A question for you donating folks

[captain]

We all know that this board uses a lot of resources and over the past 7 years we have moved up in server needs and hosting requirements. There is a cost to run this place and in the summer months the sponsors typically keep the place paying for itself. I accumulate the difference from the money coming in from the cost of the site and keep it handy because in the fall and winter we "starve" for sponsors. At the end of the year we usually end up with enough to cover the hosting and a few feature adds from donations and sponsor involvement. (Where are ya suzuki)

I have said over and over and over that we will never be a paid for access website... Too many great people just can't afford to pay for access and to tell you the truth I like helping the little guy.....

HOWEVER

We do take donations and in return the members get a few small trinkets of my appreciation like a bigger avatar and an email account.... not to mention spinny balls.

There are some out there that donate over and over and over, I appreciate that and feel a little guilty (not enough to not accept the donation). I have been contacted by several members wanting me to set up a reoccurring donation system that a member could sign up for and put whatever amount they wanted.......

It would be extremely handy for folks that wanted to donate over and over but I find it a little creepy doing that.

It would work something like this....

We would have a donation page, you enter the amount of the donation and then choose how often you want to donate.. You could put 5.00 and have it run for 3 months. At that point paypal would ding your card or paypal each month for 5.00 for 3 months... You choose how much and how long.....

Is it me or is this a little on the creepy side? I never want me, the mods, or the site to come across as money hungry folks.....

Your thoughts?

CAp

 

[Devious]

No problem here. Set it up and I'll do the payPal thing and set up a monthly amount to go to the Board...
It would be my pleasure...


David

 

[Red05]

Sounds good to me. The donate link is pretty easy, too.

 

[motioncobra]

I'm in too. I've mentioned something similar in the past. Just as you feel guilty accepting donation from members over and over again, I too feel guilty sometime getting such valuable information for free. I just log on and I have access to, and can even ask for info about our beloved Hayabusa..,and get it for free?? Now that I am aware there are members who give re-accurring donation, here is mine. Just sent it paypal. And I'll talk to you next month.

 

[ks-waterbug]

Capt. I pay more yearly for magazines that don't cater to my specific needs; But fill a niche.  So donating here just seems right! Especially given the fact of just how much info can be had on riding, racing, and the day to day stuff.....

 

[Aquaman]

I have no problem doing donatings here.My only complaint is that I wish some of the other functions here worked.Like the member maps,and downloading videos ect....
Is it something that needs a lot of attention,or nobody cares about?
Meaning members dont care to use...



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[Revlis]

It would be awesome if we had a way to contribute monthly at a level that works on an individual basis. You want to kick in $2 a month, cool!

I mean if 430Million porn sites can work out automatic payments and automatic debiting of an account we should at least have that option.

Shouldn't be scary or weird if there is just a box to the right of a donation selection saying "Click here" to set it up automatically every month. Folks like simple, and I know I do. If we can set it up to automatically charge $5-$20 a month to my AMEX? I'm in, I don't have take any further action. It would work great!



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[Revlis]

I have no problem doing donatings here.My only complaint is that I wish some of the other functions here worked.Like the member maps,and downloading videos ect....
Is it something that needs a lot of attention,or nobody cares about?
Meaning members dont care to use...

I think in large part nobody was using most of those features...

Also, things are getting fixed, alot of changes are coming... Stay Tuned.

 

[Aquaman]

alot of changes are coming... [/QUOTE]
Well that sounds great!

 

[Wag]

There are potential problems but nothing insurmountable. I think it's a great idea. I sometimes forget that you deserve support too.

--Wag--

 

[BiG-T]

I say run it!

 

[yamahor]

Do it to it Capt!








Just keep my email running.

 

[mikeo]

I'm in. I think that is a great idea. I spend quite a bit of time here learning and seeing what people have to say. The more I learn the more I am convinced that I will own a Busa when finances permit. I am enjoying my RF900 throughly. I have heard and thought that Suzuki wasn't as good a bike as others. I was wrong.

 

[Revlis]

What I like about the Fire-N-Forget donation method is that I don't have to THINK about it. I don't have to try and remember, and $5 a month will add up nicely at the end of the year. So it's something that I'd like to do cause it's ONE less thing to try and remember.

Only other thing I'd like is to make the donations 100% discoverable. Have a thread with an active counter, or a link showing expenses and donations! That would be cool, what would be even better is if we can get enough going to hire someone to manage the .org as a full time job!!!!

I have a name in mind!



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[monster]

That's how I have it set up to donate to the humane society. I give them $5 every month.

PS - I just sent the board a little something

(very little because without boring you with a giant story about my wife is changing carears and how after next year she won't be working for 2 years and I'll be eating bologna sandwiches and returning empty beer cans for gas money but then after that I'll be big pimpin' but for now I'm po) I love coming here so it's the least I can do.

 

[BigGeorge]

I have no problem doing donatings here.My only complaint is that I wish some of the other functions here worked.Like the member maps,and downloading videos ect....
Is it something that needs a lot of attention,or nobody cares about?
Meaning members dont care to use...

I for one think that this is the best forum of its kind. But I agree... there are board functions that do not work, and it would be nice if they did. The chatroom, the movies, and one option that sticks out is the Member Maps, which is a great option to see who lives in your area when putting together an event.

I've been managing webservers for 11 years. I host about 55 websites all on my dedicated servers. I'm taken back at the idea that it's costing a lot of money to run this forum, unless I'm missing something. Bandwitdh should be somewhere between 250-500mb per month because almost every photo is hosted somewhere else and the only real bandwidth that I can see being used is the wallpaper, the buttons, and the 2 graphics at the top of each page. I've looked at the company that hosts the .org and I'm guessing that I know which hosting package you're using from. Looking ar Alexia, I can also guess how much traffic moves through the .org each day.

I'm in no way questioning the facts being stated that the hosting of this site costs money, but I will host this site for half of whatever you're paying now. I have multiple servers, with tons of RAM and terabytes of HD space available anytime you want to move the .org. And just FYI... my backbones are OC48 from SBC, Time Warner, XO Communications, MCI and others... not OC3 like the .org's current host. My servers are Dual Xeon 3.2GHz... not P4's.

Anytime, Doug... if you need my help just let me know and I'll do anything I can to help. Everyone on this site has a special resource to offer, this is mine.

George
508-496-2250

 

[captain]

I have no problem doing donatings here.My only complaint is that I wish some of the other functions here worked.Like the member maps,and downloading videos ect....
Is it something that needs a lot of attention,or nobody cares about?
Meaning members dont care to use...

I for one think that this is the best forum of its kind. But I agree... there are board functions that do not work, and it would be nice if they did. The chatroom, the movies, and one option that sticks out is the Member Maps, which is a great option to see who lives in your area when putting together an event.

I've been managing webservers for 11 years. I host about 55 websites all on my dedicated servers. I'm taken back at the idea that it's costing a lot of money to run this forum, unless I'm missing something. Bandwitdh should be somewhere between 250-500mb per month because almost every photo is hosted somewhere else and the only real bandwidth that I can see being used is the wallpaper, the buttons, and the 2 graphics at the top of each page. I've looked at the company that hosts the .org and I'm guessing that I know which hosting package you're using from. Looking ar Alexia, I can also guess how much traffic moves through the .org each day.

I'm in no way questioning the facts being stated that the hosting of this site costs money, but I will host this site for half of whatever you're paying now. I have multiple servers, with tons of RAM and terabytes of HD space available anytime you want to move the .org. And just FYI... my backbones are OC48 from SBC, Time Warner, XO Communications, MCI and others...  not OC3 like the .org's current host. My servers are Dual Xeon 3.2GHz... not P4's.

Anytime, Doug... if you need my help just let me know and I'll do anything I can to help. Everyone on this site has a special resource to offer, this is mine.

George
508-496-2250

The images are mostly hosted on this server.... 40k of em to be exact..... The message board alone pulls in over 173 gig a month in web traffic. The database is almost a gig.... There are 56k in images in the gallery that are hit all day every day........ Do the math then get back to me... I host 11,000 websites for a living so Im pretty sure I know which server to pick.. Not trying to be a ##### biggeorge but this site is mucho bigger than you think........... The vids were taken down because of the hit on the mysql DB..... They will be back up soon.....

You put this many folks pulling the same attached images every day and the bandwidth and PROC load become incredible.

cAp

 

[Devious]

What I like about the Fire-N-Forget donation method is that I don't have to THINK about it.  I don't have to try and remember, and $5 a month will add up nicely at the end of the year. So it's something that I'd like to do cause it's ONE less thing to try and remember.

Only other thing I'd like is to make the donations 100% discoverable.  Have a thread with an active counter, or a link showing expenses and donations!  That would be cool, what would be even better is if we can get enough going to hire someone to manage the .org as a full time job!!!!

I have a name in mind!

This is an even better idea.
Lets hire someone to run this place and pay a salary to the person of which Revlis speaks...
I'll set up my account to pay 20.00 per month by automatic withdrawal...


David

 

[runeight]

I have no problem doing donatings here.My only complaint is that I wish some of the other functions here worked.Like the member maps,and downloading videos ect....
Is it something that needs a lot of attention,or nobody cares about?
Meaning members dont care to use...

I for one think that this is the best forum of its kind. But I agree... there are board functions that do not work, and it would be nice if they did. The chatroom, the movies, and one option that sticks out is the Member Maps, which is a great option to see who lives in your area when putting together an event.

I've been managing webservers for 11 years. I host about 55 websites all on my dedicated servers. I'm taken back at the idea that it's costing a lot of money to run this forum, unless I'm missing something. Bandwitdh should be somewhere between 250-500mb per month because almost every photo is hosted somewhere else and the only real bandwidth that I can see being used is the wallpaper, the buttons, and the 2 graphics at the top of each page. I've looked at the company that hosts the .org and I'm guessing that I know which hosting package you're using from. Looking ar Alexia, I can also guess how much traffic moves through the .org each day.

I'm in no way questioning the facts being stated that the hosting of this site costs money, but I will host this site for half of whatever you're paying now. I have multiple servers, with tons of RAM and terabytes of HD space available anytime you want to move the .org. And just FYI... my backbones are OC48 from SBC, Time Warner, XO Communications, MCI and others...  not OC3 like the .org's current host. My servers are Dual Xeon 3.2GHz... not P4's.

Anytime, Doug... if you need my help just let me know and I'll do anything I can to help. Everyone on this site has a special resource to offer, this is mine.

George
508-496-2250

wow!

 

[basscrazy]

Capt. the amount of money people save in product and knowledge should justify becoming a donating member and contributing somthing. I pm Rev. today about oil. He got right back at me... cool. I saved a mint on Rizoma mirrors... very cool.... Whatever you decide, I'm down with..... One of them automagic monthly or weekly or whatever is cool. Whatever it is, I'm with ya