A Call for Help to Keep SDAR Forums Alive

[KTMrad 606]

Hi All, I've never liked asking for monetary help from people to keep our forums and website alive.

In the past years ago, we put on the Desert Dash dualsport event yearly and we usually brought in enough money to cover the costs of the website.

But we haven't done the Desert Dash in a few years and this winter it probably won't work out because I won't be able to ride for awhile due to eye surgery.

I will be posting a poll to see how many people find our forums valuable and helpful and if they'd want to donate to keep the forums alive for another year. Hopefully next year in the fall and/or winter we can put on a dualsport ride or 2 as fund raisers.

Here is a breakdown of costs:

• Linode / Linux server hosting costs about $75/month = $900/year.
• Go Daddy domain hosting, SSL certificates, etc. cost about $100/year.
• Invision Power Board license and other fees cost about $80/year.
• We haven't had anyone maintain our site for a couple of years and it was running fine, but we recently had issues that shut the site down. Uncle Cameron who built the site about 24 years ago came to our rescue once again and got the site back online but there are still issues remaining and we need to do monthly maintenance. He originally asked if I could pay $100/month and I said no, so he offered to maintain the site for $50/month. That will cost $600/year.
• Total approximate costs to keep the forums going is $1680/year.

If people are willing to donate enough to keep the site up for another year then I'll do that.

56 people at $30/each would be about enough, but I don't even know if we have 56 active people who would donate.

If you'd like to donate using paypal, please click on "sending to a friend" otherwise I don't get the full amount.

If we won't get enough committed donations, I will leave the site up for about 3 months and then take it down and it will be gone for good.

Please let me know what you think, any input you may have and please answer the poll questions.

The link to donations is on the front page of our site at https://dualsport-sd.com/ or you can PM me.

If I don't get enough donations within about a month and I decide to shut the site down, then I will refund your donations.

Thanks for listening.

Edited October 23, 2025 by KTMrad

[KTMrad 606]

Well that's a bummer, I typed up a poll and for some reason it wouldn't post it.

[Bp619 117]

Randy thanks for keeping this site alive and going. 

I have meet some of my closest friends to date from this site and have enjoyed many adventures from it.

When I was active and doing alot of riding, I always donated $100 a year for probably close to a decade because there was alot going on and tons of rides happening.  I will keep that donation history going and appreciate where this site brought my riding and friendships. 

Having said that the riding forum industry is dead and has been for quite sometime. I hope this will spark everyone to get back into the forum atmosphere but I don't see it coming back especially without organized rides or events that happen often.

[shutterrev 523]

Donated ✌️

[shutterrev 523]

I don't have time to admin a forum but if I did I would suggest the following... 

Domain Host: Just for the domain, domain protection, and SSl, never do hosting packages from these fat cats unless you don't like money. 
Backend (remote machine where site files etc are hosted): DigitalOcean Droplet, like $6-ish a month. 
Done. 
 

Edited October 21, 2025 by shutterrev

[tntmo 1011]

Pretty easy...I just set up a $5 per month donation.  One less beverage purchased outside the home, I can live with that.  

[Wierdrider 219]

Let’s keep it going! 
This is a valuable site and resource for us two wheelers! There’s been so much comradery, and shared knowledge. I hope we can raise the funds. I’ll send the suggested $30 in a bit👍

[moto_rph 180]

sending in a $50 donation

 

thanks for all you do :)

[Beta450 1]

Done. Thank you Randy.

[Zubb 1197]

Done.  Thanks again Randy for creating this forum and it's community.

[DSM8 454]

Done 

[KTMrad 606]

Thank you all for your generosity so far, we are about 1/3 of the way there.

One other thing, if you pay via paypal, please check the box that says "sending to a friend", otherwise I don't get the full amount.

Thanks !

[Mr.JAJA 483]

IT WONT TAKE MY $$$$$

[KTMrad 606]

1 minute ago, Mr.JAJA said:

IT WONT TAKE MY $$$$$

I sent you a PM.

[dirt dame 646]

I stay logged onto the forum, but when I tried to go to the home page, I got this warning.  So I went directly to Paypal instead.

[KTMrad 606]

On 10/24/2025 at 2:38 PM, dirt dame said:

I stay logged onto the forum, but when I tried to go to the home page, I got this warning.  So I went directly to Paypal instead.

We are working on getting a SSL for that domain.

[kkug 161]

Randy you should just let the website die. I see you are more active on the Facebook page. You can channel your energy to one format and it's free. My opinion. 

[kkug 161]

Prime example. I could not easily find this thread. It is too confusing and time consuming to use this website. It needed to be slimed down. 

[SpaceCowboy 73]

Donated. I really appreciate this forum and the community on here. Hope we can keep this going. 

[KTMrad 606]

On 10/27/2025 at 2:44 PM, kkug said:

Prime example. I could not easily find this thread. It is too confusing and time consuming to use this website. It needed to be slimed down. 

Hey Ken, don't you know how to see new posts/threads by just hitting the "View Activity" and "Unread Content" buttons ?

[SpaceCowboy 73]

How’d we do here? Did we save the site for another year? 

[DSM8 454]

11 hours ago, SpaceCowboy said:

How’d we do here? Did we save the site for another year? 

we are still waiting for your kidney...when you going to stop by so we can extract the donation?

 

😁

[KTMrad 606]

On 12/15/2025 at 8:29 PM, SpaceCowboy said:

How’d we do here? Did we save the site for another year? 

Not even close.