Simple answer Max?
Self Interest, Enlightened or blatant depending on your point of view.
We've run the site for 6 years without asking a penny. Swore we never would unless you got something in your hands for your hard earned cash.
Our traffic figures show we're already staring the next server upgrade in the face. This will put our costs firmly in the 5,000USD per month category plus hardware and commissioning fees. Therefore we need some extra revenue, we're giving something other than the site in return and this is the busiest forum.
Make of that what you will - the thread title says all so no-one's being conned into viewing. Apart from covering the cost of the badges the money goes to support running the site once a one pound contribution to the PPRuNe Fund has been made. IFR is doing all the admin, packing and despatch entirely unpaid because he loves the site, the people he's met through it and the incredible feedback he's getting from those who received their badges.
We'd all like to publicly thank him for his tremendous enthusiasm, hard work and an incredibly fast service to readers.
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Regards from the Towers
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