I understand what everyone is complaining about with the slowness, but being on dial up I have gotten used to it. I would hate to see the site goto a pay site as many people would just pass it by, and would miss out on such valuable information. I myself would pay to stay here if it wasn't to expensive as I am on a very limited budget, and even a few dollars a month can make a difference.
The site doesn't have to be lightning fast but it does have to at least be adequate and more important functional. I posted one post yesterday. It took over two minutes to load the main page, over two minutes to load the "questions and observations" page, a couple of minutes to load the "Help us JP thread" and I composed a post hit send and after three minutes the site timed out and I was booted off. Fortunately my post did in fact get posted. All together it took about 10-12 minutes to post one post (not including the time it took me to actually write the thread).
Here's a portion of my post....
This same situation [forum upgrade and then site slow down] happened on another forum that I used to participate in. Eventually the forum had to purchase a dedicated server. I know absolutely nothing about how this works but from what I understand this wasn't very cheap. The "owner" of the forum simply didn't have the funds for all of the upgrades. So one of the long time members suggested that the members donate funds to offset the upgrade costs. A minimum donation of $10 was suggested. For $50 donations the members were listed on a recognition thread (sound cheesy but it worked). Most of forum members, myself included, gladly donated the $50. We (the members) felt that it was a cheap price to pay for the hours of enjoyment that we received on the forum. Everyone likes to think the internet is free but it just isn't. Someone is paying for hosting services and/or bandwidth.
How the other site handled the fee was that it was a voluntary contribution, no one was required to contribute. The year that the equipment was upgraded a larger contribution ($50) was suggested (minimum of $10 was requested but absolutely nothing was required) and it dropped to $25 thereafter annually. That forum is significantly larger than this forum (members in the hundreds of thousands) so this level on contribution worked. If you contributed the $50 then below your name a phrase that was something like "Forum Sponsor" appeared. I realize that not everyone would be able to contribute and certainly would not want anyone that was not able to contribute be barred from enjoying this forum. That being said if I were Mr. Lusk (which unfortunately I'm not - stupid, stupid karma) and I certainly am not authorized to speak for him (if you've read many of my posts you can easily determine why that is so) but I can tell you as a businessman that I would not commit to a $400 per month expense to facilitate the continuation of this forum.
I posted the post above merely to let Mr. Lusk know that I both have the ability and willingness to contribute to a forum fund to ensure this site will be here in the future. I'm sure that JP will find a solution and that the forum will be back up to speed. If contributions are requested I'll gladly contribute. For those that are not able to I would hope that the forum would still be available. Personally I would prefer that no one gets locked out.
If just 100 members of this forum contributed $50 that would pay for one year of dedicated server. Although forum has over 3,700 members I'm guessing only a very small fraction of that are regularly active. But if we could get just 100 to pony up $50 that would by us a year of band width. I'm one that will, only 99 to go.
As a final note to New, believe me in my profession I have seen first hand the financial devastation that can come from unforeseen circumstances and I would not want you to not be able to participate. That is why I suggest a voluntary contribution. I realize that some members would not be able to contribute and I have absolutely no problem what so ever with that. There is no shame in being prudent about where you spend your funds.
