Rusty's posted a heartwrenching note to Kuro5hin explaining the economics of running the site. K5 is powered by free software, donated hardware, gratis bandwidth and community-contributed editorial.
Nevertheless, it's a full-time job for Rusty to keep the site going, and he's got to cover things like accounting, payroll taxes, medical insurance, etc, all told, about $70,000. He's tried banner-ads, text-ads, premium memberships, whatnot, and none of them have come close to covering that sum. So he's gone to his members, the super-smart brawling K5 readers, and hit them up for an idea.
As Rusty points out, he sees over 300,000 unique visitors every month. If every one of them were to pay in one dollar, just once, he'd be set for four years. All he needs is a way of convincing them all to kick in that buck and he's in biz. If you've got any ideas to help K5 afloat, go create a (free) membership and post a message.
