PvXwiki:Financing

First of all I want to apologize for this discussion getting out of control. It was going in tottaly wrong direction. I archived it in order to start fresh and get discussion on the right track again. I will try to explain situation short and accurate this time.

Time
For 2 month ago I was a student, now I got a new job and I have limited amount of free time. Of that time I can only use maybe half an hour on PvXwiki. I have also a new girlfriend, live in a new city with all time consuming things that comes with that.

My role
At this point I feel that my only contribution is paying the bills and making sure that site are online and servers are fine. If someone else will take care of the bills and hosting (lets says Wikia) I will have more time for extensions, coding and the PvXwiki itself.

Financing
In addition to limited time I now also have difficulties paying the hosting bills. I earn a lot more now, but also spend more on house and other “big” things. So the hosting bills cut from my “free time budget” and I am not happy with that.

Problem
I have a lot less time and cash for PvXwiki. I don’t feel like I can provide the stability and the security that community of this website needs. Don’t get me wrong I rather eat cheapest food then see this site offline. It is not a question about immediate problem – it is the future and development of this Wiki that I am not sure I can fully support.

Solution
There is financial and time consuming aspect. Financial problem can be solved by donations, ad’s or moving to a new owner (let’s say Wikia).

Please keep discussion CLEAN, STRUCTURED and with REAL suggestions. I will go for solution (as long as it’s reasonable and possible) that community will favor.

Donations
It is ideal solution as it solves the financial problem without generating addition problem of management and constant monitoring. However it won’t work for PvXwiki simple because most of the users don’t even own VISA.

This solution is not subject for discussion.

Advertising
It will solve the financial problem to some extent, but will generate additional need of extra management and monitoring (the time) as well as adding unnecessary many banners to the PvXwiki. As we are small and will base our income on things like Google Ad-Words with heavy filter of gold selling ad’s it won’t generate much of income. I estimate that with 2 banners we will earn around 150-200$, and 150$ will go to the hosting – so no covering for the negative balance. I assume we will lose around 2-5% of visitors after adding banners.

This solution is subject for discussion.

Wikia
3rd and final solution is transferring of this site to Wikia. Wikia currently runs GuildWiki and as you all know PvXwiki was originally part of GuildWiki. GuildWiki has also same license as us, so transfer to Wikia (for me) seems like a natural solution. It will solve the financing and time problem around management and hosting. They will do it for a lot less banners compared to amount we will have to add in order to generate that 200$.

Wikia has confirmed its interest in PvXwiki.

'''This solution is subject for discussion. '''

Guild Wars Wiki
A number of users have mentioned transferring to the Official Wiki as a possible solution. Due to a number of reasons (see the talk page), this is not a viable or even possible solution.

This solution is not subject for discussion.