> Basically, the people who "step off the Google bus" (and I've always thought of that as a particularly insulting expression) are going to post if they want to. Those who do want to get involved might be scared off by formalising the process.

Which leads me to my favored solution -- you can read all you want, but to post, you have to pay. Read all you wish, but if you like what you see and think that the community whose posts you are reading is interesting enough to join, pony up a dollar or two and get registered.

Three immediate benefits:

1. The community becomes closer. We'd retain that feeling of posting to a place where there are friends gathered together instead of a place that feels like we're posting to a bunch of strangers. More interesting posts emerge. If we lose people who don't want to support the website they enjoy so much, so be it.

2. Less clutter. No Google Bus Riders replying to threads months, years old. No more spam on the message boards. Sam doesn't have to take time to delete messages that need to be removed.

3. Sam and Leen get some money from owning and operating Rinkworks.

This should satisfy your previous message's worries about how pay sites with free content have shoddy free content -- you'll be able to see the community that grows at Rinkworks. You'll be able to read all you want and be entertained that same way. However, if you want to interact by posting, you are forced to support the site.

My preference? If BitPass's micropayment system takes off, I'd like to pay two cents per post. It's a bit poetic that way.

===

From the "everything should be free online" department:

I'd like to point you to Pete Abram's announcement at Sluggy Freelance. That comic strip, beloved by several Rinkworks regulars, might end entirely because of people who think everything online is free.

-Faux Pas