Well...at the end of february, the one year payment of USD83 to keep this forum alive will expire and go back to pop up commercials, so question one will be.... There is a few options:
1) keep it alive as
2) Use different provider. I use http://www.websitetoolbox.com for a different BBS and it is a little nicer (bulit in PM function) and it even costs a little less (maybe $10).
3) Use hidplanet.com
Question two is, hosting of the FAQ is due feb 30 as well. For 12 months, its USD 90. The faq is alot more available now compared to on Tripod, and its well worth it.
Paypal eats high fees on small incoming payments, so about $12 goes to that.
I have received $17 since last year in sporadic donations.
Last year, we were able to raise this, will we be able to raise as much as USD168 now? It will mean 17 people donate $10.
Lets do a survey for a week to check response first.
This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 6, 2005 8:30 PM This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 1, 2005 9:19 PM This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 1, 2005 9:17 PM This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 1, 2005 9:11 PM
Re: Automotive Lighting Forum and FAQ next 12 months - survey
February 1 2005, 9:52 PM
Herman I love this forum, it has an abundance of information and is full of great people, however it does not get enough use to constitute that kind of money to keep it running, in my opinion. If people disagree with me then that is fine, I will still donate to keep it running, however I feel that HIDPlanet gets a lot more traffic and a lot more people know about it. As far as the FAQ, that is possibly the most important resource of all, and I feel that disabling it would be a harsh blow to the HID community. Either way whatever happens let me know, because I already said I would donate to both forums when needed.
Re: Automotive Lighting Forum and FAQ next 12 months - survey
February 1 2005, 10:40 PM
Herman,
I will gladly donate again to keep the forum and the FAQ going. Both are great resources. Yes, HIDPlanet gets a lot of traffic and usage. Somewhat concerning is the life of the HIDPlanet. Hope nothing happens to it like to HID Forum. I would only stop the forum here if there is a definite and confirmed 'yes' that HID Planet will go on for a long time. Additionally, if you stop the Forum here, would there still be archives accessible somewhere. I think there is a lot of data there to be lost.
Also, wanted to mention that if PayPal eats the donation funds through fees, perhaps you can offer an Email Money Transfer option for Canadians. Only costs C$1.50 to the sender.
I would definitely like to donate to the site. I've used a lot of info from the FAQ, and feel that the sheer amount of useful info in there is too good to be lost. I've have also saved some cash as a result of the info on this site, and gotten some great ideas....so I would be happy to donate.
I don't have a paypal account, and don't really want to make one. So, Herman, do you think you could email me your address?...then I could send a check.
You can email me at: amarv12 (at) hotmail.com with your address if that's cool with you....also, if you do this, post your email address up here so I know it's you.
I hope the rest of the members that have gotten use out of this place can spare some cash too!
Re: Automotive Lighting Forum and FAQ next 12 months - survey
February 2 2005, 10:24 PM
Regardless, the FAQ or forum will never be lost, worst case scenario would be with lots of commercials.
If this forum gets swapped with a better one, I would simply leave network54 forum as is for future reference, but run it in read only mode, which means new posting is not possible. I have been adding in the most valuable info from here into the FAQ. If there are important topics that have been missed in the FAQ, let me know.
This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 4, 2005 12:55 PM This message has been edited by herman_sho on Feb 3, 2005 8:30 AM
Seems like we are on the right way here... We definatly will get coverage for one year of FAQ hosting based postings, promises and actual money recieved, so I think we go from survey to action now. I am posting contributions to http://faqlight.carpassion.info/friends-of-faq.htm so that I can have an overview.
I'm interested in seeing the forum and FAQ continue since I've gotten so much info from it. Are you interested in increasing traffic? If so, I think a single board with this section and a FS integrated into it would increase traffic. I've looked in the FS here, but it doesn't seem to have much activity.
Are u refering to the classifieds (=FS???) If we get enough donations, I am aiming at a better remote hosted BBS, with for sale section visible on main page, as well as Private Messaging.
Sorry, yes. FS = classifieds. Also I think it's possible to have both a personal and a business paypal account. So as long as the FAQ isn't accepting more than $500 per year you could use the personal account for it and it would not deduct a percentage unless a credit card was used.
What's your Paypal address?