Re: [gentoo-project] Rekindling Gentoo News -> Paying for news

["William L. Thomson Jr." <wlt-ml@o-sinc.com>]

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On Monday, January 23, 2017 6:41:15 AM EST Kent Fredric wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jan 2017 12:21:04 -0500
> 
> "William L. Thomson Jr." <wlt-ml@o-sinc.com> wrote:
> >  I used an example of Linode paying $100 for documentation.
> 
> Ok. So, this is probably where we got derailed.
> 
> Its not clear *who* is paying for *what*.

Looks like Linode has increased to $250 from $100
https://www.linode.com/docs/linode-writers-guide/

> The outlay gave the impression that it was creating an LWN-esque
> newsletter, which would take income from subscribers who read it.

No, nothing to do with readers. This is about authors. Paying authors.

> Whereas that suggest there is no such association, and the only changing
> hands of money is "somebody" pays an author to write the article, which
> everyone else then receives for free.

Yes that is the idea. Gentoo pays people for content for the GWN. Along with 
editors to put it all together.

> And the only source of income is the people requesting articles.

Income is normal foundation. This would come from Foundation funds, how ever 
they were gathered.

> You've covered the "<something at gentoo>" -> "<person who writes article>"
> part of the dynamic, but where the money comes from to make this happen,
> and the scheme under which the money is obtained is not entirely clear.

The Foundation has money now. It rarely spends it, thus people rarely donate.

> Looking back I can see now you didn't write that as such, its just how the
> framing turned out:
> 
>  "Paying for news" -> "who pays for news"? -> "subscribers pay for news"

People always twist and read what I write in their own ways. We all have 
filters we view the world through.

> In short though: Depsite how much you write, I seldom find you "clear" to
> read.

Could be culture differences, maybe even language. Even native English varies 
around the world.
 
-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.

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