Now that we have reached our first birthday I am putting out a call for purely voluntary donations to help me offset the cost of the site. It is approximately $300 per year I pay for the domain, hosting through linode.com, and backups.
You can donate by Paypal or credit card. I am going to keep the site going however much comes in (am I a bad pitch-man or what?) but I would like to spread the load around. There is no suggested amount but there is a 30 cent charge off the top for credit card processing so very small amounts are probably not worth it given Paypal will get much of the money. Note we are not an incorporated non-profit so unfortunately no tax deduction is possible.
I will report here how much money total comes in. I am not going to report on who gave or amounts but feel free to follow up here if you gave. Kind of like those blood donor “I gave” stickers
Wow, we are already over! Thanks to the people donating so far, many who did not reply above.
I will set the next request for donations once I see what comes in here - its already going to be more than a year from now that I need to ask for donations. You can either wait for the next round or contribute in this one, your call.
I knew you’d reach that goal before the day was out. But in covering it in barely an hour shows just how much this community means to its members. Great job, everyone!
Happy to- and very glad you asked. (I very nearly just mailed a check, which would avoid the charge/paypal fees, but decided to take the easy way out!)
we’re averse to online payments, but would like to send a check, is that ok? If so, where do we mail it to?
also, we’re whipping up a relatively affordable publication re jujubes(will be available at amazon.com by end of this year-- hopefully), and for each e-book we sell, we pledge a dollar to this website.
and yes, this will be the first-- and the last time, will be mentioning this. Hope didn’t violate any ‘bylaws’ or forum etiquette by doing this.
lastly, quite sure everyone’s thought about it already, but figured bringing it up anyway-- how about a paul newman business model where you could still maintain it as a non-profit organization, while allowing agri-advertisers to have some very affordable stream time? Online nurseries, fertilizer companies, pesticide companies you name it! Just have them sign a waiver stating zero immunity from negative critique by disgruntled posters here, lol!
If you want to send a check just PM me for my address.
We are up to around $600 already! So we are covered for several years. Its a relief to know its not so hard to have this site be community-supported. We are also doing OK on disk space now but at some point that may require the plan to be upgraded to more $$ per month. Several years out…
If there was something else we needed money for doing ads and/or selling member-donated plants would be good ideas. Something to keep in mind down the road perhaps.
