Will you start to allow donations to help pay for server space if this becomes the case? I'm sure people would want to help.
You could have an "Item Shop" or something like that to help with costs. I paid $10 a month for 6 yrs to play this game as Im sure many of us did, I dont think any of us TSO alums would have any hang ups in throwing some simoleons in to help!
I think that that might be making an open-source re-implementation a commercial one..... (having the item shop that is) If the item shop said that all profit is counted as donations then it might be okay only if the items gave no advantages over other players who may not for e.g. a Mystic tree or an exclusive shop item. Then the "open-source" part wouldn't really be open. I don't know, this is just what I think, since I hardly read license terms everything I am saying could be incorrect.
I think this is a horrible idea. Pay to win (items) makes games a lot less enjoyable and competitive. People should donate to support the hard work of the devs, and to just support the game and keep it alive. Donate for the game, not money or items. Trust me on this!
There's lots of misunderstanding of what open source means. It's just that the code is available alongside the binaries, mainly so that other people can contribute to the project. I will not implement any donation system that gives some users benefit over others, as that could count as "selling" parts of the sims online.
