WAit a minute................. Commitment???? Who said anything about a commitment? I just thought it was 'interesting' . ps: I put tape over the camera lens. Some things best left unknown.
It's the least we can do for the man and web site that's given us so much over the years. I'm just proud to be a small cog in the big, green Otto machine.
We got off to a good start, and I am still awaiting a couple checks in the mail, but no one new. Unfortunately, we're a bit short of the goal we need to purchase the new software, the new server, and the professional expert to assist with the migration. All this will happen, but instead of happening this month, it will likely be three months before I can put aside what is needed. Without the help so far it would have been six months. We're a bit short of where I'd like to be, but we are still well ahead of where we were, so progress was made.
If I might make a suggestion, I'm fortunate I'm doing well financially at the moment, so I had it to contribute, last year when I was having my dog treated for cancer and at the same time the wife had the heart scare (since resolved) money was a little tight due to medical and vet bills. Even then I would have liked to have helped, and could have in other ways, but needed to husband my cash reserves. I'm a pretty decent artist, I have duplicate volumes of books, or books I acquired years ago that are rare now that I really don't care if I keep, militaria sitting downstairs in storage boxes, I used to be a pretty decent scale modeller, I have a lot of unbuilt, complete kits, custom action figures for display, there were a number of alternate ways I could have helped. We have a healthy mix of talented individuals and hobbyists who might be able to donate items for an online auction that could be sold and paid for with PayPal. Militaria, drawings, paintings, we have several authors so maybe a signed book, etc. Where some may not have the ready cash at the moment they may have other assets they'd gladly put towards the cause. This idea isn't fully thought out as per details, but we've got a lot of smart guys here that can work out the details. I have a son whose birthday is coming up, I have money allocated to get him a present, if I could kill two birds with one stone, why not? I'm sure I'm not alone.
I appreciate it Musso, no worries if you cannot donate. While we are not where we need to be, we are making steady progress. I mentioned in my initial post that one should donate if you think it is worthwhile and can spare it. Don't get me wrong, we do have an expensive effort to move forward and every dollar will be put to good use, but there is no obligation of any member to donate.
We received a few more Patrons overnight, and more are expected in the mail. RRA227, Belasar, & green slime, among them. Thanks gentlemen! You've no idea how thankful I am to have people thinking of financial option for this website. I'm terribly humbled. The plans in place for upgrades and migration are expensive, but not insurmountable. With the current donations and my resources the site is financially stable through 2017. What these donations will allow us to do is make the jump to our new software & server, about 30 Patrons (or so) that will allow me to at start that process. As of now we are at about a dozen Patrons, so not enough to make our move, but we are getting closer. At the same time as our donation drive(s), I've been working to generate some income through other means, as well as maximizing the adverts we already have. I suspect by the time we collected items, contacted authors, and then ran an auction we'd be fairly close to our goal. I'm by no means saying our financial concerns are abated, but as long as we continue to get a regular donation or two, we should be near our goal sooner rather than later. I like your ideas, but let's see how things go through the end of the month. I'll reassess things on July 1st and we can go from there.
Thank you Otto for all that you are doing. We truly appreciate the amount of work you are putting into these upgrades. Excited for the setup.
The reward for a WW2F tattoo depends entirely on placement and size. The reward for a breast implants depends entirely on placement and size. I would need photographic evidence of either.
Cheers to KJ Jr, mcoffee, and Ken The Kanuck, the two three most recent Patrons. Thanks for your generosity and support. If you've donated and I haven't mentioned you publicly, I will be listing Patrons on their profiles soonish. Very appreciative of the support, we are not at our goal yet, but still moving along decently.