Three more pledges or modifications to pledges were made in the ATMB thread:
Silo - increased his pledge from $30 to $40, so we can add $10. Wooohoo!
2sense - $20, thanks a lot!!!
Ogre - gives an Ogre-sized pledge of $50 - WOW!
For a new total: 1860 + 10 + 20 + 50
Running total: $1940!!!
Hey guys, remember - if we get $60 more, then beatle will have to pledge another $50 to match! Let’s grab the cash from him!
Just to let you know Atracite, you may be sitting in the bleachers of the ball park with your server price figure.
Internet servers can start at $2500
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/line_servers.htm
but that is end of the line. I’m sure se can get a great one for about $6000 to $8000.
but then again, I can only take them apart and upgrade them, I’m not a salesman 
Seeing that I am now back in the business of building and selling servers, I might be able to finagle a HUGE discount; the kind that only employees of the manufacturer receive. We’ll see 
Jeez, Mr C. Didn’t take you long to find a job! Don’t you just love the boom. Power is fun only if you abuse it, you know.
The largest donation I’m seeing right now is $100. So consider this a challenge…
I’m kicking in $125. Can anyone top that? C’mon! I dare you.
So near as I can tell:
Previous: $1940
JC Challenge grant: $125
Total: $2065
Hey! I pushed it over the $2K mark!
Heck, I’m doing this because I’m all hip in love with Anthracite. Any woman who digs coal that much is way cool in my book. Hey, what can I say? I went to school in coal country and now live in coal country.
And speaking as a former network admin and webmaster (since moved to marketing) I think you could get a kickin’ stand alone server for somewhere in the $5000-$8000 range.
Kick-ass, Mr. Chance!!!
However…
If you see what I wrote in the OP about beatle, he now must ad another $50, since we have gone over $2000. Thus, he is at $120, and may top you when we make it to $3000. Then, of course, you will have to top him right back…
AND - I will top you now. Since I was pledged at $120 before, I will add another $10, for $130 total from me. Ha!
Awwww…thanks for the kind words, guy!
So with the additional $50 from beatle’s challenge, and the additional $10 from me, we would have:
Total: $2125
en garde!
All righty then! Up mine to $150! Take THAT!
Now people have to bid $151 to top me. And we’ll just see about that beatle character later…
So…
Previous: $2125
JC Topper: $25
Total: $2150
I just tallied 'em all in Excel and, as of Jonathan Chance’s 11-23-2000 11:10 AM post our running total is $2170 (a $20 pledge got lost in a simulpost shuffle).
So, I’m soon off to gobble turkey - will I be destitue on my return? Will the third beatle auto-bite have been activated?
Damn you, Jonathan Chance! I must ponder this…
Also:
I have received three e-mails which I think portions of deserve to be aired. I am only taking an excerpt from each, and keeping them anonymous.
Mail Number 1:
Now this letter both gives me hope, and makes me sad. There is no shame in giving a small amount, or even not giving at all! Everyone’s sitation, needs, and values are different. There is no corrolation whatsoever between you as an individual and what if anything you choose to pledge towards board maintenance.
Mail Number 2:
Hey, that’s great! And no problem with anonymous donations like that to me, as long as they are sincere.
Mail Number 3:
Look - this isn’t about me. I started this thread, and have been trying to act as a focal point. I now understand this sort of thing has been done before in a more limited sense perhaps. This is about the SDMB. If you have issues with me, put them aside for the sake of this community. Or send an anonymous pledge to someone else to put in your name - like beatle, for example, since he has been involved in this effort for a while, he tells me.
Besides - the faster and longer the Board stays up, the more you can quickly flame me! Now who can pass that up, I ask you?
So, if you have a small donation and feel, for whatever reason “embarrased”, or a large sincere one that you want private, or don’t want to post here, e-mail it to me as una_persson@hotmail.com, and I will post it here as an anonymous pledge.
I also will make another pledge - all mails sent will have the amount taken down, then be archived to my PGP encrypted disk. When this unofficial pledge ends, I will delete the e-mails. You will not be contacted by your e-mail, or otherwise to “pump you” for a donation should this thing become serious. I pledge this to anyone who mails me, and if I ever break that vow I demand that you flame me for it, and show everyone that I cannot keep my word.
Well, I see as this preview ran, my good friend beatle has dug up another $20 by correcting a math error. Perhaps we need to have a hand-count, and start counting the pregnant chads too? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
So the new totals:
Previous Total: $2170
Anonymous Pledge A: $5
Anonymous Pledge B: $50
Anonymous Pledge C: $20
New Running Total: $2245!!!
Una
I’m in for $50 American
$20 from me, which with Odieman’s $50 makes it uhhh… $2315.
Tisiphone
Ummm…I’ll pass. I try not to treat for-profit corporations as charities.
Hell, why not? Having worked non-profit in the distant past I can tell you that we were mostly concerned with paying our salaries.
OK, I apologize, there are a great many worthwhile NPO’s out there and they do good work.
On the other hand, the SDMB is something I enjoy and support. Call it a pledge drive, call it what-you-will, given that the board loses bux for the Chicago Reader I think it behooves us to make it a money-maker (or at least minimize the money-sink for them) so it stays around.
Hey, think of it as a voluntary subscription fee the level of which is controlled by your particular circumstance. Hell, I get paid a lot of dough to do what I do…why not spread it around to keep something going that I enjoy (and keeps me sane between 7AM and 4PM M-F)?
Hey, if the Chicago Reader is having trouble justifying the costs of SDMB then they should consider going to a subscription plan, or even a voluntary subscription plan (a la Stephen King). Those are business decisions.
Me personally, I don’t think the SDMB provides any service worth paying for. It is nice, but not that nice. But regardless, the SDMB could be the greatest thing since Diet Dr Pepper and I still would not volunteer to give money to a for-profit corporation. But that is just me, I am not arguing with the decisions y’all have made in this thread.
Yes, and there are drawbacks to that as well - many more so than having a vountary contribution drive.
That’s great, that is your opinion and those are your values. Nothing wrong with that. And they are now noted.
I’ve got a date with a turkey, so I’ve got to run. But something occurred to me while getting ready.
As Jonathan points out, CR runs this site at a loss. And, being a for-profit, I imagine any monies they might collect as a result of this effort will have to be reported as taxable revenue. Could CR conceivably set up just the message board as a non-profit administered by whomever administers it now? And if they did, could the current loss on operation be a tax write-off?
Anonymous Pledge D : $30 more from a sincere person I know.
New Running Total: $2345
I would be happy to make a $20 contribution.
New Running Total:
$2365
I’ll pop in with 20.
$2385
Put me in for $20, too.
New total $2405
Over in the ATMB thread, the very nice TubaDiva said:
OK folks, that makes me feel like our effort will have much more of a difference than I thought. So let’s put our “unofficial goal”, on these non-binding, yet serious pledges, to be $15,000. Quite a bit better than $20,000, IMO.
Which means we have made excellent progress towards that end. You all should be very proud of yourselves for taking the time to pledge. Every person that has made a non-binding pledge, or has at least given moral support towards this effort, are people I am happy to have met OL.