Wow, last week's poll was a lively one! And the results at the end were far and away different from how things were looking near the start of the week. To recap, the discussion was around additional ways to support the site in the future. One possibility that had been presented to us by our ad rep was a Site Sponsorship, a graphic that would be placed somewhere on the site for the duration of the sponsorship. The catch is that the image would be visible to everyone, even subscribers.
Here's how the voting came out:
The surprise for me by the end of the week was how much the "I might leave" option grew. For most of the week, the response seemed to be more or less receptive to the idea. But it ended out the week with a third of the vote. With the voting over, those in favor came out with 57% of the vote, while those opposed had 41%. With the voting coming so close, it's an issue we'll have to continue to debate before making any decisions.
The discussion on the topic went well over 100 posts, and remained entirely civil and constructive. It's probably one of the best discussions on site policy I've seen here in a long time. Thank you to everyone who tossed in their $0.02 and helped me get a better idea of where the community stood on the issue.