Anyhow - Beyond simple ignorance. What's the total cost needed for donations? Why not solicit to the manufacturers that make parts to see if they'll kick in? I'm sure with such a big clientele CEG should be a sure fire shoe-in for sponsorship. Banners and ads are tacky, and they end up driving people away because the site looks cheap - If you wanted to do that then move the site to a free server... Without the forums. Ohh I forgot - Remove the forums, remove the heart of CEG. Isn't that what you some of you are trying desparately to rescue??
Honestly, you spin your wheels to find more ways to get freebies and free money. When in reality it all comes down to the actual admin and what he can afford to do - Which has a complete different bearing than what any member here can say by "pledging" money every day/month/year. Running a site is not a cheap investment - Our company has a site that we spend around $3000.00 a month just for a full time web guy to run the site. That doesn't include server maintenance and also the cost of connectivity. All in all - A mid size business webspace is around $1200 to $2000 a year. Are all the members here ready to foot that bill?
Let's get a show of hands and also money where your mouth is. Foot that bill and I don't see why not that CEG couldn't go on every year on it's own server hosted by a decent company.
