Most of the people who congregate at the White House section of Salon's Table Talk site don't much like President Bush.
Some of them just think his politics are misguided, and they gently express their concerns; but many are utterly brutal in their characterizations of the president: They call him "the Chimp," say he's lazy, illegitimate, and -- most of all -- not all that bright.
It's all great, constitutionally protected fun, but in a few days, this online free speech will cost Table Talk members $10 a month.
In its struggle to stay financially afloat, Salon is changing the popular Table Talk site -- which includes the White House forum and other topics of discussion -- into a for-pay service.
But some of the people in the White House forum have decided they shouldn't have to pony up $120 a year -- almost half of their Bush-sponsored tax return, after all -- in order to grouse about the president. Instead, they're engineering a move to the mostly vacant forums at The American Prospect magazine's site, where talking nasty about Bush doesn't cost a dime.
According to a post by Scott Rosenberg, Salon's managing editor, the Table Talk section of the online news site has always been a money-loser, despite its loyal band of regulars.
"Advertisers, unfortunately, do not tend to want to pay for ads in community and discussion spaces," he wrote. "(In) the current advertising downturn there is essentially no revenue for Table Talk in its current form, so every dollar spent on keeping TT running is coming directly from the rest of Salon's revenue."
Rosenberg noted that Salon also owns The Well, a pioneer in online community, which has always charged a membership fee. To pay for Table Talk, people will actually be signing on for Well memberships; the memberships will entitle them to post on The Well and at Table Talk.
Gail Williams, the director of communities for Salon, said that the changes -- which will go into effect as soon as Salon can "handle all the extra work" of processing subscriptions -- have been "well-received" by Table Talk members. "There's been a discussion about how the Web should be free," she said, "but that's going on at a higher level than I expected."
She also noted some "wonderful expressions of community." Some posters are sending anonymous gift subscriptions to others.
"Some are asking, 'Could someone give me a gift?' And then people are purchasing a subscription with a note that says, 'Someone who appreciates your posts,'" Williams said. "There's some really nice things going on."
But Robyn Su Millerz, a longtime member of the White House forum, is one of those people who thinks that the Web should be free -- especially parts of the Web that aim to foster community.
"They're calling (Web subscriptions) a new trend, which is just horrifying," she said. "I think that this will just make the Web more elitist."
She also suspects that Salon is "padding a salable asset" -- meaning that it wants to sign people on to The Well and then, boasting those higher subscription numbers, sell the community. (Rosenberg's posts deny these and other malicious intentions.)
So Millerz -- who goes by the Table Talk name "Zee Miller" -- posted a plea for fellow White House members to follow her to the American Prospect site. She said that she isn't sure how many people will follow her, but she has gathered "over 200" names so far.
Williams, of Salon, thinks that this is admirable, but she doubts that such a switch will work very well. Just as it's difficult, in the real world, to have the same feeling about a club if you suddenly switch clubhouses, it will be difficult online, she said, to recreate the feel of the Salon White House forum at the Prospect.
"Moving a whole group is daunting," she said. "(When you) change the rules or how to log in, some people will say, 'Oh wait, I have better things to do with my time. It's habitual, it's regular."
But Millerz counters that what will keep the White House people together is their sense of "a mission" -- or, to put a finer point on things, their dislike for the guy they call Chimp.
On Thursday, Salon also announced that it had received $2.5 million in additional funding from a group of investors that includes John Warnock, the chairman of Adobe Systems.
The company also said that it had signed up 12,000 members for its subscription service, which began in April.
