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SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the ontology dept.

prospectacle writes:

"An important choice remains for this site. What kind of organisation will we be, practically, legally and financially?

A for-profit, shareholder corporation seems out of the question, by general consensus (correct me if I'm wrong), but other questions remain. The basic choice is this:

Will we be like a charity, a co-op, or a recreational club?

  1. (Like a) Charity:
    Being like a charity means operating for the public benefit. What we produce is news and englightened commentary for the benefit of the world. All our finances and operations would be geared towards this aim. All excess revenue is reinvested into the site.
  2. Co-op:
    A co-op is for the mutual financial benefit of individual (possibly paid) members. Three main sub-options for this exist that might be appropriate for this site:
    2a) A retailer's co-op. Members use a common organisation in order to make individual profits. For example if members used this site to display their stunning intelligence, and then put their resume or website links on their profile page so people could hire them. Maybe there are services built into the site to find someone to hire who fits your requirements.
    2b) A worker's co-operative: Employees share any excess revenue. Some revenue would go to expenses, some would be reinvested, whatever remains is shared among employees.
    2c) A buyer's co-op. We exist to get discounts, or to buy together what we can't afford separately. Maybe we're buying well-written news and analysis from professional authors. Or maybe we're bulk-buying electronics, etc, so the price-per individual can be lower.
  3. A Recreational Club:
    This takes membership fees to provide access to equipment, organize competitions, etc. Maybe paid members would get to use extra services, like an email account, or storage space, or their own discussion thread area, or software project hosting, or chat-rooms, etc. Non-members could still be permitted, with fewer privileges, and would have to pay-per-use for the extra services (or pay to become a member).

This is a gross simplification, but gives some idea of the options involved. Feel free to offer alternatives. So what should we be, what is our purpose, really? And what kind of a structure is required to make sure we serve that purpose, and that money doesn't end up in the wrong pockets?

Bonus question: which jurisdiction should we set ourselves up in to fulfil our mission most effectively?"

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday March 12 2014, @02:34PM

    by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @02:34PM (#15281)

    I'd block ads, but most of the blockers I've tried wreak havoc with my web development and I'm too lazy/forgetful to switch the blocking on and off so most of the time it ends up just being left off anyway. When I do remember to turn it on I forget about it while I'm working and will spend hours trying to figure out why somethings not working or doesn't look quite right. Also IE and compatibility mode F things up, but I've blamed IE for issues I thought were related to compatibility mode, that were actually caused by an ad blocker and vice versa. So unfortunately for me I see the ads so I know when things aren't working it's not because of a third party browser plug-in.

    --
    "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
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  • (Score: 1) by SuperCharlie on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:09PM

    by SuperCharlie (2939) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:09PM (#15577)

    Kinda same boat here, however, I use different browsers for developmet (Firefox) and personal (Opera for now) which lets me use the adblock and not forget to turn it off for dev. Also keeps my bookmarks and logins, yada kinda straight.

    • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:18PM

      by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:18PM (#15581)

      Just found out today from the technology services group they're banning Firefox in our Windows 7 upgrades based on an impact report done last year. So only IE 9 and Chrome will be approved browsers, and Chrome will be extra locked down, because you know it's less secure than IE 9.

      Where do they get these security advisor from?

      --
      "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe