Opening up LWN

Opening up LWN

My vague memory suggests most locked content is editorial in nature rather than topical, hence the relevancy of this material shouldn't really be affected by the delay. I don't see therefore why the lockout would cost readers, as long as there's an easy to retrieve the latest unlocked content (which currently there is not AFAICT, except for the weekly edition links - there needs to be - otherwise lots of non-subscribers might never bother coming back to look and find out exactly why the locked content is worth paying for). FWIW, not having to wait and search through the archives is the prime reason I subscribe.

I'm also not sure about the 'eat your own dog food' comment. I have a suspicions (just a suspicion mind you) that Jon has made quite a few sacrifices in order to make and keep LWN what it is.

Regarding outside editors, yes I agree completely. LWN's niche is high-quality content. LWN might not churn out the same high volume of content which other sites do, but it's not volume for which I value LWN. Outside editor contributions to LWN tend not to match the home-grown content (though, it's a very high bar against which those are measured).

One suggestion I would make is to add higher subscription options. I think LWN sells itself too short, I think I subscribe for $10 or $12 per month or somesuch, but I would pay *more* if only LWN would let me (plus, I nearly always pay 6 or 12 months in advance - in the latter case I get a 10% discount which I'm unable to waive!). The corporate options also sell LWN quite short (at least at the levels described publically) and seem like an amazing way to make the *least* of corporate patronage..

I'd suggest looking at distributions of subscriptions by the various levels. If the "starving hacker" category is disproportionally represented, I'd suggest not offering it, I suspect anyone availing of it likely could well afford the $5/month option and likely would accept paying more when renewal came up. If they could not, they could still easily afford to wait 2 weeks.

Finally, T-Shirts. I'm a subscriber, where are my T-Shirts damn it? (And yes, I would pay for them, but I'd want them not to be generally available. Or at least, the T-shirts available to subscribers should be subtly, but noticeable different). ;)