LocostUSA.com

Since this forum was set up for North Americans, I think that it would be nice if there was a nice and easy way, for the people that would like to help keep this resource around, to donate money to help pay for hosting, domain name, etc. costs.

This would allow those of us that use and find this resource useful to be able to help keep it around for us and those that will need it in the future.

What are other people's thoughts?

I know that some people love and others loath PayPal, and with that said, I sense that a PayPal donation button or something would be an easy way to do this --- that is if others like this idea.

That's a good idea, and we may want to do that someday, but unless we start getting a lot more traffic bandwidth won't be an issue. Believe it or not I've got under $50 in this site and it is paid up for 12 months. I'll check into it and if we need more bandwidth we could do something like you suggested.

Thanks, and keep those ideas coming!

busy forums are huge bandwidth hogs. I know the british car forum I belong to used 25GB/month in traffic!

I would welcome such a predicament, and if we get in trouble I may go that route, but first I may attempt to find a commercial sponsor. It will be a few weeks before this site even becomes available to the search engines and our traffic may increase dramatically once it does. Even if we need 25GB a month that only costs around $100 a year. I can buy 50GB a month for $180 a year. I didn't start this site to make a profit so I hate to ask for anything I don't need.

BTW- those prices are Ehostpros.com's webhosting fees.

Speaking of sponsors, have you considered adding a list of useful/related web links? Not the typical "post your favorite links" message, but a locked list or message with all related links on one message, updated by you (instead of two links from me, three from the next person, a follow-up message by somebody else who doesn't like one of my links, etc.). It could be put up as a sticky message for people to easily find it.

I like this idea. I was even thinking about something like this when I was searching the posts earlier.

I would suggest that there be a "link message" for each type of topic as opposed to a single message (all being locked as you had suggested --- I really like that idea).

Since the forums are broken up into different cats. as it is, maybe there should be a sticky of links in each section dealing with that section.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to make you a profit

I would personaly like to donate funds to ensure that this resource always has a home. I have no idea what may happen to you in the upcoming year, and a donation (or 5) may help out to ensure that this resource is around.

The way that I look at it, if 10 people (or more) donate at least $5, the site is paid for for another year (as things stand today --- this of course does not reflect the large growth that this site will see and the need for more bandwidth and the like). Further, if people want to donate (like myself), they can, and if people do not want to they are free to use this resource without paying a dime.