fundraising/hosting (was Re: [Theforum] inventory)

[David McCreath]

aardvark wrote:

> rudy and dave had some good ideas...
>
> for instance, i pay $20/month for hosting roselli.org... i get ASP off
> that... i never would move it until i had learned PHP (which i'm
> doing)...
>
> but if suddenly with ChiliASP on meo, if you charged, say, $25, i
> would move my shiznit there as fast as i could get the DNS to
> swing over...
>
> also, banner ads...
>
> that was a joke... however, if we have a "donate" link, that can
> help...


I think a "donate" link is a good place to start.


> having NFP status, however, makes donations much more
> attractive to everyone involved...


For large donations, yes.

> if i didn't know you, or me, i
> wouldn't hand over my money as a donation without confidence it
> didn't go to your tanqueray habit...


I don't know. I think there might be lots of list/site members who would
pony up a couple bucks a year (yeah, year) to make something of a
difference. It might not cover everything, but assuming that some of us
would donate more than a couple of bucks (say, $10 or $15), then small
donations start to make a difference.

Which would get us moving toward our goal.

> but i would pay for hosting...
> that's a service with definite value.. but then you're on the hook as
> support (probably more than you are now)...


I would be leery of getting into a paid hosting situation simple because
of the headaches involved. You absolutely can't beat m.e.o. for options
in languages, but we're still only running MySQL (not Postgre or MSSQL
or anything) and if you're not looking for an environment where you can
experiment with other languages, then you can get pretty damn cheap
hosting from some pretty reputable folks.

Maybe a public radio pledge-drive kind of thing (for our non-USA
members: National Public Radio gets a certain amount of money from the
government each year, but relies on donations to make up an increasingly
large portion of their operating costs, so twice a year, they run
special programming and interrupt the programming every 15 minutes or so
to tell you why you should donate [otherwise commercial-free radio,
superior programming, some other stuff] and update the total.)

Kind of like what iSac was talking about with Donation Day. I bet a
bunch of people would toss in a $20 if it was a one day thing.


> tagwear is a great idea that won't pay the bills (IMO), but it is
> definitely worth exploring (again)...


Increased exposure, higher profile. As long as it doesn't *cost* money
to run, it could be a big help.


> for those who have the password, i still have the original tagwear on
> my staging server at http://staging1.algonquinstudios.com/evolt/
>
> it is *old* code...


Hey! Adrian's ASP is showing! =:0


> other, lamer ideas...
>
> - 10 cent donation for each browser download... mail it in large
> bills...


Ick. No. Like tagwear, that browser archive is a great profile builder.
Pimp it everywhere we can.


> - pay listings on deo...


Ick. No. Make it better resource and pimp it as part of why people want
to donate.


> - ummm...

durrrrrr ...