Donation on the way Nathan! Thanks for keeping it going, its much appreciated.

I'll echo Tod (and others) here and say that more industry professionals should be donating. I checked the donations for the last 3 months and I'm surprised that only a handful of professionals have donated. I wasn't able to give a lot, but every little bit counts, so I urge others in the industry that use this site to please donate, even just $5 or $10 as Jean said.

Did my bit for the cause. Forget too often. Not this year. So you can keep the flame burning and nag me about my bed. :p

Thanks to those who have already made a donation, and another " BUMP ".

Note that on average each year we get something around 75 to 100 people making a donation but this year we are somewhat below that number of people participating, but the fund drive may be only half way in duration so there is still time for the numbers of people making a donation to match previous years.

Remember that a small donation from a lot of people means a wider degree of support for the site by more people and I always think that this is another way to show appreciation and respect for Nathan's work keeping the site going.

There are always a few people who go the extra mile with some donations being in the 3 figures, and these few seem to represent something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the total sum raised.

A few people even come back and make a second or third donation to keep the momentum going ..... ;) :lol: ( And yes I do put my money where my mouth is ..... :lol: )

A $10 donation for 365 days = 2.73972603 cents per day ..... ;) So, how much is your monthly cell phone bill or your cable bill, or how much one spends on coffee in a month ? Are you getting 2.7 cents of value a day from this site ..... ;)

Time for another " BUMP ", I try to not overdo bump frequency, but the donation drive needs another light push to keep the momentum going.

The amount left to raise to get to the objective is now less than $400 so 20 people giving $20 or 40 people giving $10 would get us over the top.


Now the objective is the minimal amount needed to cover the yearly servor costs meaning that Nathan isn't paying for it out of pocket. So, basically it just means not running on a deficit and it doesn't mean that Nathan is making any personal money from this site, any extra money he usually funnels back into the site by having prizes given randomly to those who have made a contribution and sometimes prizes offerer by just joining a contest with no conditions.

Nathan would probably like to do this more often, but not if he is running a financial deficit and also has no small extra cash available to give back to the membership.

So just to say, if and when we reach the objective it doesn't mean that any extra money raised is not needed or useful. ;)

As I've mentioned before any extra cash is also a reserve in case of unexpected costs related to running the site that might occur.

In past years I think the record amount raised was somewhere around $4000, and by some " coincidence ", Nathan would have these prize offerings more frequently ..... Hard to do as a self employed freelancer when there is a slow month and no money coming in .... or at least hard to know in advance if it's going to be a bad month, a good month or a great month financially.

In other words if Nathan has to chose one month between paying for the servor or paying his rent it can be a life saver if his " myArmoury " account as some extra cash in it.

Nathan mentioned in one of his posts that instead of paying yearly he was currently paying monthly because of lack of cash flow ..... and that this is more costly annually than paying a single yearly fee, so I assume that his servor costs might be a bit higher than the $2400 he gave us as the donation goal.

Nathan

Quote:

It all helps, Terry! I couldn't afford the annual server fee this year so I switched to a monthly payment instead. It costs more annually but it was what I could manage. Still, every month when they take that money out is like a thorn in my side.

If anybody needs more reasons or motivation to give just read the entire Topic thread posts if you arrived late and just read this current post ..... lots of people benefit from this site who could or should consider making a small yearly contribution be it Industry Professional who became better known due to this site, to people buying or selling on the Market Place Forum who have found something they wanted to buy, or where able to find someone willing to buy from them who knew that they where getting a good price because they where/are knowledgeable collectors who have a clue about the value of some pieces.

It's hard to sell a high end sword to people clueless about what is a high end sword versus a cheap wall hanger, on this site we have access to a large audience of other collectors .... ;) :lol:

Just a regular " BUMP " as the Topic is off the home page showing the most recent posts.

I seem to have to do these bumpings more often because there seems to be a lot of activity on the Forums pushing down the donation topic off the home page rather quickly ..... well, in a way that is a good thing because it means that people have a lot to write about various Topics and that they actually get something out of the site and want to discuss a great variety of stuff ... ;) :D


So, we are fairly close to meeting the objective, so it shouldn't take too many more donations to get there.

Keeping this one short as all or most of the arguments to convince people to give some financial support to the site are in all the above posts, and I'm running out of creative ways to try to motivate people ..... :lol:

Now, if some of you have things to say that you think will motivate people please feel free to do so.
( Keep it nice, polite and as guilt-trip light as possible ..... ;) :lol: :cool: )

Just back from a holiday and was caught by the funding drive. Have made my contribution in recognition of the value of Nathan's work. Can't really add to what others have said - regular topics of enormous interest and information. Thanks to everyone and especially to Nathan, the founder and funder.
Neil

Bump it up! Almost there. Put yer money where your mouth is, cmon brothers and sisters of the Armoury!

Hello All,

The number of things that the members on this site have taught me over the years is astounding! I recently broke my seal of silence of being a forum lurker, as some of you may know from the comment I made about it in my first ever post, and I'm glad to say that this community has received me with open arms, and even before that, has always been there when I needed them.

If I, a poor *** Masters student, who makes $8.00/hr in CAD Monopoly money, can afford to donate twice, then so can you!!! The total of my donations was equivalent to me not buying Starbucks 5 times, or not eating out for dinner once...not that big of an investment seeing as one can just make coffee or cook a meal at home for much less. Anyway, my point is that, like stated by others above, this site provides me with much more entertainment than things that I have been willing to pay much more for, like Starbucks too often, Netflix, etc... And so if all of us made a small conscious descisions to save for just a FEW days for the upkeep of this site, I'm sure that ends can easily be met!

Thanks again myArmoury,

Jon Makar

Time for another " BUMP ", we are so close yet so far as donations seem to happen in short bursts where a few people step up and then the donations go to sleep again.

Reaching the $2400 is at least the minimum because it represents the annual hosting costs, but this year Nathan had to opt for a monthly plan that ends up costing a bit more than when paid as an annual fee: I don't know how much more it cost Nathan per month but it should motivate us to exceed the goal by at least a few hundred dollars I assume.

To me reaching the goal is also a psychological finish line where this community shows respect and appreciation for Nathan's work setting up the site and keeping it running: I don't know exactly how much daily work just maintaining the site takes but I can tell you that I personally wouldn't have had the will, energy and commitment to put in so much effort in creating and maintaining the site over more than a decade.

Lots of things to do to just moderate the site and delete attempted " Spam " and other nuisances ..... ;)

Have you noticed that we don't often get those scamming and aggravating posts where one reads " How my uncle Bob made a fortune working from home selling ,,,,,,, whatever " ..... ;) :lol: I've seen a few attempts here on this site that ended up deleted within hours .... :D

To keep a site spam and hacker free takes work and constant attention, so my point is that Nathan can't just let this site fly on " Auto pilot " for any extended time, so at least he shouldn't have to pay from his pocket the hosting costs.

And any extra money raised he has given back in contests and prizes, or as ways to enhance the site. ( At minimum banked extra money to cover any unexpected expenses ).

I'm quite an avid gamer in my tiny bit of free time, so I think of donating in the way that I think of buying a video game: Will I get $X of enjoyment out of it? Or in this case, have I gotten $X in enjoyment, entertainment or education from the site?

As a student I don't have a whole lot of liquid funds, but I have gotten well more than the dollar amount that I gave worth of enjoyment from this site. If I were to buy a game for, say, $20, I would expect to get $20 worth of fun from it: If I put 20 hours into the game, I've enjoyed it for only $1 per hour. Would I pay $1 for an hour's worth of the knowledge and education found on this site? Abso-friggin'-lutely.

Not so much another " BUMP " but a thanks to all who have donated as he reached the donation goal of $2400 + $2 at the time of my writing this.

I'll keep bumping the Topic until Nathan decides to close the fund drive, as I've mentioned above in a previous post any extra moneys above the objective goes to the site.

Also, even after the annual fund drive is closed people can still make donation throughout the year to help keep the site active.

One can also upgrade to a paying membership and/or become a benefactor.

Thanks everyone. This sure helps. Sometimes this site seems more burden then enjoyment for me, but these things kind of flip that script. It's hard to argue that it's not worthwhile to keep going after a successful donation drive.

Well, I'm glad that Nathan is relieved that the goal was achieved but until he decides to close the fund drive I'll keep " BUMPING " the Topic every 3 or 4 days.

Any extra money will permit Nathan to be able to afford having a contest for a prize .... at least this is what he has done in the past when there are enough funds to permit it.

Keeping this post short because there are plenty of reasons given in the previous posts to continue to add to the donation drive.

So we are close to having 70+ people making a donation although a few people have donated twice I think .... maybe some of the " anonymous " donors ?

In previous years the total number of donors has averaged about 75 to 100.

And thanks again to all those who have been generous in helping keep the site running. :D :cool:

Just a special thanks to those who care enough about the site to continue making a donation even if the official goal has been reached: I see it as a way to show appreciation for the site and a show of support for all the work that Nathan puts into the site.

To me even the smaller donations trickling in are encouragement to keep the site going and good for Nathan's morale in knowing that his work is appreciated.

So, again thanks every dollar helps and every extra person giving is a great morale boost ..... :D :cool:

There as so few sites where the quality of information and quality of participants are so high in my opinion, where it's also a nice friendly place to visit and ask questions knowing that many people will be pleased to reply in a polite and courteous way: No need to be shy participating in discussions even if one is new to learning about the history of Arms & Armour.