An LWN status update

An LWN status update

How many will read this far down? Anyway, having read the other posts...

As some of the others, I find I'm regularly citing something I read on
LWN, usually on the various mailing lists and newsgroups I subscribe to.
I've found that being a regular LWN reader makes me an informed Linux
netizen, and I find it both convenient and enjoyable to be able to speak
with a bit of authority, citing LWN as a reference. With that in mind...

* I believe a one-week period is about right. Possibly 10-day at the
outside, if combined with some of the other suggestions for making member
links available, which would put the Thursday Weekly available the next
Sunday. This would accomplish two things (in addition to the slightly
longer wait time).

-- It would come "gratis" at a somewhat less convenient time for the biz
types, who would then have a bit more encouragement to subscribe.

-- It would encourage a second level of reader, the "weekend reader", the
hobbyist who wouldn't be motivated by the biz side of things as they do
something else for a living and therefore don't have all that much time
during the week anyway, but who have the time on the weekend to "catch up"
on their hobby. Different market, perhaps some will eventually find the
content valuable enough to subscribe. In any case, it could increase the
level of awareness of LWN within the segment and thus increase LWN's value
as a quotable source, thus it's value for the subscriber as an "early
reader" able to cite the source before it becomes public knowledge.

Talking about citing...

* On the sponsored links thing... one-time links have a purpose for some,
but as I've stated, most of my quotes are in newsgroups and on mailing
lists, so that wouldn't work too well for me. As well, the whole per-use
sponsored thing wouldn't work too well, here, as it could add up pretty
fast. Here are a couple second level points:

-- For a fee of no greater than $5 (to be taken off the subscription
time, thus not incurring a separate transaction fee) what about making
publishable "sponsor-links" available? These would NOT be single-use, as
some have suggested, but in addition to that, and would activate no
earlier than two days after original subscriber-only content posting (thus
still providing a bit of guaranteed subscriber-only time). However, it
would cut the current week, possibly 10-day if my suggestion is taken.

-- This would then open up the "project lead" level of subscription to a
privilege in keeping with the title. Subscribers at the "project lead"
level would be able to provide up to (say) three published and eight
one-time (suitable for email as others have suggested) links per month,
included in their fees.

-- A higher level, $15-20/mo, would make those available links apply per
week rather than per month. (If this were done, consider renaming the
current "project lead" to "task-group lead", and letting this level then
be the "project lead" level.)

-- Ideally, a user could see just how many times a link was used.
I'd /love/ the ability to see if anyone was clicking thru on my LWN
reference links!

So... increase general publicly available wait time to 10 days, both
encouraging weekend readers, and encouraging biz readers just that bit
more to go for the subscription. While increasing general wait time to 10
days, make it possible for subscribers to get one-time and general use
links, to be activated at the LWN publish plus two-day point. This could
be for a small fee, that would in turn encourage higher subscription
levels to offset it and give some meaning to the "task-group lead" and
"project lead" types. The fee however would be somewhat offset by the
overhead of tracking, but by the same token, that tracking would allow a
definite measure of the "network effect" both for LWN in general and by
individual users, who would then see how many folks actually followed up
on the LWN cites provided.

* On the subject of T-shirts... What about getting the folks that do the
Register shirts to give it a go? An LWN O'Really shirt! (Or... what
about becoming US distributors for that shirt series... I might consider
buying some of them if I wasn't ordering from Britain. There may be US
distributors, but I don't happen to visit them, and I /do/ visit LWN.

* Talking about LWN. Is Linux World News taken? As I said, I cite LWN
frequently, and it gets to be a pain explaining that it is, but isn't,
Linux Weekly News. If it's taken (and can't be procured for something
reasonable), what about LFN, Linux and FLOSS News. OTOH, three-letter
common TLDs aren't all that common, and probably all taken and rather too
pricey to come by. Linux World News is just perfect... If it's taken by
Linux World, the trade show, or similar, maybe an arrangement could be
worked out? Maybe LinWorld News? I know, you've probably heard them all
and they aren't suitable, but... (Maybe I've just gotta be more
creative... "(more than) Linux Weekly News!" or something, in my
descriitions!)

* I can't let this go without mentioning that long promised sitecode
source that hasn't shown up, yet. Yeah, it "needs cleaned up", but code
that's not cleaned up could still be more useful than code that's not
available at all! As well, think of it as yet another way to get LWN's
name out there! Someone mentioned eating one's own dogfood! The code may
not be pretty, but how can such a beacon for FLOSS remain so when its own
code has remained in a "we'll open it someday" state for /years/? Maybe
you'll get help with some of these features, maybe you won't, but hey, if
Linus can give up Bitkeeper...! Hopefully it doesn't come to something
like that, but...

* One more. I like the "set your own subscriber level" idea. Either
that, or setup something at the $7.50/mo level. Some of us aren't exactly
starving, but let's say we budget close enough that the difference between
a $60 annual cost and a $120 annual cost is leap big enough to swallow
hard when considering! $90 might just be doable, for a cause we /really/
believe in! (Of course, there's maybe a "pro" subscription plus a
"starving" sponsorship, but who sponsors on a "starving" level, anyway?)
Of course, if the fee for publishable 2-day links goes into effect, with
the suggested bundled link privs at the lead levels, I'd consider that
worth scraping up the extra $30/year for, to the $120 level... to get the
2-day cite links I could actually post.

Duncan