Am I missing something here? The answer seems too
simple...Charge a nominal annual fee for membership...lets say $10.
It is well worth it for me and I would think many others as well. This
should also reduce the number of false nicks that people sign up as.
You'd now have to ante up $10 to get a second nick to boost your
ratings! This would clear space on the site for real members who want
to support this site...Even if there are only 1000 users, this will
comfortably cover costs.
That's it. The simplest and efficient solution. One pays $ 15 for
instance at ChessWorld.net. Is that an exaggerated sum for one
year? How much do so many of us spend at the pub, the cinema, a
medium-priced dinner? And these are over in a matter of hours.
Memberhip-fee offers you a 1-year playing chess. Do it, chris!
An annual membership fee would surely solve the financial problem,
but that isn't the only problem mentioned as a reason for auctioning
off this site.... I quote:
"Due to the site becoming hugely more popular than we expected, we
are no longer in a position either financially or socially to keep it
running to the standard it deserves."
If the financial problem is solved, that still leaves the "social" problem.