15 Comments

• Antony Hook 7th Dec '08 - 7:45pm

  Tangerine is better than a mandarin.

• Thomas Hemsley 7th Dec '08 - 8:37pm

  *Wonders if article will be included* 😉

• Geoffrey Payne 7th Dec '08 - 11:12pm

  Not another Orange book.

• Jennie 8th Dec '08 - 1:49am

  Are you expecting people to pay for this? Because if you are you are going to have to change the wording of “LibDemVoice is solely funded by advertising. Please consider adding
  https://www.libdemvoice.org to the whitelist in your ad blocking software.” to “LibDemVoice is funded partly by advertising, and partly by the flogging of dodgy books. Please consider adding
  https://www.libdemvoice.org to the whitelist in your ad blocking software.”

  (FYI: I’ve considered it, and I don’t want to. Can the “reminders” please go away now?)

• Alex Foster 8th Dec '08 - 1:51am

  Geoffrey – I wanted to call it Reinventing the Web, but I think that might be reserved for the sequel.

  It’s very definitely NOT the Orange Book II – and it’s just the right size for slipping into the stocking of your favourite activist.

• Alex Foster 8th Dec '08 - 2:14am

  Jennie – hosting costs are increasing month on month as LDV grows and the advertising revenue offsets that nicely, which means everyone gets the benefit of the site, and so far, no-one has to pay.

  In addition, we use the money in efforts to attract new readers to the blog, to give people like you interesting new people to talk to, and to increase the likelihood of interesting new submissions for articles. We do this through google ads on other sites (which presumably you don’t see) and the occasional foray into offline presences at party conferences and the like.

  But rest assured, no-one’s profiteering here and no-one’s really making any significant money.

  We won’t be giving the book away for free, because you can’t print books for free. We’ll be making a small amount on each cover price. If you don’t like this arrangement, don’t buy the book.

  If you really want the site for nothing, with no consequences, consider using the feeds. We haven’t yet figured out a way of getting the ads into the feeds.

• Jennie 8th Dec '08 - 2:25am

  Alex: alternatively, you could consider doing what Livejournal do, and saying “if you pay, we’ll get rid of the adverts”. I have a paypal account. I would happily pay. I don’t like adverts, I never have, but that doesn’t mean I won’t pay for a service I find valuable.

  (I wasn’t expecting you to give the book away for free, I’m just annoyed that the ad blocker doesn’t also block the reminders, which are so annoying and intrusive I am on the point of no longer visiting the site, which you have to do to comment, even if you read via the feeds. This will necessitate me removing the feeds to remove the temptation to comment, of course…).

• Alex Foster 8th Dec '08 - 2:46am

  It would be nice to be able to do the “pay to remove ads” thing – not sure if it’s technically feasible for us. Will have to ask our technical team.

• Geoffrey Payne 8th Dec '08 - 8:33am

  How about “reinventing the orange?”

  LDV is a vipers nest of free market fundamentalists and crazed libertarians.

  Real liberals are too busy delivering Focusses and knocking on doors to bother wasting time arguing with such people you find here.

  (said partly in jest).

• Jennie 8th Dec '08 - 9:24am

  Alex, thanks.

  Geoffrey, thanks for pushing me ever so slightly further towards the “don’t come back” – not because I am suddenly filled with a burning desire to stuff letterboxes, but more because I am firmly of the opinion that REAL liberals don’t judge others on how they spend their time, or tell others what to do, so long as they aren’t harming anyone else.

  Which part was in jest, BTW? It’s hard to tell.

• Geoffrey Payne 8th Dec '08 - 11:23am

  Sorry Jennie.

• Neil Berry 8th Dec '08 - 11:23am

  Dear Mr. Foster, if I wished to buy summaries of the rehashed ideas of others compendiumised into an unreadble tome of physical density only exceeded by the actual density of the ideas contained therein, all in an impenetrable legalese speak that means little to even those who wrote it, I would surely choose to buy a copy of the records of the meetings of the Federal Executive?

• Alex Foster 8th Dec '08 - 11:29am

  I don’t think Fed Exec minutes are available at all, let alone for purchase!

• Neil Berry 8th Dec '08 - 11:30am

  And Geoffrey it is well know that vipers are in the main left-wing localists. They are largely green, spend much of their time on their own, working in drizzle and at night, and fill their prey with poison, sometimes in the name of protecting their vulnerable young, although that doesn’t stop them occasionally eating their own eggs.

• Geoffrey Payne 8th Dec '08 - 11:36am

  Thats the spirit Neil. I was beginning to wish I hadn’t made that comment previously.