This helps pay for the web site, but only slightly. The mailing list is an email reflector for Salinger readers. When you are subscribed, you are added to a list of people who like to get Salinger- related email. When someone sends a message to a special email address, it is reflected to all the people on the list. Though I started the list and used to run it, it is now run by Tim O'Connor at New York University.
More information is available here .
The Bananafish Mailing List FAQ contains lots of information from the mailing list members, including common questions on Salinger and the stories. The FAQ is maintained by Sundeep Dougal and Matt Kozusko. What happened to all the other Salinger web sites There have been many other Salinger-related web sites that have come and gone in the time the Bananafish site has been up. Some, like Luke's Holden Server, explicitly shut down. Others, like Toenail's site, merged their content with this one.