I run a site similar to this one except it has a lot of content on the root and I just added this style of message board in January.  Since then the board has averaged 100 new members per month.  The content portion of the site gets over 1,000 users per day.  While 400 message board users can't compare to 8,000 users, I don't see why the costs would be 40 times higher.

If they are interested in selling, I'm flexible on the price.

^^^^^^^

????? why is this continuing ????? If you don't know & the other mods haven't told you, do you expect the rest of us to know? Not a flame, just want to get to the bottom of this seemingly pointless excersize.
Scott

[:)]

Another site has a spot on its homepage called "donations" including a snail mail address for those that don't want to use plastic.  I'm sure glad you don't charge by the hour!

You can run a web site really cheap if you do it right. The costs for this site could vary. If you do it yourself it would not cost very much at all.

What you would need to run a web site is

ISP service: Monthly fee but they could already have a connection and just be doing this on the side as a hobby. So it may be free.

Hardware: The computer that the web site is on would cost some money but you can put together a cheap web server box for under $800

Software: Price of this could vary also. If they use Linux operating system you could do this free. NT would cost a little more. If you pay for it.

Domain registration. There would be a yearly fee for this around $100.

? but must be a lot more than the AK site.

KN:
Even being able to put that kind of server online at that price, I seriously doubt that AR15.com would be anywhere near as reliable, robust or speedy as it is right now.  Getting service and rack space from a Tier 1 provider isn't cheap, and a computer hefty enought to run NT and MS-SQL together isn't going to go for $700.  

I'm beginning to agree with Gun-Fan...who cares?  If Ed, etc., aren't going to answer you, then so be it.

I would donate just so I didn't have to close some stupid ad everytime I logged in.

I second the idea of putting a spot on the homepage for donations.  

How about a target amount for some specific upgrade, like new server, or bandwith upgrade?  You could do one of those graphs that fills up so people could be encouraged by the progress instead of wondering where their money goes.

Simple to set up, and I'll bet it will generate a LOT of income for this site.

BTW I am a network admin and consultant and I have a pretty good idea what it costs to run something like this.

Server:  1 time (or every few years) cost.  This can be done for pennies or 10's of thousands of dollars.  I would guess by the amount of traffic, and exceptional reliability exibited here it is either the latter, or somewhere middle of the road with a lot of skill and upkeep behind it.

Bandwith:  This is the big one boys and girls.  A T-1 connection costs around 1000/month.  I would guess that this sight either runs a 1/2 T1 or a full T1.  Probably a full T1.

People:  Do the people keeping the site up get paid?  If not what is their time worth?

Finally, if someone could post the name of the company that runs AR15 (if indeed it is a company) anyone can look up their profits/losses from the SEC. (securities exchange commission)

Godspeed

Ed, what connection speed do you use?  BTW, your DB server sounds quite a bit like our primary DB Server here at work.  Fun toys....

From one to another, my gratitude.

Godspeed

On another site I frequent they have PayPal donation buttons for 5, 10 or 20 dollars. Just click and go. This might be an option to consider.

Did someone say this site was for sale?? There is no reason this site should cost much to run. I have quite a few site on my server and together they get over a million hits a day. Montly cost is only about $350. If someone buys this site I hope they turn it into a libertarian free for all.