So for a little bit last year we used this thread to explain some of the things going on, a few of the costs associated with them, and somewhat informally remind folks that running the site -- every part of it from the main website to the podcast to the forum -- does cost us a pretty penny each month. We stand firm that we don't ever want to run ads on the website itself for a variety of reasons (all of which has been covered in some of the threads linked here in this post if you'd like to do some further reading), so we do rely on donations to help offset that cost to us a little bit.
It's the "value for value" model that, if you listen to some other podcasts, you probably hear about occasionally: if you find any value in what you get out of the site, tossing a little value back its way can be a pretty nice gesture! That can be donations, but it can also be spreading the good word. Whatever you can do, we appreciate.
A couple months back I asked everyone what they might think about ads popping up on the forum, but only for non-registered, non-logged-in members. Of course, as I noted, that's a pretty self-selective group to be asking, since you have to be a registered member and logged-in in the first place to even respond! But still, it was a pretty positive response, so we've been running a trial program on it for a little over a month now. So far it's working out pretty OK. It's hilariously inconsistent though, so at this point we can't say for sure that it in and of itself will be able to cover raw server costs (not right now, let alone once the wiki launches on top of everything). Furthermore, it won't even kick in with its payments for a while longer, so we're kind of in a dead zone at the moment.
So that's all to say: if you've ever considered donating to the site, now's a pretty gosh darn good time to reconsider it.
I've been on vacation so I need to catch up on the few donations that have come in and update the "Donate" page on the site (we name monthly hosting in your honor!), but rest assured it will all be listed soon enough. It's been a little slow, though, so we do need some help catching up on the months since then.
That's all! You know how hard we try not to ever talk about this, but there's a direct correlation between "reminding people" and "being able to afford the site"
.→ Donate to help keep Kanzenshuu truckin' along online each month! ←
