Rupert,
In regards to what this site costs to run, that is a good question.
At the moment, this site is piggybacking on a server and ISP that is used for a commercial business. I have permission to use this location for the time being as long as the load doesn't become an issue on the hosting system.
I have no idea what the future may hold, but I am planning for the eventuality that we need a dedicated low end server and separate ISP account to host this site. At that point, the site will begin to cost serious money.
We are running this site out of our own pocket. The relative DNS/hosting/redirect costs amount to about $130/year. The minimal $5 donation is an effort to provide for a future home for the site should it ever become necessary.
In addition, there are a few software packages that I would like to add that are not free.
At the present time, we have received a total of $5 in donations, and this is fine with us.
Until we can't afford it anymore, this site will be free. To be honest, I can't imagine running the site as a subscription service. We didn't start the site to be that kind of system, and we have no intention of it ever going there.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
-T