Apparently, there is a real danger Beyond Dominia will fade away. I'm not exactly sure why everyone has decided to etch their names into the epitaph and give up on this seemingly hopeless situation !
Why not discuss solutions ?
How much is Shadow asking for the site ?
There are plenty of frequent denizens (myself included) who would be willing to pitch into the purchasing of BD. If we can find enough willing people, it shouldn't be that expensive for each individual.
I would also be willing to donate a few bucks every month for other fees such as maintenance, domain name, etc.
I realize this is just an outline and not a detailed plan and needs to be worked out much for any chance of success.
*** God forbid something like this can't be pulled off. What kind of contingency plans can we make to insure there will still be a type 1 banner for players to flock to ?
I'm only 1 person, but with enough heads, and enough generosity, we can definitely make this happen.
Even if we did pay for the site to whom it would go? We would be sure to hit an argument more than an agreement between all of us, and that would make it hard too.
If possible, we could all put in an EQUAL amount - then vote for somone to head the pack. Instill some veto laws and some impeachment laws... it could be a start.
How much do you guys think this web site is going for? I e-mailed Shadow and asked but I never got a response. I'm all for saving this site. I don't think there really should be a discussion as to who would "head this pack".
Oscar has pretty much been running this site as long as I can remember. And he has been doing an excellent job. He does not even get payed for it.
I don't know much about how much it costs to buy and maintain this place (Shadow, if you are reading this, please e-mail me with details at r***n@l***o.com on what can be done if it's not too late). I'm sure we can come up with something. But I would need to know what kind of costs we are looking at.
This place is THE only worthwhile Type 1 forum ANYWHERE. Most of you don't realize this, many are lucky enough to have a Type 1 following where you live. I don't.
Let's see if we can do something while we still can.
I'd pitch in some cash if needed
I will too, if we organize this as it should be. Remember before forking over any cash that this ought to be organized and we should have elected someone to run over the site.
This is what I refer to as the BD Premium solution.
Objectively speaking, you can predict problems organizing this in an international community, the logistics of collecting payments, nitpicking over people who don't pay but should, and paying for maintenance of the webhost, etc., etc.
Simply put, with an offer from at least one established site, I honestly don't want to dump the burden on one or two people, or even have people pay for the rest of the community.
And I certainly don't want anyone to act like some international collections agent. 
I might be exiled for suggesting this, but why not charge a flat montly fee for membership ? As little as 7-10 bucks wouldn't be bad - again, as we all know - I'd be willing to pay.
Many sites have sites where, in order to become a member, you pay a monthly fee through a credit card. Monthly dues are AUTOMATICALLY deducted from the balance of the cards. There would be VERY little need of any kind of international collections agent.
Any kind of prophet can be put into any expansion... OR... any prophet could possibly lower dues for current members. That months prophet can be put into a safty fund. Once that fund reaches a certain - and reasonable amount - montly feeds can drop .25 cents... or whatever. The safty fund is there to make sure the site is underfunded. If the deduction is TOO much and the funds must compensate again the following month, we can reajust the fee. With enough simple math though, this really shouldn't happen. What I'm trying to get at is, If enough people are members, something as little of a dollar... or even less... can become a monthly fee. Something I think everyone can swing.
adding to the above suggestion:
only members of BD could post on any threads
After seeing the pathetic state mtgnews.com is in and realizing it isn't an alternative, I'd be willing to help out. Any of you heard of paypal?
I for one wouldn't pay a monthly fee, and I'm sure we'd lost both some current members and far more potential visitors that way.
I also think that were such a pay scheme to be implemented, you'd see a significant shift in the dynamics of this place, though whether that would be for better or for worse is a matter of opinion.
Another problem could arise when taking into account the number of foreigners at BD. Not everyone can easily afford US$7-10 per month (that's around NZ$15-25 per month), particularly taking into account the differences in currencies. I get paid the same number of dollars as an American would in my job, but because NZ$1 = US$0.45, I would effectively have to pay twice as much. As a student (as a fair number of people here are), I couldn't justify it (I'd rather buy a dual land).
Would the costs of the site really be that high per month?
lemme see.. *whips out calculator*
I'm looking at $10-$15 CDN. The Canadian dollar sux ass.
Who knows what it cost Shadow to maintain BD's existence? Has he told anyone?
I strongly support Godder's point: I for one also would be hard pressed to pay US$ 7 - 10, due to my oncoming university studies. I'd be willing to pay money, yes. But it had to be 5 USD at max.
Dozer
Making this a "paysite" would also mean getting rid of some of the spamming problems ...
I do not believe that a monthly fee would be more than 3$ and that´s an amount I would def. be willing to pay. And Rakso: I would have no problems with mods being freed from paying!
Let´s face it: Shadow was here like 5 times during the last year. Do you think he would pay more than 100$ a month just to maintain a site that he doesn´t even visit himself? I wouldn´t pay 100$ for something I am not interested in - and that equals 33 members paying 3$ each month. Can´t be that hard. And since adding more than 33 members would decrease the monthly fee, everybody would have serious interest in getting new members to the site.
What is this $100 an month thing? It's no problem hosting a site -much- cheaper than that. A domain name costs roughly $15 a year now... If Shadow wants to quit, I suggest he frees the domain and let someone else aquire it - then that someone could make a new, improved BD.
--
Chris
That´s what I meant, 100$ is unrealistically high, but even if it were that much it would still be affordable for us to pay a monthly fee. That basically means, if everyone paid only one dollar a month we could save th site AND would probably still have some excess mana ... money to improve the site/give some money to the mods/save for bad times or bigger server/lower fee/whatever.
15 Dollars a year ?
Hell, I'll pay the whole 15 bucks if it'll keep the site alive.
Logistic Problems:
Where do you put the site?: You need a fast, robust connection so that the site can be accessed and a mountain of server space (judging by past T1 mill problems, probably more than shadow had). If one person buys, this is less of an issue, but if many international people 'buy', there is not just the issue of a sketchy partnership agreement (which is begging for trouble incidentally), there is the issue of who organizes the site's location and maintenance.
It would be nice to see bdominia hang around, but don't let sentimentality cloud your reasoning. What made this place was the people and the resulting discussions, and we can have those anywhere we can have a chat page. For free and with considerably less hassle.
When the off switch is thrown on this site, I'll be sad, but that does not mean that the community has to go with it. And I have not seen any 'rescue plans' of yet that I consider both feasible and appealing.
I'm working with Ferrett to get a distinct, retooled Type I archive and portal on Star City once he goes into the redesign of the site which is coming real soon.
Shadow hasn´t still told us why he is selling BD. In case it´s because maintaince is too expensive, we could pay one dollar a month to him and everything would be all right again.
I have to agree to Nevyn on this. In fact, a number of us have already begun posting at Star City and the connection is fine. I will be sad to see BD go but sadder if the group doesn't begin posting at the new chat site.
Where on Star City is this Chat site ?
** I've emailed Shadow and I have a ballpark figure on how much he wants.