No, the purpose is to get the site paid for, so none of the owners have to pay for it out of their own pockets. That's what Adsense is/was doing to help here, but it seems like that's going to end unless we comply with their rules. That's the only thing I see going on.
That's the cause. The effect is what I posted. No one new will waste their money signing up for an unknown forum when there are numerous free ones that already exist. That's my point.
If it's a donation, why would it be required in order to post? Go ahead and post your address so I know where to ship your tin foil hat.
Because if the point is to pay the bills here, and some aren't pulling their weight, then what's to stop the owners from limiting access to those who aren't donating? I've seen a couple of sites I've been a member of in the past, start with the whole donation thing, but in the end the owners cared more about making you read a board wide message about donating every other week when you logged on, instead of just letting you in the site to browse around. Then, they started limiting access to certain area, unless you donated right then when you logged on. It created a rift between the members and moderators, and about 3 months after it started, they took down one of the sites they managed altogether. The other went back to free, but the content changed dramatically, and about 80% of the members had already went elsewhere. That site folded up a few months later. Tenny and Co., I appreciate the board you have here, and hope you keep it free, but I understand if you don't want to mess with Adsense, and decide to charge.
Well shit. Let's stop cussing, that's not a big deal. Hell, maybe Daniel Helm and Bobby Johnson would join.
I'm going to guess that this site not being ran by ignorant, greedy, shit heads will prevent a donation system from doing that. Hell, there are already members making a donation to keep the site running and very few were aware until this discussion so I don't see that implementing a more open donation system would alter the board much, if at all.
You're still just off base. I recommended letting us donate to avoid Google rules. That ended because we'd lose growth potential.