>>The only investment that a member needed was the cost of his or her machine.
I am not aware of this era. Wasn't around. Are you referring to Usenet?
>>The Internet is already free.
You pay for access to the huge network of computers we call the Internet, that are owned by money-driven capitalists, government organizations, or schools. But the content that you access -- you don't pay for most of it. But I have a feeling this will be changing very soon, in one big swoop. You know the old saying -- you get what you pay for. Either the ISP will charge you more (and in return, pay the sites for the content you view) or you'll have to pay directly for content. This is why AOL will never go away. They generate and sell their own access AND content.
>>I don't want to see ads or be controlled by simple-minded control freaks. I don’t care for pretty colors or fancy frames.
Again, you get what you pay for.
>>Please give the ticker symbol of a profitable message board.
SI was once profitable because it was a well-managed operation, that capitalized on a market niche. This is the only (once?) profitable community I can think of. I think investment communities, as a stand-alone operation, are the only communities that could be profitable. Simply because anything people pay good money for (enough to make a biz profitable), they want a return on. Here, we pay to get market insights and learn how to trade smarter. That's worth $125/year.
Message boards in general are not profitable. They aren't designed to be. They are more like a grocey store mark down. Grocery stores will mark down big time (or take a loss) on key items to get you into the door. Once you are in the door, they sell you the pickles, pig feet, and donuts to go along with the dirt cheap Pepsi they promoted. But the Pepsi couldn't be sold alone for a profit. What do you get with sites that have community as a component? A large group of people reading a lot of pages. What do you do with that? Well, you've got them in the door, so SELL SOMETHING TO THEM. Either market your profitable network sites offering pay-for services or products to them (InfoSpace, Yahoo, etc) or sell some other product they'll be interested in from another company.
That's how I see communities existing. Not as a profit tool, but as a marketing tool. Word of mouth is notoriously one of the best ways to market a product.
Profitable message boards? Of course not.
Profitable financial community/message board? Possible, if it's run and designed right.
Profitable site with a large community as a component a part of it? Yes, easily.
But what the heck do I know?
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