I've Had Enough & Today Everyone Has The Phoronix Premium Experience

[sheldonl]

Can't you just go to the forums first and get remembered via cookie ? I only have to log into the forums once every 3-6 months...

Sure, but that's a huge PITA to always go to the forums first.

[oleid]

Just switched from bitcoin tips + disabled ublock to an official subscription to show my support.

[DoctorWho]

Only since yesterday? Ads have been interfering with the site, causing slowdowns and pages not loading, for months if not years.

[bridgman]

Sure, but that's a huge PITA to always go to the forums first.

I used to think that too, but AFAICS every new article on the web site has a corresponding thread in the "Latest Phoronix Articles" forum so now I just start there. Not sure, but guessing that part of the problem is that the user credentials are really forum artifacts rather than Phoronix.com website artifacts. Once I started doing that I found I only had to go to the actual phoronix.com site when searching for articles by content...

[bridgman]

Only since yesterday? Ads have been interfering with the site, causing slowdowns and pages not loading, for months if not years.

AFAIK Michael has been constantly cleaning up bad ads etc.. for years as well... yesterday was just when he snapped

[asdfblah]

I'm unable to subscribe (unemployed), and, TBH, I use adblock because ads kept messing with my browsing experience, deleting the history (as in, prev/next page) as they reloaded, which is something I use heavily. Plus, as it's been mentioned, ads are actually a security threat.

Another idea: perhaps you could try reducing hosting costs? I'd ask some subreddit / Hacker News for tips on reliable, low cost hosting, or whatever. BTW, PHP is rather inefficient, but from what I've seen, HHVM and PHP 7 are much better w.r.t. performance than PHP 5, which is what you are using. Even more, some of those "new" languages improve performance a lot... Like Go, for example. Using forum software written in those languages would mean less costs, but of course you'd have to find an alternative to VB and port all your content... Which would be a mess, if possible at all.

I also agree that you should take a vacation... Seriously, that's not something to avoid, for your own mental and physical health. And I agree with the other comments, you should have more contributors. Some people love to share their knowledge.

Lastly... Isn't it weird that, while tech jobs are well paid, ads in a (rather broad) niche, highly rated website don't pay well?

Thank you so much for your work. I'm sorry for not being able to help you with money, I would if I could.

[DDF420]

It is hard to believe that Michael makes so little money,makes virtually nothing from those vouching to tolerate such crappy advertisements and makes such a pittance from subscriptions. This place would of closed long ago if that was the case.Nothing more unbecoming than a site owner crying poor once a week, then adding it to the tally of articles he tirelessly writes, without ever showing a single monetary figure, even that power bill was a bloody chart....... lmfao.....FOOOLS!!!! Try viewing this site from an android device without an adblocker ,...atrocious!!!!!!. If you actually gave a f*&@K about the users ad experience, i might actually give a shit about supporting you financially.You don't ,so i don't. The forum input makes this site a lot more interesting than half your re written RSS feed news articles. If you need holiday take one just stop whining about how much time you work.

[slalomsk8er]

Michael add a "paypal tip" button on the header of the Phoronix site, right next to the social network share's buttons and the RSS button.

I use private browsing, if I subscribe to phoronix premium, I have to login in the forums to enjoy it?

I use adblock to get half premium and avoid the ads just because I' to lazy to log in to activate the paid for full premium experience.

[curaga]

I'll also echo the "100$/mo company subscription to post jobs". It would be a win-win if it only contained relevant Linux jobs, both for you, the companies and the applicants. If you need data to sell it, make a front page survey article first. With hard data on your readership in hand, saying "this is the main site competent Linux developers use, see here" would sell it well, methinks.

[suprem1ty]

Hey Michael, thanks for your hard work. I've been reading for a few years now, subscribed a couple of months ago, and quite appreciate your Linux focused site.

And while I enjoy reading your new articles, I'd be happy to go through and read some old ones for a while while you and your wife go on holiday and enjoy yourselves. Burnout and overworking yourself sucks. Take a break. Cheers