The Future of Our Community and Its Funding

[exxos]

First and foremost, I want to express my deep appreciation for the donations we've received so far. Your contributions are sincerely valued, and they demonstrate your commitment to keeping this community thriving. However, I need to be transparent with you all: despite these generous donations, they are currently covering only a small fraction of the yearly costs required to keep the forum, wiki, and ExxosHost websites online.

Maintaining the infrastructure that supports our community involves considerable ongoing expenses, including:

Server Rental Costs: Essential for keeping our forum, wiki, and websites running smoothly.
Domain Names: The annual costs to maintain the various domain names under ExxosHost.
Anti-Spam Services: Crucial for keeping our platforms free from spam and ensuring a positive user experience.
Cloud Storage: Used for hourly and disk backups, which are necessary for data security and disaster recovery. These backups take up significant space and contribute to the overall cost.

In addition to these financial burdens, there has been a significant amount of time invested in keeping the server online and functioning smoothly. Recently, this has included moving from Apache to Nginx due to persistent issues, as well as dealing with server overloads caused by bot attacks. The constant fight against server attacks and maintaining the stability of our infrastructure has become a huge responsibility, leaving me with little time for much else.

Furthermore, the server requires constant security updates and frequent firewall rule adjustments to protect against emerging threats. While these updates are crucial, they can sometimes cause other issues that require additional time and effort to resolve.

Up until now, I have shouldered the majority of these responsibilities, both in terms of time spent and money invested. As much as I am passionate about this community, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sustain this level of personal commitment on my own.

I am actively exploring other potential revenue streams to support the forum, wiki, and websites, including the possibility of introducing advertisements. However, I want to be candid—based on current estimates, it’s unlikely that ad revenue alone will generate enough income to cover our expenses.

This is where I need your help. We must find a sustainable way to fund these platforms if we want them to continue to be spaces for everyone to enjoy. I am reaching out to the community for suggestions and ideas on how we can solve this problem together. Whether it’s exploring new fundraising methods, increasing regular contributions, or finding other creative solutions, your input is crucial.

It’s simply unfair for the burden of both time and financial support to fall so heavily on one person. If we value this community and the resources we’ve built here, then it’s essential that we all pitch in—especially on the financial side.

I’m confident that, together, we can find a solution that keeps our forum, wiki, and ExxosHost websites alive and thriving. Please feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, or any potential solutions you might have.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

[chronicthehedgehog]

A Patreon page would make it easier to make regular contributions

[terriblefire]

A Patreon page would make it easier to make regular contributions

I concur.. thats the simplest thing.

[stween]

Agree on not relying on ad revenue.

Also agree that a patreon may be a good approach for recurring contributions (I would contribute this way). There's also ko-fi which might attract the odd small one-off from people.

[sporniket]

Being absolutely against ads, I would prefer a Patreon or somethings like that.

Another approach would be the creation of a non-profit organisation, because a substantial part (the forum and the wiki) can be seen as common goods, with a yearly fee to fund those costs. Downside would be : firstly, requiring people, time and paperwork for the administration of the organisation and accounting -especially trying to separate the non-profit part from the profit part and all- ; secondly, there will be a risk of conflict or underhanded manœuvers that could steer the organisation from the original goal. So maybe more headaches given than taken.

In any case, a kind of yearly report to state how much is needed, and how much was funded would also help.

[szeremiocki]

A Patreon page would make it easier to make regular contributions

I concur, and would chip in; maybe layers of support for „fame and recognition” would be feasible too

[nemox]

Patreon, ideal...

[MegaSTEarian]

Patreon would be the best for me as well

[exxos]

What does Patreon offer over the current donate button ? Aside from much higher fees and maybe subscription?

[AndresPlazaR]

What does Patreon offer over the current donate button ? Aside from much higher fees and maybe subscription?

To be honest, I did not notice the Donate button, until you mentioned it.

Maybe to make the donate button, and the message behind it, more prominent would make a difference?

Andres.