Why Donate to COMBATSIM.COM?

Reason #1: To help cover this site's basic operating expenses.

Background: This site has been self-supporting via banner advertising revenue since 1997. Unfortunately, banner ad revenues for all content publishers across the Internet are only a fraction of what they used to be.

Monies collected will go towared the following expenses:

1. Dedicated web server hosting fees
2. Dedicated forum hosting fees
3. Pizza
4. Travel and accommodation at E3
5. Thrill of a lifetime air combat flights
6. Autographed leather flight jackets
7. Vegas golf trip

Yeah, as much as we'd like that Vegas golf trip (and all those other things) we won't spend the money on anything but the server hosting fees. Mind you, if you really, really want to take us golfing in Vegas, send us an email :)

About the Web Server

We use a 1and1.com managed server to host this site. There are cheaper ways to host websites, but given the size of this site (many dozens of gigabytes), and the excellent uptime of the 1and1 servers, and the fact that we aren't on a shared server where anything can happen, this is the best possible scenario, albeit a tad more expensive.

About the Forums

The archive forums are right here on our 1and1 server, but the new forums are hosted at InvisionPower.com. Once again, it's about uptime and reliability. Forums are like newborns: they cry, spit-up, and generally make a mess of themselves. Add in the constant updates to forum software, and you've got a recipe for gray hair. Because we like to have a life (just a teensy one) we leave the hosting and upgrading of the main forum to the pros at InvisionPower.

Bottom Line

The hosting and the forum fees come to $110 USD per month, or $1,320 per year. So, that's our goal for donations. If we can raise $1,320, we'll take down the donation button until the money has just about run out and we need to run another donation campaign for next year's hosting fees.

The NO THREAT Guarantee: Raising this money isn't a must-have sort of thing. The site won't go offline if we don't raise the money. It's a would-be-nice sort of thing. What if we don't raise the money? The site's owner will just keep paying the bills until his wife divorces him ... and if there's any money leftover after that, then he'll keep paying the fees like always. Not much of a motivational speech, we know, but that's the truth, and if we've been about anything here at COMBATSIM.COM, it's the truth :)

Still not convinced? Why not read the comments from a few of our supporters.