What Foxy said, and what Polycarp didn't.

re monetising olo
clearly your only income from the olo site comes from adverts
[im presuming for every thousand 'clicks' olo gets a few cents]

so currently we see only two advert's
the feeling comes to mind include another advert
[or make every third post to be divided by an advert]

im just putting it out there

of course we could pay to post [or have to subscribe ] but that wouldnt work for me [i dont own credit cards ,refuse to spend money i dont got]

ok now on the religion censure

those taking upset on religios posting need to realise free speach means you have to accept
we all got that right to have our opinion on line

im not advocating banning athiests or racists [or right wingers selling us their spin]
[why should they want my love of good[god] censored]
or others freedom of religion

[or the right of the left to be highjacked]

[freedom of belief is a constituted freedom]
[read sect 116 of the fed con]

we must be able to accept contrary positions
[or there isnt free debate ] only aUTHERISED SPIN

[darn caps lock]

i feel the number of pages we need to visit to read the latest post is inconveniant
[but realise its needed to pay the bills]
its either that or we ..

well who knows

Folks,
The problem I see is more in the PRESENTATION of views.
This was never question was never intended to push personal agendas.
There is a clear difference between a discussion (emphasis on the word discussion) rather than proselytizing or gathering converts (axe grinding).

Presumably we would all like OLO to grow and prosper more readers& posters more ideas. If this site is dominated by particular personal “axe grinding” of any PERSISTENT or OVERT (P&O) types will render OLO less attractive to “website orphans and other interesting people”.

(Posts base solely on self referential biblical logic/texts are simply proselytising not discussions in the context of a general issues discussion site.
All topics can be discussed without crossing the line between discussion and “now hear this dogma”.
This site in practice is and should remain a secular one favouring neither side nor is it anti.)

Domination/P&O Will result in less hits polarized discussions and only reduce the pool of potential ‘advertisers’ that will want to be associated with OLO. That's not good for all of us

Graham, you’ve commented here on a thread that was 18 hours old when you posted….and I thank you for it. But there was nothing on ‘Suggestions for OLO’, which ran for about nine weeks!

A similar number of words posted there would have been great. That would have taken a minute fraction of the time that it would have taken to in any way monitor the thread.

The number of actual threads about OLO that have begged for a bit of a response from OLO personnel has been very small indeed.

I just feel that those who doing what amounts to an extra service for OLO, in spending a lot of time thinking about how it could be improved…while at the same time not being critical, or perhaps being lightly constructively critical sometimes…but also being obvious strong supporters by being regular contributors over a long period….deserve a bit more than a null response from the establishment.

It’s about feeling as though you are a good contributor… and a valued member of the OLO family.

Aah, I must admit, I’ve become very sensitised to this sort of thing in my workplace, where I’ve been resoundedly thumped by my establishment for doing exactly what our code of conduct implores us to do…work towards improving things that you feel need improvement, in a proper and professional manner.

I have no idea of what other demands you might have on your time Graham (Not sure what you mean by ‘monetise’. My online dictionary gave the old null response). But I accept what you’ve said about paying the bills.

At least no one at OLO came back and told Ludwig to get knotted over any of his suggestions! Cheers.

Graham

I don't believe anyone is entitled to a free ride. If one provides a service, then that service-provider is entitled to some recompense.

Though I note that you do call for donations from users on OLO, I would hardly describe your method as "marketing savvy."

I'm sure posters would not be discouraged from participating if you raised a thread six monthly or annually, to remind posters that their monetary contribution to the running expenses for OLO, would be appreciated.

I'm confident this proposed strategy would attract more attention plus more contributions. Worth a try?

Whaddya think?

Thanks for the suggestion Dickie. We do put ads in the newsletters from time to time, but they haven't worked. Perhaps for say a week sometime we could run one of those ads that interrupts you before you can view an article.

I notice a few of you raising the issue of the limitation on posts. We brought that in very early on because the conversation went feral, and tended to be dominated by the same few. Perhaps now we have a more established community it could be relaxed to see how it went. But I'd hate to see it degenerate again as it did previously.