Jim, What is the annual operating cost / budget for the board and how much of that is met by donation?
Briz, If we don't have any major issues, and don't buy any upgrades, the tech support, hosting service and security certificates are just shy of 6K a year. About $500/month. We have the latest, greatest wiz bang servers, that are upgraded/replaced with new stuff regularly, a huge pipe in/out and super tech support.. can I get it done cheaper.. certainly.. but not better in my opinion. Ask yourself.. when was the last you time clicked on V8 Buick.com, and it was not there? I can't recall the last outage of any substantial length of time. Our up time and speed are among the best of any board of this size. The database on this thing is HUGE. Donations vary from year to year, and we fell considerably short for many years. TSP picked up the tab to the tune of 2-3K a year, for at least a dozen years. Since I instituted the "Founders Club" we have covered the cost every year. We bring in about 6-7 K in the average year since then. Because we have covered costs for the last 5 years, I have resisted any advertising on the board here. There are huge dollars to be made with advertising, not to mention the increase in the value of the board itself, but as long as you guys are paying for it, I will not make you sit thru clickbait ads.. those drive me insane on nearly every other site on the internet. We also had a very nice gift from one of our users last year, which has given us a nice cushion should things go south on us. So you won't hear me bitching about money.. we are doing just fine, as long as you guys keep it up. Thanks JW
And you might be interested to know.. Mike and I have been approached many times over the years, by these tech congolomerates that scoop up these boards.. Average offer price has been about 50K.. But V8 Buick is not for sale, I would shut it down before I watched it get turned into some hostile place like yellowbullet, or get riddled with ads and clickbait.. It's simply too important for so many of us. JW
Sent via PayPal also. Thanks Jm and Mike for all that this board does for us!!!! It's much appreciated!!
Within days after the board started it became my go-to Buick site, but I never imagined it would grow to what it is today.... Thanks Jim!
Donation made. Thanks to Jim and the staff for all the hard work. Much appriciated. Please, please don't go the comercial/advertising route. It drives me nuts on forums/pages with advertising. You can't read a post without banners, popups, etc. keeps stealing focus. I have been a member for many years and only a short time ago realised that I could make a donation. Apologies, I will try to make up for that. As already mentioned in the thread I think it would be good to move this thread or do something to get more attention. Thanks.
just made a donation via paypal...thanks for everyone's help and good reading....george from da bronx
Is this how guys get the custom sayings under their avatars? I’ve often wondered. I used to think is was the number of posts, or years on the board.
Nope. You can change yours by clicking on your board name on the upper right of this page and editing your personal details.
Jim, many thanks for maintaining the board. This year's contribution sent via the donate Pay Pal button. Almost as fast as my granddaughters in lightening my wallet!
Thanks again for another year of a great resource! I sent my donation via PayPal on Sunday, January 23.
donation sent. sorry I was not able to help the last few years but I hope 2022 gets us all back on track. Hector
