You may remember back around the time of the contest for the early Halo: Reach beta codes, we asked how you felt about the idea of setting up forums and if you felt they were necessary to the formation and expansion of an online community. Many of you said you thought they were very important, if not essential. After all, not everybody likes to leave comments on posts and if we don’t happen to do a story about something particular that you want to talk about, you’re left without a place for your voice. Forums allow you to direct the flow of conversation with both your fellow readers and CFD!’s staff, which is a win/win for everybody.

However, as you may remember, CFD! is completely run out-of-pocket by yours truly. Web hosting, podcast hosting, non-donated prizes; all of this costs money, sadly, and the site does not make enough on its own to be self-sustaining. If it were, we’d be doing a lot more cool stuff, like improving the site and giving away a lot more free stuff.

This is where you guys come in.

Yep, you guessed it. It’s Fundraiser Time.

Ahh, fundraisers. So many fond memories from my youth of my favorite Doctor Who reruns on PBS being interrupted by some painfully stiff jerk begging for money while offering some crappy tote bag or coffee mug in return. We don’t want to be that guy. So we’re going to cut right to the chase here and answer a few questions that I’m sure are on your mind:

“Is CFD! in danger of closing down?”

No. Our webhosting is paid through February of 2011, so baring catastrophic changes or Act of God, we’re going to be here regardless for at least the next few months.

“So why are you starting a fundraiser then?”

Simple – the main goal is to get the site’s forums up and running and the software we want, sadly, isn’t free.

“But there are free forum solutions out there – phpBB for instance. Why don’t you use them?”

While yes, there are indeed free solutions, most of them aren’t as powerful or flexable as vBulletin, the option we want to use.

“Okay, we’ll bite. How much is this software?”

There are two versions of vBulletin. The standard Forum version runs around $200. The Publishing Suite runs around $300. We’re leaning toward the latter, as the main difference is the Publishing Suite allows for us to do neat things like personal user blogs for you guys.

“Okay, so you guys need $300 total then?”

Well, if possible, we’d love to see you all help out with as much as you can beyond that point, too.

“…”

Allow me to explain. Every dollar we don’t have to put forward personally towards maintaining the site is another dollar we can put into stuff you guys like.

“…go on. We’re listening.”

Such as contest prizes? Free stuff? The possibility of getting a merch store up and running? Allow me to explain further below.

Simply put, we don’t NEED your money. We’re not in danger of going under at the moment and we do understand that times are tight for a lot of people right now. However, if you’ve ever enjoyed the thankless, unpaid work we’ve put in here at CFD! over the last year and a half, you could certainly make your appreciation known by dropping a small (or large) contribution. In return, you’ll get a lot more than just our thanks.

Like what, you ask? Well, how about:

• Anyone contributing $10 or more, up to the first milestone of $300 raised, will recieve a custom “Forum Founder” forum title. Let every freeloading punk in those boards know that if it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t even have a forum to be jealous of you on. Do keep in mind that these titles will be very limited. If one person donates $300 right off the bat, they’ll be the only person on the forums with this title. Who doesn’t love rare goodies?
• Anyone contributing $10 or more will recieve a custom “CFD! Supporter” forum title. Let people know that you’re automatically better than them in every way with this coveted title. There will also be additional forum perks for Supporters (such as bigger PM boxes, the ability to upload more images, etc.) which have yet to be fully determined. Note: Stat bonuses and power-ups do stack with the previous “Forum Founder” title.
• A shiny new forum, where you can vent your spleen about whatever is on your mind in the world of games. Did we happen to mention that forums will make things like setting up game nights with the community, meet-ups at conventions like PAX or running contests far easier, too? Speaking of contests…
• Remember – for every month of site/podcast hosting we don’t have to pay, we can redirect those funds towards cooler ends (purchasing games/point cards/other swag to give away). Wouldn’t it be nice if we could give away a brand-spanking new $60 game once a month instead of just on our yearly anniversaries? We think so. Heck, if this goes well, maybe we could even make those anniversary gifts something much bigger and cooler from now on.

All of the above pales in comparison, of course, to the sense of well-being you’ll gain from knowing you’ve done a good thing by helping us help give you what you want: a better site, a stronger community and more free stuff. Who can argue with that?

“Okay, your argument makes sense and I like CFD! enough to part with my money. How do I do so?”

We knew you’d listen to reason and bribery. Thanks for coming around. Here’s what you do:

Over to the right side of the site, just under the Featured Articles slider, you’ll see our donation meter and a convenient PayPal button. That’s all there is to it. Just please be sure to leave us a note when you donate, telling us who you are (in case the payment info doesn’t make it immediately obvious) so we can be sure to credit you appropriately with your rewards when the forum is up and running.

If you don’t use PayPal for whatever reason, we can also accept checks/money orders. Either toss us an email or send me a message on Twitter (preferably a DM – let me know so I can follow you back) and we can make arrangements from there.

That’s it, folks. Thanks in advance to everyone generous enough to help us out and we promise to limit the number of solid gold hot tubs we buy ourselves.