Here is what RPM is willing to do! Put the donation box back up. From now until Mid Night on May 8th. I'll match up to $300 what is in the donation box.
Guys, something like this would allow a 30 day cushion. It would get the expenses covered for June and leave enough to also cover July. If people will continue to donate in June, that would have August covered at the first of July. And, if for some reason we get to a month where donations fall short, we would still have 30 days to make up the shortfall.
This could be the answer to our problem.
Ron, you'll recall I posted last evening about having been on the phone with a friend of the forum for a couple of hours. I mentioned to him that if a solution could be found, I was pretty certain you would be right in the thick of it. :nod:
Just curious Mike but does it cost more to always be state of the art? I am not knocking you but you are always messing with the lastest this and that and I sometimes wonder if a lot of these problems are self induced.
That's a great question and the answer to it is, no.
When I'm adding the latest software, it is because my licenses allow me to download the latest. The software licenses (which are renewed every 6 months) allow me to use the software on this site, give me download access to software upgrades for the period and also give me software tech support for the period. Since my license renewal fees were paid, when the Beta version of the Gallery software was made available for download, I had access to that download.
When we were experiencing the worst of the log-in issues, no part of the software on this site had been changed. I had performed a Gallery upgrade 7 or 8 days prior to the problem arising, but that was it. Nothing else had been changed. That was why it was so baffling a problem. Had I upgraded a script just prior to the problem occurring, it would have been a very simple matter to just shut the site down and restore the back-up, removing the upgrade and returning everything to its prior state. Since I had made no changes, I was assured the problems were client-side, from the onset.
In addition, I run several test forums on a separate hosting account, so all script upgrades can be tested, prior to launching them into a live environment. The world isn't perfect and problems do jump in from seemingly nowhere, but any upgrades you are seeing in this live, production environment have already been installed and tested in a test environment. I do everything I can to be sure the two servers are as close as humanly possible. The test account might end up being one or two point versions behind in PHP or MySQL, but everything else is identical, from the operating system to the control panel. You would be amazed to see how many times I've crashed those test forums. :blush: But better to test something there and stick a fork in a test site, than to do it here.
OK, let's give it a go. I'm going to light the donations module back up and let's see what happens. If you simply cannot afford to make a donation, then you simply cannot afford it. Nobody's going to lock you out, as a result. If you're not familiar with the way the module works, you will see it in the right-hand column on the home page of the forums. There is a progress graph to indicate where we are, with respect to the required quota each month. There is also a link that will allow you to make a donation, right there in that module. There is also a Donations link in the NavBar, at the top of every page on the site.
The donations are made through PayPal. If you have a PayPal account, you can donate from that account. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can make a donation with a debit or credit card. I've been with PayPal for years and my experiences have been good, overall. I had a payment for a t-shirt that was temporarily held up for a couple days, but everything worked out just fine. I have a personal account and a business account, both of which have credit cards, as well as bank accounts associated them. I'm sure PayPal can make mistakes as easily as any other financial institution, but when you hear people talking about how they've had multiple credit cards knackered by PayPal use, I think they're not really sure what the real problems were.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, I will accept cashier's checks, money orders or e-checks from your bank's online bill pay system. I no longer accept personal checks, which is not a reflection on anyone's honor or banking history. However, I do have $235 worth of bad checks (not counting bank fees, mind you) sitting here on my desk to remind me that defecation occurs. If you want to mail a cashier's check or money order, contact me via Private Message and I will get you an mailing address. If you want to use your bank's bill pay system (and no, it absolutely does NOT have to be set up as a recurring payment), contact me via Private Message and I can get you an account number (in case your bank requires it) and a mailing address. In spite of baseless allegations raised against me by a former member of this site, I do try to make donations as easy as possible for everyone. If you have questions, drop me a Private Message and I'll do my best to answer them for you.
