Donation Drive

See Scott, once again, you just don't get it.
People are not complaining about donating and helping the site. They're complaining about the manner in which you did it. A manner that seems heavy-handed. So, instead of following your usual tack, consider it feedback for the next time out.

It should say something that people who signed up in 2001 and 2002 and whatnot have issues, but people who signed up just last month as trying to defend this practice. So, instead of reacting with your usual taunts, take it as constructive criticism. It'll do you and this forum a whole lotta good.
 
Hockey... sometimes it's hard to hear good thing among the complaints. I'd rather people just say, thanks for the site, than tell me they don't have money. Saying "I don't have money", although thruthful and conveys a message, it is negative. By saying, "Thanks for the site, keep up the good work" is a positive message.

I *HATED* any type of on-air fundraising, radio or TV when I was younger. I despised when my favorite station, spent a week screwing up normal programming to raise donations. Of course, I did NOT donate, I turned to a different station and went on with life until the got done.

I then had the opportunity to WORK at that station, none-the-less and participated in the fund drives and saw that behind the scenes, it takes thousands upon thousands of dollars a month just for electricity for fire up a 100,000 watt FM transmitter. I know that everyone ran on the bare essentials in pay (minimum wage) and that the equipment in the station was old and so-so.

I had a new appreciation for sites that require donations and people who do. I now gladly give money, not out of guilt, shame... but beause I get something in return. If I can't give, I will say, keep up the good work!

I hate asking for funds... I wish that it grew on trees in my back yard and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I wish that Google Ads paid more than 10-30 cents per day to run on my site, but do the math, that isn't a whole lot. I wish there was a market like their was in 1998-1999 for banner ads.

We are NOT a big site, compared to other Mac sites. We don't have the marketing power to drive a banner driven site. We don't have the financial power to promote ourselves. But, one thing is for sure... we continue to upgrade the servers to bring a better experience, get more bandwidth to help with the same thing, and try and provide a nice clean site for everyone to enjoy.
 
Randman,

Actually, I do get it. But what you and others who complain about the "manner" don't get, even when the facts are presented in front of you, that it is the ONLY manner that accomplishes a given goal. So, come 2006, we will have a repeat performance of this very discussion.
 
I haven't complained. I just said you should take comments, good and bad, with a grain of salt.
 
Hey - i guess i was being a jerk again - sorry about that.
I probably will donate to the site sometime in the near
future - but i still think the shutdown thing was kind of rude(hehe)

BTW - this is a very good mac site, and i do appreciate
its presense on the 'net! ;)
 
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ScottW said:
We are NOT a big site, compared to other Mac sites. We don't have the marketing power to drive a banner driven site. We don't have the financial power to promote ourselves. But, one thing is for sure... we continue to upgrade the servers to bring a better experience, get more bandwidth to help with the same thing, and try and provide a nice clean site for everyone to enjoy.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not sure how many members there are, but since the inception of the internet marketing is less money driven and even more people driven. Look at great bands, sites or products that we all happen to hear about just because of some darn email blast… :)

We have a better situation here: Passionate Missionaries, if you will, and we all enjoy this site and tell our friends. I've suggested this before, but why don't we have more banner ads? We get local companies on a site like this who appreciate receiving 100 new web customers a year who might generate $1000.00 of revenue (just being modest in my estimate) on stuff we need to buy like printer ink or new computers.

Not only that, but we don't have to pay electricity for a 100,000 watt transmitter. The costs of this site, while unknown to me, I would assume are MUCH less than running a Public TV Station.

Scott, I think you have a huge untapped resource here if you'd just recruit us to help. I do graphics. I'd do free graphics for this site, for example. The list goes on to any other members here with particular skills.

Instead of shutting down the site, let's figure out what needs to be done and see if we can prove the adage, "many hands make light work." :)
 
Heh, good turn around, grep. ;)

Scott, I don't usually pipe up in these sorts of conversations, but I'll say that I understood it all and didn't find it too annoying. There's no way not to find something like that somewhat annoying, as you yourself already said, but it wasn't something that I couldn't live with, nor did I find it heavy handed.

Although I laughed when I saw it - I had just donated probably less than a day before it popped up. I have a weird sense of humor. ;)

And for everyone complaining - grow up! It lasted two days. Sheesh. And it wasn't even totally cut off during those two days. You'd think it had lasted a month with total outage from some of these comments. And it's not like Scott came around busting down the doors to your homes demanding money. :rolleyes:

There wasn't, and has never been, a point where Scott said "Pay up, or the site goes away." It would be nice if it wasn't needed at all, but unfortunately, things cost money. It's only done once a year. Some people need to take a reality check... would you pay out the butt for something and not ask for some help in return?
 
While I found the outage annoying I also recognize the need for such. It is nice to think that banner ads or donations through the year would pay for the upkeep but this is quite often not the case.

Again I am too new to pass judgement on the site but, for the most part, I like what I have seen from the community so far.
 
I dont see why everyone is getting riled up about this. Money doesnt grow on trees, and I'd gladly spare a few bucks and a day or two without the forum for all of the knowladge and fun I get here.
 
I bet I have you all beat! :)

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note: This is all in fun.
 
Satcomer,

All in fun? Not a nice joke.

I had been meaning to click on that donation button, but just never got around to it. Scott's tactic worked as it made me do what I was meaning to do.

You can't please all the people all the time. And just reading some of the complaints, it is so true.

The object was to put the need for donations in our face. And it worked for the most part. If you could not afford it, you were not forced to pay up, just forced to wait for when the site was up. A minor inconvenience.

Now, can we all get back to what we are here for?
 
brianleahy said:
It's amazing how people become so accustomed to getting valuable things for free that they start to feel entitled, and even become angry when either the freebies go away (even temporarily) or when they are asked to pay for them. I catch myself doing it too; getting angry with a delayed update to a free site or some such.
Click to expand...

That's it exactly. You get used to something that was free and suddenly it costs money. Pow, you go into freak mode. Sure, there are other similar resources out there but if you like a place, you will want to come back

I have tried other forums of all kinds for all kinds of subjects over the last 10+ years and only a handful get me coming back.

Excellent case in point here. The Mac OS.

Remember when you could go down to your local Mac shop with a handful of floppies and use their machines to copy the latest version of Mac OS?

Remember the horror and outrage when Apple announced it was going to start charging for the Mac OS? People screamed, then got over it and realized it was not that bad of a deal, so they eventually started coughing up the cash.

I don't mind helping a site I find useful. Many of the best helpful sites out there are run by good people who do so of their own freewill and in their spare time. And many times these people pony up major money for hosting, bandwidth, and countless hours of their time so we have a place to rest our eyes when we need help or want to talk to like minds.

r
 
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