Donations? but.. why!?

[OuranLover]

Hey everybody!

I'm so excited about this place, it's quite awesome! I just wanna sit and watchs AMVs all day!!

I have a few questions, that i can't figure... this donation policy is quite frustration, i get that it's a necessity for the site to function, but isn't there another way to solve the problems with enough servers? I mean, how 'bout ads, or help from foundations? I mean, these AMV's is a great thing for anime creators, how come they don't give a hand?
Has it always been this way? When did donations become a necessity, and how did it work before?

Sorry about my english, i'm danish, and sorry if i have offended anyone... i assure, i'm more curious than upset Good weekend to you all!!

[Kireblue]

I've only been a admin / mod for a short period of time, but I've been a member of the site for years. As far as I know, its always been funded by donations from its users. There was a period of time where this was also supported by a small amount of ad revenue, but I don't remember why it was stopped. The last form of revenue that the site receives is through the Site Store. I don't believe that the site store has ever generated a tremendous about of revenue, and so the act of updating it with new products and designs has been neglected over the years (although I actually plan to change that within the next few months).

But in a nutshell, donations have always been the most reliable form of income for the site. Its not mandatory though, and most of the users have never donated anything. But the ones that have donated are a really big help in terms keeping the site running due to the high costs of maintaining such a large server that constantly gets multiple download and upload requests.

But anyway, welcome to the site! If you have any other questions, the site FAQ will should be able to answer them. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 5&t=125099

[Kionon]

We have NEVER placed ads in public spaces, in my understanding, this was because we wanted to avoid even the mere appearance of potential impropriety to property owners. That is to say, we are fan-made, fan-owned, fan-administered. The last thing we need is for the property owners to think we are *profiting* off of the remixing of their creations.

We had ad revenue only on the most inconspicuous spots, mostly when you did searches as a logged in member, but not directly around any links to any videos. I am not sure why we stopped doing that either, but maybe even that made some of the admin team skittish. It has been a long time since our discussion with Wind-Up Records, and we'd just as soon as prefer not to repeat the experience ever again.

We are a fan community. We rely on donations and the voluntary time and effort of both members and mods/admins. I've made very little money from my editing skills over the years. I ended up a print journalist and civics teacher, not a video production specialist. But I still have tried to put in as much effort as I can spare from each of my jobs (teaching, journalism) and my other obligations (my role as a union leader and organiser). Because ultimately, few things have been as consistent in my life as AMVs. I'm headed towards twenty years in the community.

I flat out admit I haven't donated in several years, although I did in the first few years we did donations. In the last several years I have tried to contribute with time and effort, but I would encourage anyone to put in both if they can, and if they can't do time/effort, then money is always helpful.