The amount paid on cartography commissions is often at or below the minimum wage, especially when starting out and the commissions take longer than they would after some practice. As a result I think requiring, or even encouraging, a percentage kickback from most users who pick up commissions is not reasonable. However, the users of the forum do tend to chip in over the year for the hosting costs, and so far the forum has not come up short on hosting bills. This way, the costs are born as much by the users who come here for the maps as by those who come here to sell maps.

An alternative structure would be to require companies posting commissions over $500 (or some other threshold fee) to pay a small surcharge to post a job. ConceptArt did this - but I'm inclined against that approach too, as it's likely to dissuade companies from pitching larger jobs here, rather than going directly to a cartographer they like.

It's certainly something that comes round every now and again. That's my personal view on it, rather than any view on behalf of the CG.