TR Forums

Gerbils are often very knowledgeable creatures. You roam the tunnels of the TR forums to gather food (ideas/knowledge/experience) but usually have no benefit to share that food with others. What I am proposing is a new section of the forums where you "get paid" to provide solutions to other Gerbils questions.

So, here is my idea...

Say I have a question: What is the best software/hardware option to solve issue X? I post this question on the forum and offer a $3 donation for the best answer. Gerbils can post answers and I would decide who provided the best solution. My $3 would then be donated to TR on behalf of the Gerbil with the best solution and the $$ amount would show up on that Gerbils "Food Share" tag and would contribute to the Gerbils Silver and Gold Subscriber tag.

Thoughts?

Too much money being talked about here on TR. I don't like the general direction things are going around here. If this keeps up it could all end up sabotaging the site.

I get my answers for free from here and other parts of the interwebs, and I'll donate my knowledge for free as well.

If TR needs more money after this subscription thing I'll support whatever their decisions are. I like the idea of a reddit-gold-esque scheme, but in the meantime I agree with ronch--let's calm down with the money-making ideas and let the admins mull it over. TR is known for its quality articles and community, and we don't want to destroy that.

I doubt such a system would work because you can get similar answers for free in other places on the internet.

Also, where is the cheese option?!?

Duct Tape Dude has the right idea.
The minute you have a paywall to get answers, people will abandon the forums like a sinking ship. See ExpertsExchange for the most horrific site-suicide in existence.

superjawes wrote:

I doubt such a system would work because you can get similar answers for free in other places on the internet.

Also, where is the cheese option?!?

You'd be surprised, I make most of my income answering questions that you can find in a few minutes of googling provided you have enough relevant subject knowledge to understand the results.

No. If newcomers see that they have to pay money to get a helpful answer, they'll just go somewhere else. I would too.

Trying to control information on the internet is impossible as music, movie and game pirating has proven. Paywalls just send people elsewhere. An open, helpful community that encourages discussion rather then charging for it will always prevail over a paywall.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Duct Tape Dude has the right idea.
The minute you have a paywall to get answers, people will abandon the forums like a sinking ship. See ExpertsExchange for the most horrific site-suicide in existence.

Yup. Mercifully, they don't seem to come up in Google search results very much any more. For them, falling off the first page of hits is probably akin to a mercy killing.

Their choice of URL was also somewhat unfortunate, given that there's another obvious way to parse it (ExpertSexChange). Should've probably used a dash!

It's a creative idea, but it puts too much content behind a pay wall. Maybe if it were a voluntary thing, that'd be better -- an button in each forum post you make to donate, that you can remove when you become a subscriber.

There's times I'd consider paying a little but that's only for a guaranteed correct answer that provides a solution to my problem. Which in itself is a veritable minefield, because then users have to expect a certain caliber of guaranteed results, but the person providing the answer also has to make sure the person asking doesn't take the answer and run. For TechReport I don't see it working out that well, and as others have said it'd drive more people away as well.

What I was thinking about was why doesn't TTR run more site-wide promos with sponsers? Maybe they do and I just don't remember it, but Anandtech often has a site-wide ad promotion going on that changes the look of the ad-spaces and the side columns on either side of the article/page. I'd assume that level of ad promotion brings in much better revenue than just a couple individual banners per page.

There are already websites which are dedicated to sharing knowledge, like the stack exchange network of sites. Probably not something the small TR community can realistically compete with

just brew it! wrote:

(ExpertSexChange). Should've probably used a dash!

Do you need a new pen?
http://www.PenisLand.net/

"We Specialize In Wood"
"Handling The Big Jobs, Too"
"Q: Can I provide my own wood? A: In most cases we can handle your wood."

chortle....

More money to "support TR"? You gotta be kidding, right? I really hope you are. This forum is already mostly dead (compared to communities at overclock.net or hardocp.com), doing such things would kill it off completely.

Chrispy_ wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

(ExpertSexChange). Should've probably used a dash!

Do you need a new pen?
http://www.PenisLand.net/

"We Specialize In Wood"
"Handling The Big Jobs, Too"
"Q: Can I provide my own wood? A: In most cases we can handle your wood."

chortle....

Not to mention, "Some of our skilled craftsman have been handling wood for over 25 years."

just brew it! wrote:

Chrispy_ wrote:

Duct Tape Dude has the right idea.
The minute you have a paywall to get answers, people will abandon the forums like a sinking ship. See ExpertsExchange for the most horrific site-suicide in existence.

Yup. Mercifully, they don't seem to come up in Google search results very much any more. For them, falling off the first page of hits is probably akin to a mercy killing.

Their choice of URL was also somewhat unfortunate, given that there's another obvious way to parse it (ExpertSexChange). Should've probably used a dash!

Well, the dash is there, although Wikipedia says that it hasn't always been there.

I actually sometimes go to EE, answer questions to earn points, and ask questions to burn points. Never paid any money to them. The fact that they are a walled garden (do they even let Google etc. index their contents?) isn't really annoying to me. However, it would be very bad if a large number of forum sites took a similar approach, making the knowledge on the Web even more fragmented and difficult to find than it is now.

JohnC wrote:

More money to "support TR"? You gotta be kidding, right? I really hope you are. This forum is already mostly dead (compared to communities at overclock.net or hardocp.com), doing such things would kill it off completely.

If you look at the survey results, you'll note that everyone seems to agree this is a bad idea.

Subscribe? Yes, I'll pay for that. But my answer to this question is no.

When I need tech answers I have Spiceworks to turn to. I help others, others help me, it's free. I want to provide my answers for free to others, just like I'd like to get free answers if I were to ask a question.

I value TR, and will pay to support it; but not in that way. Respectfully, I think it doesn't jive with the spirit of the TR community.

Duct Tape Dude wrote:

I get my answers for free from here and other parts of the interwebs, and I'll donate my knowledge for free as well.

PERIOD...

Bad idea.
I give my knowledge freely and most times the information is out there with a quick google (or yahoo or bing)
I say all 3 search engines as I have in my tasks at work had to use all 3 to find meaningful results.

I feel a disturbance in the Force.

I think this ship is heading off course.

Is this the work of a Trojan Horse?

Has someone given their soul to the gods of Norse?

zenlessyank wrote:

I feel a disturbance in the Force.

I think this ship is heading off course.

Is this the work of a Trojan Horse?

Has someone given their soul to the gods of Norse?

As long as they gave them to Thor instead of Loki, I'd be fine with that.