[Jean Thibodeau]

I think that we are a bit late compared to previous years having a fund raising to pay for the hosting costs for the site and help Nathan pay for all " OUR FUN " and keep this site active and not have Nathan to pay for it all from his own pocket.


Usually these things have started around the end of July or mid August but since nobody else seems to have done so yet I think that we should help Nathan pay for keeping the site operational with a donation, and we should start the " Official/Unofficial annual " myArmoury " fund drive.

Nathan has put in tons of effort, time, dedication, sweat and a lot of his own money creating this site and maintaining it that we should make a small contribution to help keep it going.

Nathan also hates to ask for money, so somebody has to " Jump start the Fund Drive ": So this is it, and it's a good way to celebrate the tenth Anniversary of the site and Forum.

[Aaron Hoard]

Done!

[Harry Lindfors]

Done!

[Bruno Giordan]

Done

[David Lewis Smith]

we should have a cuss jar too, (joke)
any how for those who want to use paypal it is on the front page, and for grins

right here

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/lwdonate.php

I threw some change in the jar

[Jean Thibodeau]

Thanks to those who have just sent a donation, it is appreciated.

As with all these annual donation drive it's good to post comments to this Topic to keep it active and " Bumped " near the top, but also good to do it with some content: So, anyone donating or wanting to encourage others to donate should share their own thoughts about why they enjoy this site, learn a great deal from it, have made friends here over the years or very soon if they have just joined.

This is a friendly place, well moderated and with a culture of respectful exchanges where we help each other to learn and are welcoming to people who might feel shy or intimidated by the knowledge of many longtime members.

Some of the people who contribute here are makers and industry professional, as well as some true scholars and many of us enthusiastic amateurs ( Amateurs in the good sense of the word that we don't earn our living studying or teaching history, but not in the negative sense of being clueless ..... )

Another reason to contribute is that many of us take good advantage of the contacts we make here with makers, or on the Marketplace Forum have a place to find or sell pieces from or for our collections.

The makers who post their work here also get good exposure to people most likely to become buyers of their work, as well as having knowledgeable people who can give interesting feedback about their work.

Most any maker who loves his work, appreciates having his work viewed by people who can actually appreciate the craft and talent needed to make many of the fine pieces seen on this site.

So, many of us have a " selfish " interest in keeping this site in good health and operation, and Nathan shouldn't have to carry the hosting cost all by himself in addition to all the " unpaid work " he has put into this site this year and every year since he created the site.

[Nathan Robinson]

Hi Everybody-

I was out of town in another all week and just returned back. I'm still catching up on the topics here.

As in previous years, I'm always touched by the efforts of the members to help pay for the costs of this site. Thank you all who have contributed.

This year is our 10-year anniversary. I'm always shocked to see these efforts are just as strong as they've always been.

Cheers

[Mikko Kuusirati]

[J. Hargis]

Good call, Jean.
Reasons for contributing are obvious, I've done my bit recently and worth every penny.

Thanks, Jon

[Jean Thibodeau]

Well this is a good start but sort of slowing down a bit, we are not very far from the half way point and need a little " push " to get over the hump.

Small $10 donations do add up if enough people contribute in addition to a few people contributing larger amounts if they can afford it and they also feel that they get so much from the site each year that they want to help keep it going and give back a little.

Save a couple of bucks a day drinking one less coffee for a week and put the cash in a " Tip Jar ", and when you have finished the week Paypal the same amount in the jar to the donation drive, and then take the cash in the jar and treat yourself to something you like.

( Well, maybe cheat a little and round out the Paypal donation to the closest $10 , maybe ? Not sure how well donations of below $10 work out as being efficient i.e. a donation of $7.52 should probably be rounded out to $10, but I guess if someone donated $26.98 it shouldn't be a problem even if not rounded out? )


David Lewis Smith, wrote:

[David Lewis Smith]

That made me laugh out loud Jean.

I made a donation a few days ago, and I sort of hate to put this out but in the same vain as Jeans rounding up. I donated 120 Dollars. My logic was it has been a while sense I donated and I get at least 10$ enjoyment a month.

I am going to go one more, and is purely voluntary and a suggestion. If i sell anything through myArmoury I am going to put a portion of that to myArmoury rounded up to the nearest 10 dollars .

Its not much of an idea in my case, I rarely sell any of my collection.

Web hosting aint cheep my friends

[Ken Speed]

My friend Jean makes several valid points about reasons to support myArmoury and Jon shares his sense that the reasons to support myArmoury are obvious. My take on it is that there is a myriad of reasons to support it; it seems that almost everyone can find something here that pertains to their interest in historic weapons or armor or western martial arts or collecting or history and anthropological finds or whatever and if you can’t, asking will almost always lead you in the right direction.

[Bjorn Hagstrom]

My humble contribution is now added.
Thanks for all the entertainment, information and education provided this year, and I will now enjoy the next with good conscience

[Mark Griffin]

Well i have donated the princely sum of 6.8c per day for the year, seems well worth it! It's what I pay for wikkipedia as well, which is far less accurate than here!

Griff

[Jean Thibodeau]

Well, we are over the half way mark towards the objective.


One can also support the site by upgrading one's membership to " myArmoury " .

Check the membership rates on the site for upgraded or premier: http://www.myArmoury.com/info_memberservices.html

I know that if this site didn't exist I would have missed out on a lot of new knowledge over the last few years, in spite of a large library of reference books and being interested in the subject since I was almost a newborn my knowledge of arms and armour increased exponentially by being here.

Oh, and making a few very good friends was also a bonus feature as well as all the friendly and informative exchanges of knowledge and opinion.

For the price of going to a movie these days, if one adds in the overpriced popcorn and soft drink, one could afford to send in a nice $25 contribution ..... and if it's dinner and a movie, well that can go to $100 bucks or more.

So, sending $10 in gratitude and appreciation for having an alternative to an expensive movie to go to: So one is saving maybe $90 sitting in front of one's PC in one's underwear for a cheap night in of reading and writing about our favourite hobby.

[Jean Thibodeau]

The donations have sort of stalled for the last few days and in part it's because the Topic thread gets pushed down by newer posts, so many people who didn't read or notice the Topic need to see that there is a currently active donation drive, so it does need to be " bumped " every few days for the duration of the donation drive until we at least meet the objective of paying the hosting costs for Nathan and for us also. It's not O.K. if Nathan has to pay any of the basic hosting costs out of his own pocket considering that he also puts in a lot of time on this site to just keep it going.

Nathan also covers a lot of other incidental costs of running the site as well as the time he puts into it is time he takes away from earning a living with billable hours, also it's " ENERGY " he burns taking away some resting time he would be using to recover from work ..... as we all need to recover from a long days' work.

The donations have been good getting to slightly past the half way point and is currently from around 25 people for an average donation of $45 each: Since a few people have donated more most people have probably donated between $10 and $25 ? ( Just a guess on my part as I don't have access to any statistics or the internal workings of the site )

If I remember correctly, in previous years, the number of people donating is usually around 100 people by the end of the donation drive after maybe a month or two of being active.

Large donations certainly helps a great deal, but it's also the smaller donations of around $10 that help get to the donation objective after the easy first half has been raised I think.

So if another 100 people contribute $10 we will meet the objective. 2 or 3 less coffees or one less pizza in a week should easily cover a $10 to $25 donation.

By the way I'm trying to encourage donations, but I'm not laying a guilt trip on anyone just threading water and barely surviving on a minimum wage salary or out of a job, but if one is in good shape financially, and more importantly appreciates all they get from this site worth more to them than a lot of the small expense they have in a week that don't don't even notice spending, but that do add up during a week or monthly.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Oh, thanks to the last couple of people donating after I posted the above post as the amount donated just jumped up by about $500 ........ WOW, impressed and thanks again, certainly made my day.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Well we are not that far from the donation objective, and are at $1690 as I type this.

We are over 25 people donating so far and a few donating a good amount more than $10.

Lets try to first get the amount over $2,000 and see if we can gather a bit of momentum to reach the goal and maybe surpass it a bit.

The $2,100 covers the basic hosting charges, but any extra money is a reserve for unexpected expenses or possible upgrades that Nathan might have to make during the next year.

In previous years we reached the $3,000 to $4,000 mark and this gave Nathan some manoeuvring room to make improvements to the site as far as servers and the general maintenance and upkeep of the site.

It's also motivational and gratifying when we get good participation in support of the fund drive, as it's not only the total of money raised, but also having many people giving $10 and actively supporting the site.

After numerous years of having these fund drives I must admit that it becomes difficult to not repeat what was said in previous years to encourage donations, but all the reasons said then are still valid now: If you get a lot out of this site, and you can afford to make a donation, you are more than just enjoying the site, you are also making the site possible for others to enjoy, learn and participate here.

[Jean Thibodeau]

I just kicked in $110 to make it a nice round number, only $300 to the donation goal, so if 30 people donate $10 each we reach the objective of $2100 and the objective of wider participation in supporting the site.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Time to " bump " the Topic up again as only a few more people have viewed it since last time, but among those few, a few made a substantial donation. Some have really stepped up and contributed a lot more than the minimum suggested amount of a $10 donation.

Not far from the objective at $1850 already raised.