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Why aren't there any banner ads?
Authored by: robg on Sep 11, '04 12:44:11AM

That was then, this is now. I'm sorry you feel the way you do, but I won't change my plans because of it. If you have read any of my responses to the comments, then you'd probably understand what has changed. Alas, it seems you have not, or you chose to ignore what I wrote.

If you're upset that you contributed, please email me privately and I will gladly issue you a refund - for all three years, no less. It was never my intent to deceive anyone into paying, and then running ads.

I could ask for money again, you are right about that. But that's not a long-term solution that would let me change my work setup so that I can (a) spend more time making the site better, (b) balance the time commitments of site, family, and job without having a heart attack, and (c) still afford to feed and clothe the family. Asking for donations with a plea every time funds ran short is NOT a permanent solution to any of those problems. I do not want to seem like PBS (which I do support, BTW!), coming on the air every three months going "Please donate to support this worthy cause." Not only is it annoying to the readers, but I could not possibly make a decision to reduce my paying job on that basis.

After expenses, a "good" month on the donation system netted me $150 -- for anywhere from 100 to 150 hours of work. Clearly something had to change if I was going to try to make a living at this...

Again, sorry you feel the way you do, but this was the best answer for the long term viability of the site -- and that's what I really care about at the end of the day.

-rob.



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come clean...and find support
Authored by: alec kinnear on Sep 11, '04 01:15:56AM

i think the problem we the community had with contributing was that we thought as you had a successful, best-seller mac os x hints book out of the site, that you were sated apart from bandwidth.

therefore the impetus to contribute became less, rather than more. "rob got his book, rob's doing okay".

had you come clean and said, at the end of the day i earned $5000 from the book (or $10,000, or $20,000 or whatever the fee was) and the site is still costing me 20 hours/week of work, and i need more money if i we are to keep going in the expanded form (with popularity there are more posts to review and more posts edit and more comments to keep track of) - had you done this in an open and truthful way - i am sure you could have reaped many times the benefits you hope to gain with these futile and poorly paid banner ads.

it's probably not too late. approach us like a community. tell us what the numbers are and what you need from us.

i am sure you would find the support you need.

and you would not be defacing the clear realisation of the sparkling vision for this site that you first had three years ago.

grafitti from microsoft on macosxhints.com, rob?

come on, you can't be happier about that than i am.



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come clean...and find support
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 11, '04 10:38:54AM

I like how people think that authoring a single book brings fortune... I'm a Mac book author, with about 8 books so far (as sole or co-author). I'm not rich, by a longshot. Rob didn't get rich from his book either...



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