So just out of curiosity how would you then prefer us to keep the lights on ? I think with what ADDED value we give , our Cards and Coins , that your not REALLY paying for anything other then for a service we provide ?!?
In todays world surely you cannot believe that you will get something (or everything) for Free ? Every site collects money for memberships , it does not matter if it is our way or another way (through selling your data to companies) NOTHING is FREE and for those who think they are getting something for a LIFETIME on deals like "Lifetime Memberships" you need to start rethinking that real quick.
You cant compare us to other sites who offer paid subscriptions . We are not a BIG CORPORATION who has shareholders who needs pleasing , nor are we those who want to line our pockets with your hard earned money, we are in fact only a very small organization trying to (and been doing for a LONG time ) help the members here in the Community and unfourtantly that does cost money.
We all benefit from the membership cycles, for me peronally it helps to pay the costs involved here , it also helps me to organize smaller things along the cycle and it helps pay for the Give Away that is offered as a Perk and most importantly it keeps us from having to spam your experience here with unwanted or even sometime wanted Advertisement from other Products . We have never done Advertisement for other Companies on a payment bases , if we Advertise we do it because we believe in the Product for which we Advertise for , not because someone comes along and offers us money to do so , we like to stay unbias as much as possible.
So your opening statement in my judgement should have been "Supporting MYSELF with a Gold membership now !" with that i can live with as it seems to be the mentality of the world today .
This is not a rant directed at you in any manner , it was just an opportunity i elected to take advantage of to voice my opinon here in the Elite circle ... as one great man said ,
"Ask not what your Country can do for you but what you can do for your Country" , just replace Country with Community and thats how i feel about it.
I hope you will recieve what you have came here for and can really appreciate the effort that is put into a Community like this.
Take care
John