Fundraiser disclosure

Google ads wouldn't bother me, so if it helps pay the bills go for it.
I also don't oppose any membership fees if it comes down to it.
I will pledge my support if necessary to keep the site going.

 

$2 insertion fee for sales above $50 on the marketplace would be quite nice actually. It's not expensive and it'd rid out quite a lot of the scammers.

 

damn right, taxes!

 

Actually, I don't think thats a bad idea, though of course it may get complicated and hard to monitor.

Another idea is kind of a 'donation thread' where people could sell stuff and the proceeds go to the forum? Kind of like the free stuff thread, but with donations instead...I've got quite a few things that could go to something like that. I guess there would be honesty and trust issues with such a system though

 

While I do not necessarily object to tiered access (free = ads, paid = no ads), though I will never understand why someone would willingly follow and purchase from an ad, I think that "insertion" type fees would be too much of a hassle. First and foremost, who would be the bookkeeper/enforcer for all those sales?

 

I use HostGator,
http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml

They offer 1TB of storage with unlimited bandwidth for $13/month.

As far as I can tell that nets you 1 IP address, but even 13x4 is much cheaper than what you are paying now.

Just a thought.


and I too agree that google ads on the bottom of the forum for those not logged in would be a good way to test out the idea of ad-driven revenue.

 

So, where can I donate?

 

I guess everybody is used to Google Ads, and those helped quite a lot of great forums like here to stay alive. Google Ads or discrete ads banner (in the top right corner or between the site's logo and the phpbb section or in the bottom of the page) would be great. Just like on "benheck" forums where some ads are acutally useful to members, and to the guy who pay the hosting.

Fees would be a not-so-good idea in my opinion, because many members are only here to lurk for info and help with knowledge, I don't think they'd all like to apy fees.

A paypal "Donate" icon-link would be great to. To let the bilionaires on the board give some of their extra pennies.

Just my 2 cents

FG

 

Shared hosting would be totally crippling for a site like this one with the visitor count as high as this one.

I have nothing against a set fee each year, for all users, or for users wishing to use the market place, or something. $2 isn't that much of a deal in my view, and it would probably weed out all the trolls, scammers etc. and drive them somewhere else.

I'm slightly less happy at the thought of ads; many users block ads so they wouldn't even notice. And even on high-volume websites, ad revenue can still be abysmal if you don't 'poke' your users somehow (which, in turn, can be detected by the ad company). And it doesn't take much for someone to maliciously imitate bad 'ad behavior' and get your site banned either.

 

Against the TOS on all reputable services. I'd say just impliment google ad's for guests. I hear its easy to do, and it'd help out on the bills. Just at the top and bottom of the pages or something. None of that shit where a bot posts in every thread. I hate that.

I wouldn't mind it for myself, so maybe an option to disable ad's for members (If you update VB with hacks Im sure this is an options somewhere). I'd disable my adblock for assemblergames.

 

Hi,
In france there is a nice service.
http://www.dedibox.fr, it is some dedicated server really really cheap, you should have a look assembler.
Server 1: 56$ for
Intel® Celeron® 220
2 Go DDR2
1x 160Go
Connection: 100 Mbit/sec
and ilimited trafic

Server 2: 92$ for
Intel® Core® 2 Duo T7200
3 Go DDR2
1x 500Go
Connection: 100 Mbit/sec
and ilimted trafic

You can ask for linux or windows on the server.
If you want more and ask me

 

I say go for ads. I don't think they would interfere with the forum and Google Ads is pretty unobtrusive yet will earn you a fairly decent income.

 

Sorry for double post, but no edit here. Your hosting solution sounds very expensive! Even somewhere like GoDaddy.com will offer you similar functionality on a dedicated server for almost half of what you pay. I'd consider looking elsewhere as soon as possible.

 

Rather than making a subscription fee for everybody, you could make it just for people who have been here for a certain amount of time, say 2 or 3 years. It makes sense that the people who have used the site the most should pay. That way, it won't discourage people from joining the site as much. Plus, I doubt anybody who's been here for 2 years or more would mind paying a small fee.

 

It is quite difficult to find good server for a good price in the place you named.
I only found one which match to your request:
less than 85$:
http://www.rackmine.com/

For about 100$:
http://www.hktechnology.com/
http://easyspeedy.com/

I hope you will find a good hosting

 

Maybe I'm blind but where's the paypal donate option?

 

ebooks...