I WANT FREE STUFF. AND QUALITY. AND LOTS OF IT. AND A PONY. [Author: Lum the Mad]
The dot-BLAM continues. In the real world, your erstwhile writer is idly wondering if he’s getting the “We Sincerely Regret” letter Monday, or Tuesday. (Want a web programmer? Call now, while rates are low!) In the virtual world, ezBoard is begging for money.
“In response to diminishing online advertising revenues, ezboard has established a new revenue model that is based on the highly successful NPR public listeners campaigns,” says Vanchau Nguyen, ezboard’s founder and chief executive officer. “Community-Supported Communities is a ground-breaking platform for establishing user-based online community support.”
The ezboard Community-Supported CommunitiesTM model allows users to support their communities through semi-annual contributions of approximately $2 per month. Community supporters receive enhanced ezboard services, including no banner advertising, as well as public recognition for their contributions.
If ezBoard goes pay-for-play (which they’ve been telling their prospective investors for quite some time) the impact on the MMOG community will be significant. Some of the largest EQ communities are based on ezBoard, including the Druid’s Grove and the Safehouse. Not to mention, oh, almost every single guild for every online game out there (since, you know, setting up message boards of your own takes effort, money and more money. And you usually need one of these guys at some point.)
All that takes money. Money has to enter the system at some point. I’ve got a nagging, sneaking, frightening suspicion that the shock-the-monkey guys really can’t pay freight for the entire Internet. Someone has to pay for the servers so that you can post endlessly for no apparent rhyme nor reason. So who’ll pay the bill now? What the hell, maybe it’s Gary Coleman! No, wait, Megaputt! Hell, I don’t know. The People’s Liberation Army? Help me, Denise!
Tweety has a few things to say about that.
Damn it. I’ve now digressed so far I have no idea what my point was.
Well, I’m pretty sure she intended to have something to say. I think it involved getting paid. For ezBoard. Sponsored by eFront. Da dee da dah.