I have thought for long about this. How to offer unlimited photo storage and site free of obtrusive advertisement banners and at the same time retain our independence of particular brands or sponsors.
Sites tied to some brands or belonging to particular companies logically tend to have forums with limited self-expression. They often show phenomena like banning critical discussion or external links to some competing products. This can’t yield anything good and we’d like to avoid this at all costs. Our members could and should review any products they wish, share their opinions and even have the option to critically express themselves.
Much better way is I think to have great community of fans that like what we are doing and can support us on the way. Some can donate $1 a month and some even $10. With growing number of fans I think we could safely ensure site operation and even future growth and development.
And then I’ve ran into Patreon - site that does exactly what we need - it aggregates small monthly donations. Using our profile there you can became our supporter and even get some rewards for your support!
Visit our Patreon: Overgrow.com | creating 2.0 | Patreon
If you use the same e-mail address on Patreon that you are using here on OG we can easily identify you and set you up with the Supporter Badge and Custom Title next to your username (you can also stay in anonymity if you wish). In the future we can add more features to the group of supporters but for now it is you - generous supporters - who is bringing others free to use Overgrow and helping to cover its costs. And also guaranteeing that Overgrow will stay.
Thanks to all Overgrow supporters!
p.s. Some features - like supporter badges - will be working with next update.