To be honest, if it was me hosting it (which it isn't), I'd be happy to front the money, but I might also be happy for donations so I might set that up. But to me, receiving donations means you might also receive more than you need and it introduces a new layer of accountability. Then I think it makes sense to have some kind of yearly expense reports and community sanctioned plans for what to do with surplus monays.
So to me,
getting the money is less of a deal than handling it right. People like yourself put a lot of time and effort into forums. They need to be managed properly, responsibly and with care and respect for the users. To me that also includes transparency when it comes to donations.
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Originally Posted by SGR
How? The only way I could see any pressure being applied is if the mods all threatened to leave.
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Yes, either that or a strike. This is why you set up the backup first so that you can say: meet our terms or we leave. Ban any of us and we leave.
You know, unionize a bit.
Edit:
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Originally Posted by Trollheart
I didn't suggest it was. What I said was, if a number of us are going to pay for a new forum, is it fair that those people should then be subsidising those who join but have not paid? So then the fairest way would seem to me, in my amateurish way and knowing little about it, for everyone to have to pay something towards the site upkeep, either through a membership or donation, or something. I would personally not be prepared to pay to set up a site just so those who didn't contribute could just walk in and say "thanks dude" and enjoy what I had helped pay for. I hope that's clear. If that were to be the model, then I would definitely not be prepared to put up any money. I'm not paying for other people, as it were.
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I think the best way to do it is have donations optional, but perhaps introduce incentives like maybe things that mark you as a donor. It could be user names in bold, maybe a gold star or some privilege like bigger avatars or an email forward or whatever.