If you think about it and crunch the number a little: if 280 monks contribute $25 over the course of the year --- that's $7,000 right there. And I'm sure that many monks like myself would contribute far more than just $25 a year.

On the other hand, if I'm told that I have to donate (via setting up a subscription system), I would reluctantly do so. And in my experience, when people pay for something, they expect something back. So, when a subscriber can't find the answer to a question, might he scream bloody murder? What about people who pay for the subscription, get downvoted for a bad node, are they getting what they paid for? Whether or not they are isn't the issue. It's whether or not they feel they are. Bad news spreads faster than good news. Not to pick on a genius such as merlyn or start a flame-war: One jilted subscriber who feels as though the merlyn's answer was a little snarky starts to spread around to potential subscribers that we're an evil and nasty community. Then that'll develop a trolling problem. :( But I'm probably being paranoid.

Besides, when was the last time you opened your door on a Sunday morning and saw a couple of monks standing there going, "If you don't give us money, you aren't allowed to appreciate our singing." Them some hostile monks ;)

scottstef brought up a good point of "who gets to decide how the money is spent?" Not that vroom would intentionally mismanage funds (and I don't think that's what scottstef is trying to say, either), but there are ways to prevent that. I have received several donations to my humble and imperfect website. I could have easily spent the money on the eBay auctions that go hand-in-hand with the site, but what I bid on and how much I bid relies heavily on personal judgement. So instead of using the money on auctions, I attributed it directly to the hosting costs. And in order to make my contributors feel better, I keep track of who contributed and send out a report of where the money went. Granted, I wouldn't recommend vroom mail out reports considering that his site is soooo much larger than mine, but perhaps make the data available online to those who have contributed. Or perhaps that's too complicated a system or too much work for him?

Update: Took out the downvoting comments. Contrary to belief, I couldn't care less about xp.
Update 2: Modified first paragraph to way-lay a lot of the /msgs I've been getting about it. Please stop people, I can only take so much.
Update 3: Due to several complaints, removed signature. Anything else?
Update 4: I shouldn't have asked. I was going to edit the first two paragraphs, but instead removed them completely. I'm tired of being bothered. Please leave me alone.
Update 5: More complaints...Removed the personal experience tags. There will be no further updates, so please stop /msg-ing me about it.

Sarah