I'm unsure how the culture of the board changes by the amount we spend to keep it live.

I'm a little nervous about whether we can come up with the entire $2400 for a year up front. Speaking for myself, I'd be happy pledging (say) $5/month, but sad as this is, I couldn't give $60 right now, and I think I can safely say I'm not the only Buffista who's kinda broke.

2400/100 regular posters = $24.

IJS.

I think in the long term a $200/month fee might become a problem for fundraising, but in the near term? NSM.

Well, I'm assuming that some regular posters won't be able to give at all.

The thing is, and I speak from experience here, it only makes a difference if we let it.

If disagreements start being peppered with accusations of "freeloader" or "just cuz you gave money to the server doesn't mean you can run roughshod over everybody else"- then the culture rapidly will take a nosedive into unpleasant divisiveness.

But, like all other community standards, if we're vigilant of ourselves, it may cause some intermittent hiccups, but no substantive change.

I just want to chime in with one thing. I do a lot of work with places that deal with bids, and that have to choose the lowest bidder for products, and this almost never works out well. I see that we are looking at a lot of solutions, and that is very good. However, the cheapest solution is not typically the best. A Hyndai and a Mercedes both fit the definition of a car, however there is a world of difference between the two of them.

I'm happy to pitch in so that we can move to a good solution. Let me know where I need to send my money. I'm happy to pitch in and help keep things running smoothly here.

Well, remember that we built these boards because TT went pay and some of us didn't want to or were unable to pay, and some of us did want to or could and did pay. It was unrealistic for us to buy gift memberships for everyone who needed them, so we built our own sandbox.

I expect that if we're able to maintain a moderately low price level, we'll continue to be able to sustain the boards as we have been, with those who can and wish to pay doing so, and those who can't or don't wish to pay not doing so. It's never been a thing. We give when we can because we like it here, and we want it to be available both for ourselves and for others. That's just how it works.

If we are paying a significantly larger amount, yes, there will be board culture changes. But if we need to, we may be able to weather those changes just like we have weathered those in the past.

The only person who knows who gives what is Jesse. I don't see an issue that touches board culture.

The only person who knows who gives what to charity is me, and all those gifts are given in the name of Buffistas, and that hasn't ever been a problem. I don't see this as different.

I'm not all that worried about a cultural shift under increased financial requirements for the board. I know I can give more than some and I'm perfectly willing to do that without wondering who hasn't paid or who can't pay.

The only thing I'm worried about is having the phoenix around for a long time and having it stable and comfy.

Now on the technical side, the problem with researching new hosting possibilities is that our primary problems have an unquantifiable aspect. We have a problem now. We don't know what's causing it. It could be our code, or the server configuration, or a bug in mysql, or something we haven't even guessed. We have no way of knowing if a new hosting situation can handle the problem or how willing they will be to work with us to work it out.

Because we wrote our own code and have an unusually active site (in terms of transactions, not necessarily traffic) we are likely to be a problem customer whereever we go.