Donations?

Hey, I left a comment in the Donations area asking what they are for and I see it's been removed. Isn't anyone allowed to talk about it or question it? What's the money used for? Does it go to charity or what?

 

Come on, guys...surely there's nothing wrong with asking, is there?

 

I'm not sure why you would question this Steve. I've never met Snow, but I can tell from the site that he devotes a great deal of time and effort to maintaining it and that alone deserves compensation. As an owner of four XJs, I don't know how I could get by without this place and I know I'm not alone.

Greg

 

>I'm not sure why you would question this Steve.
It's simple, most forums are free and don't ask for donations, like the nerd-out.com or satforums.com sites that have a lot more members and much more traffic than this site so I was wondering what the donations are for? In fact, I don't know of any other forums that ask for donations. Most websites have ads and there are some that ask for charity donations like neo-fight.tv that has an area to donate to the JDF and some websites providing free software that ask for donations to help cover the cost of programming, like Azureus at azureus.sourceforge.net.
I run several websites as a hobby but don't make anything on them.
Then again they are hosted free and don't cost me anything either. I'd like to make money on mine too but I don't think anyone would contribute. I can't imagine how you could even manage to spend $120 on a forum though. I guess everyone running them for free must be doing it all wrong!

 

I pay about that a month for my own dedicated server... I recoup some of that in ads, some of it in hosted webpages... the rest? Out of my pocket...

I have the server primarily to host another forum - any/all donations from the forum pay for it's share of the server. I do not make a profit, and I am 100% that Sno doesn't either... infact we both probably run a pretty big 'loss' per year running forums. We both do it because we enjoy to do it, so in part I don't mind paying for it - however - donations are one way we all pay our share for this home.

Woot.

For $5 a month you can get server space. That is shared space, you have to abide by TOS, you can't use too much CPU, you can't use unlimited space, you don't have root access to the database, new modules can't be added, no command line access... etc.

To get a less restricted server the price goes up fast - instead of sharing with 100 people you pay the full shot... that includes power, UPS, hardware services, offsite hosting and bandwidth. That can range from 50-150 easily... I've paid more in the recent past.

 

Well a MORE POPULAR forum will have more visitors, which I'm assuming will get paid more for the advertisments, this forum has no IN YOUR FACE ad's, they are all fairly subtle. I'm also guessing its not free hosting, and there is more than hosting charges that go into it. Plus, its not like he is asking you to pay to use or register, its purely a donation, if you don't think its fair, DON'T DONATE. He also shows how much has been donated, so he is not trying to make a fortune through donations...

 

Site donations?

I see a goal of $120 for novemeber?

Is that for the cost of the server? Software? Your new tires? :lol:

If thats based on hosting, may I sugguest www.made2own.com

We use them on our website and it runs us about $120 per year. Not to talk down, we have more member/activity than here. SO Im assuming you could go with the package we got or the next step down.

Just a sugguestion as this is the sugguestion box. Im sure I missed what its for posted elsewhere, been out of touch lately.

 

I'd be very pissed.

There have been some posts that seem to question SnoSherrif's motives for putting up the donation function.

I kicked in 10 bucks, which is a VERY SMALL fraction of the benifit I've gained from this site. I'd be willing to bet everyone who has spent 30 minutes here has also got at least $10 worth.

I don't care if Sno makes a fortune from donations (although I doubt if he will even cover expenses, much less his time).

Where did the idea come from that if it is on the internet then we are entitled to it for free? Everything has a cost, and someone must pay the bill.

If you don't think this site is worth a couple of your $$ don't donate. The rest of us will foot the bill. Please return favor though and just shut up about it.

 

Without pointing fingers and quoting some of last months posts; I figure there are a few -- very, very fortunate -- members, who ... because they "Checked-in and popped a question" regarding what they were told they needed to have done > elsewhere < ... before posting their inquiry, HERE ... saved:

A Bundle. A Bank-roll. Big Bucks.
Huge dough. A Small fortune.
Didn't get ripped-off. Weren't fleeced.
Dodged a Bullet.
Didn't unnecessarily spend several hundred Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers for nothing.

Ironically, the Life-Guards are among the first ones who have stepped-up with the funds to keep the litter picked-up along their beach.

 

yeh nothing is for free in this world, and i agree the knowledge and worth of this site if you own a xj bike is well worth a measly $10.00 or 20 or whatever it takes to run. I cant imagine anyone making money of this site on $120.00 donation goal a month. this site is like having a 1000 page manual at your finger tips and if you think things are for free then go down to your local bike shop and see what they have for free!!.

i dont have a paypal account but as soon as i know from sno how i can make my donation another way it will be done, and it wont be $10.00 either.

 

I would just like to note, I by no means am complaining about donations.

On my forum, we offer a "platinum" membership. The people that pay for the Platinum get a few perks, plus get a bit of say in what happens. More importantly, these are the people that pay for our server/bandwidth.

Our board has 320 Megs total and so far this month weve used 1,180MB of bandwidth...

If this is the only site you have running of your server, ouch. Thats a ton of money for server space...

My comments are meant in good taste, to try and help all out. Nothing more, nothing less. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea here.

 

I expect that the multitudes of our brothers are just interested in helping Sno find sound ways to keep this fine forum floating for the least amount necessary. A big thank you to you all for your efforts. I expect the "leave a penny, take a penny" program is in effect here, which is to say, if you can, share. If you can't, enjoy and share when you can. This does not mean in any way that donations are obligatory, there are far too many of us who scrape to save those precious dollars and I expect most of us understand that. I'm cool with it. I don't have a problem chipping in when I can. There will just be some months that I'll only be able to offer up some homemade cookies (hope you like chocolate chip).
Your thoughts are appreciated Ryan, I doubt anyone read any further into your efforts to help out the gang. Your two cents worth might be just the ticket to help out (information is valuable too).

 

I cant say enough good things about www.made2own.com

We used to use www.vizaweb.com but they were absoluetely horrible!

Rick James @ mde 2 own keeps us going and very happy. Especially for the money spent. $10 a month

 

Donations, raffles, free sites - my two cents...

The one board I was a long time member at has switched servers four times over the last four years because hosting fees, overages, and poor customer service always reared its head. I was friends with the administrator and people have NO IDEA how much time it takes to run a site even with 1000 to 2000 members. As it grows to 10000 to 15000 you almost need a little army of minions like Lord of the Rings, to do your bidding because it grows and develops its own intertia.

That webmaster is based out of Seattle, so there is no shortage of computers or geeks to help him run it, if he wants to try to do it cheaply. Even with that, the forum has been down 24/7 for the last two weeks. The current reason has to do with it getting so large, it became a target for hackers, who hacked a back door into it and were constantly screwing around. The downtime and the expertise needed to get back online and to hacker-proof the site will now eat away any reserves were in the coffers. The site had donations for a three to four years, but also had aerostich raffles, tire raffles, and raffled off a race-prepped motorcycle.

Many of the "free" sites either are leeching off of universities, it is a sideline for someone that needs service space and a T1 for their business anyway, it is a sideline for a print magazine which has cash subscribers, or they have so many irritating banner ads it is difficult to find content.

I will continue to help where I can, if I can't afford ten or twenty bucks I can volunteer to do mundane tasks within my limited computer skills.

Thanks Snosherrif and crew for keeping it running and the time it takes to run the site.

PMing a moderator with ways to streamline the site or improve services will likely help a lot if anyone really cares to make this site cheap, accessible, and banner-free.