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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?
- (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. - 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. - 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?"
(Score: 1) by velex on Wednesday March 12 2014, @09:37AM
All of those options sound good to me. I think the important question is when push comes to shove, who gets to make the final call? That needs to be resolved first before we have more drama.
It sounds like the consensus is that the site will be guided by the community, but what does that mean? A simple majority vote among registered UIDs? I think that would be unwise.
There needs to be an understanding (perhaps provisional bylaws?) in place about the process we'll use to make this decision and that once the decision is made, for better or for worse, that's the direction the site is going in until such time that it would be prudent to revisit that decision. (And of course, procedures and officers who would be able to make that determination as well.)
My $0.02 is that pay-to-play would be bad. Pay-to-play will discourage the influx of folks from the other site we need at this point.
At the same time, I like the idea of rewarding folks who donate/subscribe. An extra +1 in addition to karma bonus or maybe even some kind of silver or gold badge-type-thing that could go next to their UID below a comment's subject would be good--something simple that doesn't force new people or refugees from the other site to pony up before joining the club but recognizes individuals who are helping keep the lights on.
I also wouldn't be put off by text ads or by tactful, unobtrusive image ads. I only used my karma bonus on the other site to disable ads a few times (when the t-shirt ads got too annoying) and I browse logged out most of the time.
There is plenty of time to decide on details. The important thing right now is to get a written framework in place to decide how to answer the question of what kind of entity, form the legal entity, and move forward from there.