Do you think its right?

[temi]

I just got a message from a forum I used to frequent DaniWeb asking for donation. I am not sure about forums or sites asking for domations, what do you think? Do you think its okay to ask for donations to support a site?
Thanks

[Bagi Zoltán]

I belive that it is not a wise idea to ask for donations if the given site is a forum. Concerning the Hungarian forum some wanted to donate our work voluntary, but we refuse this, since don't want to give the control out of our hand.

[gkd_uk]

I think emailing members for donations is wrong. A forum owner could add a donation button or link to a forum and then it's up to members if they wish to donate.

[RiverWire]

I used to use them too but got bored very quickly, quite frankly it discusting what they are doing it would even classed as begging

[vicdigi]

That is darn right rude and quite ****y to say the least. That aside, guys and gals, please donate some of your hard earned money to me - no reason, I just want your cash.
Don't donate dah doughnuts. and i've had toooooo many cream cakes today!

[dman_2007]

DaniWeb is a pretty big site, i am sure they are making good money through advertising. Asking for donation in this is not ethical im my opinion, had it been a small site which provides its services for free, then i don't see anything wrong in asking for donation every once in a while.

[TnT]

A forum with over 300,000 members should be able to sustain itself through sponsorship / advertising. One forum I work with has just over 150 active members, and through google ads alone they cover their server / hosting costs. The members of the site took it upon themselves to donate various items that were then auctioned off, and a member used one of those shopping merchandising sites to create mugs / pens / t-shirts where costs of them go back to the company and you make a small profit from them - no capital costs involved.

Emailing members asking for money is totally the wrong way to go about it, and I would have thought a site such as DaniWeb would have known better, there are more productive ways of covering costs. Special areas for paid members, some sort of subscription - or maybe putting software and tech tips onto a CD and selling it - easy well thought out examples that will be productive and help raise money and will also benefit the members of the site.

Part of me would also wish to question the authenticity of the email from the site? I find it hard to believe that the particular site in question would do that? Still, could be wrong!

[OldWelshGuy]

My rugby forum adsense doesn't earn me tosh, and last month we had well over 3 million page impressions.

I am in fact going to take the adsense off there, including the adsense in first post mod. It simply isn't worth the grief of waiting for Google server to serve the ads. and TBh I am not happy with the ads on there anyhow LOL

[Cryxellis]

I think emailing members for donations is wrong. A forum owner could add a donation button or link to a forum and then it's up to members if they wish to donate.

Agree with you gkd, it will be better if they will create buttons to a certain link for donations and not in their private mails.