I know you have said you don't want money. But we all know running a forum costs money. As the site grows bigger and needs bigger server space.
Maybe in the future we could have a private member section, with member classifieds and whatnot?
I as well as many other members would be happy to donate to the site.
I really gotta agree with Rick that some sort of contribution process will eventualy become needed, especially with things like attachments enabled. The bandwidth of hosting graphics can stack up fast, especially if our numbers continue to grow.
I am not so much in favor of special access sections. I would rather see us mimic the cast boolits model. There contributors get a badge above their avatar that indicates those that have put their money where their mouth is. It isn't a huge deal, and it is completely voluntary. Those who pay also get special features, like more picture space, and a gunloads.com email address.
I really think this could use some discussion. I just don't want to limit access to information. I think free access of information is a keystone of success of these sites.
Another thought I had, and will try to get done in the next bit is a few tutorials on putting images up on alternate free sites, then referencing them in your posts here. Attachments are going to be the biggest bandwidth hogs, but when they are hosted on photobucket, imgur, picsarus or google sites they don't cost this forum anything to include in a post, since they aren't pulled from our bandwidth. Encouraging members to put the pics there instead of here will help a huge amount to reducing operating costs of the site.
We might look into this in the future, depending on the cost. Right now we are on a hosting plan that costs $8.99 a month. I run another site that has been up for two years and has 500 members and it runs great on the $8.99 plan.
I hope to have a membership well into the thousands here, so we will definitely need a better plan eventually.
I pay $20 a year on Shotgun World to be a bonus member. They hide the advertising as part of the membership which I like.
It's a great site and I was more than happy to contribute.
I would not hesitate to help pay the costs here. Looks like it's well on the way to becoming a success. It can only grow and the costs will rise.
Thank you everyone who worked hard to get this going and maintain it.
Great job!!!
If you want to have a classified page let that be the paid part and keep it where your membership allows you to access that page. The Tennessee Gun Owners Classified site allows you to look and respond with out being a member but you can not list anything with out membership of 20.00. I would love to have a classified 10mm only page. Be able to list othr things but they must be linked to trading for,buying,swaping for something 10mm. like a 40SW mag for a 10mm mag. etc.I am sure you get what I mean. 10mm stuff is pretty specialized and sometimes hard to find.