You are wrong. First, renting is never cheaper than buying. I get all of the systems we use from Gold Members who not only build me the best systems but also build them for me at a price better than or equal to those used by hosting companies. We buy everything cheap because we have a massive volume discount. I'm not sure how much bandwidth the site you service use but I assure you they aren't even in the same solar system.

The amount of bandwidth we consume and the server horsepower we eat is staggering.There is simply no way that anyone could provide more for less, it simply can't be done. $60/yr for what?? That is so out of context it's plain misleading.

Sorry you can't scale a small customer's little shop up to a site the size of s2ki in a linear fashion like that.

Second, people ALWAYS pick up the tab. If they don't then capitalism fails and communism rules. You can model it any way you want but the fact is that a large number of people do help pay and that is offset by advertising.

The bottom line is that it's very easy to quarterback from the sidelines because you don't need to deal with details, nagging details, and you can fantasize about how you would do it better. If you put even an ounce of practical reality into your plan it would explode. The benefit of membership is that you don't need to worry about those details. You make a small fixed contribution on an annual basis for as long as you use the site and you don't need to concern yourself with HOW the site get delivered and can concern yourself with WHAT gets delivered.

The problem with the model of s2ki (if there is one) is that the membership value proposition is largely based on charity. Membership offers personal satisfaction in knowing you've made a difference and that you've helped build something larger than any of the parts. If we ran it on a fee for service model where membership came with a specific set of services (like a pay to play member only model) then the value proposition might be clearer but that's just not how it is.

Services Guests receive will be constantly cut back from everything to as much as we can afford to offer at the time. When we get a large influx of guests that stay for a while and don't help with the funding then the costs go up but the revenue doesn't follow suit. The model we have depends on enough Guests contributing financially so that revenue growth maintains pace with growth in the costs of offering the service. A part of the cost of membership is in paying for offering the service to Guests. It's a forced pay it forward system. If those Guests don't respond by becoming members then it's a waste. Ultimate success of the system requires a turnover rate at least equaling growth rate.

Every now and then we need to stoke the fires. We don't do it continuously because we don't want to be in your face all the time. You should pay your membership and then not be bothered again about it, that's how I see it anyway. However, right now we have a need to boost revenues to pay for new capital equipment because the quality of service we can offer with what we have is not to my liking. I like to do better than the least I can get away with. So I put out an appeal for more memberships and for people to upgrade the ones they have and that was picked up by some of the communities largest supporters and passed on. New memberships have increased and many people have upgraded in response and I really appreciate it and I'm paying that back by buying a lot of new servers (at below wholesale of course) and some of them are really powerful and will help improve the quality of the experience and deal with the growth.

I encourage people to continue to join if you haven't already and to upgrade to Gold if you can. I will in turn use that money to help improve the service we offer.

 

Could you add just a straight donation link, that doesn't tie into memberships???

 

The membership is easily worth the price of admission. I look at this site more than any other on the net. It's just worth the $$. I don't think it'll be that hard to get some extra cash from everyone. It really isn't all that much money. If you look at the site enough, just imagine it costs the same as a movie. If you see 5 or so movies a year, you've just paid for a gold membership. Seems reasonable to me.

 

Just joined. I've never posted here before today but I've received good information over the past months. For example, two weeks ago, I saw a thread that mentioned a good place to purchase a hardtop. I saved $700 vs. the price quoted by my local Honda dealer. I thought It was time to contribute. The way I see it, I'm still $650 to the good. I can't wait for the top to arrive.

 

That's awesome. Your first post has quite a story behind it, with a donation on top of that. Thanks to you, and the others, who have stepped up!

 

cthree, care to share how many people have purchased memberships since xviper posted this?

 

I just paid for a gold membership. Even though as mod I didn't have to.

Thanks for a great site Cthree!

 

The money is actually going to me... no seriously..
I'm sure Cthree will explain when the time comes...
It will benefit us all... members and non-members...

 

I just blew $7000 on new equipment with him last week.

 

I don't know an exact number. It's up definitely; maybe 50?? That's just a guess. People join and renew every day so the actual increase depends on how many memberships were set to expire and how many would normally join. My wife does all the membership cards so I don't have my finger on the daily pulse and I have no other way to get that info other than going through and looking for it which I haven't done.

Many thanks Dave. Again you've benefited the whole community!