Members increase, donations to an all time low.

[Bram Hengeveld]

Guys RD is heading fast into the direction of red numbers. As i have financed the first year of this community out of my own pocket, I am not going down that road again.

We can survive one month without your support, but a second one will probably result in that we have to let go of a game- and download server

With a few thousand people in the racing club you expect that dropping in a few cents every month would pay our bills with ease.

We really need your help.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

I liked the status bar we had earlier. Was a good reminder that the donations are needed.

As a student I only get money from student loan/scholarship +summerjobs, but I can spare 5-10EUR a month as its well worth the money. This december I actually quit smoking (again) and donated my "smoking money" for a while. That resulted in 10EUR every 2/3 days. Was a good motivation until I couldn't find the donate button. A little tip to all of you out there with this bad habit...

 

[Dietmar]

If someone knows a good sponsor, even better! Its a shame such a 'big' site as RD does not attract sponsors themself.

I was so far under the impression that RD is not too keen on getting lots of ads here (which would be an implication of having sponsors).

But isnt Simbin currently without official forum....


Further, I must agree to the guys before, somehow a status on the current situation brings it more to people minds (heard the software issue arond that, just wanted to stress that point).

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

I was so far under the impression that RD is not too keen on getting lots of ads here (which would be an implication of having sponsors).

But isnt Simbin currently without official forum....


Further, I must agree to the guys before, somehow a status on the current situation brings it more to people minds (heard the software issue arond that, just wanted to stress that point).

Yes and no, we are not keep on ads. But since its very hard to attract people in donating its necessary for our survival.

SimBin is indeed without official forum. But there is a big but in this. If Simbin would be asking us to host official forums besides maybe paying us for it, there could be other issues for us. It will attract fanboys and trolls as seen on RSC. Therefor a much bigger role for our moderators.

We are trying to get some info about donators on our pages. As said, at the moment is 100% manually work. If we would create a bar manually it would take too much time a day to handle. And since I have a dayjob also, that is not what we are looking for.
The easiest thing at the moment would be just a list of names who donated and maybe how much (per transaction or cumulative). It will still be a manual thing to achieve, so not to keen on this.

 

[Dietmar]

We are trying to get some info about donators on our pages. As said, at the moment is 100% manually work. If we would create a bar manually it would take too much time a day to handle. And since I have a dayjob also, that is not what we are looking for.
The easiest thing at the moment would be just a list of names who donated and maybe how much (per transaction or cumulative). It will still be a manual thing to achieve, so not to keen on this.

Maybe just a thread in here for every month where the top posts get updated from time to time with the sum donated that month so far?

 

[AMA_King]

RD costs are:
- Servers (2 raceservers costing 86eur each per month; 1 dedicated webserver hosting forum/timing/gpcos/downloads/frontpage/etc which cost 106 eur each month)
- Domains (RaceDepartment.com, RaceDept.com, NationGP.com, etc.)
- Licenses (vBulletin and update/support license, vBSeo, GPCos, Server OS

Our total costs are somewhere between 340-360 eur /month.

This kind of full disclosure is awesome & should encourage everyone to toss in some coin.
- then we can rent more servers. (my full disclosure = I want a USA time zone server)

RE: "Knut Omdal Tveito - I liked the status bar we had earlier.
Was a good reminder that the donations are needed."

I agree... I thought the automated options I suggested earlier might work?

RE: "Troy Bjerke - Does vBulletin have a sidebar widget thing
to illustrate monthly donations like a thermometer?
- like this: http://www.donationstracker.com"

 

[Yves Larose]

i don't want the donator tag, it prevent me to upload on the download server :wink:

 

[Eric. K]

This kind of full disclosure is awesome & should encourage everyone to toss in some coin.
- then we can rent more servers. (my full disclosure = I want a USA time zone server)
\"

We have a US sever!! There is an event on it right now

 

[Carlos Diaz]

sent 10 euros a week ago. I normally send 5 euros a month though. Is it legal to put a donaion reminder in my sig? I really don't want to see this place struggle and have to make cutbacks.

 

[Carlos Diaz]

Question...Is there a way to make the payments automatic through paypal? That way I don't have to remember to donate. It will just go through every month.

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Lots of donations coming in the last 2 days , looks like we are on track for this month again. Hopefully the steady stream will keep coming from now
Thanks so far guys. Everyone should have the donator tag now, if not (there is one name/email I still can't find) sent me a pm.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Thanks all!!

 

[Anders Madsen]

i havent donated yet this month, paypal being stupid and say my card is not valid even though nothing have changed. Wouldnt it be possible to autodonate somehow?

 

[AMA_King]

We have a US sever!! There is an event on it right now

HA! I was referring to a server dedicated to the guys in the US time zone...

Daily events posted @ RD take place @ 2pm CST (Central Standard Time = Chicago, IL, USA)
- most of us in the US are committed to work 6am to 6pm

 

[Hansi Josefsson]

I've been away too long it seems. A good six months made me lose the habit of this but of course I want to contribute to the survival of RD!
Regarding the reminder, or rather the absent reminder, I think it is of minor importance. The donator tag next to the avatar should be sufficient to attract one's mind to this matter.

Keep your good work up, Bram & Co.!
Money sent.

 

[Jason Dewhurst]

Bram my payment options are limited, if you want to speak more about a possible new donator, send me a pm...rather not discuss it here.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

HA! I was referring to a server dedicated to the guys in the US time zone...

Daily events posted @ RD take place @ 2pm CST (Central Standard Time = Chicago, IL, USA)
- most of us in the US are committed to work 6am to 6pm

Troy, that server is dedicated to the US time zone guys... 9pm EST every Friday. As for daily events, I can tell you that there wouldn't be much interest in it; there would be too much planning involved and not enough signups... not a viable proposition at all. Weekly events are far better timing and infrastructure-wise. On the subject of times, we have many people from the far West of America joining our events with no problems at all.
On the subject

 

[Amir Margalit]

well after the great battle we had in the last gtl league race it is obvius that this site and the guys who run it desrve donations to keep it runing. thank you for the great work and a special thanksfor stuart thompson who runs the gtl events. . donation sent

 

[Tiberius]

Just sent a small donation over, (in the name of Bruce Towers, my work email so different to the one I registered here with) not much but if a few of us do it, it should help some

If there's a way to subscribe and make a regular donation every month? I usually have my car insurance going out monthly by debit so wouldn't notice 5 Euros a month on top of that.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

yay the donation goal bar is back

and its almost full, so comeone guys 6 more days of Febuary left lets see if we can fill it :wink:

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Do I get the nice donator flag, when I'm using the credit card of my room mate? I'm vain, I know!

Did you already donate? Because I have 3 donators which I can't match to forum users. If yes, please mention under which account. (PM if it needs to remain secret)