To the Mushroom Observer Community,

It has been an amazing year for us. This year we hit some major milestones: 100,000 images, 50,000 observations and 2,000 registered users. This means we have essentially been doubling every year. While Jason has achieved some minor miracles in his volunteer efforts to keep things going with the bare bones server configuration we are using, it is becoming clear that we will soon need more memory and more processors to support our continued growth.

Unfortunately, this means our server expenses will be going up. So far I have been happy to support the Mushroom Observer server needs out of my own pocket, but those expenses have also been essentially doubling every year and I will soon not be able to afford it. As a result, I would like to start asking for donations from the community. Those of you who have gotten a lot out of the site and want to see it continue to grow and expand, now is your chance to give a little back and help with the financial support of the site.

To that end, we have setup a donation page that can securely accept money from a PayPal account or a regular credit card.

I would like to raise at least $2000 to cover basic server costs. The more we get, the more we can expand our capacity for traffic and growth. And the fewer times you will encounter server down time and failed uploads.

When you make a donation, your name by default will be added to our donors page as soon as we confirm the donation. If you would prefer to donate anonymously or make other special arrangements for your acknowledgement, send a comment after you make your donation.

Please help support this active internet community of people who enjoy sharing and learning more about the mushrooms around us.

Thanks,
-Nathan