TFPers: Call for support!
 

Ok people. I'll be blunt. I need money. I can't afford the TFP the way I would like to. Furthermore, the TFP, as you may have noticed over the past couple months, needs new hardware. I am in no financial position to put together a new server with my own money. The last call for donations was fairly successful; I got enough for 2 full months of hosting within a couple days, but after that, it's been peanuts. I don't bug you guys about this music, but seriously, this is a 30,000 member site - it's not cheap or easy to run. It's getting more popular now than it's ever been and conversely receiving almost nothing in the donation till.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=718 This is the link to the donation info thread. Sorry, I dont have PayPal.. they've banned all of my accounts.

I really wanna create a website that you all can enjoy, at any time of the day, at the fastest speeds possible. Please put in for the hosting bill and to build a new server.

/me steps up to the plate.
Thanks for all, Halx.

Who's next?

/me steps up behind Art (because I like lookin' at Art's butt - and it's a good cause)

Check's in the mail this week...

How can us TFPers outside of the US pay electronically? I've had problems with Yahoo and snailmail takes forever from here and is untrustworthy. Halx, if you PM me some account details, can I telex transfer you some funds?

Obviously if you say "Yes" then I will do it. I'm not just asking out of interest :D

I've got a 1700 P4 motherboard and processor sitting around......if that would help, let me know. Only has 256 DDR but will go to 1 gig I think, If it will be of benefit....it is yours.

Might have to become a "pay" service. :( I'll toss in $100 for a new system.

Yahoo PayDirect has some big peanuts with your name on it Halx. :)

I get paid this Thursday, I can't promise much but I'll give what I can. Thanks for all the hard work!

As soon as I have a job, count me in.

Alrighty, me gonna step up to the plate too.

Can we pay by direct deposit?

It's in the mail, snail that is. I think it's definitely worth supporting this unique place.

All the options I have are listed in the donations thread. If you're from across the pond, then I believe you can get a money order in american dollars from your bank.

Also, the specs of the server we'd like to upgrade to...

Dual 2 Ghz Opteron 246 (or better)
4GB ECC RAM
SCSI interface
..and all that jazz

I estimate it could cost about $3000 for everything including shipping the server to the hosting site.

I'll donate just as soon as the bank approves my credit card application (which won't be for a few months unfortunately :()

I'll see what I can swing. Having a money issue myself.

I'll check my budget tonight to see if I can contribute any more right now.

I MAY be able to swing a dual opty board. but that would depend on you comming up with your own CPU, memory, and I/O.

I don't have much to give, but expect some cash from me.

/me steps up to the plate behind maleficent
Ooh, this was a good idea. ;)

Ok, check cut...will arrive soon...hope you can read it...

Well I put 50 bux down towards new hardware,

why were you banned by paypal again?

I offered use of my paypal acct last time....I'm glad to do it again...anyone can check and see I've been on the board for over a year and contribute reguarly....Im trustworthy and you have my word your donation will make it to Halx..... so if anyone who like me wont use yahoo but has no problem with paypal...I will collect funds and forward them directly to Halx with a list of who donated what....if you're interested PM me...

And as I offered to Halx last time even though he didnt answer me...I will give him access to my paypal login so that he can see when he gets the funds from me that they are indeed the funds anybody might have sent thru me

No offense, Shani, but I dont trust anyone except myself when it comes to money.

as soon as I get paid.. I'll send something your way.. I've been meaning to donate for a while now.. and it's time I did it.

No biggie....I've just seen many people that would donate if they could use paypal and they are being alienated....and its funds you could be getting and arent.

I was just trying to help out with the people like me that think the yahoo thing is WAY to invasive and the overseas people that dont want to use snail mail

its one of those things i've ment to get to, i get payed on the 11th, ill send you some money then. as of now, my checking account has $17.54 in it...

New hardware? You're serious? Last I remember reading, the box you upgraded to what, a year ago, sounded pretty impressive. Dual AMD processors...chunk of RAM....and...um....alright, I can't remember the specs, but it sounded great. (I recently read somewhere what all SlashDot runs on and nearly fell over, it's so inadequate. I swear, it must've been outdated info, there's no way they're running on what I read.)

<i>Surely, you can't be serious.
I am serious, and stop calling me Shirley
...
A hospital, what is it?
A big building, full of sick people, but that's not important right now....</I>

Alas, I digress.

I can't believe those scumbags at Paypal won't let you have an active account. They really need to be bitch-clapped by the Feds. I've just heard way, way too many underhanded, low-life, bottom-feeding stories about them. Really, really ticks me off.

You'll have mine in 7 days, Halx. I should've given sooner. My bad.

Thanks for keeping the site up, man. This is a great community. We all owe you.

<B>[edited]</b> [munch munch] I'm eating my words, because I found this page, and [munch munch] the kids at /. have ten servers [munching] or I just ran out of fingers to count them on [munch munch] nevermind....silly dingo...

ANd RAID, right? I know, all my silly little hardware posts are about to get dumped into <i>tilted computers....</i>

Walks by and drops some coins in the fountain.

Every penny is worth it Halx. This site is one of the few good spots on the internet I have found to stake my claim. You have built a wonderful community here.

I can't afford much, but what I can is yours. Check will go out tomorrow. Thanx for the site and I hope you get the funds you need!

Ali

I'm short on funds(broke off my ass), but I do enjoy this site so I should be able to have at least a small donation for you.

Hal,

I work in the hosting industry, let me know if you have any questions or are looking for a different provider. I know you switched places not that long ago and I don't know the whole story or anything, but thought I would put that out there. I can get some good rates.

Donated not too long ago... this is such a great place to be!

Mine is on the way as well....good luck

Dontated for the first time recently, its not much, the poor student I am, but I love this place, and I'll try to give when I can.

I'm poor. No job. Can't donate. Although there are like 5 other sites I visit that I'd love to.

:(

Have you considered using Google Ads on the site, or some for of advertising, 30K subscribers would make it interesting for companies... (google ads would make you a "power user" if you get m ore than 2 million hits a month) I honestly don't know what the service costs, but it does put some money into your pocket.

Working on getting some money your way, Halx. Thanks for everything you do for this site.

I think Hal doesn't want to junk up TFP with ads. I can understand it, with ads even in your email nowadays (gmail). Good luck, Hal! I'd contribute if all my money didn't go towards my car and college :(

maleficent, yes, considered and rejected for the reason that we desire to create a community and not a commercial site.

Here's my personal take on some of the issues involved in doing things the way we do here:

From the beginning of our association with TFP, we have been impressed with the belief system, conviction, and manner of operation of this site and its owner. I have always felt a kindred spirit in Halx.

My knowledge of the details of operation are professional - as I'm a Director of Internet Development by day and have run and continue to run not-for-profit art sites, etc.

The costs that Hal bears personally far outweigh any amount of donations TFP has ever received. This is how it is when one runs a site like this - note its non-commercial nature compared to nearly everything else out there.

Now to specifics.

The server load it takes to process a thread containing only text and just a few links is far less than a thread in which 50+ links have to be translated into image tags every single time the page is loaded.

We are currently shopping for another server because our server load is excessive now. The cost of a beefy and bulletproof server will far outweigh the donations we will receive. I can’t really foresee a time when TFP will not always be paid for mainly by Hal bankrolling most of it. The donations help defray some of that.

We really want this site to be free - so we periodically open the TB to rookies in the hopes that they will pay their fair share - they never do.

Also, we have been growing in membership since day one. There are threshold levels of bandwidth and server usage that are periodically crossed.

These considerations time the donation requests. We have to start a new initiative every time - not asking for money constantly (which we don't want to do) causes the periodic need. We go along, Hal pays the bills and gets a small number of donations. When it gets way too far out of line - it's time for a new initiative to raise money.

That's about it.
It is the way that committed non-commercial sites I am involved with operate - especially those with progressive visions of social and cultural evolution.

I vouch for Halx and TFP to an extent I would for very few other operations.

I have one question: is the slow response time of TFP due to the huge amount of new people drawing on a ton of bandwidth? I thought the slowness of TFP was due to my college's campus. Is anyone else experiencing the 15-second delay on loading TFP pages?

Either way, I donated as much as I could. Thanks for TFP, Hal!

-Lasereth

Well to be blunt. I tried to donate today and just couldn't get the Yahoo thing to work. I am not giving out my SIN#. So if you want a donation make it easier for me.

Last time I checked, getting a money order and mailing it was not that difficult, but it's up to you. There are erally no other "easier" ways to do it since Paypal won't deal with us.

That would involve finding an envelope, a stamp, getting a money order. Something that I have not done for years. I do all my banking on the net.

Come on, you guys are creative people. Come up with a solution. When I can use my credit card, I will donate $50 for my past use of the site. (I won't pay for the future use of the site, because I can't guarantee that I will be around)

Lordy, you're lazy!! Go to the same store you buy your beer and cigs from, and ask the cute little girl behind the counter for a money order. Or, after getting the necessary vices to carry your lazy butt through the night, take that credit card, go over to the ATM and take out some cash. While heading to the Post Office the next morning, certainly hung over and cotton-mouthed, ask the old man behind the counter in the blue shirt for a money order. They even have pens there you can use!!! See how easy that was? :thumbsup:

Hal: check's been mailed. :icare:

It is about convenience and it isn't just about me. How many other people will end up not donating because it isn't convenient enough?

I am just suggesting that a proper solution be setup so that making a donation is very convenient.

Let me know if you guys want some help with the design of that.

If you have realistic suggestions, fel free to post them, no one's stopping you. But it's impossible to please everybody. One can just as easily say "I can't believe you make me use Paypal, now I have to set up a paypal account!" Or the same for yahoo, since paypal won't deal with us. Hal's not going to post or give out in private for that matter his bank account info for anyone to directly deposit the money. As it stands we offer an internet way to do it and a regular mail way to do it. If you know of a way to accept donations that can be done, by all means post it so it can be considered, but I haven't seen any suggestions yet.

I also want to make clear that all the way - every day - I see Halx focused on content. He always emphasizes to us how good members contributing good CONTENT to this site is his main goal.

That is not a mercenary motivation. It is an altruistic one. You must notice how important it is to us to see good useful and valuable content - words, information, links, points of view, discussion, and dialog. That's the main thing we are asking for. This is not in any way simply a site that exists to request monetary donations from members. That is a brutal necessity for doing things. But the emphasis is on solid contributions of content.

This requires only that you value your own potential to offer info and dialog here and recognize it has real value to other members and to making this site all that it can be as a vessel of content.

If you can see the value of our content and community to your daily life then you see our worth to you in terms of contributing a donation of funds toward our continued existence.

Honestly....I get far more entertainment value from TFP than cable will ever be able to produce. Were it not for three kids and discovery channel, I would cancel my Cable and contribute more here. As it is, perhaps we should all consider the Value of this type of forum, and decide if we would enjoy having access a year from now. I for one, certainly intend to be here at that time and am more than willing to do what little I can to make it a reality.
Halx and Co. created a place for us all to vent, learn, play and be ourselves.....how many places in this world can offer that, pretty much for free.

If we all gave a buck....Hal could buy ten servers, and we would be instantaniously transported to the favorite forum we all have. Personally, I don't think it is too much to ask.

Any word on this? I really want to know if it's bandwidth issues causing the lag or if it's my college's campus network.

-Lasereth

It's everyone Lasereth... Seems to be quicker now that the TB is down and those folks aren't here.

Halx, why not make this a sticky so it is the first thing we see in every forum?

if we do send a MO, where would we address it tO?

I'll have some extra funds towards the end of the month if that isn't too late.

BTW: How about making the contributions a monthly basis? Most people pay their bills monthly so this would fit into that schedule, and rather than a large quarterly contribution, how about a smaller (5 or 10 dollars) monthly contribution? That way there'd always be some money in the TFP kitty to take care of upgrades and other contingencies before they become emergencies. Just a thought....

..........

If Halx doesn't want to give out his personal bank account details, why not set up a separate account for the TFP?

I live in a country where my replacement Visa card has been stolen twice while it was in the post on its way to me and where any envelope containing money or checks has about a 50% chance of making it to its destination. My company doesn't even use the post - we employ drivers to ferry checks and MOs about the city.

If I travel outside I will send a check or a MO, but until then I am unable to donate. Sorry.

OK, got a job now, look for a check in the next couple weeks...
I love this site and would hate to see it go...