The "End of Days" for this board

[Adam Smith]

Hi everyone, while this board is active with posts, it is about to become a financial drain on me. Prior to 2008 there were always plenty of donations that keep things going, but 2008 donations to date are not even 5% of what was contributed in 2007. I don't know if it's a demographic shift, or the hard economic times, but the well is dry. Google Ads revenue has fallen to almost nothing as advertisers tighten their own purse strings. Regular site visitors clicking on the ads doesn't help, because Google pays based on UVs (unique visitors), so the same people clicking though all the ads regularly generates no money.

On October 17th, I close on my house purchase, at which point I will be truly "house poor". That is to say, the mortgage will take about 1/2 my monthly income, and I'll be eating a lot of pasta and ramen for years. Unfortunately, paying for this board out of my checking account is not going to be possible.

If the donations aren't going to come in, then perhaps someone else would like to start up a siren board for the users here to transition to?

Other things that might be able to bail out the board are:

1. A corporate sponsor
2. Donations of sirens or related items we could raffle off
3. Paid membership (not my favorite idea though)

[kswx29]

Is there still an option where we can donate money? It's paypal tho, right? If so, I could try and send in some money every now and then. How much does it cost to keep the board up and running?

[Adam Smith]

I'm currently running this forum from a Lunarpages $24.95/month "business hosting" plan, paid monthly.

[kswx29]

Ok, I can try and donate some money, possibly next week but me alone will not keep this board up. When do you expect the board to go offline, if that may be the case.

[thunderbolt1003]

I have a quicky suggestion. Maybe until you will be able to make payments for this board, you can make an emergency board until then, such as proboards. I've seen many forums under Proboards, and they may not be the best, but it's a damn good forum host for free. I can clone The Siren Board with ease so it can look almost exactly like this. Like I said, it's only a temporary thing until you get this board back on its feet. Just a suggestion, unless you find a better host. Just trying to help out.

[piski125]

I really hope this board doesn't end!!!!!

I'll make a donaton ASAP.

Maybe someone could create a Petition?

Then again, I'm not sure if that would really help.

[kswx29]

I really hope this board doesn't end!!!!!

I'll make a donaton ASAP.

Maybe someone could create a Petition?

Then again, I'm not sure if that would really help.

A petition for what? It's not Adams fault, so I don't know what we would be petitioning against.

And I guess a fourm on one of those free-forum websites wouldn't be bad, all you get is a lot of ads right?

[azman798]

Adam, I may be able to get some free hosting going on here. This is where I host my own website. Let me talk to my friend who owns the hosting to see what he can do for you.

[TSMaster5150]

I would suggest switching over to proboards. They are free and you can customize the layout of the page if you are HTML savvy. I would make a donation, but I don't have a job .

[Calvin]

I would be happy to host the board. If you would like to move everything over, or whatever works for you, please let me know.

My e-mail address is [email protected] if you would like to discuss this further (I was the one who AZman spoke of above).