Some good points made here. An inspirational thread, tsatryan.

Frankly, among the best ways to finance PDAPhH Mods/Admins--and they do deserve compensation--is to develop a "sponsoring" (premium) membership tier for a Mod-esque annual fee, say something under $50. A number of valuable enhancements/benefits could be included in such a plan, but it's best left for a separate discussion.

Let's do the math...

Here are stats, including some spun out of published, system-wide PDAPhH data:

Total online now: 792
Members online now: 52
Lurker/Member ratio: 15.2:1

Most ever online: 1,444 (01/16/06)

Total no. of Members: 57,117
Total no. of Threads: 77,839
Total no. of Posts: 605,307

Threads/Member: 1.4
Posts/Member: 10.6
Posts/Thread: 7.8

By HoFo standards (621,163 members; 1,096,500 threads; 8,787,084 posts), our group's still tiny. But hey, it's all about QUALITY. We're now arguably the seat of thought leadership in mobility--and PDAPhH's growing nicely.

Now, the key to offering Premium Memberships is...Exclusivity. Thus, it's gotta be a "Limited Edition" program.

If restricted to 3.0 percent of the membership, PDAPhH could sign just 1,714 "Supremes."

Currently, there appear to be 2 Admins (in addition to Convergent) and 14 Mods; thus, 16 non-owner "mouths" to feed.

If Premium Membership costs $48/yr, then we can raise $82,272. If 70% of revenue is allocated to Admin/Mod compensation (20% pays for enhanced services for Premium Members; 10% goes to the business), then $57,590 can be paid out.

Thus, each of the staff of 16 can be paid about $300 monthly. Not exactly 'rock star' largesse, but it will cover the phone bill, an aircard account, some third party apps, and a couple of devices. It's certainly a place to start.

We should lobby for this sort of approach, as it's the right thing to do for Admins/Mods, for bleeding-edge members, and for PDAPhH as the flagship of convergence.

But in the meantime, sure, go the PayPal route.

Comments encouraged.

--BAM

Note: The SD Skunkworks would still be separate, as it remains selective and device-specific.