I refuse.

Posted Jul 25, 2002 13:32 UTC (Thu) by fdesloges (guest, #291)
Parent article: The end of the road

No, no!
Ho, ho! No, no, no!!!

I mean, there is a misunderstanding here!

I _ABSOLUTELY_RELY_ on you for any usefull information I need.
You save me at least a full day per week in pointer gathering
and mailing list analysis, you simply cannot go.

I mean, I refuse until you've tried everything else.
I mean, the hell with the great principles, this _IS_ a crucial service,
and it just cannot die.

There as been many solutions suggested in the past and I think that with
the new site code some clever compromise solution is possible:

Create a free "Public" lwn.net that is one week (or two?) late.
It would just do not publish pages that are younger than 7 or 14 days.
This is necessary for new comers to realise what a great value you
provide and for people in a desperate financial position (unemployed,
etc) to be able to follow up somewhat. Most of the stuff still carries
a value after a week or two.

Provide a subscription with one or two levels:
Say:
1$ per week: up to date security news + editorial
2$ per week: up to date everything

This is pure speculation: You know what your readers value and what
revenue you require.

Play the full open book game, kind of what Mandrake does with its Club:
Here is our cost, here is the detailed break down.
Here is a nominal subscription we recommend, considering the number of
reader we guess will want to pay.
Here is a Silver and Gold subscription that we suggest for you if you
feel rich today, and here his the impact it will have.
Here is a Corporate subscription fee (the linking of many different
user to a single corporate subscrition may be a little more tricky
to implement though).

Every 2 weeks or month, depending on how critical the situation is,
get us informed of how the finance improves (or deteriorates).

Believe me there is nothing like numbers to make a geek move:
I haven't make any donation yet cause I'm unemployed and I had no
way to _feel_ the urgency of the situation. A simple money barometer
and the break down of the numbers would have do so a long time ago.

Besides, geeks _like_ feedback (isn't it what this Community thing
is all about?). Giving money in the void is OK. Giving money and see
the barometer improves gives a warn feeling.

Please, help us to help you.