Or maybe sock the excess away for keeping the site running in longer term.

My Vote, backed with dollars.

Marv, sent you a PM in case you still need that donor laptop. Will send a monetary donation in the next few days after I'm sure a sale went smoothly and customer is satisfied.

Gonna send another PM to you and TheGame.

Will definitely donate (closer to the end of the month because my checking account is looking...a little thin).

I'm with Knerian in that I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. An affiliate setup would be an easy way for me to passively support the site. I've had AmazonSmile setup for the past two years to give a portion of my purchases to Human Rights Watch.

Well, gay marriage is a thing now so I'd be happy to divert the donation support elsewhere.

I don't know wtf happened early in life, but homeboy hates asking anyone to pay for anything or to try to make money off something like this. Hell, he dislikes the thought of Chang even paying for itself. Meanwhile he's loaned gear (and even money when things were super tight) to tons of us here, given us deals, and really just been an incredibly giving human being.

Absolutely In.

I think that between this IPO, and the suggested affiliate links chang can amass enough to keep this baby humming. As mentioned before, the affiliate links strategy (for long term) requires no whoring, its essentially passive. As long as you aren't paying your mortgage and putting your darling children through college (cough, Rockwell, cough) then you don't even have to remind us every fucking page to click through the links when we buy shit.

For what its worth:
I strongly recommend against vendor money for upkeep and maintenance costs; I universally approve allowing vendors assist with meet logistics. I also recommend against speshul content for paying members only. That would definitely send the wrong message to young, poor, budding hobbyists. It also creates the wrong kind of entitlement. If there is a speshul invite only inner circle, that is great, but tying it to donations feels... proto-head-fi-ish.

Also:
Can the new website be "Changstar 2: The Search for More Money" ?