I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. There

I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. There in-lies the issue.. this project started many years ago as a platform for a small hobby related concept to a major business operation today. Our revenue model started from donations and ultimately moved to the fremium model. All along the way I have been intimately involved with the user base, and still to this day I am directly involved with the userbase. There are many long time members of the site that to this day believe that their subscriptions "support" the site's operations vs. puts food on the table for my family and pays my salary (many don't know I've moved on to run this business full time).