Inflation ... the cost of supporting member will be raised to $19.99

[Tom]

Starting June 1st the cost of the supporting member privaledges will go up to $19.99 from $15.00. The reason we are doing this is to help share the cost of the server and domain names.

I have been trying to keep this board as advert free as I can. We have the small google advert at the top of the page but as of late the revinues from google have been down.

Rather than increase the adverts on the page I have decided slightly increase the supporting member cost. Those that signed renew or subscribe before Jun 1st will be able to do so at the current $15 rate.

Thanks for understanding.
Tom

[Chicklady]

LOL. Why do you sounds like a retailer? $19.99??? How about $20

[OzLover]

I will gladly pay $19.99 when it is time for me to renew. The support, knowledge & friendship is priceless!!

[Adena]

I agree with ChickLady, Tom... just take the extra penny (use it wisely ) and round it up to $20. At $19.99, I'm afraid we'll sound a little like an infomercial. "You can get all this great support and advice for one easy payment of just $19.99!"

[gunnabfit]

sounds good to me!

[Greeneggs&ham]

I suppose a valid answer to the question I'm about to ask may be "nunya" as in "nunya business", and that some may even suggest I "put up or shut up" and both would be valid responses!

I love the effort that has obviously been put into this site, and can see myself becoming a supporting member in the next month or two after I am certain I will stick with it (it already is my most frequent web stop!).

But as a volunteer who manages a website for my church youth group complete with picture galleries and forums, I'm interested to know how a $200/month budget is being allocated? I know I pay $60 per year for two domain names and 120 GB of storage space. I realize this site probably gets a LOT more traffic that we do, but even the top tier package with my webhost runs only $20 per month with virtually unlimited space and bandwidth.

Now I imagine that a portion of the monthly fee is being used to pay for the time Tom (and anyone else) is putting into maintenance, and I'm hardly inferring you don't deserve something for your time and talent! But as a potential donor, I'm just wondering if the $2400 budget could be broken out for me?

If I can be of any assistance, please let me know (although I'm a hack at best!). If I've overstepped my privileges, just let me know, and I'll go back to my green eggs & ham!

[Chicklady]

I wanna know how you figured how many supporting members there are?

[joee5]

I'm kinda curious as to why this is a concern. Not everyone is obligated to donate, and those that do want to. Keep up an excellent job, Tom & co.. God Bless, Joe

[Greeneggs&ham]

I don't know how many are supporting the site financially -- I just know the goal is $200 per month (x12 is $2400).

It's not a concern per say -- more curiosity than anything, and an opportunity to see if there is a way to save money if it's all going towards hardware and bandwidth.

As said before, I have no complaints with the site and thank all who give so freely of their time and talent towards making this the fantastic site it is. I am by no means stepping on toes or accusing anyone of a scam! I'm truly just curious.

[carbless_in_seattle]

is it 19.99/month?

Also, if we now have a pay system to avoid ads, how come there's that new google ad under the first post of every thread

It's been confusing me all day.

and now, if you click on some of the site links, they take you to ads. Like i wanted to read about becomming a supporting member, so I clicked on the "supporting member" link at the top of the forum page and it took me to a music ad.