The HSers Budget

[Xorlof]

Big thanks to the latest site supporter donations.

Thank you, Skylord163.
Thank you, jedilou.
Thank you, 1moreheroscaper.

Originally Posted by CanScape

Just so that I understand the possible ramifications...if the money can't be made to cover the costs, does this mean that one day, all of this would literally disappear off the web?

We'll keep it going one way or another. We've got options. If site supporter money dries up, we can drop to slower bandwidth, lowering the server hosting costs by about $200/year. That would probably be OK since less supporters probably means fewer visitors overall.

If things get even more desperate, (with correspondingly reduced traffic) we can switch to a shared server option and scale prices down as needed since the site is serving fewer visitors. Things may get slow for a site with a back-end database as big as ours, but we'll be around.

BUT LET'S NOT LET THAT HAPPEN, PEOPLE!

[El T]

HSers has been around for what, almost 8 years now? And a good part of that has been while the game isn't even in production. Even now, we're getting new members who are longtime fans of the game but hadn't yet found the site, like yours truly. Thanks to great leadership and a tight-knit and productive community, HSers will be around for a long while. That said, I don't want to say we can just sit around and take it for granted.

Xorlof, I still think advertising on the site would be a good supplement to the site's current income. The users here love the site and would understand that advertising, as long as it's not too invasive, keeps the site financially comfortable and would be well worth it. I also think it wouldn't be hard at all to attract advertisers, since the customs groups here are being so productive and keeping the game fresh and relevant. The Codex could even help out where needed...

Just an idea. Anything to keep this community going far into the future.

[marrowick]

If advertising would keep the site going how it is now then I'd be all for it. As long as you don't implement those annoying pop-up ads that come up every time you click a link.

[Porkins]

Xorlof, how are we doing budget-wise?

[Xorlof]

We're doing OK. If donations come in at current rates, we'll make the annual bandwidth bill, but there again won't be much to spare.

I'm hoping to build up some extra funds for other stuff (things like building up a reserve, and purchasing plugins to meet user requested features and paying for some designer time if I don't locate a member that is willing and able to help with new themes to move us beyond the vBulletin v3 branch), but keeping the lights is the most important thing, and we should be able to do that, at current service levels.

I've just begun work on getting some additional revenue via affiliate links members can use to eBay and Amazon. I doubt that'll amount to much money unless somebody is planning some very large Amazon purchases via our links, but it can't hurt.

Also, it's been far too long since I've thanked the latest group of site supporters here. Your post has reminded me to do so soon!

[Ztimster]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

$15 per year or $45 for lifetime.

I like doing it as a year to year because if I go $45 for lifetime, I am not supporting financially after year 3 (though I could just make a donation I guess.) How about a recurring membership that bills me annually?