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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ashockney" data-source="post: 271818" data-attributes="member: 1363">Followup...Hey Morrus!  Thanks for responding to my post, this is a great thread.  If you use any of the ideas posted here, the site will evolve into something I'm excited to see!  You responded that you must MAKE MONEY to maintain (from your pocket) the costs of being the PREMIERE fan site on the web.  I've understand and respect the costs involved (both maintenance and personnell) that require you to raise funds to support this public service.  All of my recommendations would still stand as I made them, however.  There is a big difference betweeen raising money to cover costs, and being the most PROFITABLE community (ie, making the most money for the least time/$$ spent).   There are MANY, MANY ways to raise money to cover your costs.  Auctions, fund drives, contests, donations (especially from the companies you support, you COULD accept their money if you didn't know from whom it came, or in what amount, and there are ways of making that happen).  Many of these methods would help to defer costs (especially the cost of YOUR TIME).  Check with other not-for-profit (NFP) businesses, websites, or books for more ideas on creative ways to do this.  If you want to MAKE MONEY, all of this changes in my opinion, including your relationship with the publishers.  I'm definitely not getting the idea that this is what you've set out to do.In response to the post that questioned the sanity of my comments about using only industry professionals to conduct formal reviews, I encourage you to read Monte's excellent Line of Sight where he goes into detail about why one must be skeptical of reading reviews from non-professionals.  I don't know how much of this is from Monte, but here's why it's relevant to me:  reviewers that aren't industry professionals weren't around during the mechanical development and statistical modeling, and don't have access to the tools, marketing, or playtest feedback that drove the decisions for 3rd Ed; they don't understand the business implications of certain decisions; and, finally they don't have the experience to recognize a particularly creative or innovative rule, encounter, scenario, creature, or spell because they have very limited experience doing it themselves. Good luck with your re-org and your re-launch Morrus.  Bottom line, we're all behind you 110%, regardless of what changes you make.</blockquote>

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