"What's that red and blue thing?"

[Tom Clayton]

Long-time members know it well. If you're new to this forum, allow me to explain. This site has never charged a membership fee. This site has also never had ads on any page. That means that throughout the year, there is no incoming revenue to support the cost of hosting and maintenance of this site. All staff, all the way up to the top admins, are volunteers. So without the support of our members, this site would cease to exist. We currently have 49,284 members on our roster. Granted, there are probably more than half that have left for whatever reason. But if we could get just 5% of our members to donate only $5, that would put us way over our goal. Sadly, that won't happen. There are usually a small core of members that donate every year. Will you be join that group this year? You'll get two things in return - your username will have a Charter Member title, and you'll get the satisfaction of knowing that you were willing to help keep this site going. All you have to do is click the Contribute Now link on the right end of that bar and follow the prompts. Payment is through PayPal.

If you don't like PayPal, there is a link right above the card logos to a thread with alternate payment methods.

[DennyA]

Donated in Ickie's memory. Glad to still have this place around.

Y'all are my people.

[SpaceHippy1975]

Done, always glad to make a contribution for such a useful site.

Keith

[Tom Clayton]

Alternate payment link has been updated.

[Skyhawk263]

Done! This is an awesome site and I really enjoy coming here. The members are very helpful and the atmosphere is non-toxic.

[Mikk0]

Done! This is great site

[Priller]

@Tom Clayton: what's the deadline, i.e. the last day donations can be made?

Cheers,

Priller

[Tom Clayton]

I'll check to see if there's a desired date, but I think​ donations are open year-round.

[Priller]

Let me rephrase: when is the bill due?

Priller

[Tom Clayton]

Per Dave:

Our year runs June 1st to May 31. We have until Mid May to reach our goal.

Apparently, quotations don't count toward the ten-character minimum post length...

[Navy Chief]

I haven't been on SOH as much the past couple of years, since getting into MSFS, but I will ALWAYS contribute to support of this site. Over the years, I have made a few friends (hopefully no enemies!), and the amount of knowledge gained from fellow members has been extremely helpful.NC

[modelr]

Done. I rarely post, but the comaraderie and help here is top notch.

[Priller]

Things don't seem to progressing, so I donated a second time, like last year.

Priller

[Tom Clayton]

I'm probably gonna do the same thing this weekend when I get paid.

[DennyA]

Just curious... It's not an expense (it's a free program), but it definitely would require a time investment from admins here. Has there been any consideration of moving to a more modern forum app from vBulletin, such as Discourse?

I'm not sure how tied in the library is to VBulletin -- if it's powering downloads, it might not be viable due to how much would be involved in migration.

I'll stick around either way. vBulletin is old, cranky, hard to deal with, and looks out of date, but that also describes most of us forum denizens, so maybe it's appropriate.