Ok, I got the bit about the speed of the server thingy… (I am not really too skilled in 'puters)
Avitars, obviously we don’t have them.
Speed up the board=more posters…
How about “donations”? Kick in 10 bucks or whatever, get an avitar and a faster board? Would “The Reader” go for it?
I’m pretty sure ya’ll kicked the idea around before. Just hadda mention it.
I know this is going to come as a shock to you, but you are not the first to mention this idea.
Glad to see you’re interested enough to want to throw some money our way. This place can be addictive, and along with the jonesin’ comes the desire to ensure your supply. 
Yeah, we need to come up with something to make this a paying proposition to our corporate owners. So far it’s been mostly a fascinating and fun experiment in internet life. If/when they decide otherwise, we’ll let you know, believe you me. Until that great getting up morning arrives, enjoy. And hey, hit the button ONCE, please.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
please ignore my screw ups…
/me new
didn’t know that when I get the “server busy” message, this means it still may have gone through…
/me shrinks humbily into corner
This has been discussed in the past, and the upshot is that many posters would be happy to kick in a bit of cash for faster boards, however, how to implement this in a manner which is fair to all posters has not been agreed upon. The main problem is how to increase the speed for posters who donate but not for those who don’t. The fact is, it’s not really feasible. It’s certainly possible to make features available to the donaters, but arguably, that’s unlikely to result in any great number of donations.
The READER can’t accept “donations.” As a for-profit organization, any “donations” would be treated as taxable income, and the READER’s accounting system isn’t set up to handle such.
As TUBADIVA says, various approaches are being discussed, including those mentioned by Q.E.D.
Charge for sigs!
Hell, we’re gonna charge for using the letter “r”! Well, as soon as we get that beta patch up and running.
You can’t do that it isn’t a vowel. 
Wheel Of Fo tune
I can’t afford to pay $250 per vowel!
Ya know something? I smell a sock puppet.
I’ve asked a few times before if it would be feasible for people to help the board by subscribing to the print version of the newspaper, and tick “do not send paper”? Or that there is a higher-rate (sort of an anti-discount) subscription rate for dopers who wish it? Or that there is a “premium rate” pricing scheme for the Straighdope merchandise for those who wish to avail of it?
If that is something that would be a feasible proposition, please pass it on.
On Bigsoccer.com, they offer “Premium Membership” for 30 bones a year. They use the money to speed up servers, and those that pay are on the faster servers, plus they have perks like personal forums, avatars, sigs and other cool stuff. It was worth $2.50 a month for me, as I use it often. Could work here.
Just a thought.
Dave
Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll put my shoes back on now.
The sock puppet that Loneraven smelt was eliminated and its posts were sent to Oblivion.