I got ANOTHER beggar letter from a Novus Ordo (mainstream) Catholic organization "facing imminent financial ruin if YOU don't help!"
I get sick of these -- it's like they abuse the generosity and charity that so many Catholics have.
In my opinion, it's not charity to donate to your favorite "blog" or "internet time waster" web forum. Because whatever "good" they can point to, could be done JUST AS WELL on a more efficiently run web forum (such as mine). And they certainly can't say (in a shaky voice) "Oh.... Oh...but what if we went out of business? NO ONE could take our place! So many souls would be in jeopardy..."
Not quite. Catholic fora are a dime a dozen, and most of them cost little or nothing to run. It's only when you have PAID STAFF that they get expensive.
Hey, if "Catholic Answers" goes out of business, I'm sure someone a bit more efficient (cost-wise) will fill the void. Heck, they're welcome on Cathinfo! My costs are $0 a month, and even if I was paying for my hosting, it would be $10 a month (not $10,000).
I think Catholic Answers needs to find a cheaper webhost! Hahaha
Yes, I know it's not webhosting that costs them $10K a month, but I disagree that you need to hire staff for a web forum -- UNLESS you are so big that you have tens of thousands of $ coming in every month from advertising. It sounds like they MIGHT make $2000 a month, which would barely pay for one person making $10 an hour.
Notice how they say "curtail" and not "close" -- they know (as well as I do) that they could keep going as long as they can dig up $20 (for a month of webhosting) from their couch cushions. They don't want to admit how much needless "overhead" they have.
Here is a bit of their latest e-mail:
Our dire financial situation has placed a key part of our ministry at risk: our popular Internet forums.
Without a substantial infusion of money, we will be forced to curtail Catholic Answers Forums.
...
That's because we host and manage the site EVERY DAY of the month. And every month it costs over $10,000 to keep Catholic Answers Forums on the Internet.
The site does not yet pay for itself. In fact Catholic Answers Forums runs a deficit of nearly $8,000 every month.