Thank you
-
The 2026 Fund Drive is now ON. Read the Featured Thread for details. Please donate!!!
2026 Fund Drive Is Now ON. How To Donate.
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
- Start date
- Featured
Thank you
Day 7 donations received. Thank you to:
@BWCA66
@Chip
@ReluctantFarmer
@Erica
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 37
Registered members: 3,712
@BWCA66
@Chip
@ReluctantFarmer
@Erica
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 37
Registered members: 3,712
Day 8 donations received:
0
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 37
Registered members: 3,712
0
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 37
Registered members: 3,712
This is the first forum I visit every day. Thank you Glenn.
Check written and going in the mail tomorrow.
Thank you for keeping the site going.
Jim
Thank you for keeping the site going.
Jim
Day 10 donations received. Thank you to:
@Caledonia (check)
@Will Derness (check)
@Gamma1214 (cash)
Anonymous (cash)
@Thestripper
@Moonswept Blackwater
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 46
Registered members: 3,712
@Caledonia (check)
@Will Derness (check)
@Gamma1214 (cash)
Anonymous (cash)
@Thestripper
@Moonswept Blackwater
Target number of donations: 80
Total donations received to date: 46
Registered members: 3,712
I will explain in a later post why I structure fund drive targets in terms of a number of donations rather than a number of dollars. Today, I'll give a bit of history as to the number of donations in previous fund drives.
Prior to my taking over the site in August of 2021, previous administrators had held fund drives approximately annually or whenever some emergency IT expenses necessitated more money.
The last fund drive before me (by DaveO) was held in February/March of 2021 and gathered 55 donations. But the kitty was rapidly depleted because of the tidal waves of technical problems and IT costs the site kept suffering under the vBulletin platform.
When ownership was passed to me in August 2021, I paid to have the site entirely migrated from vBulletin to Xenforo, bought new Xenforo licenses, changed our server webhost company, changed the domain name registrar company, paid money out of my own pocket to have our webhost custom restructure the forums, and then moved thousands of posts myself manually into the new forum structure.
All that cost necessitated a fund drive in September of 2021, only seven months after DaveO's previous one. I targeted 55 donations for no particular reason other than to match DaveO's previous fund drive. We then had about 1,300 registered members. I received 65 donations. Because I had cut long-term costs with all my moves, those 65 donations in September 2021 lasted the site for 26 months, much longer than it had ever before gone without a fund drive.
So, in November 2023, I began my second fund drive. Having received 65 donations 26 months earlier when we had 1,300 members, I targeted my November 2023 fund drive to get 66 donations from the then 2,275 members. I eventually received 84 donations. I promised that the funds received could maintain the site for 36 months, and have kept that promise even though costs have risen.
Given that we now have 3,713 members, I set the CURRENTLY ONGOING 2026 FUND DRIVE target at 80 donations, which is four fewer donations than we got three years ago. Even with rising costs, I estimate that 80 donations can cover the site, including a prudent reserve, for another three years without a fund drive—at the minuscule cost of $15 per year.
So far, even with our ostensible membership almost tripled since 2021, the 2026 donations are coming in slower than they did in 2021 and 2023. I hope 33 more donors will show up.
What I didn't anticipate three years ago was that our biggest donor would die, that our second biggest donor would quit canoeing and posting, that new members would have no institutional memory or experience with our fund drive history, and that spacing out fund drives too far would exacerbate the Free Rider Problem, which is the well-known malady that has killed or is killing internet discussion sites since the 1990s.
Prior to my taking over the site in August of 2021, previous administrators had held fund drives approximately annually or whenever some emergency IT expenses necessitated more money.
The last fund drive before me (by DaveO) was held in February/March of 2021 and gathered 55 donations. But the kitty was rapidly depleted because of the tidal waves of technical problems and IT costs the site kept suffering under the vBulletin platform.
When ownership was passed to me in August 2021, I paid to have the site entirely migrated from vBulletin to Xenforo, bought new Xenforo licenses, changed our server webhost company, changed the domain name registrar company, paid money out of my own pocket to have our webhost custom restructure the forums, and then moved thousands of posts myself manually into the new forum structure.
All that cost necessitated a fund drive in September of 2021, only seven months after DaveO's previous one. I targeted 55 donations for no particular reason other than to match DaveO's previous fund drive. We then had about 1,300 registered members. I received 65 donations. Because I had cut long-term costs with all my moves, those 65 donations in September 2021 lasted the site for 26 months, much longer than it had ever before gone without a fund drive.
So, in November 2023, I began my second fund drive. Having received 65 donations 26 months earlier when we had 1,300 members, I targeted my November 2023 fund drive to get 66 donations from the then 2,275 members. I eventually received 84 donations. I promised that the funds received could maintain the site for 36 months, and have kept that promise even though costs have risen.
Given that we now have 3,713 members, I set the CURRENTLY ONGOING 2026 FUND DRIVE target at 80 donations, which is four fewer donations than we got three years ago. Even with rising costs, I estimate that 80 donations can cover the site, including a prudent reserve, for another three years without a fund drive—at the minuscule cost of $15 per year.
So far, even with our ostensible membership almost tripled since 2021, the 2026 donations are coming in slower than they did in 2021 and 2023. I hope 33 more donors will show up.
What I didn't anticipate three years ago was that our biggest donor would die, that our second biggest donor would quit canoeing and posting, that new members would have no institutional memory or experience with our fund drive history, and that spacing out fund drives too far would exacerbate the Free Rider Problem, which is the well-known malady that has killed or is killing internet discussion sites since the 1990s.
When I considered that the fund drive hasn't happen every year I increased my donation from what I gave when it was annual. Mine is on the way Glenn.
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