Model Railway Forum

In approx. three months (around late August) the forum hosting and domain name renewal will come around again.
Since 2018 I have paid this out of my own pocket, but year on year the hosting cost rise and last year it was quite dramatic. This years renewal in late August I anticipate to be even higher, with UK inflation running at 10%. I'm finding funding the year on year hosting beginning to get rather expensive on my personal finances!
Some model rail forums are owned by businesses where income is generated via linked online sales. Some ask for a donations (some actually specify an amount required to remove advertising) Or they allow advertising to be put on the forum, Income from advertisers offsetting the forums running costs.

So my conundrum is....

A) Sell the forum to a new owner. (Possibly a business related owner?)
B) Allow Adverts to be placed on the forum by related model railway manufacturers/retailers.
C) Have a Donations link - PayPal or similar where forum users can offer amounts of whatever they feel it is worth to them, annually.

I have allowed a voting system to be used here, so If you would like to vote please do so. Thank you.
Brian

Would advertising raise sufficient funds to run the site for now and into the future?

I know adverts aren’t ideal but as long as they are embedded into the page I.E not popups, and don’t render the site unusable (especially on mobile devices) then I’d be a cagey yes for adverts.

It's a shame that the costs have increased so much over the years. I would have chosen two options but the voting only allowed one.

Adverts and donations are probably the way to go - or something like YouTube where you can pay a monthly fee to avoid the adverts.

I would like to vote for donations and adverts too.

Hi Brian

Sorry to hear that you are finding ownership of the forum financially difficult, I am surprised you have managed to soldier on alone for so long. Since this is quite a momentous decision you have kindly opened to the members, it in my opinion should be discussed and opinions shared before voting.

In my opinion I am not in favour of adverts which might seem a cost free option. This forum has always been my go to option precisely because it was advert free having found most other forums spoiled by adverts. The moderators of this forum have always done a good job of filtering out the odd advert purporting to be a thread, my grateful thanks go to them as they are not always singled out for praise.

Donations can be erratic, if insufficient funds come in how is the shortfall made up? If excess funds come in what happens to the extra funds? An annual prize for the most helpful contributor?

Selling out to a new owner depends how benign that owner is prepared to be, you have been an extremely generous owner in both time and advice offered with the only vaguely commercially input being the reference to your website and the rare plug for your books. I suspect any commercial owner will want to use the forum to enhance their business so we are back to adverts maybe with a paid option to avoid them.

Finally, you have not said whether you want to bale out of ownership or if you are willing to continue ownership but having the financial burden lifted? For me there is one further option to be explored by making Option 1 plural. There may be a member or members of the forum who would be interested in forum ownership. I suspect like myself many are pensioners with modest incomes who individually would find it onerous as you have found but a partnership of members could be an option.

Those are my thoughts and I am very interested what other members opinions are before voting.

Richard

I too would prefer a combination of options two and three.
The upside being that the financial burden is shared across a larger footprint and not dependent on a single person.
The options themselves have downsides though. The forum had been quiet recently - are there enough members that would contribute on an ongoing basis?
Adverts can be intrusive and a turnoff for some members.
There is possibly another option. Many sites have adverts but offer ad free access by paying a membership fee. Worth exploring?

Most of us now have reached a certain age, where we must consider the future time we have left carefully, so my vote goes to sell and have a rest Brian, some young buck can chance his arm with new ideas. GLWTS.

I think I’m inclined to option 1 - sell the site. Option 2,3 or a mixture might still not cover the costs and in any event, Brian, you are still left at the helm. You may not mind now, but in times to come you will have the same dilemma to consider. Stay as Admin. If you want/can but with your feet up and your wallet safely in your pocket. R-

Sell would be my choice. You have given us a very good forum. Step back and let somebody else take over Brian.
Brian

Option 1 - Sell the site - however I would also be happy to make a donation, should the vote go that way. To my mind this is the best site available to railway modellers.