Thanks Belly. I do get a few emails, but if everyone thinks everyone else is sending me emails, then it could lead to none at all! I'd rather be swamped.

Changing the system is always on the cards. And if we decide to do that, we might run a fund-raising appeal here. Although the amount of money required would be a little daunting!

OLO seems to have developed a life of its own, and who could deny its success hasn't been through the efforts of Graham and those who work behind the scenes.

I don't think too many readers or contributors fully understand the workings of such a web site, so full credit (and commiserations) to all those involved in maintaining and operating a truly unique forum, despite its hiccups and apparent flaws.

As to funding such onerous and technical operations, I guess there are many avenues to look at, apart from ubiquitous advertising. For example, a nominal annual membership fee for those who wish to post comments, no charge for internet surfers or readers.

Let's hope things can be rectified soon.

The site is currently running an ad.
It costs $140 a year to take up that offer, well worth it from what I hear.
If anyone has an understanding that some live from week to week I do, never ever would I want to harm or not see them here.
It is the charm of this site that we come from every walk of life, and just as in real life any of us can be the one who has the answer.
But, it is never going to be easy, if we can find a way, to see some pay our way?
See I would rather hide any contributions I make, but as silly as it may look if we Got say contributor under our sign in name some would finally not want to be left out.
Those who report they can not contribute could be given that tag too so no one need know
ideas?

Over the last few days, during the time that OLO has been acting up, a totally new phenomenon has emerged – I get tweetie bird and roaring lion noises when opening some threads!!

I know of one other person who is getting the same thing.

My antivirus and spybot programs haven’t objected to it.

It is fully weird. Has anyone else experienced this?

That's a new one on me Ludwig. Can you identify which threads?

I've had problems too. Sometimes the page will load if you wait long enough, sometimes not. It happened so often at the OLO journal I gave up on it a few months ago and now stick with the general forum. Now that's playing up too.

On funding, whether I'd shell out for it would depend on how much and what I was paying for. The partially free access at Crikey seems to work well. Personally, I'd be thinking of charging for access to topics you know from experience are popular/controversial. Is it possible to set up some kind of VIP privilege account? That's not terribly equitable, but hey, what is?

No lions or birds here.