Originally Posted by
Dustin funny thing about a forum is, you get opinions, no matter what.
even crim has implemented a small bit of advertising, because it's necessary. The money making machine that mike has planned would be mostly to keep the place running smoothly. We can do it one of two ways, keep it low key grassroots, or go big. either way, the community won't change, the information will always be there. It's up to whoever owns the domain at this point.
My opinion is this, I'd rather the users not have to pay a single cent to "use" the forum. That means no contributor accounts, no donations nada. The users contribute by posting helpful information, helping each other out etc..
If vendors want to participate, I'd require a small donation from them, as they are using the forum as a channel for revenue. This money I would use to help support the forum and keep things running.
Having a single ad space (be it google ads, or forum vendors) I believe is a fair trade off to make this model work.
That is my current model for sustaining the forum, we'll see how it works out. I may end up asking for user donations at some point in the future, but its not the current plan.