As you might have known, we've been having a spot of bother trying to find a decent, reliable host which is made all the more problematic by the nature of this site. Unfortunately we exist within a space where the site traffic is too much for a standard shared box, the donations are too low to get a dedicated box (which would solve everything
) and its difficult to source a VPS. With no offers for hosting, we've had to try our luck finding somewhere that can support the site. At the moment we are on a burstable shared box which gives us the cpu/ram, and its located way offshore (which unfortunately means a bit of latency for europeans).
So this all leaves us with a sticky wicket (not the deficated ewok, i believe its a cricket term) on supporting the site (costs
So here's a few ideas:
MerchandiseT-Shirts are available, although no donations make it to the site until a quota is reached:
http://33417.spreadshirt.com/us/US/Shop/You should be able to take the logo and apply it to your own design, effectively donating $8 to the operating costs of the site
Another possible merchandise line would be something like keyrings, for a small price (say, £3 + p&p) this can be made and dispatched easily and we can take it as small donations.
If there is interest, please voice it.
Other merchandise becomes difficult due to cost and requirements to bulk order. Things like mousemats require runs of 250, whilst spreadshirt and similar have very limited options in terms of design.
AdsSomething I've always wanted to avoid, but a run of ads may provide some contribution towards maintaining costs. Something simple like google ads text links perhaps on frontpage entries:
I am not really a big fan of the ads, and is reliant on click-throughs which aren't always attainable.
Pop-ups are strictly something that will not be consider.
Rewards for donationsAnother possibility is a donators usergroup that will access to some other kind of section of the site. Suggestions would be appreciated, certainly something like relaxed rules, etc. is a possibility.
Feel free to contribute, criticise or be insulted.