Support TMC -- but to the tune of how many $$$?

[moderators, please feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate forum if need be]

Hi,

Recently, an industrious TMC member generated some funding for the guy who maintains supercharge.info. I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't previously thought about the expenses incurred in operating these websites. So I gladly ponied up a few bucks (ok, $50) for supercharge.info.

Which brings me to TMC. I use it all the time. All the danged time! Since maybe June, 2013. There's no price list anywhere. If it's making money off of ads, that's not glaringly obvious. Costs incurred aren't obvious either. The most guidance I have is the "Support TMC" button, which leads to a menu drop-down that offers $20, $50, $100 and Custom.

Can anyone tell me what kinds of costs are incurred by TMC? What kind of money comes in? Who contributes? Are the "owners" of TMC also shelling out from their own pockets? I very much appreciate that the moderators put in huge chunks of time, and I'd guess that they earn non-cash compensation such as: hassle, disagreement, annoyance, opprobrium and occasional kudos.

Thanks for any and all feedback, data and suggestions.

Alan

Opprobrium to platypus in only 4 posts!

Irrational and quite touching faith expressed re my rational abilities in only one post (thanks, @MikeL!)!

I love it!!!

Sadly, no additional data about potential site costs, who owns it, what might be coming out of pocket, and so forth. Sigh.

I'm thinking about donating a platypus to TMC.

Alan

P.S. Anyone else think that one of the kids watching the beast is simultaneously picking his nose?

InternetDude said:

Ads for one. Trust me, as popular as this forum is, they're making a good profit I'm sure. The independent supercharge guy not so much.

Click to expand...

Hi, @InternetDude,

Where are you seeing these ads? I haven't seen an ad on this website for I don't know how long.

Also, despite an enthusiastic membership, we're not talking Yahoo! home page here. We're talking fractions of a cent per page view per ad, and likely average or even below-average click-through rates. I'm hard put to imagine that this site breaks even w.r.t. basic operational expenses (e.g., site hosting), hence I wonder whether the difference is being made up out of some nice guy's pocket.

Alan