Hi Ray,>>I get the impression they are
quite well off. They have recently upgraded their hardware to improve
message board access times (they had recently become very slow at peak
time). This wouldn't have been done unless they could afford it. <<
That may be the case, but who really knows. Some deep pockets could be what's happening, and now they want to defray the cost. Forget hardware and software to make a forum happen, we already have that, and do *not* expect the members to pay for it. We are trying to cover the costs of our monthly/yearly bandwidth usage, and that's all. Bandwidth is expensive, and there's no way around it. I do not know the exact particulars, but I do know that we almost covered it last year with the crew memberships (the balance paid out of Ben's pocket). This year we have far fewer memberships, and it's just not fair to ben and his family. that's the bottom line. As much as I hate to see this place go, I certainly do not want to place any hardship on Ben.
>>Also,
they're advertising their annual conference and exhibition at the moment
again suggesting they are reasonably well off.<<
Well, if it's anything like the MicroWings conferences, then they actually make money on the event...lots of it. McKay did them to subsidize his operation 
Everyone had to pay to go, the exhibitors had to pay more to show their stuff, *and* he had companies like Microsoft sponsor certain events...not much comes out of their pocket if they use the same model.
>>Can you give some hard facts? How much do you need to stay solvent?<<
To be honest, I just don't know. What I do know is that if Ben says we're in the hole, I believe him. If he's ready to close up shop, then I know we're *really* in the hole. Ben did this for the love of the hobby, not to make money. If there's money left over, it goes back into the site with software upgrades, product development, etc. Maybe your $35 won't make things solvent, but 20 people like you could make a difference.
Like they say, every vote counts <g>.
--Greenie
**6 miles SSE KSJC**
-= VPC OffLine Reader 2.1 =-
Registered to: Mike Greenwood
-OLR.PL v1.80-
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