Now that's a much happier Wonderful Life scene! I'm glad to hear things are looking up. Keep the focus, stay fiscally vigilant, and do what you have to to make this sustainable long-term.

It greatly improves my outlook to think I might not have to get through the coming years without Ricochet after all, and I'm an optimist in my heart of hearts. But I'm also wary, having been burned recently letting myself believe something was inevitable because I wanted it to be... May my doubts and fears be proven needless!

Thank you, and Welcome to Ricochet!

My considered advice: Stay focused and keep it simple:

1. Add an easy-to-find "tip jar" button to the page header or sidebar. I've hit the tip jar on Instapundit and other sites I value, and would do so here to help keep Ricochet going.
2. Sell more ad space if you have to. Far better a Ricochet with ads in the sidebar, than no Ricochet.
3. Raise the price if you must, to something like $5/mo or $50/yr. Grande is for those with no thirst for life. Think Venti Mocha with a flavored syrup, whipped cream, and a couple extra shots. Or, just unpeg our currency from the Starbucks standard entirely.
4. Editors: Consider playing with the Main Feed flow rate dial. Promoting more posts from the Member feed to Main could yield a "best of" feed that members can more feasibly keep up with.

Any changes with a lower reward-to-engineering-investment ratio than that are not things to undertake in the middle of a live-or-die crisis. Tags or categories for member posts, and other such improvements, would be worthwhile long-term, but won't address the immediate problem. Fix the revenue shortfall first.

“Have you read my blog today?
300 million little USAs
Your doorstep is just a click away
We'll get together one of these days

How can you be as nice as me,
and not from the same slice as me?
Where do we go from here, my friends?
Is this the way our story ends?

Hey man, sing me a song
when we were everyone
We were more than just a slice
of American pie
Can't stop singin’ along
Can you join in?
Come on
I’m more than just a slice
of American pie”

-Five for Fighting, “Slice”

1. Listen.
2. Get all choked up.
3. Join.
4. Buy John’s great song, while you’re at it.
5. Profit!!!

Add me to the "...but you can't shutter Ricochet!..." camp. :-) For me as for many others here, Ricochet is a favorite place that has made my life substantially better. My plans do not include getting by without Ricochet for the next 4 years, so don't get any bright ideas, capisce?

I've already re-upped through 2014, and will continue to promote Ricochet and its present "fiscal cliff" on Twitter and on my blog. I'm sure with the brain trust we have here we must be capable of finding a way to make Ricochet self-sustaining. Will contemplate that and return with ideas.

Thanks.  I'm versed, and a longtime fan of Bill's work.  And yes, I like tri-cornered hats as much as the next guy, but I agree with what he's said on TSL: we're going to need more that that to "win the future".

I'd love to see the modern re-imagining of the Revolutionary War that Bill described, with the Founders sporting Armani suits and laser-scoped rifles.  Hollywood could make a summer box office door-buster out of that, if it cared to.

I've got a small contribution of my own in the works, along the lines of what Bill is thinking.  The culture is indeed the key battleground at this point.

All excellent points. We need to get the message through to the "Rock the Vote" generation: Submission ain't rock 'n roll, baby.

Thanks, all.

Peter: I didn't set out to irk you, but I do enjoy your energy and conviction when you get all fired up -- so as long as Rob and James enjoyed it too, then no real harm done I guess?

Having forums like Ricochet where we can hash out fine points of policy within our broadly defined philosophical umbrella (they make great stocking stuffers) is absolutely valuable. My concern is the people we tend to forget exist until after the disappointing election results come in, whose only exposure to conservative ideas is filtered through pop-culture caricatures. (I can personally confirm that such people exist. I've encountered many of them.)

The flavor of the unread remainder of my question was: What are the most effective ways to get our unfiltered presentation of our values, philosophy, and irresistable redefinition of "cool" in front of the eyes and ears of people who won't actively go looking for conservative sites, blogs, and publications? Do movies matter most? Music? Rob Long sitcoms? Are all of these cultural approaches more likely to prompt an "oh, that's conservatism?" a-ha than sending opinion pieces to unsympathetic newspapers?

Thanks for taking my question, guys.

Peter, I'm in agreement that Ricochet is of great value as a place to hash out the not insignificant differences of ideas and opinion (diversity!) on our side of the spectrum. Just wondering how we can most effectively take the ideas we hone in this forge to the world outside our circle of (broadly defined) general agreement.

Thank you all for another fun and interesting episode!

How can we reach the persuadable center -- the people who end up deciding elections, low-information voters among them?

Ricochet is a wonderful, stimulating idea-sharing haven, but our reader-contributors are already on board with the basic foundational ideas of a Liberty-loving society. We reach one another here, but not those we most need to persuade.

Should we strive to get letters and opinion pieces published in left-leaning newspapers like the NYT, or is that a losing uphill battle? Is pop culture zeitgeist the more important long-term battlefield to focus on? Whether it's ideas or the New Cool we're offering, what are the most effective ways to get in front of the eyes and ears of people who would otherwise not have a chance to encounter conservative ideas except as caricatured by the Left?

Some favorites of mine, along the lines of Henry's excellent suggestions (use in reference to particular policies, such as ObamaCare): "Is that what we're supposed to want? Is that what makes life better?" Sorry I missed the pre-game strategy session. Please do let us know how it went! In my experience, these things rarely go as badly as what I build up in my head in anticipation. Hope that proved true for you.

I was just thinking the same thing. It would be quite a mark for Petraeus and his wife to bear. If the reason was concocted, I'd think they'd have been able to come up with an equally believable but more innocuous cover story.

So maybe this is exactly what it appears to be?

Bingo.

It's entirely possible he resigned for the reason cited, but something about this doesn't feel right.

Better luck next birthday, Jack! (Maybe next time you should try registering for the gifts you want?)

After nearly 2 years of greatly enjoying the podcasts and occasionally commenting, I mean to get more active here too. -- Right after I have my head examined for fleeing one deep blue state (CA) only to move to another (NJ). :-)

I've been straining to avoid distractions from my day project of starting a new company, but things have gone too far off course in the US, and it's past time for me to repay the debt I owe to preceding generations and contribute to finding solutions.

I look forward to future discussions and maybe even some Northern New Jersey member meetups!

I haven't tried using this one myself yet, but have you seen Tony Robbins' exposition on the national debt and deficit, which he based on Iowahawk's analysis? Tony aims his pitch at the middle, and it seems as likely to persuade as anything. There's nothing quite like methodically working out the consequences of a "tax the rich" policy (going beyond that even, to confiscate everything they have) to illustrate the depth of the problem we're in, and the inadequacy of revenue increases alone to address it.