Assume that any payments made under this approach would be strictly voluntary. General feedback would be regularly provided so that everyone knows the current financial score. All site features would remain free and open, and the site would exist pretty much as it does currently.

A secure online payment facility would be set up (probably using PayPal) which would accept credit card payments.

Please be as honest as you can. Your answers are anonymous. I want to get an accurate appraisal of the viability of this approach.

To help you frame your response, here are some figures:

Server costs currently run about $5000 per year, which equates to roughly $100/week, or $470 per month.

In the past two weeks, 8705 messages have been posted under 562 different user names. 136 of the names had only one message posted. At the other end, the top 100 posters had an average of 60 message posted over the 2 weeks, or about 4-5 per day. A total of 150 users posted at least 15 messages over the period (one per day).

In the past, I have estimated that the number of lurkers (never posting) is in the range of 400-500, but this is a difficult count to get an accurate handle on.

If 100 people were willing to voluntarily contribute each month that they are active, an average monthly donation of about $5 would be required. When annualized, this sounds like a big number. When compared to the daily cost of a cup (or two) of coffee, it seems reasonable. But you will have to be the ultimate judges of relative value, and of willingness to pay.

With that as background, here's the poll:

RotoGuru Poll

If an online facility were available for voluntary payments to keep RotoGuru.com available (and free), what is the most you be likely to contribute for each month you use the site? Nothing Nothing, but only because I would/could not make payments online. $1 per month $2 per month $3 per month $4 per month $5 per month $6-9 per month $10 per month more than $10 per month, if needed Results