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Russ Ellis
Industry Professional




Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Reading list: 42 books

Posts: 2,608

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:29 pm    Post subject: Let's come up with some cash for the site         Reply with quote

Alright,

I know that there is already a topic started on this, but personally I think that the moderators ought to put this in a sticky on every forum on this board. Bottom line: The server bill is coming due. Nathan is auctioning off stuff to pay it. He should not have to. Therefore everyone pony up some cash if you enjoy this site! Happy If it's 5 dollars it's 5 dollars. Quit slacking and do it.

TRITONWORKS Custom Scabbards
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Terry Crain




Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Joined: 29 Jan 2006
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Posts: 224

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:39 pm    Post subject: lets come up with some cash for the site.         Reply with quote

I agree 100%. No way Nathan should have to bear this cost himself and sell off collection pieces. Where/how do I send a donation? Please advise.

Terry

Terry Crain
A/K/A
Donal Grant

Honor, not Honors!
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Greyson Brown




Location: Windsor, Colorado
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Reading list: 15 books

Posts: 812

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:43 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

This afternoon alone, $100 has been donated (probably more, that's just what has been donated since I looked earlier). That tells me that people really do care about this site, they just haven't made the donation until the last minute. So thank you to those who have donated, and at the same time, lets not wait so long in the future. Like everyone else, I hate to see Nathan sell off stuff to fund the site (especially since I can afford a $10 donation, but can't afforda $900 sword at the moment). I'm sure it saves Nathan a lot of heart burn when the money comes in early, and he doesn't have to spend the last two weeks before payment time wondering where the funds will come from.

-Grey

"So long as I can keep the path of honor I am well content."
-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company


Last edited by Greyson Brown on Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Greyson Brown




Location: Windsor, Colorado
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Reading list: 15 books

Posts: 812

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:46 pm    Post subject: Re: lets come up with some cash for the site.         Reply with quote

Terry Crain wrote:
I agree 100%. No way Nathan should have to bear this cost himself and sell off collection pieces. Where/how do I send a donation? Please advise.

Terry


Terry,

Just click on the tab labeled "Forum Index" at the top left of the page. Then scroll down to the bottom, and you can see a box listing the amount raised, the goal, a list of the most recent donators, and more to the point, a link so that you can donate money via Pay Pal.

Edit: You can also click on "Contribute" at the top right hand corner of the page (way up there above the myArmoury logo where most of us probably don't look too often). That will take you to the contribution center where you can learn about supporting this site through the use of the book store, contributing articles, and the like. At the bottom of the left-most column is a link that says, "make a donation." That will also take you to the donation form.

-Grey

"So long as I can keep the path of honor I am well content."
-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company


Last edited by Greyson Brown on Mon 16 Oct, 2006 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 2:59 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Getting the money in earlier--good idea Greyson. Are there formal fundraising drives? I wonder if a twice yearly campaign for funds would work (or has been tried)? By campaign I mean real purposeful drives for funds, like public television or university alumni offices--kind of like what we're doing now. Do people from the replica arms and armour industry make contibutions? I know some individuals do, but do companies? As I said in another thread, many companies (e.g. Albion, A&A, etc.) have a stake in the success of a site like myArmoury.com--a gathering place for a good chunk of their customers.

A nice thing about using paypal to donate (and I just learned this today) is that you don't need to sign up for their service--you can just donate.

Jonathan
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Greyson Brown




Location: Windsor, Colorado
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Reading list: 15 books

Posts: 812

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 3:19 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Jean Thibodeau has kind of become the unofficial campaign coordinator for fund raising. He periodically revives the "Server Performance" thread and reminds people of the need for financial assistance with the site. Other than that, no, there have not been any formal drives. Personally, I would have mixed feelings about that if I were the one in Nathan's shoes. I am not however, and so will leave that decision to him.

I will say that Nathan's announcements and other links pertaining to the matter have been rather subtle. Take, for example, the contribute link at the top of the page. I normally don't see much of anything above the "there have been X number of forum posts since your last visit" line. In fact, it wasn't until I wrote a couple of reviews for the site that I figured out where the contribution center was (and that because Chad sent the links to me). So perhaps a more obvious link/announcement would be a good idea. I would also suggest that fund raising efforts migrate to this or a similar thread, as "Server Performance" doesn't really capture the spirit of what that thread has become, and is really easy to ignore if you haven't had any trouble with the server.

I think there is a little bit of a stigma about companies donating, as it might appear that there was an effort to influence what is said in the reviews. Since the reviews are written by numerous people who would never see that money, there is no real likelihood of that happening, but one does still want to avoid creating a poor impression. It may be that individuals who happen to be part of those businesses do donate. They no doubt do so anonymously, so we should be careful about pointing fingers (I don't think that is what you are trying to do, it's just one of those things that can develope from an innocent comment), as they may already be doing "their share." If so, we will probably never know about it.

By the way, good catch on the Pay Pal thing. I had just assumed one had to be registered with them.

-Grey

"So long as I can keep the path of honor I am well content."
-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company


Last edited by Greyson Brown on Mon 16 Oct, 2006 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 3:32 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I agree with everything you said, Greyson. I do not think that donors should be publicly identified if they do not wish it. I did not mean to sound accusatory, and I apologize if I came across that way. I also don't think that Nathan should have to be the fund raiser, especially if he does not feel comfortable in that role, as has been indicated earlier. I think fundraising is more effective if it is grassroots, anyhow. If site members are the ones who are really pulling hard for the site and asking for people to donate, I think that will only speak to the quility of the site, and will really emphasize the need to give. I am suggesting that more of us should do what Jean does: remind members to give and to advocate for the maintenance of the site. I personally feel bad for waiting so long before donating--it's something I should have done a few months ago. I hope we can make donations even out throughout the year to avoid the Fall rush, and so Nathan can keep the handsome pieces in his collection!

Let's forward thank paypal thanks to Nathan. I was going to pay via money order since I didn't want a paypal account, and he pointed out that paypal would let me donate regardless. Thanks, Nathan!.

BTW: as of 6:36 EST on 10/16/06 we've collected 1030.00 towards our goal of 1450 USD! Great job, everyone! Let's keep the momentum going! If it's been a year since your last contribution, consider making another!
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Nathan Robinson
myArmoury Admin


myArmoury Admin

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 4:07 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

This is always a hard thing for me to deal with.. I want to thank Jean and Russ for lighting the fires on this one.

The last donation drive made me code a bunch of stuff to make this stuff official and make sure that all funds are accounted for and everything is fully disclosed to the public, etc. etc. I did this to make sure that everything stays legitimate and all record-keeping is done automatically and kept digital. I didn't feel comfortable making things really stand out and so opted to keep it subtle and threw it at the bottom of the forum page and at the bottom of a couple other pages.

I'm taking everyone's advise so far in this topic. I've already started to make the donation stuff less subtle. I've also made efforts to explain the process more, especially to note that PayPal does not require a membership or account to send payments via credit card.

The actual Donation Page now lists the donation goal, the donors, and all that. It also has the explanation about PayPal.

The Contributor Center now has the donation pitch right at the top for those who have not yet donated. If you've already donated, you won't be bugged by it again. I'll likely add this pitch to our homepage, too.

Now I need to talk myself into making an official donation drive. These member-initated drives are welcome, for sure, and again I thank those of you who have really driven them.

Again, thank you to everyone.

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Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 5:05 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Nathan,
The changes you have made are fantastic! I think that making available more info on donating really removes perceived barriers to giving. I think it's pretty fantastic that in a matter of hours we have raised more than $200! If you want help with any type of planned drive, I would be happy to help in whatever way I can, and I'm sure others would like to help, too.

Jonathan
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Steve Grisetti




Location: Orlando metro area, Florida, USA
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
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Posts: 1,812

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 5:52 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Just $95 to go at this point. Well done, folks! Let's keep it up.
"...dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly."
- Sir Toby Belch
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Addison C. de Lisle




Location: South Carolina
Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Likes: 27 pages

Posts: 614

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 5:55 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I didn't know that you didn't need to have a paypal account in order to use it; that makes things a lot easer Big Grin
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William Goodwin




Location: Roanoke,Va
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PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:02 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Just sent in my lot. Lets keep it coming folks.......

Nathan, Thanks for all you do to keep this site up & running.....Cheers to you lad.......


Bill

Roanoke Sword Guilde

roanokeswordguilde@live.com
"I was born for this" - Joan of Arc
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Russ Ellis
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Joined: 20 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:33 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Alright gentlemen and ladies too I just had a look and it seems we are about 25 dollars short at this point. Now someone come out with that last 25 dollars and we will have this thing under control. Happy

So far so good. I'm really impressed with the way that this community is responding. The internet is free and so is this site, but if we want to keep the quality that we have come to expect... well, in the end there is truly no such thing as a free lunch. Kudos to all of you.

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Hugo Voisine





Joined: 25 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:37 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

And the goal is reached ! Wink
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Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:38 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Russ Ellis wrote:
Alright gentlemen and ladies too I just had a look and it seems we are about 25 dollars short at this point. Now someone come out with that last 25 dollars and we will have this thing under control. Happy

So far so good. I'm really impressed with the way that this community is responding. The internet is free and so is this site, but if we want to keep the quality that we have come to expect... well, in the end there is truly no such thing as a free lunch. Kudos to all of you.


Yes, very impressive! It has been fun to check the donation stats throughout the night and watch the number rise. $25 left, and there is nothing wrong with surpassing the goal.

Edit: And we did!
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Addison C. de Lisle




Location: South Carolina
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PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:47 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

So Nathan, do you still need to sell that regent?
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Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 7:21 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

What do the member donations stats look like now? What percentage of active members have given towards the current goal? I think it might be worth tracking this over time in order to measure the success of possible future fund drives.
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Steve Maly




Location: OKC, OK
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
Reading list: 23 books

Posts: 257

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 7:41 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

WOO HOO! Goal met and exceeded!!! Way to go guys!
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." ~A. Maslow
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Nathan Robinson
myArmoury Admin


myArmoury Admin

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 8:03 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Addison C. de Lisle wrote:
So Nathan, do you still need to sell that regent?


Well, I was just discussing this with another member who sent me a private message about it. Yeah. I think I will still sell it. It seems tacky to put it up for the reason of earning cash for the site then taking it down after people come forward to help out. It could be interpreted as guilting people into donating and that just feels dirty. So I think I'll still sell it, collect the money, and use it for other site-related things over the course of the next few months. The site isn't cheap for me to run and there is a lot I still want to do and get out the doors.

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Nathan Robinson
myArmoury Admin


myArmoury Admin

PostPosted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 8:05 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

J.G. Hopkins wrote:
What do the member donations stats look like now? What percentage of active members have given towards the current goal? I think it might be worth tracking this over time in order to measure the success of possible future fund drives.


Everybody who has ever donated to the site can be seen in the donating members group. And then, of course, you can look at the current goal's donors. It's an elite group Happy

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