What do you think of membership charges? Have your say here.

[MunkHead]

we NEED a dedicated server. I've had this conversation with HT already. Believe me, he's basically getting the cheapest service for what he needs... :

Why do you need a dedicated box?

If your own box is really necessary, then surely a Linux box with a good pair of RAIDs will do? Hook it up to a 10mb pipe, point your domain at it and kaboom, you have a dedicated box for a song. Just load it with lots of discs, even 1Tb discs come in at under £50 now.

[Hot Trout]

Try it for a month and see if it works.

Unlimited downloads for a one-off £25.

Actually got a better idea: Sell this for £29 hardware only and throw in 'free' unlimited MAME ROM downloads http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Arcade-Joysti ... 3a5f5fce92


Repeat £19 for USB NES controller and 'free' access to the NES ROM downloads. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-USB-GAMEPAD-JO ... 2eaaaa006e

Repeat ad-infinitum with all the other USB controllers.

That way you are selling the controller and giving away the ROMS to use with them. You cant be accused by some eagle=eyed lawyer of 'selling' ROMS or emulators.

We already offer a lifetime unlimited account for just $10 one off payment.

[MunkHead]

I think you need to offer something physical.

Internet psychology has it so its very hard to get someone to part with £10 for a subscription than spending £100 on gear in a video games store.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Arcade-Joysti ... 3a5f5fce92 I bought one of these and I have to say its brilliant! and it was a song.

[Hot Trout]

Why do you need a dedicated box?

If your own box is really necessary, then surely a Linux box with a good pair of RAIDs will do? Hook it up to a 10mb pipe, point your domain at it and kaboom, you have a dedicated box for a song. Just load it with lots of discs, even 1Tb discs come in at under £50 now.

Our server is Linux, it has a Raid5 Array (I am not sure what a pair of raids is, if you mean two disks in a Radi1 this is not enough as death of any single drive results in a rebuild of the mirror and huge loss of speed to the users)

Without getting into the hows and whys of a dedicated server (and we need a dedicated server), I will simply say what I said to other users when asked this question.

If you can find a host that will provide 24/7 Dedicated Server, 4GB Ram/Core2Quad/1000GB Raid5 with Hotswap Spare/daily backups/WHM/CPANEL/10MB Connection/5TB Downloads a month/live support from real people in the server farm, for less than $250 a month, then by all means let me know so that I can check them out.

[Hot Trout]

I think you need to offer something physical.

Who is going to parcel them up, post them, take the payments, amend the database. With registration the system is automatic and fast. This is better for the user who gets upgraded immediatly and better for us because we dont have to work to earn money. Remember this is all based on a donation, not a payment.

Nothing is ever sold or purchased here, you make a donation for as much as you like, from $1 to whatever. If that donation is $10 or more we simply reward the user with an Unlimited account.

Simples

[riverraid]

Funding should be collected through advertising and such with an option for members to donate.
Making charges mandatory will drive members to other forums

[Hot Trout]

There will never be a manditory charge for the site. Also if bandwidth use charges decrease in the future, we would also be able to make more (larger rom) sections available to GUEST and REGISTERED members. The goal is not to make money but to cover the costs of hosting, bandwidth and maintenance.

The latest roms sections added like Dreamcast and Daphne have single roms over 1GB. If I were to allow everyone to download these the bandwidth costs would be huge.

[Kherr]

Funding should be collected through advertising and such with an option for members to donate.
Making charges mandatory will drive members to other forums

Do you ever CLICK on the adverts? The answer is probably no. Do you run firefox, more than likely. Do you have ADBLOCK PLUS installed in your firefox, almost definitely. So when does any revenue get generated from ads? I can't see any ads on TOC because I run both firefox and adblock plus. Even if I could see the ads, I'd never click on them, which is what you have to do to generate the revenue. I don't do that. Expectations of generating enough revenue from ads to pay for the site's upkeep is just simply like trying to beat your head against a ten-foot thick titanium wall thinking that you'll get through with just your skull, especially when the cost to keep this site afloat is around $250 USD per month. Also, donating is OPTIONAL here. You don't have to donate... Ever. You don't have to donate to have access to 95% of the site and you don't have to donate to download the majority of the content within.

There will never be a manditory charge for the site. Also if bandwidth use charges decrease in the future, we would also be able to make more (larger rom) sections available to GUEST and REGISTERED members. The goal is not to make money but to cover the costs of hosting, bandwidth and maintenance.

The latest roms sections added like Dreamcast and Daphne have single roms over 1GB. If I were to allow everyone to download these the bandwidth costs would be huge.

So there you have it. Besides, this is the ONLY site on the net that isn't riddled with that "VOTING" crap, and we also offer roms that other sites DO NOT HAVE. Just click, download, and play. So a mere ten dollars to have access to the remaining 5% of the site isn't selfish or what have you, but smart.

Another thing, if you want an unlimited account without having to donate, go post in the contest thread for December. No one has entered yet, so your chances of winning would be 100% as of now. >.>'

Sorry if I sound like a dick, but your post irked me. Anyone with a brain can see how valuable their donation is to the site, and if they feel that asking for a donation to unlock their account for the remaining 5% of the site (which helps to keep the site running) is unfair then they can go somewhere else. I've donated twice. I plan to again. This site is invaluable to me, and I can't possibly see it go down. I quit using any of the other emulation sites once I found this place 3 years ago.

Nothing is ever sold or purchased here, you make a donation for as much as you like, from $1 to whatever. If that donation is $10 or more we simply reward the user with an Unlimited account.

Simples

[Hot Trout]

Thank you kherr for your 'passionate' response, I know you have our best intentions at heart. Please don't take offense riverraid, your opinion is greatly appreciate by everyone. I guess why Kherr got a bit miffed is down to the fact that the vast majority of users/members never take a minute to even post in the forums never mind make a donation. A lot of good people are working hard around here to make this all possible. We dont want to make money from it but it does cost quite a lot every month just to provide such a good service.

Did I mention that it most likely will be going up in terms of costs next month. This is because I want to extend our storage capacity to 2TB. From Jan on the monthly cost of running this place will be approx $295 and we are only now getting anything like that from donations. Up to now I have paid for this all by myself.

[JAHGoVeg]

So the point is buckle down pull out your wallet and start posting :p