I have no problems disclosing the costs of keeping this forum going :
Annual Hosting fees ........... USD39000
Annual Vbulletin licencex4 ...USD 520
Technical service fees USD 600 approx. (database maintenance etc)
Chat room USD 129
Server maintenance USD 2000 (memory, hard drive upgrades etc)
Without paying advertisers, I would have closed shop a long time ago. During the first 3 years of operations, I had to subsidise the forum to the tune of USD20,000 per year.. this was a real subsidy not the PAP govt definition of subsidy.
However, trying to get advertisers is an uphill battle. Everyone claims they are not OKTs and are just "helping" the girls. My question in return is the standard.... "why are you helping?". Usually, the truth comes out after a while.
There could be some genuine cases of those who simply wanted to exchange info getting caught up in the scam. To those, I offer my sincere apologies.