EN World no longer for profit...

[Monster Manuel]

Did everyone see the front page announcement yet? What does this mean for the site? I haven't been here as long as others, but I'm interested in what effects this announcement will have.

Here it is below:

Dear all: I have an announcement to make.

For the past couple of years, I have been running EN World as an online business. EN World has supported me successfully for that time, and I have had a wonderful couple of years - a couple of years which have included highs and lows, periods of extreme stress and worry as well as incredible moments such as when you all raised enough money to send me to Gen Con this year. That meant a lot to me, and I am very, very grateful to you for that display of kindness.

Running this website as a business was always a personal challenge to me - I needed to see if I could do it. I enjoyed the freedom, the ability to make my own decisions, the flexible working hours. I didn't enjoy having to treat fans and publishers as "customers", worrying about the state of internet advertising, the lack of that secure feeling you get from a regular salary and, worst of all, the effect it has had on the way I view my hobby. I no longer feel anticipation or excitement about a new D&D product, and I have had little opportunity to actually game in the last two years.

Well, I feel that I have accomplished what I have set out to do, and I don't want to do it any longer. I want to view D&D as a hobby again, not a job; I want to participate in EN World as a fellow fan, not as a service provider.

For those reasons, I have decided to return to the "real" world. I am going back to work, with the giddy anticipation of a 9-5 job and a regular income. EN World, now, is my hobby, not my job, and I fully intend to treat it as such. It means too much to me to let it become a chore or an obligation.

I know that many of you will read this and conclude that I have "burnt out", or that EN World's days are numbered. I want to assure you that this is absolutely not the case. EN World will continue, and I will continue to run it; only now, I will make sure that I have fun when I do it. I will be able to concentrate on the D&D, not on the cash flow. The only revenue that this site will need to raise is just enough to pay for itself, and I have no doubt whatsoever that EN World can easily manage that.


The fact that EN World these days has some wonderful newshounds, messageboard moderators, reviewers and the like means that I don't need to micro-manage every aspect of the website any longer. I also won't have to feel guilty that EN World is paying for my bread-and-butter, while these wonderful volunteers get nothing but a smile in return for their hard work, because I'll be getting the same. And that's how it should be - the success of this website is rooted firmly in its fan status, and it will continue in that way. EN World, it seems to me, is viewed these days as a news portal, a media outlet - but it isn't any of those things. All it is supposed to be is a D&D fan site run by some guy who likes D&D; and the site itself should reflect that, not business concerns.

Thanks for listening (reading?). I firmly believe that this is a positive step both for me personally and for EN World itself.

 

[dave_o]

I think it's good stuff. When a hobby becomes work, it ceases to be fun. I know that I love ENWorld now, but if I had to be here daily? I'd probably hate it.

And I'm glad Morrus is getting back in the swing of things. ENWorld will continue, because it's not just Morrus - it's a community. So unless someone kills all of us-

 

[Green Knight]

As far as paying for the upkeep of the site, why not hold quarterly fund raisers? Determine how much cash you need to keep it up every quarter, then at the beginning of the quarter, put up a little marker at the top that says that a fundraiser is currently going on (And maybe even make a post in each thread reminding people about the fundraiser). Once the targeted amount is met, the fundraiser ends. Any excess cash made in the fundraiser goes towards reducing the goal in the next fundraiser.

For instance, I frequent an exceedingly large message board elsewhere which requires $80,000 to keep it going a quarter. In less than two weeks, though, the quarterly fund raiser is over as that amount is quickly met. After about 2 or 3 fundraisers, the amount needing to be raised dropped to $60,000, because of the excess cash left over after previous fund raisers.

Just a suggestion, but considering how well that process works at that other board, which has a population which makes the number of posters at this board look insignificant, I think it'd work even better here.

 

[MojoGM]

I know what he means...

When I had my game store (way back in '97 ), RPGs and CCGs were my business, not my hobby. They ceased to be "fun" and everything was a question of "how can I make money off this?". It was a drag.

When I went out of business (for a variety of reasons, mostly business mistakes but a little bad luck as well), I stayed away from RPGs for awhile.

Then, reading KODT and hearing about 3E made me jump back in, and I've never been happier.

I think he's made the right choice. And I'm doing 9-5 now...it's not so bad (still buying the lottery tickets though).