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THE 2006 DONATIONCODER.COM FUNDRAISER MONTH OF SEPTEMBER

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mouser:
IT'S THE 2006 DONATIONCODER.COM FUNDRAISER!


1. It's Time for Our Yearly Fundraiser! Woot!!
Once a year we hold a fundraising month where we ask everyone who likes DonationCoder.com to reach into their pockets and see how much they are willing to spare to support our site.  Whether you are a first time donator, or an early supporter who's ready to make another donation, your contribution means a lot to us.

Yes, it means a lot. In almost 2 years, your donations have enabled us to go from a $30/month slow hosting provider to a $260/month fast dedicated server.  It's only because of donations from people like you that we have been able to spend so much time working on the site and improving it every week.  Take a look at some of our past newsletters and you'll see that we have never stopped trying to enrich and improve this website and the software on it - and your donations have made that possible.

Your continued financial assistance is what makes this website possible.  In the year since our last fundraiser we've welcomed more coders, added tons of new features, like the Blog, the new newsletter system, the podcast radio show, and much more.  We've also released tons of new programs and added new sections to the website, like the programming school and mini reviews.  And your donations have recently allowed us to acquire a second web server which will be used to host additional coders and writers, and safely experiment with new services while maintaining the stability and security of our main server.  Your donations power our efforts.

DonationCoder.com was founded on the belief that it was possible to create an ethical and also financially viable donation-based website, despite all of the obstacles and advice to the contrary. Very few people thought it was possible to fund a site like ours on voluntary donations, but you proved them wrong in a dramatic fashion - DonationCoder.com may be the single most successful example of a software site funded entirely by small individual contributions (read more about the ideas behind the site).


2. A Special for September Donators:  Last Chance for a Lifetime Deluxe Membership!
Some very significant changes are coming after September's fundraiser, and this is your last chance to take advantage of our lifetime universal license offer:


* Throughout September, a one-time donation of any amount will grant you a non-expiring license for all current and future software developed on our site. Everyone who has donated at any time prior to October 1st, 2006 will automatically be upgraded to this Deluxe status on October 1st.
* After October 1st, this will change. In an effort to encourage donations directly to individual authors, after October 1st you will have to designate some donation credits (an amount of your choosing) explicitly to each author whose software you want, or else make a substantial sized donation to an author and site fund (perhaps $60) to get Deluxe status.
* Even with this new change, keep in mind that it will be possible to keep using the programs freely forever, or else donate as little as 1 cent per author whose software you want to license.  However we believe taking advantage of the September offer will clearly offer you some advantages in convenience, status and more.

3. A Bonus for New Donators and Existing Members Alike
Every donation made in September will be credited back 100% in the form of DonationCredits (instead of the normal 50%).  This means that you will get back your entire donation in the form of credits which you can give out to individual authors on the site (or to the site fund) exactly as you see fit.  While we humbly request that you choose to allocate some of your credits to the site fund, it is entirely up to you (if you donated in August and missed this deal, send me a forum message and i will give you the full 100% credits for your recent donation as well).


4. How much should I contribute?
We know it's not easy to figure out how much you should contribute to a site like ours.  Think about what you spend on software over the course of a year, and then ask yourself if it might be worth a contribution of maybe $50, not for what we've already created, but for the new software that your contribution will help us create in the upcoming year.  Software that you will benefit from.  If you're still unsure, check out our Scientifically Proven Optimal Donation Amount Chart for some additional guidance. We accept donations in any form (PayPal, credit cards, shareware services, money orders, checks, rare gems, hand-drawn art, etc.).


Take advantage of the special offers for contributors during our September 2006 fundraiser:



5. So now we ask for your financial support once again
Your contribution will allow us to spend more time coding and creating stuff that you love (and that we love making). Every day we study new ideas, make plans for new software, experiment with new features, and try to make more new coders feel like home.  We're inviting you to look at what your past donations have been able to create.  If you like what you see already, just picture what more we can accomplish with your continued donations! We look forward to having you as a supporting member of our community, helping us create something special different together.

Your continued financial support is also critical to helping us welcome new programmers on the site - throughout September 100% of your donation will be credited back to you in the form of DonationCredits, which we encourage you to give out to the coders on the site. And if you can't afford to make a financial donation - there are tons of other ways you can help us: Tell your friends about our site and software; leave comments on download sites about your favorite programs of ours, submit bug reports, write a review, help out other members on the forum, etc.

mouser:
I want to personally thank everyone who has helped make this last year at DonationCoder.com a huge success.  In addition to the financial support, we simply could not run this site without the substantial help we receive every day from the members of this site, in nearly every area.

On behalf of everyone who makes DonationCoder.com what it is, I want to express our thanks for those of you who have made a financial contribution to our success.  When you read about how some site has gotten 100 million dollars of venture capital funding or something similarly insane, you might be tempted to think that your donation can't have a meaningful effect.  But you'd be wrong.  The only funding we get is from people like you, and every dollar we receive is important to us.

Thank you for helping us bring this site to life and traveling with us while we see how good we can make it.  :Thmbsup:

-mouser (Jesse Reichler)

mouser:
ps. Please take a moment to visit the yearbook page honoring those who have contributed to DonationCoder.com.

rjbull:
(if you donated in August and missed this deal, send me a forum message and i will give you the full 100% credits for your recent donation as well).
-mouser (August 31, 2006, 11:54 PM)
--- End quote ---

I did - third time in ~550 days online - and don't think I saw even 50% credits, but I could be wrong there.

Mouser, did you really mean "send a forum message," which I take to be here, rather than a private message?

wr975:
Every donation made in September will be credited back 100% in the form of DonationCredits (instead of the normal 50%).
--- End quote ---

Why do you call it fundraising if you give the entire money back to the user?  :tellme:

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