Amiga.org Lifetime Membership Special

[buzz]

Didn't take long for amiga.org to ask for more money.

You must have an entire rack, judging by how much your hosting seems to cost!

[buzz]

I don't see anything wrong with the site owner making this offer.

Also, I don't understand why people who are unwilling to make the donation need to post their reasons not to.

It's a voluntary request, nobody is forced to pay. If you don't like this forum enough to donate then fine but no need to post negative comments about the form is there?

It's a forum .. doh!

and it's something worth discussing. the site has adverts and donations already, it's hosted on shared hosting (not expensive). the amount donated by people is unknown. the cost of hosting is unknown. the revenue from adverts is unknown, and as a forum the value of the site is comprised of the contributions of the users.

[buzz]

@buzz

Very small text Ads make less than $100 every six months. Premium Members see no ads whatsoever.

so ... how much is your hosting then? how much have you taken in donation and from membership fees?

Why are you not open about this, as you are asking for money fairly often, it might do well to be open about the costs and amounts you receive.

[buzz]

@buzz

Donations have not covered hosting expensives thus far but are most appreciated. Donations of course are voluntary and not required. The minority most vocal against donations have never donated even $1. Premium Membership comes with most donations and gives additional site benefits.

I do not believe your memberships + donations + adverts do not cover hosting costs (you are on shared hosting!). perhaps you include your time as expenses too. without you being open about actual figures, we will never know.

Not everyone thinks the users of a site should be responsible for paying for it and constantly asked about giving donations. bearing in mind, it is the contributions from the users that actually give this site any value at all.

[buzz]

You're welcome to  believe anything you like, it does not change the facts though. Amiga.org does have some great user contributions and members. We maintain the hub that allows this to take place.

The fact you avoid giving details about hosting costs and donations, doesn't make it easy to believe you. your hosting might cost as little as $15 a month. If I was to ask for donations for the sites I host I would at least publish the amount needed/received, so people get an honest picture, and it doesn't look like im just trying to make a few quid.

[buzz]

@buzz

We invested considerable money in buying the site and maintaining it with a nice fast robust hosting plan. If we were just trying to make a few quid we are in the wrong business because that is not what happened. Donations to the site are always visible on the donations page.

You have asked for donations/subscriptions to help pay the hosting, not to regain your initial investment though. You still have not said how much your hosting is a month. Which donation page lists the donations btw? I missed that, but would be interested in having a look.

[buzz]

I don't see any amounts on there, and I'm guessing it's just a list of names from those who didn't want to be anonymous. not quite the information I was after. According to that page the last money received was an unknown amount in April 2010.

I give up.

edit.
(ok i found the amount now, does that include anonymous donations?) - im guessing it doesn't include donations of a certain amount (which are now subscriptions). anyway, fine, you need/want the money for whatever reason. I've made my point. As someone who hosts some sites myself, I manage to do it without asking visitors to pay my hosting.

[buzz]

I don't believe I have told people not to donate, I have just questioned it from my own viewpoint. There is a big difference to me between "need money for hosting help!" and "Need money for beer!" requests - and the requests here are always for hosting, and I struggle to understand the difficulties here - it would be easier for people to make an informed decision should all the info be available. It still seems to be a "secret" how much the hosting costs.