Websites run on special computers called servers. Servers are expensive, especially when they're serving lots of people. And Aytwit is even more expensive because it uses fancy cryptography that ensures your privacy and makes those servers run hot, especially as more features are added. Not to mention the time it takes to design this stuff. Your personal information WANTS to be leaked. It takes a lot of careful engineering to keep it sealed tight. I am also writing a lot so that others may learn these lost sacred arts and help make the Internet a better place. Those other online services find it too hard to ask for money directly, and protecting your data is expensive so they sell it instead. Not judging, just describing the alternative.

Well since you asked: enough to cover server costs, plus a decent US engineering salary, plus enough to invest in R&D to spin-off some of the technologies in Aytwit's labs so they can be used by others. So yea that's it, no biggie. Donation numbers will be made public when they start to matter.

A donation is requested only if you have derived value from the website, whether from a notable thought match, or through learning something from the website's technical design and philosophy. On the flip side please do not donate out of vague notions of support or altruism.

If you do not heed the above conditions then you risk punishment from the self-corrective forces of the universe, whatever you believe them to be - the gods, computer simulation logic, karma, cold statistical regression, whatever. If you do not believe in any such force, well now is the time to start!

Currently by using Stripe. It's a little tricky to think about, but Aytwit never even sees your credit card data. It all goes from your local web browser directly to Stripe over a secure connection. Stripe then returns Aytwit a token (random alphanumeric string) that is used to charge you. It's like using your credit card to buy tokens at an arcade. The arcade games don't take credit cards directly. So Aytwit is like the arcade game, and that shady guy at the cash register is Stripe. Except Stripe is pretty reputable. In fact if you don't trust them then you really shouldn't trust anybody online with your credit card info. See here for more on privacy and data handling.