If I’m going to post a vanity, I’ll donate. This site is a HUGE resource for experts on troubleshooting underwater electronic circuits, professional rooftop volleyball rules, gardening in the arctic, nuclear power generation on the moon, Argentinian martial arts — you name it, someone here knows about it. More importantly, they are almost always willing to help. I learn new things all the time on FR.
I’m not interested in merchandise, but that’s just me. It certainly has worked for others.
In my opinion (which I guess covers this entire post), ads are a bad idea. Less because of the user experience, but because advertisers have too much influence over content, whether through their own views or outside pressure from their own customers, the media or the public in general.
Assuming there are funding issues, I think one of the major reasons is abuse.
I don’t donate regularly because of folks like ************. I’m not spending my money to read that nonsense. Only he knows what happened to him earlier in his life to cause his issues, but those issues are real, and front-and-center in almost ALL of his posts. He contributes NOTHING to the conversation, and if anyone else abused people like he does, they’d be booted. The proof that it is a problem is that I don’t even need to name him — we all know who I’m talking about.
Duplicate posts don’t bother me - in fact, they can be a good thing if someone missed the earlier post. I also don’t mind reading blog excerpts. It’s just people posting their opinion online for other folks to read. It reminds me of another site you may have heard of called freerepublic.com, where people can post their opinions openly (for the most part). It certainly doesn’t harm me in any way and if I don’t want to click through, I don’t have to.
I think he was molested by a blog when he was a boy…
Agreed. That is why I'm trying to come up with ad-free ways to raise money. Hence the idea for a "shop" page where we can purchase "logo"-ed items and email.
********** spells freeloader and that's you.
****** spells whiner and that's you.
** **** ********.