There have been a handful of ideas thrown my way of how to charge a regular subscription fee from Axers for the services offered here. I honestly don't think that charginbg money would work. Right now, there are only two services offered here, a Forum and a News page. The News page isn't fully developed, but it's there and it's running on a budget of $0. The reason it's not developed is that there is no money in it. I could build it, generate interest and create a market for Internet Kickboxing news, but that would take a lot of work.

I wouldn't feel right charging money just for the message board. I would feel ok charging money for the other services, once they have launched, because they require a great deal more moderation and work (like the fighter database example). People expect forums to not cost anything. If the fighter database project grew and promoters were using it for their match-making, I could justify charging some small fee for that service. But that counteracts one of the main reasons for having the fighter database, which is to provide a resource for educating the fans. Everyone needs access to that information if it is going to work.

Rather than charging money for the forum, I am thinking more about the idea of 'paying with your identity'. If you enjoy Ax so much, 'pay' for this service by verifying your identity with us. That won't provide me with revenue with which to develop or maintain Ax projects, but it will make moderation easier.

Then of course there would be all of that small footnote text saying that we would not use your name in a mailing list or spam or whatever..blah blah blah. I can't stand spam. I would only want to use the info to make sure that you are you. I'm sitting on a list of 2600+ email addresses of a very select niche market. There are many companies who would love to get their hands on such an email list. I've been offered money for it, but I won't budge on that issue.