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Last post Author Topic: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser  (Read 150215 times)

mediaguycouk

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #150 on: April 01, 2009, 03:12 AM »
You could take the extra money over the $12,000 and donate it to a charity that allows you to name something related to it.

It would go along with the donation spirit, wouldn't be a massive amount at the last count and would do something really special.

I'm not sure what there is in your area but in our University they are trying to buy a new grand piano for the concert hall to replace a 20-30 year old steinway that costs £70,000 (I think I have the name right). If you donate enough they will name a key after you which would be in the concert hall for the life of the piano.

Maybe there is a hospital or hospice or other worthy cause being renovated near you that can have a donationcoder brick placed in it.

Take some photos, put them up then send them to the tech news agencies with a press release.

You might even get more visitors and donations because of it.
Learning C# - Graham Robinson

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #151 on: April 01, 2009, 03:32 AM »
I should clarify -- I wasn't even thinking of special things we might as a site do -- i was really just expressing that after all the newsletters and banners and special stuff we put up for the fundraiser, it feels like there should be a more formal "ending" to the fundraiser.. some kind of music/party/cake/confetti that would officially mark it as over.. rather then things just quietly slip back to normal..

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #152 on: April 01, 2009, 06:37 AM »
I think the fault lies in me saying we would close the fundraiser at midnight on April 1, and then starting the celebration on March 31.
So backup.. rewind... undo celebrations.. and..

Fundraiser is still going!! We've got 17 hours left from the time i post this (midnight april 1 board time)!! It's exciting, it's fun, cody is doing his final dance as the coins hit the ground near his feet!

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #153 on: April 01, 2009, 09:04 AM »
New thermometer image:

Screenshot - 4_1_2009 , 8_58_19 AM.png

yes!


ed. note: it was pointed out to me that the way the thermometer was always growing ahead of donations might make people feel like they were being tricked. i apologize if anyone felt that way.  we didn't really start out with a fixed goal -- the idea was to run the fundraiser for a month and set a thermometer goal that seemed reasonable.  and it wasn't clear to me the best way to show when we reached that initial goal but wanted to convey that donations were still being asked for.  That's where the colors come in -- red was $8000, where we were really hoping not to fall short of, and then green ends at $12,000 which we didn't really expect to reach but were thrilled about.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2009, 09:06 AM by mouser »

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #154 on: April 01, 2009, 10:57 AM »
Ya know, there is a slim (albeit very slim) chance that 15 is attainable, with where the donations are now, and that there is  approximately 13 hours, if we could just get $100 an hour until midnight!

wishful thinking :)

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #155 on: April 01, 2009, 11:07 AM »
slim isn't quite the right word hehehe..  ;D

we had a flood of donations during the 2 days that the newsletter reaches it's audience.. then we drop back down to normal.

let's not be greedy!!!!   who cares about 15.. we surpassed our highest goal, let's be happy and celebrate.. we don't need any more donations.

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #156 on: April 01, 2009, 11:34 AM »
agreed.

But there is something to said about wishful thinking.

And do not think for a moment that I am ungrateful to all those that have helped, especially with the economy in the shape it is in. Times are hard for all, with few exceptions. Time and money have both become very precious commodities, that can not be frivolously departed with, by anyone I would think.

Grateful does not even begin to explain what I am feeling.
I am a new member here, and after several communities over the years, I have never witnessed what I just witnessed over the last few days.

If this site ever needed a selling point, then it just made it.
Word of mouth is everything in by business, and word of mouth sells!
And actions speak louder than word!
All those who support with money, time, assistance, and code: it all just added up
And to think I just came and signed onto to get more information about CirleDock and Screenshot Captor, but I stayed, and found that I could help, and help I have.
I also found others that have helped me.
I just celebrated by helping and individual with CircleDock, before my surgery, When I got home, I found that I did indeed help.
For the first time I am understanding what it means when you hear; "The greatest pleasure is to serve"

Apologies for all the therapeutic nonsense :-[

I am beside my self, not quite understanding what I got myself into by joining this community, but am happy I did so.

The statement of I am not worthy comes to mind!

« Last Edit: April 01, 2009, 11:37 AM by sgtevmckay »

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #157 on: April 01, 2009, 11:41 AM »
And do not think for a moment that I am ungrateful

sorry if i seemed to suggest i thought that -- i absolutely did not intend to!

in fact if i may say so, and i don't mean to turn this into a ritual of mutual appreciation.. but it's the existence of people like you who make this site so special.  the forum can get pretty busy so many people probably don't know how you stumbled onto the site as a new user of circle dock which was coded by Eric Wong as part of a donationcoder project, and then you proceeded to hang around *helping* others with issues they were having with the program.  that's pretty remarkable.  and it's been really heartwarming to see.  so honestly i have to say i think the site is lucky to have you around.

Darwin

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #158 on: April 01, 2009, 11:42 AM »
It's a bit late for this, but... when I saw the new thermometer for the first time I thought: ?! Did mouser close off donations already? Is this over? With 11 hours and change to go in the fundraiser, this may not be the message that DC wants to send  ;)

Darwin

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #159 on: April 01, 2009, 11:44 AM »
he forum can get pretty busy so many people probably don't know how you stumbled onto the site as a new user of circle dock which was coded by Eric Wong as part of a donationcoder project, and then you proceeded to hang around *helping* others with issues they were having with the program.  that's pretty remarkable.

What I find remarkable is that with over 160,000 members mouser can recall these kinds of details about individual members. This is one of the "details" that makes this site so special  :Thmbsup:

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #160 on: April 01, 2009, 11:47 AM »
hey donations are never closed off.. but see my post above for why i thought it might be in poor taste to keep extending the thermometer. and in addition -- the more i thought about it, the more fitting it seemed that we spend the day with the thermometer fully filled and satisfied, so we can actually appreciate that we have reached our goals.  It's nice isnt it -- after a month of watching it creep rightward, to see it completed? Give one a warm feeling.

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #161 on: April 01, 2009, 11:48 AM »
What I find remarkable is that with over 160,000 members mouser can recall these kinds of details about individual members.
well let's be real -- there is a lot of activity on the forum, but we don't have 160,000 active posters on the forum.. now that would be hard to keep up with.

gexecuter

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #162 on: April 01, 2009, 12:01 PM »
What would have happenned if we didn't reach the goal? would you have to shutdown the site?
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mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #163 on: April 01, 2009, 12:29 PM »
What would have happenned if we didn't reach the goal? would you have to shutdown the site?

Absolutely not!

I should find where i wrote about this before, but it bears repeating:

We've all seen the results of these companies that were basically operating in a financial imaginary wonderland where they invented their own virtual money (and then sold themself fake insurance on it), etc.  And how other big companies just operate in millions of dollars of debt a year and don't expect to ever make a profit, they just plan to sell out to google or whatever.

DC has always been, and will remain, a fairly low budget site that operates year by year, within the boundaries of the money it raises.  It's so much simpler and saner that way.

When the site started we were on a $20 a month shared hosting server.  That was fine while their was only a handful of people on the forum and not very many people were downloading our software.

The old timers here will remember how the site would start to slow down and drag and grind to a halt as we started to occasionally get overloaded with traffic.

As we've grown, our needs for more powerful servers has grown to.. To the point now where we have a pretty powerful dedicated main server that costs a few hundred dollars a month and handles 30gb a day of downloads, and a secondary smaller dedicated server that we use for member projects.

We are able to afford these serious servers, as well as some money to help defray server administration costs/time, because of the donations of people to the site.

Thankfully it seems likely that the relationship between traffic and donations will be enough to pay for appropriate hosting for the forseeable future.  That is, if we are doing 30gb a bandwidth a day, it means we need a big dedicated server, but it also means we have enough people that we should be able to raise money to pay for hosting.  If we got to the point where we couldn't raise enough money for our servers it would probably mean the site has dropped so low in usefulness that we wouldn't need such a big server.

Anyway, back to the point, which is simply that:
We are fully capable of living well within our means and living off of the donations we raise, and we will continue to do so.  Site isn't going anywhere, regardless of how many people donate or how much. Period.

The donations are important though, because they make it possible for us to do things we otherwise wouldn't be able to do.. like be extravagent sometimes like with the prizes to for the last NANY event, and to give away mugs, etc.  In the world of business we are talking about trivial amounts, but those amounts raised go a long way on a site like ours.

And for someone like me, receiving donations means the difference between being able to spend all of my time working on DC stuff -- or having to spend more time working on other paid work in order to pay bills.

The best part about DC though is what i said before -- DC is not trying to be a "profitable business"  -- and that means we don't have to make decisions like a corporation would and figure out what's the best way to make money.  Instead we can reverse the equation and say: let's do what we enjoy doing, and try to raise enough so we can continue doing it.

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #164 on: April 01, 2009, 12:33 PM »
That was pretty long winded.

To summarize:
There will always be a DC as long as there are people here who want it to exist; we will simply scale and plan our activities and expenses to match the money we raise. Nothing more complicated than that.

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #165 on: April 01, 2009, 01:01 PM »
The best part about DC though is what i said before -- DC is not trying to be a "profitable business"  -- and that means we don't have to make decisions like a corporation would and figure out what's the best way to make money.  Instead we can reverse the equation and say: let's do what we enjoy doing, and try to raise enough so we can continue doing it.

A Men

gexecuter

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #166 on: April 01, 2009, 01:03 PM »
Okay, thanks for the very detailed answer Mouser i was just curious. Also do you plan to use the extra money that the site raised right away or are you planning on saving it for a rainy day? i would prefer the latter since you never know what could happen in the future.
Mouser is made of win and awesome!

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #167 on: April 01, 2009, 01:05 PM »
I still say a slideshow of the usernames, images, and quotes, with a thanks from Cody in the upper right side of the DC banner for thirty days would be great.

A kind of DC year book of Donaters for all who come to the site can see, and believe that there are real people who support this site.

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #168 on: April 01, 2009, 02:13 PM »
supporter yearbook exists :)
https://www.donation....php?action=yearbook

Also do you plan to use the extra money that the site raised right away or are you planning on saving it for a rainy day?

i think some combination would be good.. maybe allocate $6000 for the next 12 months of hosting costs, but also keep eyes and ears open for some special things to spend some money on in the coming months.

in the past dc has never really had much spare money, that i just handled it all very informally, paying for all expenses out of pocket and reimbursing myself and using dc funds for my expenses as needed.  for most of dc's life since 2005 i have put in so much time and the donations coming in have been small enough that it was never really an issue.  i think we are probably at the point though where more rigorous accounting is needed.

and it's time to look at becoming an official non-profit again i expect.  i looked into it at some point but got totally freaked out by the additional paperwork stuff.. right now we are at the stage where i'm paranoid about taking on things that will steal more of my time if they aren't needed.

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #169 on: April 01, 2009, 04:02 PM »
8 hours left of the fundraiser!

mouser

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #170 on: April 01, 2009, 08:34 PM »
3.5 hours left!

Josh

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #171 on: April 01, 2009, 08:46 PM »
3.4 hours left!

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #172 on: April 01, 2009, 09:14 PM »
Blah, blah, blah Left :P

sgtevmckay

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #173 on: April 01, 2009, 09:15 PM »
Starting to look like Cody is going ot be a KFC Critter, crispy critter that is :P

gexecuter

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Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser
« Reply #174 on: April 01, 2009, 09:19 PM »
Instead of people posting how much time is left maybe we should make a counter of something? it seems more efficient.
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