Forum Topic

Monetization of this site

I happened to wander over to www.chiswickw4.com this morning and noticed that their news articles all have a begging note at the bottom asking for people to donate to help fund the site.You can see an example here: http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=concrime1047.htmI wonder how long before we'll start getting these too?

Matt Palmer ● 2677d8 Comments

I suppose they'll come soon. Nothing comes for free and there's a limit to the amount of advertising revenue to go around, as the Guardian has found. If I'm going to support Internet services then I'd probably prioritise Wikipedia which I use quite a lot - and it doesn't sell advertising. 

Michael Ixer ● 2677d

Yeah I donate to wikipedia. And of course I pay for my Guardian subscription.Can't see me coughing up 8 quid a month for this site though!

Matt Palmer ● 2677d

Agreed Matt but I suspect they reckon if they say eight quid then some might stump up a couple of quid. I'd need to know more about the ownership and where thee money goes. The Wikimedia Foundation is a not for profit organisation and the Guardian is a trust so I'm happy to see my money support those, not so sure about the SW15 site ...

Michael Ixer ● 2677d

I'd like to know where the money goes too, but I must say there has been incessant moaning on this site for many years about how creaky and old fashioned the site it is.  Surely it's worth it if it get updated????

Bunny Payne ● 2677d

If there was some statement that money donated was being used to update the site, or for running costs rather than shareholder profits then fair enough. Otherwise, they should say its no longer as free site and charge everyone a subscription? I'm not averse to lasting for online services such as Dropbox, Flickr, Google storage or ad free Hotmail, etc.  Interesting how Facebook makes money although it provides a service for no monetary payment - of course those of it that use it pay for with our data that Facebook takes  from us ...

Michael Ixer ● 2677d

As a thought experiment, consider some of the more frequent contributers - which of them would we pay for their content? Don't all shout at once. :)

Michael Winstanley ● 2677d

"As a thought experiment, consider some of the more frequent contributers - which of them would we pay for their content?"If possible, I'd pay for Paul Game's discontent.

David Ainsworth ● 2677d

Perhaps the SW15 Putney website will go bust? Or does anyone value its news and community announcements, or wouilda noticeboard in the Putney Exchange be more usefile? 😈

Michael Ixer ● 2677d