jeremy you are the greatest. Keep up the great work man.

Just wanted to update everyone and let you know I added a new perk for the Contributing Members. You will get special Contributing Member only updates and early access to new features. To get the updates you need to have "Allow LinuxQuestions.org To Send You Email Notices?" set to yes in your profile. As always feedback is encouraged. Thanks.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/member/

--jeremy

This is not the same post as I have just left on the "you can now become a ........." thread, but having read all the posts on this one as well, I would like to know that when I finally get round to slipping my donation/contribution passed my partners "eagle eyes", is the contributing member title bit optional?

I for one would feel a little uneasy under the name/profile bits, beacuse while I feel that this is a good place for my "dosh", I should not like anyone to think or get the impresssion that I know more about linux etc than I actually do (my window$ knowledge is that of an average user/drone and my linux knowledge is one step above zero!)

regards

John

p.s. or am I correct in thinking that it would be better for me to "donate" rather than "contribute" ??

Whether you want to donate or become a contributing member is completely up to you. At this time the title is automatic. If people seem to agree that it is a problem we can make it optional.

--jeremy

Interesting & important discussion ..

IMO the stuff at the bottom (Contact .. LQ Merchandise .. Donations .. Home) should be at the top of the page !!!

This is the FIRST time that I actually notice it - well & Ive been visiting LQ for quite a few years .

So that is IMO the most important - I cant be the only one not noticing the bottom row - grey text on dark blue doesnt help either I must say .. but at the top please .

Something else ... how about smaller possible contributions & also one offs ... ?

There is some cute merchandise .. how about pushing that a bit .or some new different strange stuff - .. quirky things .. hmmm .. .

Is something like "get a thinkgeek prize when you become a contrib member or X number of monthly posts or so" thing possible .. ?

Maybe a list of needed hardware ? Companies must be willing to sponsor such (?) if they knew or all 20000 members contributing to a new server for example .. ?

Just IMO

For the store, we can only offer what the provider offers (ie - it's not a traditional store). As for donations, you can donate any amount at any time at http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/donation.html - the contributing member program has a fixed price associated with it.

--jeremy

THX - what about that thing at the bottom that I mentioned - is it moving to the top of the page ?

I really cant be the only one not noticing it .

We have no plans to move the bottom links at this time. Real estate is fairly limited at LQ and the things currently on top are more used I think.

--jeremy

A US$ 35.- per year is more than reasonnable. It's less than an O'reilly's instruction book and one can get answers.
Make it clear that YOU get the money for YOUR equipment and that the contributors clearly see that Linuxquestions.org benefits from it (not Novell or some other distributor). JPA

im not a contributing member, but i did just donate some US cash via paypall, thanks for the site.

Thanks for the support nadroj.

--jeremy

For me, yes I personally would pay the money to support LQ.

But I do NOT think that this will over all lead to further development/growth of the site's user base.

Let me explain because I just painted that picture with a 'broad stroke'. And it may be quite lengthy. I apologize if it bores you but I truly love what you have done here, and feel that I owe it to you to try and explain what's in this feeble brain of mine.

For me, obstacles I find here with the forums, the tutorials are almost common to what we find in gnu/linux. Linux is a diverse, and dynamic (constantly changing) environment. One size doesn't fit all, and if it does, then not for very long.

Many company's are hesitant with gnu/linux as they are trying to find ways to make money of this superior operating system. We all know that gnu/linux is not your typical business model.

Let's take the LQ How-To's for example from a business perspective.

I'll just use one of Jeremy's posts for simplicity, but this could be for any member's contributions.

You Jeremy made a fantastic how-to for SSH located at:



I personally used that tuturial on slackware when I was trying to learn SSH and try to get vnc to work over SSH.

Now your tutorial got me SSH, but I still can't get VNC, and startX makes KDE load on the server then back down to console.

Now my issue of VNC over SSH with KDE is beyond the scope of your tutorial. However, if I were to have posted below there asking you to help me with VNC, etc what would motivate you to reply or help me with my issue, even tho it is beyond the scope of your how-to. NOTHING.

Now the business money-maker side of it.

What if ? LQ developed strategic partnerships with the like of (for convesation sake) let's say HP, nvidia, ATI or any other company that LQ feels is gnu/linux friendly.

Those company's would put advertisements on the how-to's, forums. Not over-bearing flash killing ad's. But they get the representation that they deserve.

Now all of those people who have developed well writen how-to's or threads, are now motivated to go back and maintain these items for accuracy, change-logs, etc and are motivated to do so by a 'vote' system that we already have in place here.

The users of this site place votes on the benefit of the thread, or the how-to, etc. At the end of the "quarter" NOT year! the points are added up and the members get discounts or coupons on products from the 'LQ strategic partners'. The purchases must be made with coupons that have a code that can be traced back to Linux-Questions who get's some kind of kick back or at-least an 'atta-boy'.

Not only are the strategic partners getting their names in front of people on a highly maintained, accurate and active linux site.

But the members who contribute are trying to get votes, and points to get discounts on PC's, video cards, movies, I don't know.

I think this is a nice "I help you , you help me win win scenario" that could help out the strategic partners make some money, LQ keep up it's strong advertising base, and motivate it's users to keep coming here, and keep up the good work.

I think this could benefit the strategic partners as they would have a way to "measure" their spending with you, more than a let's say 'click for dollars' business model.

Good luck and thank you again for LQ.

Old_Fogie, actually we have some tutorials and articles in the pipeline from people at corporations both large and small. The program will certainly take a little time to get started, but it's something that is on the way.

--jeremy

wow Jeremy already! you move fast! LOL jk.

Can't wait to see them

Bye for now.