How about changing the context of what the money is going for to legitimize it?

Sending Max money is not something I am willing to do anymore (no acknowledgement, no financial accounting, no more donations from me).

Donating to a fund that will be accountable to the users to upgrade and maintain the DT & the music archive I might be able to get on board with, depending upon who sets it up, how it is run, and who is in charge of the money.

I'm not willing to send what little of my money there is to a cyberspace black hole, no matter how useful/entertaining it might be.

Those of you working on the Mickey Rooney fundraiser angle might think that through a little more. New people may not be willing to raise money for Max, considering what the product is. And then there is the xenophobia this forum suffers from, the idiotic non-controversy with the member/guest log-in, the nasty way newcomers get treated with suspicion and called names like 'troll'.

It might be essential to those addicted to this place to send Max money so he won't pull your plug, but this site simply will not draw money from outside the current forum membership the way it is being run now (reliability problems, outdated technology, and a forum for adults with the social skills of four year olds).