@nohidingstyle
Sorry I should have been more clear. A pledge was meant to be a placeholder for a future donation. Keyword is donation - you choose the amount (increments of $10 to keep it simple), and fulfill that pledge when an actual payment system is available. This explains my disappointment. It was simply a request that members offer some sort of vow or commitment for a later date when a satisfactory payment system was available. No names or addresses were involved with pledges, just amounts.
The only monetary goal is a \"surplus\" sum, so that the next 6, 12, even 24 months of costs (as well as the increase in costs in that time) are covered by a donation bankroll. The alternative would be to charge for membership, since it isn\'t fair some of us donate to keep the site going while others lurk and freeload. As I\'ve said before, I\'m not going to divulge forum finances but it\'s safe to say that it isn\'t terribly expensive nor is it dirt cheap - it\'s just the fact that this forum\'s very sustenance depends on how well the a few people decide to tip me for dining out. Imagine that, life-changing penis enlargement information brought to you by the discretionary tipping of random strangers. Although I don\'t get real paychecks, I do live \"paycheck to paycheck\" so-to-speak and it can make furnishing funds for this site a real challenge at times. This is why I trouble the community with my rants & pleas lol.
This also begs the question - how responsible am I for financing this site? Originally this place started out as a very small community (I remember when it was just 20 registered members exchanging whatever trending topic we could find) and the costs were $0.00 because the site we used (
Phalloplasty.proboards.com) hosted advertisements and therefore the service was free. However, the host issued a demand that all nude photos be taken down because it violated their Terms of Service or else we lose service. I complied but the lack of photos killed the most important aspect of a cosmetic penis enlargement forum. So I had to find a host who would tolerate a wide range of photos and topics that were adult-oriented, but it came at a cost ($$) and here we are today. The costs started out manageable but we had to upgrade packages every few months because of increased traffic. And this site continues to grow. Now that this site is an entirely new beast compared to the old days, do I still take sole responsibility for financing this site, or does the community, who benefits largely from its resourcefulness at no cost, have a stake in this too?
As far as where the money goes - it goes right here. As long as the forum is up and running, you can be assured that your money has or will eventually be put into running this site. If donations are abundant, we\'ll perhaps even use it for future projects (other niche sites, small conventions/conferences, etc), while notifying all donors of those possible expenditures.
I hope that makes things a little more clear, and if you have any sort of direction you could lead me in (e.g. payment processors, etc), I\'ll be listening
