New Server Drive - donation and prize thread (Final total: $13,310!)

[BSF]

Not to pry further, but are community support accounts and ads close to keeping up with recurring costs? I remember at one point you said they were not. I'm hoping things have improved.

 

[reveal]

Funds also went towards rack space and bandwidth, as you say. There's about enough to last until the end of the year. So, in all, we got a server and over a year's hosting (and without that, we'd have been in real trouble, let me tell you!).

All in all - the general state of affairs is very good!

Is another fundraiser planned for next year?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Well, yes... but I don't have those prizes! PC has. I've never even seen 'em!

What I meant was, if I had the list of people who contributed, and the list of prizes, I could do the data crunching to randomly match names to prizes and put together packing lists to give to the vendors. Although, I assumed the physical products were in the hands of the people who donated the prizes pending their distribution. I didn't think they'd sent stuff to Pcat and it's been sitting in his garage.

If all that's left to be done is round 'em up and head 'em out, I can't do much to help. Boston's a little far for a day trip.

 

[Morrus]

Not to pry further, but are community support accounts and ads close to keeping up with recurring costs? I remember at one point you said they were not. I'm hoping things have improved.

They're better than they were, certainly, and they seem to get better with time. They could be better, though!

Is another fundraiser planned for next year?

No... but the previous ones weren't planned, either. To be honest, it's not something I've given any thought.

 

[Morrus]

What I meant was, if I had the list of people who contributed, and the list of prizes, I could do the data crunching to randomly match names to prizes and put together packing lists to give to the vendors. Although, I assumed the physical products were in the hands of the people who donated the prizes pending their distribution. I didn't think they'd sent stuff to Pcat and it's been sitting in his garage.

If all that's left to be done is round 'em up and head 'em out, I can't do much to help. Boston's a little far for a day trip.

The problem is that I don't know any more than you do about it. All I can think to do in the meantime is come up with some alternative.

 

[mythusmage]

Morrus,

You do extend CS accounts set the donation minimum at $20.00 US. I sent what I could, more than made my money back thanks to swag donors, so I have nothing to complain about.

When it comes time to pay Cyberstreet be sure to let us know. I can afford another $10.00 or $20.00 over and above the cost of a CS account to keep this place running.

 

[Morrus]

Morrus,

You do extend CS accounts set the donation minimum at $20.00 US. I sent what I could, more than made my money back thanks to swag donors, so I have nothing to complain about.

I've no way of knowing how much each person donated, I'm afraid. All I have, literally, is a single list of email addresses.

 

[Alzrius]

Looks like PC will finally be getting back to us on this. From over in the Meta forum:

Absolutely valid complaint. I am back home from the west coast on Sunday; I'll either email everyone or post here before I go to bed Sunday night. Thank you for being polite despite the fact that I've dragged this out far longer than is reasonable.

 

[MacMathan]

That's good to know thanks for the update.

As a sidenote- Only 300+ people donated? I mean that is great and I am proud to be one of them but it kind of galls me that there are so many people who use this site who would not put up anything to help it. Yet they come and suck up bandwidth and whine about not having access to the search feature.

-Sorry for the mini-rant.

Viva ENWorld

 

[BSF]

Well, keep in mind several things.

1 - Being a community supporter helps. With that fundraising drive, community supporter accounts were not included. So it is possible to be a community supported that was did not participate in the fundraiser. It is also possible to have participated in the fundraiser and still be a registered user.

2 - With a community this large, we cover a wide variety of economic opportunity. There are folks in my gaming group that are only recently entering the job market. They are moving out of their parent's houses, going to school, working wage-slave jobs, etc. I don't expect them to have the same type of disposable income that I do at 35 with a career. I don't hold that against them either.

3 - Sometimes other expense come up regardless of what you want to do. I am sure there were people that would have gladly donated if they hadn't recently suffered unexpected medical expenses, or car repairs, or just been laid off, or any number of other circumstances that dictate you don't have money at that exact moment that you can donate.

4 - The feeling of community and use of the site is different for each person. Some people only stop by occasionally. Some just don't feel like joining in the conversations. So those folks may feel less attachment here.

I admit it can be slightly annoying to have somebody complain when they have free access, but it's not a big deal. I like a lot of different EN Worlders and it doesn't matter to me what status they are.