I'm jus' sayin'

[Igor]

I feel bad about this ! i am a newer member and i have seen the donation box but have never read into it. until just now i didnt even know Mike is running the show here. i didnt even know there was a Mike.....sorry Mike lol but i just read this thread over and i know whats going on now i do not have a paypal account i will look into it.....and i hate the bank...HATE THE BANK lol but i will be sure to get my part payed up as soon as i can . this site is well worth it and so far so are the people

 

[old round fart]

I'm committing to $10 a month, $5 for me and $5 for someone that can't afford it. This site is to much fun to let go the way of the DooDoo bird! Thanks Mike. John

 

[Dino]

Today is pay day for some of us So lets rock this and enjoy the rest of july

 

[RocknT]

@ $12.00 a year some would already be life members ...I would gladly ante up that for a year.. I get a darn bit more than that out of this forum ,,,
Be nice to get more sponsors here but the overall picture is we are a small but growing group,,and the big boy's look at total numbers first ,,,

 

[jimbo01]

@ $12.00 bucks a year, that would be a steal!! The nice thing about this site is it is T-Bucket specific. There isn't any B.S. to cut through to get to what you're looking for. For 12 bucks a year anyone can ask questions, post answers, post pictures as well as look at pictures that have been posted. For the same price you can also sell in the classified section for free. Has anyone looked at Ebay's fees for doing the same? The fees have jumped through the roof. They charge 7% of the final selling price, they also now charge 7% of the shipping fee not to mention the listing fee and picture fee. I haven't bought anything in the forums classified section yet, but I bet the odds of getting a good honest descriptions are better here then on Craigslist or Ebay. Once again, the parts that I've seen have been T-Bucket specific.

The local paper here has an online newspaper that used to be free to anyone that had online access. It's now $12.00 bucks per month and they have paying advertisers. Their sales have dropped to the point of layoffs and charging for their online edition. It's the wave of the future folks.

I would like to see everyone chip in and pull the site out of the hole and get this forum back on track. This would also allow Mike some time to sort out issues and guide us to a solution. I've had another thought too. What if Mike shut the site down (without anyone knowing) and opened it back up a day or so later. But in order to enter the site it would take a yearly donation. How many people would pony with the money to get back in? Sure, the new membership might fall backwards for a bit but I bet if there are new people out there building or thinking about building a T-Bucket they would look at a $12.00 donation as a steal as well. How many T-Bucket building instruction can be found at the library? If someone knew where to find plans for sale, it might take some of the guess work out of building a T. I took full advantage of Youngster's free plans and ended up here with questions and finally decided to go ahead with my build because of what I seen here. There is also the CCR's plans. The complete set is $20.00 + shipping and handling if the new builder can find them.

The $12.00 donation per member would be a good start. I know I know, some have already donated as have I. Some member's might feel that their knowledge and answers may be worth free admission. After all, a site full of first time builders is just that. There would be some junk being built and more then likely lives lost as a result. But then again, who's to say that isn't going on now with the expert builders here?

When Mike made the software/server change he included the members and let them voice their opinions and if I remember right, took a poll. Does facebook ask for anyone's opinion? Speaking of facebook, ever looked up a T-Bucket group on there? That's what you get for free.

 

[Goobzilla]

Just stumbled on to this thread, didn't realize what the situation was with the site. Threw a tenski in there, I'm only in the planning stages of my build so I'm going to need this site big time going forward.

 

[Dino]

Thanks guys for posting what I feel. I Know that there is more of us on the web site that agrees and lets do our part .

 

[Mike]

Have you given any thought to selling the site to someone else to help with your personal life?

When I can't get enough money to cover the monthly expenses, there's no way I could ever get what the site would be worth in a sale.

There are all kinds of problems with almost all the suggestions. Sure, if all 2,969 members would donate $12, that would be wonderful. But this forum is just like every other forum on the Web - most people register, log in a time or two, lose interest before they every submit their first post and never return. I just went through the entire member list a few weeks back and removed all the avatars from member accounts that have not been active in the last two years. I removed half of the avatars we had stored, if you can believe it. It wasn't huge, but I did regain some storage space, as a result.

I've never much cared for the idea of deleting inactive member accounts, but if I were to do that, I bet I could easily cut the member count in half.

When it comes down to it, an average day will see 105 - 120 members actually logging into their accounts. So that will give you an idea of how many active, participating members we really have. If each of those members were to donate just $3 each month, then we would be able to break even each month. It's really not so much. But there are people who simply cannot afford it. Heck, I'm one of them. So how can I sit here and point fingers at people who do not donate, without knowing their own financial situations? And now, you see why I won't do just that.

If the site can support itself, it will live on. If it cannot, it will become a thing of the past. There are loads of businesses closing their doors, every day of the week, so there's no reason for any of us to think it cannot happen here. It really is just that simple. I've worried about it all I intend to worry. I've much more important things to be concerned with, to be honest.

 

[old round fart]

I put $10 in the budget for now. If enough people can do that, we can keep this site going. If not, I'll look for another place to get more money to donate. I love this site.

 

[blyndgesser]

I spend a lot more time reading this forum than reading Car and Driver, so I've diverted the money from renewing C&D to this forum instead.

 

[jimbo01]

Great Job to everyone that was able to donate money!! I do believe that this is the first time since I've been here that the rent has been paid by the 9th which is awesome. Lets keep the ball rolling and see if we can get next months rent paid off by the end of the month. Think we can do it? That would be another first for me.

 

[oino]

I'll donate some when I get paid next week. Need to site to stay.

 

[Igor]

Help! i apparently had a paypal account some 10 years ago and forgot the password and the hint questions are not what they should be. they will not let me set up a new account with my email address and to email them i have to log into the account i cant access ! does anyone know how to get ahold of them without having to log into an account? or is there another way to pay without paypal ?

 

[jimbo01]

If you go to the donate link, you can also donate with a credit card. The link will be to the left of the paypal log in. I hope this helps.

 

[Dino]

X2 on that Jimbo and to boot it was all donated before the 9th . You supporting members rock.....

 

[all-world1]

Let's put it this way.....the rod magazines cost about $6-8 a throw, and it's very rare to see any articles pertaining to bucket builds. This site is one monster bucket build, with expert assistance 24-7. And you get to talk to the "all-time greats" just like they were your next door neighbors. I'm leaving my money here.

 

[Igor]

Jimbo01 thank you so much i didnt know i could do that! Donation sent hope it helps

 

[Mike]

Believe me, it helps. If the forum is going to move forward, the donations are necessary. I know at least one detractor will be looking to score his negative points from this thread, but when we all look at the advertising in our favorite magazines, the content to advertising ratio of this forum is mountainous by comparison.

 

[jmr122848]

end of the month is looming. anybody that wants to could chip in now.

 

[Johnny]

Mine is coming Thursday