The lack of enthusiasm for the quarterly pledge drives is symptomatic of this. It's difficult to rally the troops when the ship feels like it's on its last legs and there's no clear voice (a) acknowledging that there is a problem and (b) saying what's being done to fix it and how long that's going to take.
When I first started supporting this site many years ago, the quarterly pledge drives lasted just a couple of weeks and were always long done before the first month of the quarter passed. Last quarter we barely finished the drive before the quarter ended (thanks, in large part to a week-long outage that undoubtedly discouraged many), and at this rate we'll be in "continuous Freepathon" mode before the end of this year. That's completely unsustainable.
We need a definite public plan to put these issues behind us once and for all. I have no problem increasing my level of support, or making a special one-off extra contribution, if I knew it was going to help make that happen. But ignoring the issue while continuing to ask for money with no clear idea of what it will be used for is not a recipe for business viability.
FR has been wheezing along for some time now. Some days it’s better, some worse. What is particularly frustrating for those of us who support this site is the absence of any information about plans to permanently address these problems rather than just applying a seemingly endless series of temporary patches as parts fall off the wagon.
What "business viability" applies to a free service??
Spot on.