I'm really against the idea of selling merchandise. Maybe somebody doing a one-off thing by themself (like a giveaway or something) or the Pro account thing we did for the wiki (through Mann+Gears IIRC) was okay with me (I think) but going full-on with the merch seems like a really bad slippery slope. Once we start running a business or other revenue stream (however not profitable it may be), everything gets complicated. Really complicated.
Sure it might be a cool idea if there was SCP-related merchandise or something with the SCP logo (or otherwise) on it but setting up a shop seems like a step in the wrong direction in the long term. I often see too many groups, communities, sites, individuals, etc. start putting up donation buttons and whatnot to start making money and eventually it consumes them. It becomes the backbone of major decisions and occasionally (read: frequently) becomes the main source of drama and disaster. I'd think it'd be cool too if I had something like a lab coat with the SCP logo on it or something but I make sure that all that wishful thinking stays as wishful thinking. I know that once money starts getting involved for the site, it'd be hard to divest ourselves from the ENTERPRISE angle, even if we try to play the “only up to make ends meet” card. In the end, we're still selling out.
We're a publicly viewable wiki with content written by tens if not hundreds of anonymous people around the planet published under the CC (and with an image library that's more or less taken from other people/companies without permission). There is an unspoken trust between the members and writers with the SS and I feel that the moment we start trying to monetize it, even though it's legal we'd be breaking that. And even then, I think we'll have legal issues if we start using the SCP content as a way to attract potential merch-related revenue. Merch mixed in with others' content mixed with pictures with intentionally-erased copyright notices seems to be an equation for potential disaster.
I hope I'm not sounding too dramatic here but that's what I personally feel. Even if ultimately nobody is getting the money for compensation and/or personal gain, there's still a non-zero amount of bank accounts associated with us. Next thing you know, we'd be making regular posts about donating regularly or urging people to buy from the shop to fund our enterprises like every other webcomic/gaming forum/private MMO server.
Plus, we really have no use for money other than Pro-Account wiki hosting but I'm sure that can be arranged privately as opposed to asking in public for members to “donate” regularly. Even if our needs expanded to ARG funding or con booths or plane tickets, I really doubt we'd be able to make enough cash yearly to send people to a specific con or two every year (even if we do everything we can to meet our goals), and the reason we never got a con booth going is because…there's nothing worth putting in a booth other than “buy our merch” and some article printouts in the booth ideas pitched so far (it's as disorganized of an idea as an average elementary school science fair project). I'd be willing to chip into the yearly Pro account thing if needed or keeping the http://scp-wiki.net/ domain registered for the years to come or an actual project that takes off but a quick Donate button like last time felt…off-putting, especially in its drive-by nature. I didn't even know whose Paypal account people were pointed to send money to until much later. Sure, plenty of strangers throw money at Paypal Donate buttons all the time but I'm not sure if we have any right to collect it in general. Sort of like that time when we rushed to create a Facebook group and all but that's a different post.
If a new person or an person from the '08 or '09 era comes back to the site to see merch shops and a Donate button on the site, what kind of impression would we give to them other than “The front page is still butt-ugly”?
On the topic of books though…I would *LOVE* to see a free collection of articles and stories put into an eBook or something. We have plenty of resources and with some organization and content, we could easily have a full draft ready to go within 6 months or so. Plenty of writers for content, and there are plenty of legitimately free software that we can use (e.g. LaTeX, whatever other people use, etc.) for layout, structuring, and whatnot (since using unlicensed commercial software will attract the attention of the BSA nubs). In this day and age, you only need the filling in-between the covers and BAM! instant quality-made book. Books or eBooks would be perfect mediums for actual narrative too.
Now, with books, I'd go for selling them in public if and only if (iff) the only thing people are paying for are for a dead-tree copy of the book and digital copies would be free and unrestricted (which IMO should be free) just to pay for printing costs since they're damn expensive. A five-minute Google search got me prices of $10~$20 per B&W book for a decent-sized hardcover while a small softcover would be half that (where's my Print-On-Demand future tech?). Colour jacks up the price a bit per book. Another stipulation is that we make sure not to spend too much on working on the next book and the next and so on, neglecting the site in the process, should the first book be successful. Unlike grab-bag merch, a book lasts forever, and isn't a cheap trinket that has more to it than a novelty value. If this takes off, I'd be willing to help with everything but the writing since I'm obviously not a writer.
But at the same time…I wonder if doing all this is going in the right direction. Part of the charm was that we're an out-of-the-way website with a larger-than-normal following and notoriety. I feel that slapping the logo (I don't even know who designed it) on cups and t-shirts to increase our reach and exposure to the public might do more harm to the community than good in the long run (more than 5 years, or even one). The other part is that the wiki reminds me of an open-source project community: A bunch of people gathering round and contributing to bits and parts of a large growing project without expecting anything in return except that people enjoy (and get creeped out by) the material IF they find it and tell others about it by word of mouth (and naturally that the project improves in quality and accessibility). It's not like we're a real company or trying to launch writing careers here. Maybe I just don't like seeing the site changing more than it already has, maybe I think it's the wrong kind of change.