[Milsurplus] photos

[Robert Nickels]

On 12/6/2015 11:02 AM, Bob Camp wrote:
> Some of these list services are as much of a charity as anything else.
And that's it, exactly Bob.  Neither Yahoo (or anyone else) has figured 
out how to monetize these mail reflectors, the expectation is they are 
free and knowing how hams are, how many would stay subscribed to many 
reflectors if there was even a nominal cost involved?    Back before the 
"balkanization of the lists" there was only one - the original 
"Boatanchor List" at the Porch.com.   When the listowner decided to ask 
for a nominal annual contribution, I've heard that half the subscribers 
bailed and not long after formed multiple and duplicative reflectors on 
other (free) sites.  Yahoo is a public company and if these reflectors 
don't make any money and aren't aligned with what is seen as the future 
trends for online services,  the company's shareholders aren't going to 
raise a fuss if they are someday dropped.

Bandwidth and servers are not free and it's only reasonable for those 
who provide these services to be paid, either directly by subscription, 
indirectly through advertising, or some other way. If the only platforms 
that do that end up being Facebook, Twitter, etc then that's how it will 
be unless/until someone else develops a better business model.

73, Bob W9RAN