I want to donate $$$ to the SDMB - how?

About This Message Board
1

I would have e-mailed you on this, Tuba, but I thought others might get the idea and cough up…ahem.

I’ll be brief. I get a lot of use and enjoyment out of being here. I would like to donate to the cause of the SDMB. Since I can’t donate in the way I would have liked, I thought I could at least do so in this way. I have just a few questions:

  1. Is there any process that could be worked out to do so?

  2. Is there any reassurance that the SDMB will benefit from what I contribute? (I’m not implying it won’t, but I’m sure many people will ask this question)

  3. Can I donate in a pseudo-anonymous way? Can it be by money order? Credit card? (I could always use some more frequent flyer miles…) Since I trust you, Tuba, can I send it care of yourself?

  4. Sorta like Public Television, can there be a “donor’s page” linked to the main board page, where people who do give can get a “thank you for support”? (you should also divide it into "under $100/over $100 categories or something…or maybe over $20 is “Silver Medallion Status”, over $50 is “Gold Medallion”, over $100 “Platinum” oh wait, I’m still thinking of frequent flyer miles here :wink: )

Anyhow - do any of these ideas make sense? Any thoughts?

2

I suspect, Anthracite, that you have recently read this thread, which references another thread where we discussed this.

Should the powers that be decide this is a thought to be revived, I’ll re-up my NPR-like challenge from the second thread linked.

Last time ‘round, Jerry Davis’ submitted figure of $40K for a rock’n’roll server, and the thought of some potential contributors starting to feel a bit proprietary about the board were cited as pitfalls.

So, onward through the fog…

3

In fact, I’ll double that challenge.
I would hope that any who do contribute, should such a scenario come to pass, can keep in mind the thought that one of the sources of the vitality of the board is that there is not any subscription fee or, really, much of anything in the way of an obstacle to board registration. Should one decide to contribute, one gains no “special” right to bitch, one only gains by helping to preserve their access to a place where the aforementioned vitality is fed and maintained.

Hmmm…, voluntary taxes, anyone?

4

OK…I read the previous two threads you linked. Unfortunately, neither of them provide answers to my questions.

5

Here’s what I’d do, if I actually had disposable income:

Find the address for the Chicago Reader.
Mail a cashier’s check made out to them.
Address it c/o Ed Zotti.
Include a letter specifying that it is for the SDMB.
Include a phone no. for them to contact me if they can’t take the donation.

6

A while back an anonymous friend paid for a non advertisment banner on the board; you can read about it here. For some reason the posts on that thread are all out of order, but you can figure it out. I don’t know if that advertising money goes specifically to the SDMB or the Chicago Reader in general.

7

When pepperlandgirls birthday came around, I wanted to pay for a banner for a day to wish her happy birthday, but according to the Chicago Reader (and I cc’d: Tuba on this already) they would not put a banner on the SDMB, even for money. Which was sorta shocking that they would turn down cash, but anyways…

8

While that doesn’t sound so bad at first, I have doubts that it would get to the correct place and be used for the correct purpose if I did such a thing. Hell, the accountants at my company cannot apply a $100,000 payment properly to one of my projects even if the client puts my full name, telephone number, and e-mail on the check.

9

I’ll simply restate my desire to also contribute money towards a new server. And to state that I think the idea that those of us who contributed money would feel it’s “ours” is foolish. I’ve given (and not given) money to help other lists/boards in the same way, and NO ONE has ever felt that way.

We’re all good people…let us help? Please?

10

How about subscriptions to the Chicago Reader? Does any of that money go to help defray the costs incurred in running the message board?? I’ve bought the books, but I don’t have a subscription. Does anyone know?

Judy

11

I think we could raise the money for a kick-ass server, only the Chicago Reader would be green with envy.

Imagine the silly message board with that great equipment and the news– the important, really fighting ignorance part of the organization has to make due with tin cans and strings.

12

I’m curious Anthracite, did they say why?

Zev Steinhardt

13

Well, damnit. I lost the original mail from the Reader’s ad guy, but IIRC no reason was given, other than “except for a banner put in place temporarily as a memorium (Wally’s) we no longer put banners on the bulletin board.”

14

If we can ever get a way to help fund a new server, I’m in.

Just thought I’d let people know. Maybe if enough of us demand a way to pay we might get one (?)

15

I think it is admirable that you guys want to give out some money for the board, I just don’t see it doing any good.
Just to pull some numbers out of thin air.

Price of Server: $40,000
Number of Members: 10,951

Obviously, the number of members is no way near the amount of members who still post. That number is inflated by people who came just to visit and post once, sock puppets, banned members, and people who just lost interest after a while. Let us be conservative and say that 50% of that number are actually people who come visit the board once a week.

Number of Active Members: 5,000

Now there is no way that all of these people would be willing to donate. In public radio, the number of donaters is arguably 1 in 12. So, lets assume a similar percentage in the dopers. 10 percent of Active Members would be willing to donate.

Number of Active Members Who might be willing to donate:500

40,000/500 = 80 bucks per person.

Thats a big chunk. How many people would be able to donate that much without whining about this or that, and saying “But I paid good money…” What would the Reader’s liability be in taking this much money? The numbers I cooked up are very conservative, is it really reasonable to think that 500 people would be willing to donate that much money?

The thought is nice. I just don’t know how it could work. Perhaps my numbers are way off, who knows. Anyway, it isn’t like the board is down for days on end, it is down for a few hours, at most.

pat

ps:
My numbers are entirely home brewed, aside from the 1 in 12 claim (Which is argued and can be found here.) Everything came from my guesswork. So, as with most of my posts YMMV.

16

So we work slow.

It is annoying to me. Yes, I have no life.

I have minor amounts of random income, it might as well go to my favorite site as not. Yea, I’d feel a sence of ownership, but * I already do. * “This is my board, and feel that baby whir! Oh yea, we got some power now!”

I would feel ownership, not of the administration, which I respect, but of the technical quality of what I helped pay for…the server. (Again, I have no life)

As for the idea that it would take so many people to get the money so why bother: so what? Why cut off the opportunity from those of us who want to? Its akin to removing Nader from the ballots because there was no way for him to win. (sorry to use politics…)

Seriously, I would like an answer beyond “Why try?” If there is an actual problem, I can understand.

17

OK, two things (BTW, will someone official kindly comment so we all are not just blindly speculating here? All I wanted to do was help out. :frowning: )

  1. I question a $40,000 tag for a server. My company sets up some pretty damn high bandwith and powerful machines, and even with engineering costs few are more than $20,000. I wonder if this number thrown about might not be an old, out-of-date number.

  2. We are frequently told that the Chicago Reader operates the Board “at a loss”. This implies there must be some considerable O&M costs, right? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that contributions could help cover O&M costs?

Una

18

I’m not going to go into specifics, because we don’t really have anything settled yet. I will tell you that we do speculate on this subject frequently, and we DO look quite seriously at these suggestions and discuss them amongst ourselves. We want to do things right. And, let me tell you, it gives us (the unpaid admins and mods) a warm feeling to know that y’all really DO mostly appreciate our efforts. So you’ve already contributed to the board in a way. We want to make this place enlightening and entertaining for our folks.

Lynn
With a warm and fuzzy feeling

19

pricciar, I hate to tell you, but the situation’s even bleaker than you make it out to be. Take a random sample of twenty or so user IDs, and see how many posts each has. The mode is zero, and the median is one (for non-statisticians, this means that more people have zero posts than any other number, and there are as many people who have 1 or less posts as there are who have 1 or more posts). The figure usually quoted for estimates of the number of active users is more like 500 than 5000. Even if we go another factor of two better than Anthracite’s figure for server cost and say ten grand, we’re still talking about $200 bucks per person willing to contribute.

20

Yeah, but, let’s say someone (not you) donates $40 out of the kindness of her heart, then pulls some bonehead move in GQ, gets in a flame war with the mods, and gets banned. Or doesn’t. If she gets banned, it’ll rankle that she just paid forty bucks for a service she’s just been denied. If she doesn’t, there’s always the question (valid or not) of whether the mods were more lenient 'cause she’d contributed money. If there’s a straight subscription cost to use the boards, it’s all very legal and proper, with provisions for reimbursement or the denial thereof, and if you get booted for a rule violation, tough noogies. If people contribute on a volunteer basis, things are fuzzier. At least that’s my thought.