[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
In fact, if every website had people like The Admiral, Lazarus, Gimboid, Georgig, Capn, and everyone else that has helped over the months, from donating the hardware, to doing many hours of database programming and website programming for free, they could be free of ads and work off donations too. If you count all that we could never hope to break even. But they have all generously given, so all we have to do is get enough donations to almost break even on the monthly expenses, which so far we have just about been able to do, and I can keep it running and free of annoying popup ads or subscription fees.

Geoschmo

This is the secret of the success of Linux, too. If you had thousands of volunteer programmers willing to spend all their spare time and quite a bit of their work time on your project, you too could have a 'free' operating system with all the functionality of high-end Unix for workstations, and keep it up to date with bug fixes and security fixes faster than a Fortune 500 corporation can for it's own product.

There's something to be said for 'hobby' activities and 'love of the game' (or OS, for that matter) over mercenary (*cough* capitalist *cough*) interests. The profit motive is not the perfect way to motivate people to do everything after all.