[Jean Thibodeau]

Yes it's that time of year again or even a little later than usual.

This site depends on donations to help pay for server and hosting costs and for the occasional special features like contests and prizes.

Without donations the costs would have to be supported entirely by Nathan and over the years even with donations he has put in much more money in than what donations generate, and this is not counting the thousands of hours put in designing and maintaining the site.

For those like me this is almost my second home and I get a lot out of the site in knowledge, entertainment and friendships.

A lot of you old or new members also get a lot out of this site and if it disappeared it would leave a big hole in your hearts and minds.

So as the title says this is a Donation drive Topic so don't be too surprised if I do my best to encourage donations big or small. I will try to make it entertaining and/or interesting but if others wish to contribute ideas or motivation for others to contribute please help me out: A little humour is welcome, guilting people into contributing is not something Nathan wants or would find acceptable, so encourage donations but don't make anyone who doesn't want to contribute or hasn't available funds to contribute feel badly about it.

To get down to it just contribute what you can afford and if many people contribute $10 it can end up being more than only a few of us giving larger amounts.

1000 people giving $10 each would give the site $10,000 which would easily surpass the contribution totals of previous years. 100 people giving $100 each would also generate the same amount and a mix of a few larger contribution + the smaller $10 ones would mean something in between in numbers of contributors and amounts given by each contributor.

Oh, just to get things started I just donated $100 ......... ( remember no guilt trips here. ) But I always believe in putting my money where my mouth is.

Will be getting into this a bit more later but personally there are a lot of good things I would never have known about or done if I hadn't discovered " myArmoury " or Nathan hadn't started it all by himself ( he did and has a small team of moderators and other people who where involved early on: But no Nathan / No "myArmoury" would be here now ).

Some of the good things:

A) Interesting people to discuss arms and armour.

B) Friends made doing (A)

C) Makers I would never have heard about including Albion, A & A, Tinker, OlliN, Michael Pikula and others from whom I haven't had custom projects with but I know of and can appreciate their work and may be have a project made at some time in the future.

D) I wouldn't have known much or anything about period swordsmanship and reading here for years helped prepare me and be willing to join a local group, lesduellistes.com , and would have missed out doing 4 years of sword training and making new friends.

E) All the features and resources available on this site in addition to the Forums.

So without " myArmoury " I figure life would be much less interesting for me.

NOTE: In addition to contributing money if you can please contribute stories about how this site has helped you in any way in increasing your knowledge and/or exposed you to resources you would probably have missed otherwise.

There are a few reasons for this: Makes this Topic more than just raising money and much more interesting than just me bumping up the Topic every couple of days i.e. you are also helping with the fund drive by keeping this site up front and an interesting read. It also is good for Nathan to hear that people are getting something they value out of this site: Nathan needs the cash to fund the site but he also needs the feedback to keep him motivated to put in those hundreds or thousands of hours needed to keep the site going ..... it's also a nice way to thank him.

Anyway, I have to keep some things for later and not risk running out of " VERBOSITY ".


The Donation Button is at the bottom of Forum Home Page

[Colt Reeves]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Thanks Colt and these are the personal stories I was wishing for as they are interesting in themselves apart from the goal of raising funds for the site.

Just a note on the fund raising goal: There is no " fat " in the number it represents the actual minimal costs of paying for the hardware that hosts the site and doesn't even come close to having any left over to pay for Nathan's time or any prizes Nathan offers in contests from time to time.

Nathan does this because he wants to and if he had to pay himself for the work put in annually it would probably be in the high 4 figures or even in the 5 figures ...... but then we usually don't cost our time put into a hobby we love it is interesting to think how much it would cost to pay the yearly salary of someone doing the work.

Oh, and I would also be " bummed out " if the site went down.

Just for fun I was thinking about what 10 cents a day would cost annually to someone who visits this site daily and the math is really easy first grade stuff: 365 days X .10= $36.50 a year ! Now $36.50 cents is not a huge amount of money over a year, so giving $10 shouldn't be a hardship if one has a a job or steady income and reasonably secure in still having the job.

Lets see skip a few lattes and donuts for one week or one movie without buying popcorn and send in the saved $10 bucks or so as a donation.

I'm again this year putting emphasis on numerous small donations since this makes it spread over the maximum amount of people without it being to much of a sacrifice.

Oh, if somebody really rich wants to give an outrageously large amount I also don't mind.

( NOTE: No obligation to do so, but if you send in a donation post a little something about what you like about the site and/or what motivated you to donate or a little about you if you are a first time poster or post rarely ).

[Jim S.]

[Scott Hrouda]

[Christopher Finneman]

Where does one donate?

[Chad Arnow]

[Harry J. Fletcher]

I would be happy to donate a small amount since myArmoury has been more than tolerant of my unusual humor and remarks and I have gotten a lot of interesting information from it. I am hesitant to use Paypal since I have recently encountered a problem with it and would prefer to make a direct payment however to make a donation. Suggestions?

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Good I see some early Donators have shown up and we are close to $500 with only a dozen or so of people donating so far.

I would also encourage makers and vendors who get good word of mouth here to donate also since a lot of their business and good reputation for good products or customer service is due to the membership talking about their purchases and custom designs: keeping this place functional is to their advantage and many are also some of our friends.

Think how much money good media publicity costs and this site does it for free: I can tell you that without mention of some of the better vendors or makers I have read on this site I wouldn't have even know they existed and even if I had found them through other sources or by accidental Googling, I might not have purchased without the good buzz read here.: Members stories here giving credible proof that the buying experience would be a good one.

Many makers or vendors have come here for valuable feedback helping them in making their offering more appealing to a knowledgeable customer base.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Just a late evening bump.

As with last year the Economy makes giving donations more challenging and for some impossible when survival takes precedence over hobbies, but those who are secure should think of giving that small donation to keep this place operational and to repay the benefits their derive from the site.

Referring to my previous post those makers and vendors who can afford a donation should do so since this site really helps with word of mouth marketing.

If makers and vendors do donate please feel free to post a comment about how this site may have helped keeping you in business and/or what you personally derive from the site in feedback for your products and in helping in the design of new products i.e. you can also contribute interesting stories about how you found out about " myArmoury " and how customers found you because of talk on the various Forums or reviews of your products.

The membership here are also motivated buyers who should have an interest in keeping good makers " fed " and supported by our orders: If we all stop buying they will stop being able to make. ( In other words support our makers during these difficult economic times or risk losing some of the better ones ).

[Jean Thibodeau]

Early morning bump.

Oh, I just noticed that the most recent contribution ( at the time I'm writing this post ) is from a longtime member , Walter Neubauer, who has been a member for many years, since 2004 but has only posted twice in that time and I think should get special thanks for making a donation.

I find it laudable that someone who doesn't post often decided to help the site out with a contribution: I assume that there are many people like him who post very little or never posted but visit the site often enough to appreciate the wider content as well as reading the Forums and obviously are getting enough and care enough about the site to want to contribute.

Anyway, I noticed this and I really appreciated the generosity and I'm sure that Nathan is also happy with all the people who quietly appreciate this site.

( NOTE: As contributions and contributors are made I can't promise to thank each one of you individually or make a remark about every contribution but when I notice something nice or interesting to draw attention to I will certainly do so.

All contributions and contributors are appreciate even if all don't get special mention. )

[Jean Thibodeau]

Late night " Bump ". Too tired tonight to think of something more substantial to write but remember even the smaller donations add up if enough people do it.

The donations seen to be averaging at $40 at the moment and we are over 12 donors at this time.

$546 is not bad considering that this drive has only been stated a few days ago.

[Chad Arnow]

Don't forget you can also help by upgrading your membership!

[Philip Montgomery]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Philip thanks: All donations are appreciated and I also appreciate your posting as it's much more interesting when people let us know why they donated and why they like and support the site. It's a lot more interesting than my just bumping the Topic and it helps keep thing moving.


NOTE, Teaser: There will be some things to watch for on this donation drive soon to make thing more fun to participate.

[Scott Hrouda]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Chad Arnow]

Wow, already over $1000. That's incredible.

The generosity of this site's membership never ceases to amaze me.

[Nathan Robinson]

I stand here in awe of the generosity. Really, well, I'm sitting, but you get the idea.

I already paid this year's hosting bill out of pocket, so all this help really, really eases the personal strain. As Jean knows, I was hesitant to reach out to the community. I kept putting it off. I really appreciate his encouragement and him stepping up and doing the donor-drive and for personally sponsoring a new contest:

I just posted up a new contest related to the donation drive. I normally would have waited until Monday since that's when all our updates normally publish, but I couldn't wait. The outpour of help was too much and I couldn't wait.

Please make sure you guys go look at the new contest and for those who have contributed be sure to enter the contest to make sure you're in it to win it.


Ready, Set, Donate!
A New Contest

For those who have already contributed, make sure you go enter the contest. Maybe you'll win!

There's anther contest waiting in the wings that will happen quickly after this one finishes.