Deleting old threads would ruin the spirit of the site, as the value in having a forum like this is having historical data (and images). Space requirements are only one part of the equation, and one that can be mitigated by offloading more to cloud services. 

 

Another reason why this is a bad idea is because it would destroy the SEO that NA has created over the years. I don't know how many times I have searched for something Nintendo related on google, and an old topic from NA is one of the top hits.


 

Pledged at Patreon.


Thanks for all you do Dain....

What about running another T-Shirt sale? Several of us have been asking about it for some time now and I'm certain you can make profit off of that as well. Plus we get that fancy pants award too. Win win!

I'd be cool with paying members not seeing ads.

This just goes to show there are tons of great people willing to do whatever it takes to keep this site running and community driven. I'd donate again if we had a drive.

For users that want to donate but don't have direct cash, you can do a NA auction and promise the proceeds to go to the site. I did it a month ago and it went great, although now that I know its $650+ a month to run the site, I feel like it was just a drop in the bucket. $20 might be tough for some, but letting an extra copy of an uncommon game or two go to a good cause can seem more justifiable.

I patreoned or whatever the hell it is.

Thanks boss man!

Drops will still fill up the bucket!

 

Also signed up on the Patreon site...have no issues helping you out man, I come on here every single day.

Doing a donation and Paetron combo is the way to go. I would only give icons to the Paetron subscribers with differnt color P icon for the tier they donate at. For example Paetron donation at $3 gets a bronze P, $10 Silver, $20, Gold, and $30+ gets Diamond color.

Also, you can do a small yearly member fee that gives you access to post in the BST forms. The site would be free for all information forums, and conversations; but if you are trying to buy or sell; the site will get money from you. Also it will cut down on the people that just drop in to sell and are dicks to everybody. They would have a vested interest in the site.

Running ads wont do as much considering the amount of ad-block programs that everybody is running now.

I am now a NintendoAge Patreon

Nice suggestion....I would agree that people who donote less shouldn't be as recognized but recognized none the less...I did the $3 a month one because of the exchange and is adjusted for my income.
 

I like the idea of a small yearly fee, at least to post new threads in the Seller or Auction forums, possibly Buyer as well. Information and discussion still available to all.

If the Patreon doesn't get what is needed, that is. 

Whatever you need just let us know, I'm okay with anything that keeps the site running,

I mean if the site stopped running what would I do at work!

BTW for what it's worth I run AdBlock also

Pledged, of course.

After I pledged I saw that Classic Game Room on YT gets over 10k per month in money?! Does that go directly to him? Because that is insane.

Signed up. Pledged my $5/month

I don't care about icons, but I sure do care about this site. Patreon'd.

Id rather have an NA with ads than no NA at all. Im for it

Totally agree!  Just payed up on Patreon, No way would I have the knowledge I do now if it wasn't for NA! I'll give more when I can!

If you give $$$ does that make you Unbannable?

I don't know if this has been said but why not start auto taking cuts of the auctions and sales from the seller forum?

It seems as though a lot of people already give a percentage of their sales to NA. Why not just make it mandatory?

Another way to get costs down are to switch hosts.

I think you're with Softlayer no? Have you considered someone like FDCServers? They're BIG on cheap bandwidth, colocation and dedicated servers for affordable prices. Only downside is they're not managed. Considering the amount of bandwidth and the speed you get- you can even stop using cloud storage (Amazon right?)

It has been and my response to all of them is this: so NA becomes eBay? One of the great points to doing business on here is not only that you are selling(mostly) to other collectors but also passing on savings that you're not giving to ebay and the such! One person even said possibly for buyers too! That's pretty absurb if you ask me but that's just my opinion. It seems there is a good amount of support being offered and I would WAY rather see ads then have to be mandated to pay in order to gain access to sell/auction/buy(trade?) on here.

Yeah I think you wanna keep donations entirely voluntary. Mystjuph has a great point. Perhaps I withdraw my earlier support of a yearly fee to access B/S/T and Auctions.

I'm also 100% against fees in the marketplace, or making them private and paid-for subforums. We have lots of random things show up from new users, from NWCs to SEs to random promo stuff. Same with people in the WTB forum showing up out of the blue and buying a rare. You want to encourage as many new contributions as possible, instead of creating new barriers of entry.

There's more than enough people here to pitch in in varying capacities.

Why should people be able to sell on here for huge profit while Dain must seek out alternate sources of revenue when he has a solid one already? You know most of this stuff is picked up dirt cheap at yard sales and such so the passing the savings argument is bull.

This isn't ebay, you aren't handing your money over to a corporation. It's a community and a very large one. Taxes are real, no harm in imposing a small one here to keep this site going.