PBW server is back up.

[AMF]

I agree that making a mandatory fee for PBW is not the best solution. However, I also think that the current "advertising" for donations is not too strong. Why not just a nicely worded request at the front end that says, simply, "we'd really like it if you donated $1 each month to pay for this site. If you don't want to, ok, no problem."

It would sort of act like the donations box in the lobby of museums - you can get in free, but many people do donate becuase it's easy to do so and it's right there...you could even put a PayPal button right there, give it a little "donation box" with animation, yadda yadda yadda...Maybe even a graphic showing running donations, and deficits for the costs involved, so that when you got low on funds people would see that and get more excited about donating...I'm sure there are plenty of javaistas out there who could whip that code up in their sleep...

In any case, PBW is a wonderful service, and I will go right now and donate even more money to it. (But I'm buying a new house in the next week, so not much this time around...)

Thanks,

Alarik