State of the Forums Address

[YblockT]

One more shirt sold, and an opportunity to up my post count.

[fatboyman05]

Three more shirts sold....

i trully appreciate this site, not for today, but for 2 years from now when I will really be able to work on my projects.... the support and knowledge of the members of this site it terrific.

John

[Youngster]

How did we do today Web?

Ron

[Martin]

I bought two, and would still be happy to make a small periodic donation if that's what it would take.

Perhaps a bulk Email to all members would be in order, to get the attention of those that have not read this thread.

[Webmaster]

If we can get another 3-4 days worth of activity like yesterday's, we're going to be OK.

I appreciate everyone coming together on this, more than you can know.

[RexRod]

This place isn't going anywhere....

If you are going to disable the donation pages, then you should still have some way for others to donate directly to the site.

It is completely reasonable to ask for money to help run this place. I am more than willing to drop another 25 into the kitty if there was a way to do it. I already have a hat and T-Shirt, and I have no need for more. So the only way I can help out now is with a direct donation. No, I am not afraid my money will be lost.

You could also make the gallery only open to people who are direct contributors. Anyone who donates at or more than a modest 10 bucks a year. People who donate can upload pics. People who don't can only look.

I don't understand why storage is an issue. Storage is so damn cheap. It's less than 140 a terabyte. Soon it will be less than 100.

We only need 40 people to donate 25 bucks to jump start this thing again. Easy Peasy.

If you aren't already, you might consider getting a dedicated server to run the list on. There are some hosting companies up in Canada that offer some great rates. I can get you more info if you need it. And, I hope like hell you're using Linux. I am on lists that are 10 times this size and it cost us about a grand a year to run.

Some of the other ways to raise funds is with the help of members on the list. On another list I am a member of, I did a short production run of Delrin shift knobs with the site logo engraved for a fund raiser. I made a modest bob, and raised over a grand for the list (we sold about 70 knobs). We sold the knobs for WAY more than they where worth (35 dollars each), but it was understood it was to help run the site.

You might apply this idea to hats and T-Shirts. I would have gladly paid 25 bucks for my hat, knowing the extra was supporting the site.

If you are going to SPEND money to grow the site, then you better have a plan to pay for it. It might be better to just let it grow slower. Let the member count catch up to the bandwidth usage.

My grouchy two cents.

David

[putz]

Put the donation link back up I would donate to keep this site up.

[Tbucit]

Same hereRandall

[Youngster]

I'm in too!!!!

Ron

[Webmaster]

Originally Posted by RexRod

This place isn't going anywhere....

Particularly not if the help keeps coming in like it has.

You could also make the gallery only open to people who are direct contributors. Anyone who donates at or more than a modest 10 bucks a year. People who donate can upload pics. People who don't can only look.

It was a thought we kicked around some time back. I know that money can be an issue for folks and we just don't want to turn everything into pay-per-view. I agree, the price is modest, but we've all had times when a sawbuck was hard to come by, too.

You might apply this idea to hats and T-Shirts. I would have gladly paid 25 bucks for my hat, knowing the extra was supporting the site.

Here again, we just didn't want to hold anyone up on the price of a shirt or a hat. Personally, I would much rather sell shirts to two fellows, rather than try to make it all off one. We're hoping that by not gouging on prioces, we'll get some repeat customers, as well. That's why we laid in so many shirts, we wanted to keep the price affordable for everyone.

And no, you weren't being grouchy. Thanks for the ideas and suggestions.

I've replaced the donations modules on the portal and forum home pages. We're already covered for a couple more months' expenses and I'm even starting to get some of my own investment back. <WHEW>