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On the future of LWNOn the future of LWNPosted Jul 26, 2002 16:34 UTC (Fri) by mjstrom (subscriber, #1012)Parent article: On the future of LWN One thing I would be interested in seeing is subscriptions to the site. Many users may not like the idea (the information should be free...) but if it is a choice between that and going out of business, the choice is clear. Restrict the weekly edition to subscribers or something along those lines. I would be willing to pay the price of a newspaper (or more) every week to read LWN. But, assuming that the price is that of a newspaper (~ $1.50/week) that would mean that to bring in 15,000 per month, you would need ~ 2300 subscribers, that should be doable (very rough numbers). Also, what about putting up a page detailing the contributions per month /# current subscribers / % of monthly goal, etc to give the community some feedback on where they need to be.
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On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 16:52 UTC (Fri) by sfeam (subscriber, #2841) [Link] I agree that a subscription-based model should be investigated.Yes, there are problems - notably the lack of alternatives to PayPal as a transfer route for small amounts of money. But the value of timely information uncluttered by pop-up ads and other cruft is clearly worth a subscription fee.
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 30, 2002 12:48 UTC (Tue) by jachim (guest, #2963) [Link] Not quite. There is a pretty decent alternative to PayPal. It's CitiBank's C2IT (www.c2it.com). It's free for any domesitc US transaction. To me, at least, it's quite a bit less repulsive than PayPal.
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 17:42 UTC (Fri) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link] For that matter, it wouldn't actually be necessary to have subscribers get anything that non-subscribers don't get. It seems like they can fund a month's operation on donations without actually asking for money or saying that they'd do anything in particular with it. I would assume that they don't get that level of response all the time because people forget or procrastinate. Subscriptions would allow people to essentially decide to make a donation periodically without paying attention.
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 19:48 UTC (Fri) by oever (subscriber, #987) [Link] LWN deserves subscriptions. Maybe information wants to be free, but it's impossible to expect this quality (best in-depth linux news site) to exist for free. Linux supporters should put their money where their mouth is and subscribe.Anything other than a yearly subscription is not convenient. People from LWN need to be able to plan their lives too. They need a steady revenue. They've been keeping up steady news too. So, if there is to be a subscription, I'll surely subscribe if the price is right and I dont demand that other people will be shut out of the information because I help paying for it and the dont. But the price should be reasonable: $1 or $1.5 a week is ok.
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 19:20 UTC (Fri) by jcurious (guest, #2845) [Link] I've gone ahead and added $100 to the pool. I'm sorry I haven't done this sooner. I like both the subscription idea and the month-o-meter... basicly each month you'd have a thermometer that goes up to say $20,000 and every month the meter gets reset. If any month that meter doesn't at least make the $20,000 the staff of lwn would have to reconsider it's future. Also there is a subscription system inside paypal so those of us who forget to regularly donate will still be contributing.If you guys decide not to continue LWN, please feel free to use this money to go out on a drinking binge ;) You guys have earned it ;)
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 20:23 UTC (Fri) by karim (subscriber, #114) [Link] I'm just wondering if it is reasonable to expect the LWN staff to have to reconsider LWN's future every week/month/quarter/etc. There really needs to be a scheme in place whereby LWN will be able to continue in its current form for the forseable future. Karim
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 27, 2002 21:09 UTC (Sat) by Kluge (guest, #2881) [Link] I agree w/ jcurious, and I've added $20 to prove it.I hope you can go on w/ LWN, but if not, please enjoy the contribution. Kluge
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 26, 2002 20:44 UTC (Fri) by brambi (guest, #2847) [Link] Subscriptions are ok. I am willing to pay ($ 5-6) for one month lwn.Here are some ideas. Maybe some of them are usefull:
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 27, 2002 17:19 UTC (Sat) by kyn (guest, #2878) [Link] To be able to evaluate how many people are willing to subscribe ifa susbscription model is introduced I would suggest to create some kind of a commitment page where people can commit for subscription (and not subscribe yet). This will let the LWN folks know if there is a potential for such a model. The few who say they would subscribe etc. (in the comments) are not enough for making a decision that will eventually fail if not enough people subscribe. Kyn
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 28, 2002 16:08 UTC (Sun) by BDMcGrew (guest, #2913) [Link] I concur captin! I'd flip five bucks a month to keep LWN running! That's about the cost of a newspaper in my area ($1.25/each). Piece of cake, setup a little Paypal subscription system like Userfriendly and Topfive.com did and ther you go!That would require about 3,000 monthly subscribers and I'd bet there is ten times that many people that visit the site! -brian
On the future of LWN Posted Jul 28, 2002 22:39 UTC (Sun) by mcopple (guest, #2920) [Link] There is no doubt in my mind that this is the finest Linux news site on the net, and as such, is worth paying for.I would subscribe in a heartbeat. There is no free lunch...the time these folks take to put together an outstanding information resource is valuable, and any self-respecting Open Sourcer serious about his vocation should recognize that.
How to get out Posted Jul 29, 2002 1:45 UTC (Mon) by DeletedUser2926 ((unknown), #2926) [Link] Most of the sugustions you got revolved arround getting more money. You may however just be ready for something else. LWN is a lot of work and may not ever be as profitable as other options.If this is the case and you really want out, but want LWN to survive, perhaps you could cut way back and hand your baby off to new blood. You could post links to new sites and have your readers vote on who the sucessors will be. Then you could officially hand over the LWN domain to the new group.
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