Future funding of the forum

[Bonus!]

I haven't read the entire thread, but have a look Amazon AWS. They have a tool for calculating cost for hosting. It would most certainly be a lot less than the grand you pay for colocating:
http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html

[Sier]

@ System11 - It's not much, but if I can tip my hat to such a majestic place...

It's the very least I could do..

Would only be an honour to donate, sir.

^ All done - donation away !!

[Skykid]

2. I absolutely support the marketplace tax. Seems like an obvious thing to do considering the deals here.

Personally I think this will kill the marketplace dead and 75% of people will just go elsewhere to sell their stuff.

That said, about these "deals" - I honestly haven't seen much in the way of special bargains on the Trading Station in a long while. The overall market has just changed too much. There was a guy not long ago selling some Cave bits for what can be considered reasonable prices (that is to say, most people still can't afford them), but the days of finger sprinting to hit the PM button first are pretty much ancient history.

[Xyga]

That said
...
the days of finger sprinting to hit the PM button first are pretty much ancient history.

This.

I barely visit the marketplace because every time I feel like a tramp who's stepped into Sotheby's by mistake.

[zak]

That said
...
the days of finger sprinting to hit the PM button first are pretty much ancient history.

This.

I barely visit the marketplace because every time I feel like a tramp who's stepped into Sotheby's by mistake.

[brokenhalo]

Donated. Thanks for keeping the lights on, system11.

[Super Laydock]

Didn't notice this earlier.

We should have a donation week every year or so.
Didn't know it costed you this much money every year.
Please know it's appreciated!

Just sent you a donation to help out.

[Dirty Casual]

I just want to say that it's a shame this is even an issue. Thoughtful, well-reasoned gaming communities are priceless. Best of luck, it would be awful to see this go.

[Oniros]

Sent a little donation! This is by far the best place to talk about shmups on the internet (in English at least) and find good resources on scoring and other tips. It would be extremely sad to see it go due to a lack of funding. I would be down to sign up for a Patreon or perhaps run a Kickstarter or Indiegogo to secure funds for a year or so?

[Pets0undz]

Chipped in as well. How are we doing in making up the deficit of the last two years?

[panzeroceania]

If you put up a patreon I will subscribe

[system11]

Just want to say, while I think I have someone to share the bill with I've also been very busy and nothing has happened yet. I looked into Amazon hosting and it's just not worth the cost vs the massive performance hit. It wasn't even going to reduce the bill by half despite dropping resources to 25% or less.

I want to thank everyone for the donations - there have been quite a few, I'm going to unsticky this as it just looks like begging at this point. The donations have covered about a year, maybe a little over or under.

[Strider77]

but the days of finger sprinting to hit the PM button first are pretty much ancient history.

truth....

[MintyTheCat]

but the days of finger sprinting to hit the PM button first are pretty much ancient history.

truth....

I think this misses the point: it is not about getting bargains but more about the fact that cash is changing hands through the forum. I do not like EBay for example as a Seller and I do not like PayPal as a payment agent as I dislike losing money to them. However, forums such as this offer a place for people to exchange goods for cash and although I am not a heavy seller myself I can see how it makes good sense for those making a bit of cash on sales to chip in.

The other matter is that if someone, such as a seller, has put in some time, effort and cash and built up their reputation that can only be bolstered with them having a higher level of support of the site with the idea of badges and such being one method. I know I personally want to see only decent sellers making sales on the site so this helps to remove the dodgy sellers.

In real terms even the heavy sellers would not be putting down loads of cash and as I recall Rancor fully supported the notion of sellers chipping in to the site for upkeep.