A conversation gone wrong, in a jif. or possibly a gif

[mdh]

If Xeni had made some products that actually related to the work she was doing at BoingBoing and specifically met my interests, I would have bought it.

Heck, I bought a copy of Hedgehog Art Through The Ages for my friends girls.

[mdh]

@tinoesroho

At this point, I’m not quite sure if we should build a business around out community. It might detract from the community itself to have a sanctioned blog.

If we could manage something as high quality as “FirstDraft” which is a blog that evolved sort of out of the commetns sections of a few early blogs in a totally not comparable way to this. But they deserve a plug. I think a front page is a good idea, but like this -

I Used Nothing But a Fake Social Media App for the Weekend

and then with comments.

[nothingfuture]

I’m less interested is “building a business” out of this place, and more interested in "making things we want."
As in: in don’t want to be in the t-shirt business, but I might eventually want a shirt with a graphic about this place.
In the unlikely event of any “profit” I’d assume kick that towards @LockeCJ to offset running costs.

[Lucy_Gothro]

In my case it’s the most tedious book I failed to complete.

Myself as well. I simply can’t complete anything that seems tedious to me, unless I have to…and my life is structured in such a way now so I don’t have to.

[Voynaimor]

Myself as well. I simply can’t complete anything that seems tedious to me, unless I have to

I persuade myself nowadays that if someone else does the boring jobs I’m either creating employment or teaching valuable life lessons.

[mdh]

Maybe instead of me talking about what they didn’t do there, we should talk about what we want to do here?

I’m with you

[dfaris]

Has jason always been the publisher, even back when BB was a 'zine?

Wikipedia

Boing Boing (originally bOING bOING) started as a zine in 1988 by married duo Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair.[3] Issues were subtitled “The World’s Greatest Neurozine”. Associate editors included Gareth Branwyn, Jon Lebkowsky, and Paco Nathan. Along with Mondo 2000, Boing Boing was an influence in the development of the cyberpunk subculture. It reached a maximum circulation of 17,500 copies.[3] The last issue of the zine was #15.

Fwiw, Jason only has one reference in the whole wikipedia article.

[LearnedCoward]

I changed my avatar from the CEO of Pepsi to a stock photo of a young black girl.

It was an interesting thought experiment: what if people actually think I’m my avatar?

[Haystack]

At this point, I’m not quite sure if we should build a business around out community. It might detract from the community itself to have a sanctioned blog.

I share your concerns and, as you know, have always been opposed to running this in the fashion of a commercial zine. I mostly view the (hypothetical) blog as a fun thing for us to do together, and worry that too high a profile will place us in the position of managing a community rather than enjoying one.

What I have been doing is long-form articles and columns that I just throw up here. They tend to be weird, somewhat informative, and possibly useful for people in the scene.

The problem is that the BBS ranks threads according to activity, which means that the stuff at the top will always be 1.) discussion topics and 2.) things people are really opinionated about, like politics. These will tend to bury articles about science, history, art, etc., which people might find interesting, but don’t necessarily feel the need to weigh in upon. So, I like the idea of a blog as way to introduce things like that.

One reason I’m a fan of the (micro) subscription model is that it would limit our growth by only admitting new members who are serious enough to chip in $1/mo.*

*And one further thought I had about that was that if we actually had hundreds of members paying $1/mo to maintain a small site with very few operating costs, we could actually use some of that to commission stories and articles from professional writers on whatever topics we choose. I have no idea if that would interest anyone else, but I would personally find it exciting to be part of a project which actually funds the arts, rather than insisting upon them for free. There’s a lot you can do if people are willing to pay just a little bit.

[CleverEmi]

The bits need to be paid for somehow. That could be a business enterprise, someone generously footing the bill, or the community contributing the dollars.

Personally, I’d be happy to contribute, but the decision is probably best made by the people who are putting in the actual work. I’m just over here in the peanut gallery, wasting a little time between work tasks. My opinion is worth the number of dollars I’ve contributed so far, which is zero.

[chgoliz]

Perhaps part of the reason Jason is so difficult is that he (to my knowledge) doesn’t have much to promote, so he’s only concerned with ad revenue, rather than the secondary benefits of being able to advertise a book tour.

He’s an intellectual rentier, not a maker.

[strokeybeard]

One reason I’m a fan of the (micro) subscription model is that it would limit our growth by only admitting new members who are serious enough to chip in $1/mo.*

*And one further thought I had about that was that if we actually had hundreds of members paying $1/mo to maintain a small site with very few operating costs, we could actually use some of that to commission stories and articles from professional writers on whatever topics we choose. I have no idea if that would interest anyone else, but I would personally find it exciting to be part of a project which actually funds the arts, rather than insisting upon them for free. There’s a lot you can do if people are willing to pay just a little bit.

I like this idea!

[jannamark]

One reason I’m a fan of the (micro) subscription model is that it would limit our growth by only admitting new members who are serious enough to chip in $1/mo.*

Just like our local community/public radio station. Except instead of various radio programs, we might be posting how-to videos, solo or cooperative art projects, podcasts, etc.

[mdh]

Thirded. Also have no idea how to organize and execute it, but I’d chip in to a kickstarter and maintain a monthly for a buck no problem. If we all kicked in 10+ bucks up front pretty soon we’ll have ‘paying for a lawyer to think about it for us’ money.

You know, if one person, just one person, does it, they may think he’s
Really sick and they won’t take him.

And if two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots* and
They won’t take either of them.

And if three people do it! Can you imagine three people walkin’ in, singin’
A bar of “Alice’s Restaurant” and walkin’ out? They may think it’s an
Organization!

And can you imagine fifty people a day? I said FIFTY people a day . . .
Walkin’ in, singin’ a bar of “Alice’s Restaurant” and walkin’ out? Friends,
They may think it’s a MOVEMENT, and that’s what it is: THE ALICE’S
RESTAURANT ANTI-MASSACREE MOVEMENT! . . . and all you gotta do to join is to
Sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.

 * - context people, context. It’s satire.

[mdh]

So, I like the idea of a blog as way to introduce things like that.

Promoted pieces can be manually pinned to the top of the list - but I also like the idea of a front page.

[ChickieD]

Patreon

[mdh]

Patreon

Ah yes, for me at least, “Kickstarter” seems to have become a category of noun, like Fridge or Ziploc. Patreon is probably the better crowdfunding platform for this.

[gilbertwham]

Howzabout user-supplied recs for things we actually like with an affiliate link appended to 'em as a way towards helping with running costs? Book recommendation threads, neat gadgets and so forth? I’d rather see what everyone else here thinks is good and help with upkeep than buy weird kitchen unitaskers from Mark like at BB. Turn the affiliate link thing on its head.

[gilbertwham]

And .gifs. .gifs cost money, but theyre important.

[jannamark]

I like this suggestion, and not just because it opens up an entire #stuffwelike category of blogability.