The Nikongear (NG) forum was conceived as a haven for free photographic spirits all over the world. What unites us is the love of photography. We tried, and might I declare, succeeded in creating a forum for friendly discussions on all matters of interest to photographers world wide.
The NG Crew explicitly created NG to be free of annoying advertising, third-party cookie monsters, or getting a revenue by selling site information to advertisers. Neither would we ask for donations. Instead we relied on a communal spirit in which members did take out yearly subscriptions priced quite modestly. Had 20% of the current membership been subscribers we could have slashed the subscription fee even further
This policy has worked quite well up to recent years. However, the covid-19 Pandemic years saw a sudden break of the traditional NG meet-ups and the site activity declined as well.
What is more worrisome is the fact that running costs of the NG server and domain maintenance have nearly doubled and the number of paying subscribers has now dropped to a dangerously low level. At present the subscription fee will not be able to defray all running costs beyond 2023. As a site owner, I will not pay more than I do at present to cover the deficit longer than towards the end of 2024.
The above is an accurate description of our current status. What to do is up to our members.
