Newsletter for September 2nd, 2006
"Fundraising Celebration!"
"If you read nothing else on our site, get glasses!"
1. Site News - 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 $200/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).
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.
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.).
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 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.
And good news 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). And of course, all donators are eligible to participate in our monthly shareware giveaway and discounts.
3. Massive September Discounts and GiveawaysTo celebrate the fundraiser and our 2nd year of operations, we're featuring discounts and giveaways of a massive collection of some of the best shareware available anywhere. Many thanks to all of the companies who donated software for us to give away, and who provided very generous discounts for all of our members, including:
- WebSite Watcher, Genie-Soft Backup Manager Pro, Surfulater, TechSmith Camtasia, TheBat! Pro, FontCreator Pro, XYplorer, UltraEdit, Help & Manual, Zoom Player Pro, EssentialPIM Pro, CD Bank Cataloguer, TextPipe Pro, Font Expert 2006, Power Archiver, DHTMLMenu, SlySoft AnyDVD, Guitar and Drum Trainer, Collectorz Triple Bundle With BarCode Scanner.
And if you're not in the mood for software but want to show your DonationCoder.com pride, you can also enter to win one of the following:
4. The Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006 Begins!Do you want to learn how to better manage your time and energy, and not waste time thinking about useless stuff? Join a bunch of us spending three months, from September 1st to December 1st, practicing time management principles (GTD, GED, and others), and sharing our experience.
5. Software Updates and ReleasesDonationCoder.com is first and foremost a site about software. What's new since our last newsletter?
6. New Mini-Reviews by MembersThe mini-review section is looking great and Josh is doing a superlative job as the official demo screencaster on the site. If you have a program that you think deserves a screencast, be sure to drop Josh a note.
7. General Software DiscussionLots of great software discussion on the forum in the last two weeks:
8. Web Discoveries, Debates, and ArticlesWhat's worth reading on the web? With so much information out there it can be hard to know. Here are some recent discoveries we're talking about on the forum.
9. Fun and GamesWho ever said not to mix business with pleasure? That's all we do here!
10. Developer's CornerOur site isn't just for coders, but we like to keep up with the latest issues in software engineering and web development.
11. Site of the MonthOur site of the month for September 2006 is one of the original sites focusing on time management for geeks:
Special thanks to Mobysaurus for helping prepare this month's newsletter. 
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