MechSpecs - Change of Command

Hi all!

My name is Bart, known better as Excalibaard on MechSpecs. I need your help to fund the continuation of this community.

MechSpecs is a site and independent community primarily built around the game MechWarrior Online, specifically our enthusiasm about the game's 'MechLab'. We've been around since beta and have always been focused on being a community for people who don't necessarily want to build and play the 'meta', but make mechs fun in our own way and share them with others online. This way we can provide players with a database of fun builds to try out, or help them try their own hand at building a mech they enjoy.

For the past 6 years, the site has been run by our webmaster Michael, but he's stepping down after having lost interest in the game several years ago. It's being sold to the community first, before other options. I took it upon myself to borrow some money to deal with the transfer of site ownership and to preserve the community we have, but need your help to pay it back. I'd prefer to do this before October!

The requested money and anything extra that is collected will be used on the short-term for retroactive payment of the site and on the long-term all donations will be used for any future upgrades we might want to add. In more detail:

- To cover a large part of the costs of the site purchase (1800 CAD), and fees around the transfer of host ($150 administration fees, $189 for a new year of hosting)
- To buy a new XenForo license ($140), which comes with extra features for tagging mech builds and enhanced security
- To buy any additional add-ons for the site, notably a better rating system and enhanced search function ($20-50 each)
- To add support for builds in other MechWarrior or BattleTech titles in the future, perhaps including legacy games if there's interest! ($???, we'd split it into separate instances per game)

It would mean a lot if you would support this cause and support here extends into the Benefactor/Star Lord system.
If you include your forum name in your donation, I will make sure to grant you the appropriate title! All Benefactors or Star Lords are closely involved in site decisions, so you'll not only support the site, you will also have a say in the direction we're heading!

Thanks for reading, hopefully thanks for your contribution, and see you at www.mechspecs.com !