I'm sure this isn't good news to most, especially me (I hate ads, and put this off as long as I could), but in order to keep the site open and paid for, I'm going to try to do some ads. Donations are at an all-time low, and usage of the site is at an all-time high (not hits, but disk space, database size, etc), so we have to figure something out.

Last time I did a donation drive (2 years ago), a few people said they thought trying ads would be a good idea, and I'm finally at that point where I think perhaps they're right.

At any rate, I'm going to see how it goes. If it doesn't produce any reasonable about of money to put towards hosting, I will probably just do another donation drive.

Please keep the hate to a minimum in response to this, I'm really not in the mood

As much as ads suck I would rather see this site continue you built an amazing place for all us collectors to come together. In my time I've been on NA I've learned a lot that I wouldn't have ever even thought to look up else where. I've seen a lot of members help each other out and it's hard to find that anywhere else. You've built an amazing site dain and I'm sure whatever you got to do to keep it going members will agree with.

Do ads really pay that well anymore? I have the impression that the kind of ads that would actually generate income are the kind people won't want to see the most. Factor in that we're probably more tech savvy than the average web surfer, there's likely a higher percentage of us using adblockers anyway. In the past I've whitelisted sites I like, but anymore it's almost too dangerous. See: Forbes recently begging people to disable adblocking only to serve them malware immediately.

I'd be down for another donation drive.

Is the ebay referral program still a thing? (does it work when people post ebay international urls?) Could you do that for amazon too? Other sites?

Offer some kind of optional subscription program? I don't know what for but AA does it and apparently they like it a lot over there.

I think this is a wonderful idea, a few ads never killed anyone and it'll help keep the site up. No complaints coming from me

What about eBay/Amazon referral codes? Would be happy to support the site with all my purchased made on there. So many people run an ad blocker.

eww... I'll just block them.. oh BTW $100 donation incoming

I have a few alternate idea's:

What about elitist membership fee's. $1 or $2 a month for members that plan to sell (at higher volumes), post (at higher volumes),  or have access to certain parts of the site?

Another idea which would be more work on your part so I can understand why you would not want to do it is... a NA database app. You could charge to download.

NA Youtube, consisting of various members video's, could perhaps help generate some revenue. It would also require some effort moderating however.


I have been meaning to make a donation for awhile, but I've been holding out because of the current state of the Canadian currency. Sorry

^This I would hate to see this place marred by ads but in the end if thats what it takes.  I just think there should be other options first, even if it is a donation drive.

Donation drive! What kind of figures are we talking about?

 

I'd be down for a donation drive over ads. But whatever it takes, it takes. This is a great community, and I'd like to see it go for many more years.

That said, if ads are the answer, we should have ad-click day (if you're talking about PPC ads)

I use adblock so I think a donation drive would be a great idea.

Its tax time, and with garage sale season up, people got cash.

Limited editions are all the rage. Maybe we could politely suggest (not require) that when projects are run on NA that one is set aside for the proceeds to go towards the site? I think that would generate some nice revenue.

I would have to agree with others that I would like to avoid ads as long as possible, but with the growing hobby and members on here, it's probably going to happen at some point :-\.

So hunger games for membership privileges?
 

Let's just do another donation drive. I think a lot of people are open to donating, they just forget about it as time goes on. I'm sure you can meet whatever figure you're looking for, we always did in the past and there's a lot of people willing to contribute to the cause.

I like the latter 2 suggestions but I don't think anything on this site should be restricted simply because some members(more than likely most) can't afford to pay up.

I'm down for a donation depending on how much(not a very well off person but I have come to love this site and have done quite a few sales on here). I'm also fine with ads(depending on the types) though as others have already pointed out, most people have Adblock these days, so I can't see it helping all that much.

There is always the option of having "Premium Members" with access to parts of the site others wouldn't have access to. That is quite popular with other sites/forums from what I've seen.

I say run adds great site!

So I've been reading a bit about Patreon, and I'm working on a page that might work for a monthly subscription type thing (purely optional). I'm not sure how strict they are on using it to support a website (vs direct content creation), but that might be worth  trying out.

We might do a donation drive as well, this time perhaps bumping the goal to 2 years' costs since we seem to have a pattern of running them every 2 years.

I've been on the site for over two years and don't remember seeing the fundraiser... was it ever on the main page?

I'd personally prefer donation drive over ads, but if ad revenue is easier to keep things running I'm all for it!

First one was March 2011

Second one was August 2012

So....it's been a bit. 

 

Haw.... that explains it

I understand if you feel you need to do ads, but I'm all for a fundraiser as well
 

For someone like me that signs up for memberships and then forgets about them, you'd certainly do well with a membership option. I think I've been paying for a defunct porn site since 2004-ish.

That said, I would strongly agree with a donation drive.

Donation drive boss man!