(This is totally my idea, so do not hassle ehMax about it, I just thought I'd toss out the idea to the general community and see what happens....)
OK, folks, some of you have probably realized by now that the cgi software that runs this board has been having serious problems lately. It seems that ehMax is having to tweak the board almost every day or second day, just to keep it running!
Our esteemed Mayor has contacted the company that provides it (Infopop) to see if there is anything simple that can solve the problems we've been having, but hasn't heard back from them yet. However, barring that, we are facing the distinct problem of having to upgrade the software, in order to keep this baby working properly... and we shouldn't expect our Mayor to do this out of pocket, since we all get something out of this community -- great advice, recommendations, reviews, suggestions, and even friendship.
Now, some of you may not realize this, but ordering ehMac swag is not the best of fund-raisers for ehMax, since it only earns a few dollars at best. I am proposing that we unite together as a community and see what we can do to save what we have accomplished here. Basically, we are looking at a PBS-style pledge drive.
I've looked at the software's order page, and we are looking at a $200 US upgrade, so we really need at least $300 CAD by my count. (Of course, that is if Infopop is not able to provide a simple "Gee, you just have to do THIS, and it will fix everything!" kind of solution... which I doubt.)
So, let's work on this while the Mayor is gone for the weekend, and see if we can muster up our community and show that we care about keeping it alive and well. Now, our community citizen-o-meter says we have 750 members - however we all know that only a fraction of that come here on a regular basis. So let's assume that we can count on maybe half of those, so a little over 300 people, if we're lucky. If we continue our assumption, then if everyone of those people pitched in a buck or two, then that would work. However, we must consider the vagaries of the employment market, other expenditures, not having a credit card, real life obligations and such, not everyone will be able to toss in a couple of bucks. So, I suppose if we had a number of our more hard-core members toss in anywhere from $5 to $10 bucks, we'd be looking at a serious chance to raise what WE need to keep ehMac alive and well.
So, how's about that pledge drive then? Just for now, we pledge how much we would be willing to donate, if an upgrade is the only solution. When the time comes, we'll all use the PayPal donation button that is found at the top of the Trading Post page to complete our pledge, OK? (Right now it's preset for $5, but I'm sure we could get the Mayor to re-code it to allow for larger amounts.) Perhaps we could post a "Patron's Page" showing all those who have donated, sort of like a memorial wall to honour those "who gave when the time came"...
So, I'm first in line to plege my $5.00 towards the cause. Do I hear any others taking up this noble cause?
~ Capucine
ehMac Public Official
ehMac SETI Team Leader
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> I was the first to order the SWAG and now I am one of the first to send 5$. I guess... I must really love this community <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I bought SWAG too!!! Got the confirmation the other day. Should be here by Tuesday. WooHoo!!
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1.8GHz G5 iMac, 1GB SDRAM & 800MHz eMac, 768 SDRAM, OS 10.3.6 & 2 iPods + 1 iPod mini
Capucine $5
Rock Lobster $20
VertiGoGo $5 ?
RicktheChemist $5
Macabout $5 ?
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Tentative Total $40.00
If you can, please mention what you would be willing to pledge, so that I can tally it better.
Someone asked where to pledge when the time comes -- you go to the Trading Post section and at the top center of the page you'll see a Visa/MC logo, which goes to a PayPal form where you can submit your credit card info for a donation. If this pledge drive goes well, I'm sure we can talk the Mayor into putting the link on all the major pages and modifiying the code to allow donations of other than the default $5 setting.
Let's see some others put a few "loonies in the pot" for a good cause, eh?
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MacDaddy: Once again I will have to ask the question "Why not switch to a free board like YABB"?
Why are we paying for something that is offered for free and widley used by numerous boards, is greatly customizable and works well?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Probably because it would be absolute hell to try to migrate to a totally different system and transfer 750 member profiles as well as 50MB worth of database files, not knowing if they can even be ported over... especially if ehMax is doing this on his free time...
That would be my most reasonable guess.
WooHoo!!
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