It’s not easy being Singletrack. Please help.

Mark – take a look at your homepage right now.

Imagine you are either new here or you are one of the 130k casual users.

Ask yourself the question ‘what here is worth paying for’?

Now do the same on any of your rival sites where most of the content is free. Plenty of videos (people like that), plenty of inspiring riders doing inspiring things, advocacy, mixed news. And the lead article on STW? – life’s tough, we are in trouble, please subscribe, and a random article about Jack’s apprenticeship. Again, sounds harsh but that’s what your prospective customers see.

The elephant in the room is that your current content is not of a high enough quality to entice enough people to pay for. Very targeted, very niche but enough to entice the kind of numbers that you need?

Take the latest ‘member only’ content. Hers is the exact wording:

This month for Back From The Dead we’ve got plenty to get through! An update on how Jack’s progressing with his apprenticeship; a couple of tools I’ve made (and one Jack’s made!); a few new cool tools in my box that I like and dislike ; then finally a tale about playing a Cycling Community Chest card and ending up winning second place in a beautiful hammer contest! We’ll start off with young Jack and a bit of an update on his apprenticeship. Since I last spoke about Jack he’s had his first few meetings with Adam his assessor from Activate Learning…

Now read that from the perspective of a non subscriber. Why would I pay to read more? What is ‘Back from the Dead’. What does the zombie imagery tell me? Who is that man in the picture? I have no idea who Jack is or why I should care about his apprenticeship. I am not sure that seeing the 2 new tools that you have made are worth paying to see. And a random story about your hammer holds no interest. It just feels like a geeky party and I am not invited. Not only that, but I actually have to pay to be invited.

As a prime example of preaching to the converted, how will this type of content attract new paying subscribers? The kind of stuff that is broadly relatable is free. The kind of stuff that has a very limited audience sits behind a paywall.

The rest of the homepage is littered with random stories. The inconvenient truth is that most of us come here for the community and the forum. The regular tongue in cheek comment of ‘wait, there’s a Mag too?!’ is not so far from the mark.

Genuinely useful reviews, broadly relatable content, and a sense of community beyond a very niche exclusive club feel has got to be worth trying. Rid yourself of the emperor’s new clothes. Take off those rose tinted glasses. If you want more fee paying members, you have to provide content that is worth more people paying for.

We are all a bit biased perhaps, but take a look at your competition and ask what STW provides that is worth paying for. You need more people to think that the content is relevant to them.

OK that’s genuinely it now. I genuinely don’t want to cause offence but you really need to take an unbiased look at how others see the site, not just the card carrying, subscription paying loyalists. You already had them at Hello!

Following on from what daveylad said, is there any YouTube content? I’ve never seen any pop up on my feed and it’s usually full of mountain bike content. Doesn’t that pay ok when done well? I watch pinkbike and gmbn which is a bit like Top Gear on bikes. Yes it’s repetitive and dumbed down but it is entertaining and it’s enthusiastic mountain bikers talking enthusiastically about mountain bikes. It would be great to see a slightly more measured, thoughtful, and dare I say middle aged version from stw. It’s most of the way there with the podcasts anyway. And if it already exists then your SEO needs some work 🙂

^ that. at the risk of this coming across as a pile on the home page has at least three articles on it from 2021. added to which i take at most a passing interest in cx and snowsports. i come here for bikes and arguing. 🙂

if you hate the ads too how about trying the guardian model mentioned above for a month or two and see how that gets free members or visitors to convert to see if it pays off? if the ad revenue is falling off as you say it shouldn’t cost too much to run the test?

i come here for bikes and arguing.

That one sentence sums it up so brilliantly!!!

So not for how to make a coffee in the wilderness? Not for a snarky article about matching your bike to a super car? Not for another snarky article about the latest Rapha nonsense? Not for a 2 year old article about ski resorts having to close early because of Covid in 2021? Nobody wants to be reminded of Covid, least of all 2 years later about a resort on the Canadian West Coast!!!! When was the last time you looked at your own website with fresh unbiased eyes?

Take a look at your competitors. You have 2 year old articles about non related content. They have a steady stream of directly relatable bike articles where the oldest thing on the homepage is 2 days old. And it’s all free.

The model you aspire to will only work if you can provide something that more than 6k people want to pay for in the face of free content elsewhere.

Right, I’m off to fanny about on my bike.

Video reviews and trail/ride vids is a good idea. Available to paying members on here first then released on you tube a month later or something. Just be more enthusiastic and informative than Yorkshire sarcasm, and have fun doing it.

Then up the prices and charge monthly:

£5 p/m paper, £60 annual. £3 p/m digital, £36 annual. £1.50/£2 forum only (no content) until it’s free on you tube a month later. #moremoniesbettercontent

I know that we only see what we want to see, but I read this but in Charlie’s article

Our way forward as an MTB community is through you, our members.

At the moment, it seems like the only thing you want from the community is more money.

For me, the best thing about STW last year was TJs voyage. Other than the bike build, that all played out on the forum. I’ve always thought that there must be some way to create more synergy between the STW corporate presence and the forum content. At the moment it’s basically one-way whereby front page posts get their own thread (often duplicating existing threads). I don’t see forum content being promoted or captured.

Other, similar, threads have been made difficult by the limit on the number of links allowed (it’s not beyond the wit of man to differentiate between photo links and others) and might also be something that would attract a readership.

These, more dynamic, types of topics aren’t really suitable for magazine inclusion, more the blog format but, again, thats where I don’t think STW make best use of the forum – and community – content.

Oh, and fix the search function as #1 priority. The forum could be an amazing repository that would bring folk back repeatedly but it’s obscured by an inability to find anything in it.

Edit: two dodgy formatting errors FFS!

Well those 3 pages were a difficult read, I came here for some light relief and now am wondering if it will still be here in 6 months.

The other thing that happened was I kept seeing bloody adverts all over my screen, turns out my membership didn’t auto renew due to the debit card being out of date. Fixed now, adverts are still here for a while until payment is cleared. How anyone uses the site with adverts I will never know.

@Solarider made a lot of interesting and informed points albeit quite hard to read when talking about something that has been part of my life for so long, must be quite hard to read as a parent of the baby. But something does have to change, even as an old skool print lover like me (I was actually a lithographic printer for 15yrs of my working life) I spend the majority of my time absorbing video content on Instagram or You Tube, and print is resigned to the bedroom. I hardly ever read the articles on here in digital form and vists to the site are either for the forum or for the classifieds. Something is not working on the digital content side to draw me in.

I wish you luck STW and hope like hell you are around for us in the years to come.

Another long time stw’er (since issue 1).  Think @Solarider has made a lot of very valid points.

Long story short, I’m here for the forum / STW community, the other content and magazine isn’t imo up to scratch.  Kind of lost as to where STW pitches itself?  Pinkbike have the racing / event side done really well, bikepacking have really good longer format soulful content and is a great example of a well designed engaging web page, Cranked do the niche print better than STW (sorry, but there it is), YouTube channels and forums do bike and equipment reviews much better (a bit of blurb, spec list and generic ride report really does not cut it).

sorry if this is hard to swallow, but as a long time supporter of STW I really don’t see enough beyond the forum to make me want to spend anymore of my hard earned £

^ this, unfortunately

That’s digital first – I come for the forum, and have paid on that basis – knowing I’m going to get the Mag.

Never having had access to much of the front page of the website I’ve not been visiting, so on the strength of the forum alone – and the ask for help – I’ve made a purchase. Not one that’s going to land me in hock either – at the UK minimum wage that’s 4.7 hours of work for a year’s subscription – without discount.

For the ads, I’m so glad to have seen them go. It’s game-changing – so you guys should only browse the forums with them on – there’s formatting possibilities of where to stick them on the page. But I generally browse on PC, not so much on mobile – but I guess you know where your people are coming in from. (And you could have cookies that last, I hate having to re-sign in every month or so – your site is the only one that I do that on – most of my other sites cache my credentials and maybe make me resign in every six or twelve months at best).

Other than that, love that this place is community driven – so I don’t personally have a problem with you asking the community. It’s an ask for help but @solarider is correct in that it can feel like begging and it did go through my mind “will I get 12 months of of my sub back” – but then, I’m wealthy enough not to care if I lose that much cash. Others may not. It’s your decision – but for me I’m OK with it.

Anyway – I wish you all the best in the transition to your new model and hope there’s another 20 years of STW to browse 🙂

Hi @Mark. Quote from this morning’s email:

Well, to tell the truth the survey already existed – it was by chance the results also shed clear light on the number of our members who just visit for the forum and nothing else.

The results? It turns out that 4.3% of our members are not at all interested in the magazine content. So not such a demand after all. It’s not a surprising result to be honest.

Could you shed a bit of light on where the 4.3% number came from?
It sounded like you were going to do a survey but didn’t, as you think you had the data already. I’m intrigued, and a bit worried, what the data is that led you to this conclusion

Cheers

Why not keep the site & forum free to read but only members are able to post? If that upsets people and they don’t want to pay and leave so be it, they obviously don’t care enough about the place to keep it going.

And a monthly option to pay would be a good idea so those who can’t afford the £25 hit in one go could pay monthly.

Also what about going on Readly? I don’t know how they pay the magazine publishers but I use it a lot and most of the major bike magazines are on there.

they obviously don’t care enough about the place to keep it going

Or ‘the place’ doesn’t provide them with sufficient value vs the alternatives? Don’t confuse not caring with choosing where to spend one’s money when money is tight and choice is wide.

I am not bashing STW before the subscribers get all offended. I am however questioning whether enough people think that the current paid content is worth paying for. That’s just a hard objective question, not a subjective view of the site content or a personal dig at the creators. The answer sadly would appear not.

Mark – your problem is not your loyal subscribers. They love what you do and some are even prepared to overpay for it. Your problem is your 130k non subscribers and how you convert them. Preaching to the converted, or the converted behaving like a lynchmob every time a mudblood (non subscriber) dares to point out what you might do to entice more subscribers won’t work. I am not sure if it amusing or sad, but it is certainly telling that the most likes in this whole thread are attached to Ped’s post questioning the validity of my comments and my desire for STW to thrive based purely on the basis of me being a mudblood.

If I didn’t care about this place I guess I wouldn’t have been so animated in the discussion.

130k non subscribers

£1 a year instead of “free” for the privilege of accessing the site would be affordable to most, and even if half those those paid it you’d raise £65k.

I did think that, but Mark stated earlier:

A forum only membership is really not a solution.

Not sure if that is for technical or philosophical reasons.

I not offended one bit, I didn’t pay for any membership for about a year then re-newed when Mark last asked for help. It’s £25 not even half the price of a decent tyre. And I haven’t seen the paid members acting like a lynch mob.

I’m a paid member and only look at the forum like many, I haven’t read the mag in years but it must be frustrating for them to see free members post they get nothing from Singletrack but seem to be regular posters, so you must be getting something from it.

I do get something from it and here is exactly point!

I (in common with many people it would appear) get a lot of enjoyment from the community and the forum. STW choose to offer that for free.

I do not find the magazine itself to be relevant and I have not felt suitably compelled by the paid content to warrant the subscription fee.

As I stated earlier, if you are good at something, don’t do it for free. STW have an upside down model. The bit that they are good at and attracts the most users, they offer for free. The niche bit that is at best only appealing to a minority of loyalists and costs a lot to produce they charge for.

Can the problem not be any clearer than that?

Take the classifieds as a prime example. I used to buy and sell regularly on the old classifieds. It was free and brilliant. That was partly why I subscribed. The new classifieds are clunky, poorly browsed and whilst you can sell for free, the traffic is now so low that it isn’t worth bothering. A decent classified section that was as well produced as the old one would be worth paying for. I would also be prepared to pay for the community and forums. But since nobody compels me to, I don’t.

Well, there is one thing we can both agree on and that’s the classifieds are rubbish compared to the old one.

Been sitting, watching and finally feel compelled to post.

A few things:

@solarider – completely agree with everything you’ve said. Especially regarding the member vs “freeloader” pile-on nonsense. It would do people well to remember us “freeloaders” were the ones helping fund the forum before the ad bubble burst.

@scotroutes – some forum content has made it to the front page but only usually when Hannah has someone to write a stern letter to. This isn’t a bad thing and I applaud her efforts – it’s certainly relevant and I’m sure those who have been involved are massively grateful. But as you say some other stuff is ripe for a long article, if the OP isn’t a writer then why not an interview?

That brings me to my next point, the forum is probably your biggest asset so stop treating it like a liability. Put it this way, if it fell on it’s arse tomorrow where would you be? [someone above] is right, you’ve been flinging sticking plasters over it for years just trying to make it “integrate” with the site. It doesn’t and never has and you know what? It doesn’t matter. At all. How much would an off the shelf Xenforo licence cost? I really don’t know why you (Mark) are so attached to it considering how often you tell us you would walk away from it tomorrow if it was a choice between it and the mag. Look how defensive/snarky you got with Cougar the other day just for pointing out that whatever you were trying has never worked before and never will. Is that amount of stress and belligerence really worth it? Because from where I’m sitting it isn’t, especially if it’s impacting your health. Stop digging your heels in, wipe the slate and get working software in that you don’t have to constantly tinker with, that’s why you pay licences to devs. A forum only membership was proposed, how many folk do you think would pay £2 a year to get rid of ads and have a smooth experience? Now how much profit is that to fling into everything else?

Finally, and I will pre-warn that this may sound like I’m sticking the boot in but hear me out:

The magazine is nothing but a vanity project at this stage.

The magazine comes before everything else.

130k users, a fair proportion of which will be active and likely more than the number of “actual” (as in, interested in the content and not just paying for upkeep) subscribers.

The magazine comes before everything else.

Print costs are going up, people need paid, you need subscribers/clicks/whatever this year.

The magazine comes before everything else.

The trouble is, everything else is supporting the magazine or could be if you let it.

It’s a vanity project, so what?

Celebrate it.

Cranked manages it but only publishes once a quarter.

DIG completely shut down print after 4130 fell apart but still publishes an annual yearbook.

You have a community and a dedicated following that neither of them do but people won’t pay for a product they’re not interested in, certainly not in the numbers you need. Now, if a sub let you upload pictures and perhaps gave you a limited number of premium ads per year that would be worth having. But with a front page of either recycled advertorials or frankly dubious (as in, I have no idea what the rest of the article is actually like but I’m not interested enough to progress beyond the free blurb) member only content I’m not convinced. So convince me.

You can make this work but carrying on the way you have certainly isn’t the way to do it.

And, again, that wasn’t supposed to feel like me putting the boot in. I’m genuinely trying to offer constructive criticism here.

Survey??

Was that the recent one asking “how do you prefer to read the magazine”? I didn’t even see an option for “I don’t”.

Was that the recent one asking “how do you prefer to read the magazine”? I didn’t even see an option for “I don’t”.

I thought that. Hey if you already like and pay for the magazine what else would you like? Surely it would be much better to ask the 130k people who don’t pay and don’t read it what would make them do it.

Crikey.
first of all. The forum isn’t propping up the mag. The mag directly generates 65% of all or revenue and that’s been a steady part of the business for a long time. Also the magazine is not just print. The magazine is the entire content output. The forum generates a lot but it’s declining. Not traffic or how it is used but simply the ads pay less per impression and that trend will continue. It’s not us. It’s the web ad industry.

Secondly I appreciate  everyone chipping in but I’ll say this again although I’m aware I’m repeating myself but Singletrack never was, is or will be just a forum. The forum is a part of Singletrack. an important part yes. But just one part. I appreciate you may disagree with that. For you it may well be all about the forum. But for others it’s not so important.

 

My final post on this tonight is a Thankyou to all of you who have joined us or topped up your membership in the last 24 hours. There’s an overwhelming number of you and we really appreciate it.

I’ve kept quiet on this and still will as such, because I know my honesty can be brutal at times.

However, what I will say is a very big thank you to those who have signed back up. I’ve been friends with the original guys since they started, spent holidays and birthdays with them, I’ve got drunk many times with them and even rode bikes too. Their passion and determination has kept their business going in tough times when others would have given up. Your subs will keep this place going. It’s a great platform with some genuinely kind, helpful and funny people. I’ve made lifetime friends with members off here and explored parts of the UK and Europe I may not have done otherwise. Cheers.

For anyone looking on here the promise of

“the site’s a bit crap because you’re not a member but it’ll be better when you pay a subscription”

doesn’t really strike me as a business model that’ll attract new members.
……

Yeah. We hate the ads too.

How about turning the adds off every Friday afternoon for everyone. Then more people could see it working without and might be tempted to upgrade to membership.*

As whatsit above says ” having a shitty experience but promising users it’s better if they pay, may not be enticing”

* leaving aside that you’ve already d8scounted the option of having a ” pay 2 argue” membership level….🤔

lots to digest above! I have been a paid up member for years, partly from habit, partly as I enjoy the mag.

in did cancel London Cycling Campaign member as it was being slightly irrelevant to me and their mag was becoming more and more disconnected with their campaign.

Clearly @Solarider has the bit between his teeth, but think it is hard to argue with the points made.

The ‘Pay a Little More’ thing does come across a little as begging and does not appear part of a long term plan and my default reaction to the repeated is why should I?

if you think your product is worth more then charge more for it.

The mag is pretty good and lately the breadth or articles appears to have improved, and thanks be no damn recipe this issue. The stds article was a little lazy and the related podcast was dire (in fact I stopped with STW podcast, very few have been worth the listen and most seem very formulaic/obvious/dull to listen to and lots of far better podcasts on offer for free or paid for- Shaun Keaveny CGR is well worth £4 a month).

does merch make a profit? Never bought from as no real desire for the items and even the timber bell which was of interest was cheaper to buy direct from the Uk rep…

I will send in some article ideas, have done so in the past but never got a response not even a ‘that’s a rubbish idea, but thanks for contacting us :-)!

first of all. The forum isn’t propping up the mag. The mag directly generates 65% of all or revenue and that’s been a steady part of the business for a long time. Also the magazine is not just print. The magazine is the entire content output. The forum generates a lot but it’s declining. Not traffic or how it is used but simply the ads pay less per impression and that trend will continue. It’s not us. It’s the web ad industry.

So ditch the ads and give the forum a selling point. As I said before, people would pay for premium features (I would) and it gives you another, more reliable and bigger income stream than ads.

Secondly I appreciate everyone chipping in but I’ll say this again although I’m aware I’m repeating myself but Singletrack never was, is or will be just a forum.

Nobody is proposing otherwise. But you have a huge asset that if you actually worked it could generate more revenue than your current model.

My 2p. I’ve been a fairly regular subscriber, but find that I rarely visit the website or the forum any more. Compared to other sites the forum functionality is poor. The classifieds, which used to be one of the best features is now practically empty. Even the mag has become slightly stale.

Sorry to be so negative – I respect and value all the hard work that goes in to the mag, but in times like these bold and innovative changes need to be made.

I’ve been subscribing for a long time, lapsed on the odd occasion but always came back. Met mates and my wife through here so it’s pretty dear to
me. Haven’t read the mag for a bit but holiday coming up so have downloaded a few issues.

The community is well worth supporting – just confirmed my subs renewal and added a bit on.

Thanks for keeping it going all these years and here’s to many more.

TS

Covering the increase in print costs based on what you’ve said appears to result in 50p/month increase on print subs, just do that. Put an inflation uplift on the others it’s going to put print up by say £10 year and digital by £5.

I still think you then should have a forum membership that cuts ads, maybe allows a certain number of posts/month, or some limit that encourages take up. But the forum is your USP, you have to find a way to monetise that. I have a digital sub purely because it makes the site experience better and because at one point the cost saving in being able to drop to a lower data plan because of ads here chewing through data made it cost effective. I don’t read the digital mag, I have no real interest in doing so, like others above I responded to the survey and there was no I don’t option for how I read the mag/content so I think you are drawing false assumptions.

It’s your business, your baby and we don’t get to say how you take it forward but for many of us it’s a community, which we’d be disappointed to lose. But that community is driven by the forum and it’s members, not the mag/content. If nothing else try to mobilise that, take some of the more interesting/uplifting threads and do something with them to pull them forward into the content (TJs tour, Weeksy Jr’s bid for world domination not the Brexit/politics stuff). That’s where your 130k targets are based on thread engagement, either turn that into content to persuade them to sign up under the existing structure or restructure the options so they are ‘incentivised’ to take something out.

I’m not a daily user or particular fan of Facebook Instagram or Twitter but is there a way of integrating/linking them into the website and forum?

Would maybe help capture more users and revenue?

I’ve been a full member/subscriber for years and would help for Singletrack to disappear but it does seem that most folk on here are around my age (45) or older. Maybe Singletrack needs to get in some young blood.

My 2p
Remove the 50% discounts for new members, what do your regular auto-renewing (best) customers get?

Offer (discounted?) print/digital mags as the only route to a membership discount so that new customers can feel the quality, not read about its width; discount first year membership based on mags bought in that year and offer discounts for renewals

Make economic realities threads a more positive, “that’s the reality” post without the “please help” element. Increase costs as you need to to make the business work. Why would strangers invest in something that’s struggling?

I’ve raised this before and others have too:
Sort the forum out and make it a free-to-view, pay-to-contribute model, particularly if ads are a falling revenue. I’m always more inclined to pay for something that works

This all seems to be fairly consistent and actually fundamentally positive and supportive. There’s a lot of love for STW out there, even if some of it sounds like tough love. To summarise:

1) Go easy on the ‘life’s hard’ messaging. It’s not what people want or need to hear and whilst the disaster aid response might fix one hole in your leaking dam, it won’t fix the dam and it can be off putting to exactly the people that you are trying to convert to subscribe.

2) The magazine is key to the STW brand, so keep doing it but don’t expect a massive increase in subscribers. You have probably peaked in terms of the number of people who are interested in the current content and format. The key is to manage its production costs so that the revenue it generates is profitable. All you can really do is fine tune the costs through format and frequency and perhaps increase the cost of a subscription. Nobody is suggesting ditching the mag, and even if they were you are philosophically wedded to it being the essence of STW. Some would strongly disagree but it’s your business so you decide.

3) The forum is an untapped asset. It has a much bigger viewership and appeals to a broader range of casual users as well as card carrying loyalists. Whilst you might not like to admit it, and whilst it was never the intention, the forum is the community that you so strongly wish to build. It is your brand to most people and is a strong point of difference. Your mag cannot compete with other mags for circulation. Your website cannot compete with others for content. Your forum is unique and is the ultimate expression of UGC. Whilst ad revenue is falling, there is still a significant opportunity to leverage the forum through a low cost/high volume pay-to-use model. Sort out the functionality, fix the classifieds (which was traditionally a real point of difference but is now a huge source of frustration) and charge a small fee to a large pool of users.

4) Since you can no longer rely on advertising either online or thorough the magazine, subscriber numbers are absolutely key to your success. Balance your recruitment strategy with your retention strategy. Your recruitment strategy feels too rich, and your retention strategy feels non existent.

5) Don’t hide your chargeable content behind a hard paywall. Potential subscribers don’t actually know what they might be missing and you have an all or nothing approach to chargeable content which acts as a barrier to trial. Perhaps a 5 day free trial might be enough as a recruitment tactic and then convert them to a full price subscription after that.

A brief summary, but whether you agree with all of the content of this thread, and whether you feel bruised by some of it, there is plenty to reflect on. The free-form feedback and passion expressed are worth far more than any channelled survey that you might conduct and to most businesses this would be solid gold. Don’t be offended, don’t take it personally. Use it.

You have a business model where your loyalists are willing to pay more for the product, and even the occasional users whose conversion to paying customers is so fundamental to your success are telling you that they wouldn’t mind paying a small amount to use the online content and forum. That’s not a bad starting point!

Print Subscriber here, I read the forum almost daily, although I rarely sign in, so I just put up with the ads.
Looking at the website just now realised theres quite a few interesting articles (just read about Stanton Bikes).
So I guess what I’m trying to say the website doesn’t really grab my attention.
(not really sure if this is due signing in or not)
I think the shop needs an overhaul, a lot of Singletrack branded merchandise which I dont see appealing to the typical stw user(jigsaw etc) so theres money tied up in stock etc or the initial stock procurement in the 1st place.
Shop for me would be more practical items, such as singletrack buffs, or technical hoodies rather than the heavy cotton items, things that people would use on their bikes. I like the artwork but again it’s a small audience for this as it seems to be very location specific, i.e. I’m not going to purchase a print of The Peak District when I’m in Northumberland.

@mark to generate some income quickly could you not produce some magazine type publication with your existing trail routes? You’ve already got the content.I for one would buy this, I personally much prefer a trail book rather than accessing routes off the web.

Haven’t read the Mag in years but haven’t read any mag in years so can’t really comment on that.

To convert me into a paying member the content of the website needs an entire overhaul, as does the user experience of the website & forum.

No idea what happened to Will but the closest I’ve been to resubscribing is when he was there, seemed like he brought not necessarily fresh ideas but a fresh way of doing things.

@Mark Have you looked into encouraging people using the Brave browser to visit this site and then donate some or all of the resulting BAT to STW? Or some sort of similar solution?

https://creators.brave.com/

I know this technically comes under ad-blocking but it sounds like the model of using ad-revenue to support the business is busted anyway.

It might be interesting to look into how much BAT you could generate if 50%, 40%, 30%, etc of users contributed their BAT to STW.

FIX THE BLOODY EDITOR!!!

Please please contribute for more shit experience isn’t a winning formula.

Works fine for me?

Not sure if you mean the edit function or the actual editor themselves?!

I just realised that STW is already a Verified Creator according to the Brave browser so I guess someone in the office was already aware of it. I set it up to donate a monthly tip of 10 BAT per month to STW.

Honestly, if the ad generated revenue has dried up I don’t see what you’ve got to lose by pushing this a bit. Unless the actual revenues you would see are vanishingly small but if every person who browsed the site gave you the equivalent of $1 per month I really don’t see how you wouldn’t be perfectly comfortable.