RS246.com Forum :: The World's #1 Audi R, S and RS Enthusiast Community

It's happened again but I'll need a few days to sort it out.

OK

Hi PhilT

In the interest of keeping the forum alive, can you say where this site generates it's revenue to stay afloat?
It's a SquareSpace hosted site and thats not free, so I'm wondering how is it paid for? I would contact the owner directly but this info is private for obvious reasons.
My concern is that owners and admins very rarely share whats really going on behind the scenes and I'm concerned this site will go the same way as RS6.com if it is not supported correctly.

Interested in your thoughts - shoot me a private message if you like
This forum contains so much info and it would be a real shame to loose it one day

Regards
Craig Barlow

Agreed, would be a real shame if it was closed down.

Would it be better to get an annual one rather than 3 monthly one? Save on the admin and faffing about.

A paypal donate or kofi link would be an easy way of getting money then people can drop a few quid in every now and then.

Agreed. Far too much info on this site to lose it.
Totally up for throwing some coin into the coffers.

Another happy to sub the forum.

John and I started this site 22 years ago (!!) and through thick and thin the moto has always been to keep it alive if it has a life (Love this shout out recently https://youtu.be/0qje9zwyIkA?si=0oRZXVKHGuLG6DB5).

- SSL is now fixed Every now and then there's a problem between the server software and Let's Encrypt. They are 3 month certs because they're free.
- For a long time now, the site has been run as RS246 Ltd and I'm the sole director
- The revenue comes from Google Ads (Which seem to have disappeared for me...) No biggie, I've wanted to clean that up anyway.
- It's hosted on a server in Germany (Hetzner). I'm the admin for that server. It hasn't been rebooted for over 3 years which is a testament to its stability.
- I have a "day job". We tried having multiple admins but it's easier to have one throat to choke.
- Membership has been on the cards. I'd like to implement paid membership as I think it will help to keep the spammers/scammers at bay a little but I've looked at it before and it wasn't simple enough (i.e. upgrade friendly).

Really appreciate the positive feedback and willingness to give back

The ads are back. Good in a way but I feel like they could be toned down a bit.

Cheers Phil