Simple answer … keep the donations list away from the mods and admins. But, you say, people will publicize the fact that they donated. My response: I think in the culture of SDMB, it would be considered gauche to brag that you contributed, so people who say they did (w/o back-up from the mods, who have no idea) would be unable to prove they did, and ridiculed for claiming they did.
Sua
True. True.
errr…
$10,000 / 500 = $20
Hey, I hardly ever get to correct anyone’s math…
Or is driven away by people continuing to pick on her and leaves in sadness.
Anyhow, I’ll go ahead and commit myself - I will give $1 per Dalmatian, if we can ever even agree that donations can be accepted, and accepted in a way I can donate. That’s $102 (yes, Disney yanked one additional dollar out of me this year, the bastages) I’ll also sign whatever waiver needed to disqualify myself from refunds or consideration of any kind. It’s just not that much, folks, compared to what I usually get ouit of being here. Of course, depending on how the antics in my Pit thread progress, who knows? You might need to act fast… 
At the time the request was made our ad space had been purchased on an exclusive contract for that month. We could not add to it nor subtract from it, the ads ran as scheduled.
That’s why the Reader was not able to grant your request.
This happens from time to time. While ad revenues are not a significant source of income for us, occasionally we do get 'em and we get paid when we can.
Hope you didn’t take it personally.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
We have asked the Reader management and the tech people if we could be open to accepting financial contribution from the Teeming Millions for the express purpose of buying a new server for the message board.
Haven’t heard back yet. Probably won’t for another week or so. I’ll keep asking.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
No, I didn’t take it personally or get upset, I was only puzzled.
I wonder if we might not be talking about a different thing - IIRC, the mail said that they would not put any ads on the SDMB, and IIRC there were no ads running at that time. I remember this because Pepper did not believe me when I said there were no ads on the SDMB, and we both checked that night (the night of her birthday) and sure enough, no ads ran.
I wish oh how I wish I had saved the mail. Oh well.
Anyhow, I’m only discussing this part out of clarification purposes. I know if a business turns down hard cash, there must be a business, and not a personal, reason for it.
Just wondering, but what model server do we currently have?
BTW I’d donate $20-$40 at the blink of an eye.
OK everyone, let’s see if we can help Tuba’s business case for seeing if the Chicago Reader will accept contributions. Since it takes some effort and woman-time to set up any system for receiving, tracking, and applying contributions, I’m sure they would like to see that they would get a serious number and/or amount of contributions before investing the effort.
Let’s hold a sample “PBS Pledge Drive” (where PBS = “Powerful Board Soon”). The rules are you make an honest, non-binding effort to state what amount you would pledge as a one-time contribution to the SDMB, provided:
You had assurance that the money would be used for capital expenditure for a new server, with any extra being applied towards the operations and maintenance of the board exclusively.
Some sort of convenient payment terms were available.
Each person who wants to pledge, state your pledge, and the running total at the time of your post.
I’ll start:
Pledge: $102
Running Total: $102
Anyone else?
Silo, you da man! Pick a number, and add your pledge “officially” to the running total if you like.
And that is an exellent question - what hardware do we have now, and what hardware would be looked at for the future? And what prices/suppliers as well?
I’d ante up $100.
Falcon!!! Wow! You kick ass!
OK, now we’re up to:
Una - $102
Silo - $20 to $40 (say $30… 
)
Falcon - $100
Running total: $232
As another rule - let’s only post offers of $5 or more. I don’t want to start adding up “1 cent” posts, or “Tube Pass” posts. :eek:
I’ll pledge $20.
And…, a challenge:
Besides that $20 I already kicked in, I’ll add another $50 for every $1000 we can get pledged from the Dopers before my two year anniversary on the board (4/2/01), up to $8000 (limits me to $420).
I think I’ve some yank money lying around…'bout 50c or so…hell, it’s got to be better than any of those worthless euro things they’re trying to foist upon us;)
Great!
Running Total: $252 now.
Come on, everyone! Let’s meet beatle’s challenge. The more we pledge, the more we can suck his…wallet dry.
android209 - 50c, eh? :rolleyes: How about sending about 10 of those “worthless Euro things”?
I was going to pledge 20$, but it took 5 minutes for the reply page to load and I became frightened that I would get a “too many connections” message. So I swore to the Pink Unicorn that if I could just get in, I’d double my pledge. And because I like multiples of 5, I’ll make it $50.
Great job, Biggirl! And thank you, Invisible Pink Unicorn!
Hey all - just so I don’t get a handy-like post count, how about each one of you who pledge something (more than the $5 limit) add a line to the end of your post that has the running total?
Running total: $352.
We’re making it…should this thread be moved to MPSIMS where it can get more exposure, or is this a good place to keep it for now? Or should I start a “PBS Pledge Drive” thread in MPSIMS?
Who? Me? Not my intent; sorry if I somehow came across like that.
Anyhoo, I could spare fitty bones for a good cause.
Running Total: $402
What on Earth are you talking about? Uh oh, I better check some threads… 
$402 - we’re getting the pledges in pretty quickly!
No no! I was merely concerned 'cause you mentioned it after quoting part of my post, and was making sure that I hadn’t done anything inadvertently loutish.