Now it's available to non-subscribers ...

Posted Nov 27, 2003 19:02 UTC (Thu) by iksrazal (guest, #5184) [Link]

"What you need to watch out for here is that you may drive non-subscribers away. You need to attract them and persuade them to subscribe, not drive them away so that your "fringe" readership declines, and your core declines with it ..."

Unfortunately, I doubt very many people who feel passionately about eliminating non-subscriber comments actually will read that. LWN is a great service - I've read it for about 4 years - and I'm happy that they have found a way to be healthy.

However, I live in brazil - a third world country. It happens to have excellent programmers - many who contribute or even maintain the kernel. Yet the currency Real is about 3 to 1 dollar at the moment, making it 3 times more of a committment to support LWN.

I understand trolls are a problem here and everywhere. Also, I rarely post. But LWN would be yet another place lost in an increasingly commercial linux landscape - forgetting some who helped get us to where we are. That hasn't happened here - yet.

A suggestion: a several week waiting period before non-subscibers could post after getting a login. It might deter those who require an instant gratification to create problems.

iksrazal