Every user of this site should be charged, I can't see why any company would go the bother to maintain this site for free all of its' users seem to be useless morons.

Every user of this site should be charged, I can't see why any company would go the bother to maintain this site for free all of its' users seem to be useless morons.

Especially the anonymous ones.

Thanks for adding a great idea, foe. Hey, Brad, how about charging anonymous trolls 25 cents a post?

I saw it, LW, and, yes, it disturbed me somewhat, but I'm willing to give admin the benefit of the doubt at the moment.

I was disappointed, though, because I like Simon's articles, even though I virulently disagree with his point most of the time, and was kinda stoked to see him coming out of his shell a bit.

Charging would take away all the tabloid bullshit like Little Whip's blog (blogs for reaction) and only leave reasonable writers.

Charging would take away all the tabloid bullshit like Little Whip's blog (blogs for reaction) and only leave reasonable writers.

Well first that is not likely to be the result.  I'm quite unreasonable and could afford any premium site.

As for the main issue, no, there won't be a JoeUser premium program any time soon.  The service to revenue ratio just doesn't work out.

Just looking at the math:

In a typical month we get about 300 new blog sites.  Probably 3 maybe 5 of them would become premium members.  Even at $40 per year, that would just not be enough.

Let's say 100 those blog sites that get created now became premium at $40 apiece.  That's still only $4,000 per month. It's still not even close enough.

In order to justify making a premium JU, the site would have to make approximately $500,000 per year.  And there's just no way that would happen.  Especially when there's much easier ways with our other sites to do that.

What people need to understand is this:

Stardock, which owns this site, is a privately held company.

It is privately held not by some partnership or by investors but essentially one person. Me.

Because if that, I can have the company do things that are not profit driven such as have a free blog site simply because it's fun and cool.

Stardock does a lot of things that are not business related but simply because they're fun and cool. 

As a CEO, my job is to serve the shareholder.  And as long as Stardock remains economically strong (i.e. profitable) then there's no problem with JoeUser.

The problem some people run into is that they mistakenly think everything that I or Stardock do has to have some business justification.  It doesn't.  We're not publicly traded.  As long as it's legal, we can do whatever we want.  So when some user like LW's husband pisses me off, I can ban him and anyone else that decided to try to dogpile on.  That's because JoeUser isn't a business. It's just a hobby that I share with anonymous friends from around the world. And it's going to stay that way for the foresable future.

Brad's comments aside, I don't see JU being improved simply by making it a premium service. We all know of other blogsites that allow a lot more freedom in templates, promotions and other emenities. We all know of other places that would do pretty much everything you recommend. Some of the bloggers here do run other blogs that satisfy their needs and wants that JU doesn't.

However, all of us that only blog at JU are still here for a reason. Even after going down for basically a week, most of us are still here.

When I started here at JU I came up with all sorts of business related reasons why Brad would dedicate such a huge part of Stardock assets to us freeloaders. Even after he took time to explain, I still though "yeah, but..."

I finally came to the realization that what he was saying was the only explanation that held water. He likes doing it, Stardock and he can afford the drain of assets, and... and nothing else.

It was only after I realized that fact that I started to just appreciate what Brad is willing to devote to keeping JU up and running. Strange that I would take so long to come to that realization since (even though I am a devout capitalist) I have also devoted a lot of my time and assets to services, hobbies and other entertainments with no though to how I could turn it into something profitable... and blogging is one of them.

"The problem some people run into is that they mistakenly think everything that I or Stardock do has to have some business justification. "

Let's be honest though, you even say yourself that most bloggers here are ungrateful and rude to you when the service fucks up a little bit. Show everyone the door if there is no chance of a profit, what is Stardock, a charity for the ungrateful?

Stardock, which owns this site, is a privately held company. It is privately held not by some partnership or by investors but essentially one person. Me. Because if that, I can have the company do things that are not profit driven such as have a free blog site simply because it's fun and cool. Stardock does a lot of things that are not business related but simply because they're fun and cool. As a CEO, my job is to serve the shareholder. And as long as Stardock remains economically strong (i.e. profitable) then there's no problem with JoeUser. The problem some people run into is that they mistakenly think everything that I or Stardock do has to have some business justification. It doesn't. We're not publicly traded. As long as it's legal, we can do whatever we want. So when some user like LW's husband pisses me off, I can ban him and anyone else that decided to try to dogpile on. That's because JoeUser isn't a business. It's just a hobby that I share with anonymous friends from around the world. And it's going to stay that way for the foresable future.

 

I do understand these things, Brad. I just wanted both reiterate my support for such a program should you guys choose that avenue in the future, and toss a few suggestions into the mix if you want to use them.

Let's say 100 those blog sites that get created now became premium at $40 apiece. That's still only $4,000 per month. It's still not even close enough. In order to justify making a premium JU, the site would have to make approximately $500,000 per year. And there's just no way that would happen. Especially when there's much easier ways with our other sites to do that.

When you put the figures in black and white, it does seem to be a useless endeavor to try to make it a pay as you go site.  However, making part premium for those willing to pay for the perks might help offset the costs somewhat.  And as long as you have your TOU, I see no problem with banning those who violate it.  Like the Microsoft EULA, violate it and you forfeit your money.