant. This and the fact that he removed the Google ads from the side panel so they would be less annoying for people means that the amount of revenue from ads, which only ever partially offset the costs, has fallen, but that's Thom's choice.

Now that we've got used to the new software, Thom would like to offer the additional features that it can provide. These use up extra disk space and/or bandwidth, however, which would add to the costs of running the board, so Thom would offset these costs by charging a small fee to those who would like to use them.

The main features are the facility to upload your own photo albums, private messaging (like public topics but with invited participants only), attachments, polls and digests. There would also be the possibility of a paying-members-only chat room and web pages that only they could see.

One advantage of such a private area would be that the necessity of paying would deter trolls.

Are there any features that you would be willing to pay for?

Sue, Thom-

Pay-only features would mirror the concerns that are being raised about the compartmentalization (by economic wherewithal) of the Internet on a larger scale. I'd be more in favor of a donation system, and open access to everyone. Of course, it would be nice if our paid correspondents carried the freight ... bring back Brigemon (was it?) for some of his $250 @ hour earned for splattering garbage on real conversations.

I say bring back the google ads and leave off the bells and whistles features that are available. It's more important to me to discuss world affairs with as broad a spectrum of our society as possible ... than with those who have scraped up the crumbs of wealth available in our world. "Paid only" places would limit the world views of the paid-only places to the docile house pets, who are inured to real world stuff by their abject comfort.

As always, I sincerely appreciate Thom's generosity and hospitality.

Thanks Kate.

I'm concerned about exclusivity too, but on the other hand, some things cost more than others.

BTW, it isn't all or nothing. We could include some features and not others.

Sue:
There is a real problem here with people pasting entire blog or news articles into a post as though it were a discussion. This text comprises the vast majority of bandwidth but in most cases only serves to spread agenda oriented propaganda. As a person who has several websites on 3 different servers I understand how bandwidth costs money.

Just like Thom does not allow reading of articles (except by Alice) on his radio show, this discussion board is not the place to paste entire articles. Sometimes there is a 6 or 8 page article pasted into a post forcing users to scroll down to get past it.
Unfortunately, Thom has encouraged the abuse by erroneously calling it a "Blog" when actually it is a "Discussion Board".

I would be willing to subscribe for a sensible yearly amount, but currently the boards are a free-for-all. While eliminating the Google Ads did help with loading time and readability, the problem I mentioned was and is still a worse one. Cracking down on the abuse would improve the site greatly.

I'm going to be honest here...

...If I were to pay I'd probably not post as often and give up my moderator-ship... One of the reasons I joined was because it was a free website and I liked the energy it sent into society... in a large way this (free) website helped me form my own idea about Who I Am and what I would like to contribute to this planet...

...I do understand about Thom's financial position, but I should also consider mine...cos nobody else would look out for mine except for me...

PS I see I'm now officially spamming this board... Sue please do something!!!

Usha, WTF did you do?
The board has just freaked out. And your name is everywhere.

quote:

Originally posted by usha:
PS I see I'm now officially spamming this board... Sue please do something!!!

Sorry!

I set the flag to feature the topic across all forums so that it would appear near the top on each forum's list of topics. I didn't realise it would appear on all the "latest post" entries too!

quote:

The board has just freaked out. And your name is everywhere.

Now ain't *that* the story of my life in a nutshell, Ronald.

I second that I appreciate Thom's generosity and hospitality.

Gnarlie has a point but I don't think it will turn people away by some posters that put the whole article in the post. But it would still be nice to have a limit on post lengths.

As far as what Thom wants to do with the board, I would be open to what he thinks will work best. It might be good to have a poll to see what the people here would prefer.

And Sue it might be good to list all the alternatives that Thom sees this board could take.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronald Rutherford:
As far as what Thom wants to do with the board, I would be open to what he thinks will work best. It might be good to have a poll to see what the people here would prefer.

That is basically what this topic is. If people want the extras and they are willing to pay for them, fine. If not, c'est la vie.

quote:

And Sue it might be good to list all the alternatives that Thom sees this board could take.

The main features are the facility to upload your own photo albums, private messaging (like public topics but with invited participants only), attachments, polls and digests. There would also be the possibility of a paying-members-only chat room and web pages that only they could see.