Thread: Member Donations for Site Maintenance & Hosting Costs

The dirty little secret of SRP is that nobody gets paid for maintaining the nuts and bolts that keep the site running. That 'button' that used to say 'classifieds' but now says 'buy-sell-trade' didn't get up there by magic.

A systems administrator had to spend his time to install it, test it, and work out any bugs. Updating and bug fixes take time. Years ago there were a few qualified individuals who had the skills and the willingness to do the work gratis.

Now, and for a long time past, there has only been one individual, and for those hours he puts in of his spare time he doesn't even get a thank you. I forget what the going rate for a systems administrator is, maybe $30.00 per hour, $50.00 ? Whatever it is, if the site owners had the funds to hire an outfit to maintain the site you wouldn't see it down on Friday/Saturday for hours.

It is an admirable resolve to run a free site. But as Nelson Rockefeller (former Governor of NY, and Vice President of the USA) said many years ago, "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

We might be getting it for free, but someone is doing the work, and/or paying for it behind the scenes. In this case it is, and has been, one tired systems administrator.