All opinions are worth something Martin and therefore worth airing, so keep 'em coming.This is something I know that Chris and Sarah have had on the back burner for a while now and i have to say i fully agree with in that some control, restriction...call it what you like....would be good, but might it be a deterrent also???? A very difficult one problem I fear. But at the end of the day a donation is simply that ....... and not a subscription. But as we can so clearly see there has been quite prolific uploading recently and as I said before, to which you allude, £15 doesn't buy a lot these days...  So why not go for the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing that you are doing your bit to keep this great site afloat......it is consciences that need to be pricked.

Another thought. . . . . another site i use has a 2 tier membership system....free or paid for. The main difference that I can see is that with the paid for membership you get to see your photos at a larger size than those of the free membership. This would require a certain amount of programming as always on a website but might be one route worth investigating to push people into donating

Thank you Mike!

a small donation of 15£ is the least that could do

Thank you Emanuel and Mark, 

thanks also to Mike for getting the wooden spoon out

I agree, well done Mike...and thank you to the new members for donating.

A thought...how about each one of us giving a POE friend a 'nudge' if they are not currently showing 'Gold Star' status. At least that way if they don't use the forums they will get the message, quite literally!

In fact I have just 'nudged' a friend with the following message:

Dear ...

I have just suggested in the POE forum that we should perhaps 'nudge a friend' into making a donation to help keep the POE site running.

Chris and Sarah are struggling to keep on top of the huge hosting bill and therefore I ask as a friend for your help.

You can donate by clicking on any 'donate' button throughout the site.

Thanks in anticipation
Regards
Anna and Ron

After the email nudge, a response from my friend just arrived and he has said he will definitely make a donation in May.

That is a result I reckon, but I'll be watching and if he doesn't donate in May I will remind him again.

I don't how POE survives. One person has uploaded over 7,000 photos to the site, another over 4,000, another over 3,000.Most of us only submit our best photos.

I donated money as soon as I joined. I willingly paid a fee on other websites where I posted photos.

I can't see anyone complaining Cath you do your fair share behind the scenes. Mine is duee soon also. But this is avery difficult subject. As I inferred previuously this is basically a FREE site with requests for donations.....NOT subscriptions. I think we can only rely on some consciences being pricked by these forum threads but i fear that some of the more prolific uploders do not enter the forums so we are p**ing in the wind. The subject of quality of images has crossed my mind before but as Ron has said before every photo submitted has meaning to the photographer and unless it is particularly bad or does not fit into the parameters as set by Chris and Sarah he has no reason to refuse them. I have noticed recentkly a=some B&W images appear and I thought B&W had been stopped some time ago!!!! I realise it is a very contentious issue and am not condoning those who upload lots of images and do not donate .... but what can we do. The most obvious is as C&S have been considering .....setting a limit for non Premier members. Maybe a two tier system similar to other sites.....GUEST (free member) and PREMIER (full member). The only problem I can see might be the loss of some members. 

Basically there is not an easy answer. A couple have suggested that we 'nudge' members when we make comments.....but I am not so sure about this because it might just antagonise memebers and off they will go.....