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Pastimes : Discuss Go2Net's acquisition of our beloved SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (209)	4/26/1998 4:13:00 PM
From: Scott Pedigo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 446

Don't penalize lurkers with delayed viewing! Re: Silicon Investor should make the people who are not members, who just read postings, be restricted. Not just from the extra goodies like portfolio, finding out ones profile, etc. They should be restricted from new content. Make the last 3 days unavailable for the non- members, so they have to wait 3 days to get caught up. Although Brad had posted the number of hits the site gets, he didn't break it out into hits by subscribers vs. non-subscribers. But let's assume that there are a fair number of regular lurkers out there, along with some people who just stumble over the site on occasion. These people also are a significant part of the value of SI. They may not create content, but they are a potential source of ad revenue. Lurkers cost some money since the server has to be more powerful in order to service the greater number of hits, but the (potential) revenue generated from ads has to be significantly greater than this cost, otherwise ALL sites on the Web would have to charge for access. Many are supported only by advertising. The ad revenue generated due to page views by lurkers (if ads are implemented) will benefit the subscribers by keeping the fees down. Without this future revenue, ALL costs would have to be carried by us (the subscribers). As long as I don't have to see the ads, fine with me. So do you want to drive the greater part of the lurkers away? Some would subscribe, certainly, if this suggestion (delayed viewing) were implemented, but my gut feeling is that many more would go away in disgust. The assumed future ad revenue would decline, and subscribers would have to pay more to cover the site's costs. Would you visit the CNN website if their news was 3 days old?