An LWN status update [LWN.net]

An LWN status update

Posted Sep 29, 2005 3:53 UTC (Thu) by lutchann (subscriber, #8872)
Parent article: An LWN status update

I hate to keep making the same suggestion over and over, but I'll say it again: please give us another higher level of subscription fee. (You could call it "Dot-com millionaire" or something.) $10/month is low compared to many trade journals (monthly ones, even) and I'd be happy to pay $15 or even $20. This option might also be popular among subscribers who are able to charge the fee to somebody else's budget.

An LWN status update

Posted Sep 29, 2005 4:53 UTC (Thu) by kirkengaard (guest, #15022) [Link] (2 responses)

Or even to other subscribers who are also paying for themselves. :) I would tend to agree that the relative value of the content here beats any other Linux journal/zine/news source I might read -- I read them when they get posted here, because then I know there's something worth looking at. It would be a nice option to have, and still modest at $15/month. It's both donation to the cause and pay for services rendered. Worth considering?

An LWN status update

Posted Sep 29, 2005 6:19 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link] (1 responses)

double-plus-ACK. That's another huge value-add of LWN, they read the net for me and post a short summary with the link to the article for me, saving me time.

I don't think that aspect of LWN is "monetised" other than through ads. FWIW, I wouldn't object to LWN showing serveral additional banner ads on the news page to non-subscribers. (no idea if they already do, other than a small set of google ads, given I subscribe ;) ).

--paulj

An LWN status update

Posted Oct 12, 2005 22:58 UTC (Wed) by Zenith (guest, #24899) [Link]

Further ACK's from here :-)

I'm actually a starving hacker (ie. a student at university) and as my first year of subscription was running out, I opted for the next "level" of subscription, to show my support, even though money is limited.
I treasure everything I read at LWN, thus makes it more than worth it.

More money

Posted Sep 29, 2005 6:44 UTC (Thu) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link] (1 responses)

Yup: 20$-30$ a month = dot-com millionaire, 50$ a month = Bill Gates :-)

One intruiging thought I had about this article: The reason I like LWN is also the high quality and low amount of comments. I realised, if we double the subscriber base, that might change for the worse? Also it might be a mistake to make Slashdot (as some suggested) your main avenue to promote LWN :-)

About the two weeks: Make subscriber content public in two weeks, available to registered users in one week and paying subscribers immediately. Then you'd get interested readers to subscribe, might have a better idea of who they are and it might lower the threshold for them to eventually pay something. Just a thought, don't know if it would matter.

More money

Posted Sep 29, 2005 11:58 UTC (Thu) by amk (subscriber, #19) [Link]

Agreed; Slashdot no longer seems to have much appetite for developer material beyond the most basic level. How about partnering with oreillynet.com? Or one of the larger general computing news sources such as CNet or ZDnet?

Subscription Weeks

Posted Sep 29, 2005 6:45 UTC (Thu) by ncm (guest, #165) [Link]

Likewise, I'd be happy to see a button at the bottom of every separate-page article: "Great Article!, Donate: o $1 o $2 o $5". For subscribers, it would use the existing credit card info; non-subscribers could be offered a subscription after filling the form, with a discount in the amount of the their prior donation.

This is in addition to my desire to be able to transfer "subscription weeks" I've bought to posters of the most useful material. Excess awarded "weeks" might be redeemed for exclusive prizes. (Imagine the cachet of a signature LWN brassard (12 weeks), coffee cup (24), or laptop hardcase (480!) awarded by one's admiring fans.) Especially highly-awarded comments might appear, re-edited, as proper articles the following week.