Hey all, you may have noticed the Donate button in the upper right hand corner of the site. I wanted to provide an explanation so its sudden appearance isn't a complete mystery:

After the problems we were having the month before last with a large number of users getting constant 403 errors when trying to access the site, we determined that our site's usage had vastly outgrown the shared server where it's been hosted since its inception. I opted to move the site to its own private Rackspace server, which allows us to more easily address problems with the site when they arise, and gives us the ability to expand the server's capacity as the site continues to grow in popularity.

The downside is that it costs more money. The monthly fee for hosting used to be $15 per month, and the new cost is somewhere between $45 and $50 per month, depending on bandwidth usage.

Since 2003, I've paid to keep the site up and running out of pocket, to the tune of a few hundred dollars per year. I opted to do this because I and the other admins have always agreed we want to keep the site ad-free so The Source and its community are able to maintain their independent spirit.

Insofar as it's possible, we intend to continue an ad-free policy. That said, in the 10 years since the site was created, I've gotten married, bought a house, and had a kid. Long story short, my disposable income ain't what it used to be. With the increase in cost to keep the site running, we've decided to ask you guys to pitch in, if you want to and are able. If just a handful of users are able to pitch in even a few bucks a month, it will go a long way towards keeping us active and ad-free.

Thanks for your consideration, and for being fucking awesome. We appreciate you guys.

- zilla


EDIT: The button has been taken down for now, as we've met our goal of covering a year's worth of site costs. If you still want to donate and be added to the Site Contributors group, you can donate directly to my paypal: patrick.maeder2@gmail.com. Any further donations will be applied to the following year's site costs. Thanks!