Hi Cranky,
Many thanks for posting up the invitation to donate to the website. It will help. I hope to figure out a way to show “how much” we are using so that Forumosa members can see for themselves how close we get to our monthly capacity. Unfortunately, we are projected to surpass our capacity (10 million conuaries per month) in this, our second month with DreamHost.com
matthewh,
thank you for the suggestion. I have set up Amazon affiliation in the past (at oriented.org) and have considered others, too (like cj.com). However, the results have been very modest. To my mind, these are most valuable if the website showcases certain topics, which have books, stuff, etc that supplement the content itself. In the very beginnings of the website, I actually proposed/planned a Bookshelf section or forum, but this got very little attention. Plus, the upkeep of such content will always be an issue.
As a discussion forum, the visitor readers ARE the content providers (or is that vice versa?). You/we are the showcase. This has proven to be a very sustainable (“growing”, actually) web model. My personal preference is to shy away from any suggestion of charging for access to you/us.
Sandman,
Thank you. But please remember that Forumosa is not organized as a business, so I am not able to issue any official receipts or invoices (for tax purposes, etc… uh, how large a donation did you have in mind? 
). I can give you a simple receipt of funds for your records, if you need it. But if you don’t tell me in advance, I’d probably be writing it on a napkin at the next moderator gig!
Which bring’s me to Boss Hogg’s suggestion: paid advertising
Hogg, this is much easier said than done, especially if one wishes to be very careful and proper about it.
First, I’m not a fan of the Web Ad Business Model to begin with. I’ve told friends who’ve asked me why I jumped off the ORIENTED bandwagon that if I really thought this was a viable business, I’d’ve stayed on board in some capacity. Christine was very open about how I might fit in – she’s got a big heart. My skepticism about Internet commerce in general plus personal priorities (I had just gotten into grad school at that time) kept me from committing “more” to ORIENTED. (Mind you, I believe oriented.com today is a different animal althogether – broader geography, tighter focus)
Next, the administrative backoffice of administering ads space and billing clients (heck, even worse, collecting from clients) just don’t attract me. Remember, I don’t even think it would amount to much to begin with – see the paragraph above.
Granted, if I did commit to doing this fulltime, maybe – maybe – I could survive on something. But I’m actually – “finally,” my friends will chime in, since I’ve been yapping about it for years – entering a new path: healthcare; so I’m going to need to focus my attention and savings on getting started here. (btw, did I mention I’m moving back into Taipei city next month – my monthly rent is almost quadrupling! :shock:)
I’m starting to babble incoherently now, so I’m going to stop. But I will be posting details about the nature of the financial responsibility this website poses, and how I hope this can be done transparently.
Oh yeah: “tasteful” advertising? There ain’t no such thang
Cheers,
gus.
) I’m sure Hartzell could put some to good use.
– would thus go directly to helping maintain this Web forum that so many of us have become attached if not addicted to.
I was already signed up with them and so never saw the extra pages everyone else did. I’ll see if I can get that company to make things simpler for all concerned.