I sent out a member wide email on this issue but if you didn't receive it here's what it said:

First of all let me thank all of you for helping make OohYa one of the fastest growing new chat sites on the net.

Unfortunately we find ourselves in a tough situation. In order to keep OohYa up and running without problems we need a powerful dedicated server, this is not cheap, in fact our server costs for OohYa are about $4,000 per year. Up until the last couple of months we had always been able to rely on a steady stream of advertising income to keep the site up and running smoothly, however since March our advertising revenue has been cut significantly due to the economy.

Because of this drop in revenue several upgrades we had planned for this summer have had to be shelved such as user rooms, a new room list drop down category style, and a permanent ignore list. Hopefully things will turn around soon and we can start working on these.

The month of May was by far the worst month we have ever had in regard to ad revenue. Blame it on the economy, the spring weather, or just bad luck, whatever the reason we didn't even bring in enough to pay for the server for the month. Hopefully this was just a bad month and things will turn around in June but now we're left scratching our heads on how to keep the servers up without selling blood and still keeping OohYa a free service.

The good news is I think we've found a reasonable solution, but we need your help to do it. One of our advertisers pays us for each free member we send them. The member does NOT have to spend any money on their site. If you enjoy OohYa and would like to keep it up and running please help us out by going to clickcashv2.webpower.com/Refer.dll?Acct=...&reload=template and creating a free membership. You will need to enter a credit card when you join but you have my word that you will NOT be charged anything unless you wish to view one of the pay cams on their site.

We feel that this is a better solution then asking for donations as this helps get exposure for our advertiser, doesn't cost our members anything to help, and will help keep OohYa up and running smoothly.

Thanks!

Spencer
OohYa Administrator
www.oohya.net

That is a wonderful solution. But what if you don't have a credit card? Well I actually know a way to get a card, make $10 and help you guys out at Oohya. If you are interested sf let me know.

sorry SF I'll never use my credit card for any site I don't care what it is, there is way to much fraud and identity theft going around the web right now, especially on these supposed "Free" sites.

There is one thing I learned long ago on the net...nothing is FREE. there's always strings.

I'll make sure SF looks at your post Michael.

shadowgauge wrote:
There is one thing I learned long ago on the net...nothing is FREE. there's always strings.

Well, isn't OohYa FREE? We don't require a credit card or anything from you guys, though we do ask for your help to keep a site up that you all use. And there are other sites, too, that are free (like dA) so I have to respectfully disagree with your statement.

I'm guessing most members will use the excuse of not wanting to use their credit card (and I understand that), but how else would you guys like to help? SF has asked for donations in the past and no one wanted to donate anything. If you are interested in donating, then please post in here.

I won't apologize for stating the blunt truth... Many members on here don't seem to really care when it comes to helping us keep OohYa up (though they say they'd love to help), but you bet they'll complain if it goes down. I always hear complaints because something isn't working right or because we don't have a certain feature and during the few times when the site has been down for some reason or another.

This is not the first time this has been brought up. If you guys have ideas for keeping the site up, then please share them. We need your help.

you could sign up for a pre-paid debit card so there would be minimal risk of you losing anything more than what you put on the account

I have to agree with Shadow, on the nothing is "free" statement. Yes Oohya is "free" (to us, per say), but is costing SF (I assume) "4000.00 a year to operate".
I also would never put my credit card info on a site that I wasn't familar with, as PXF stated. However, I would be happy to donate via paypal, as I use this site often, and I'm sure you all do to. I say let's see how many $5 donations we can get..come on guys, you KNOW that's not sh** to be able to keep chatting and interact with friends. Would cost a lot more than that to go out and have a social life, right? Look at what drinks cost. hehehe Who's in?

If anyone would like to donate you can do it here
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xcl...ed_button_id=5889178

Every bit helps, so far we are up to $50.

Lol, I feel like we're running an OohYa telethon. Anyone know how to juggle sing on cam lol?