Thanks to those who have donated. We are already over $950!
Thanks to those who have donated. We are already over $950!
Nice start to things!!! We're 1/3 of the way there, keep it rolling folks. We certainly do not want to ruffle, Crow-Man's feathers!!! LOL LOL
Good job, so far folks!!!
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Ok, ok, I had a beer and stuffed a bunch of small bills in Jerome's waistband.
Isn't that how this works?
"...that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." ~ Ray Bradbury
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
We are at a bit over $1,200. If you haven't donated and are in a position to do so, please click on the button and show you appreciation for the site.
I haven't done so yet but I will be donating soon, J.
Love me a bit of darktower.org
Though funds are still tight (don't let my collection thread fool you--I'm just playing catch up to help out Santa), there's no way I couldn't donate considering how much time I spend on this site!
Just an FYI for you, RF. I've sent a few checks and have donated via the "button" up top and would have donated more except for some reason PP only allows me to fund the donations thru my PP credit card or PP balance. I have several other fucding sources available to me and registered with PP, but it will not seem to allow those sources thru the donate button. IDK if that is a PP requirement or something you need to look into, RF. I just thought it good to bring it to your attention is all. I'm fine with sending checks, but it may put others off of a donation they would otherwise make?
Like I said, just FYI, carry on. What is the current total BTW?
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Charge a fee to be a member, equal to everyone.
To single out certain sections of the DT.org site has always seemed a little odd to me.
Why should Tippy, AKC or any other classified user (myself included) fund the "pictures of boobs thread" or "the whining cause I had a bad day thread"?
How about if everybody pays equal.
or..... keep doing fundraisers like your doing and keep what you need to run the site.
“The battle between good and evil is endlessly fascinating because we are participants every day.” - Stephen King
Annual fundraisers are better in my opinion. I've donated for two years now and I'm always happy to do so. I receive a lot of benefit and enjoyment out of the site. I don't know if the extra administration required to manage CC thread fees would be worth it. And it may open up other cans of worms that haven't been thought of. I don't sell much at all in the CC thread, so maybe those who do will have different opinions.
Donations seem to fit the style here better, and I plan on making my own when I'm able. I'm not a GREAT fan of fees for the CC and Items Wanted threads, but it may be a sign of the times I guess, and I wouldn't be tremendously antagonized about it if it happened. I'm least in favor of a general membership fee, but if one were to be implemented, then it should only be on the 2nd year. New memberships should be free so we don't inhibit new people from joining the site because there is a cost for their membership.
It's certainly up to us all to cover the costs IN SOME WAY if was want this site and amazing resource to continue, so I certainly can't complain in whatever form that it takes.
I Is it, really? I've always wondered about that. There are probably many ways to look at it and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong. So please educate me.
The website has an owner who will one day sell his ownership at a price. It is up to the owner to build up his investment so that when the day comes to sell he will reap the maximum profit. He does this by building up traffic on the website. Larger traffic on the website makes for a more profitable sale. The lowly members (i.e. me and you) will not see any of this profit. Should we then (as non-owners) be expected to contribute to the day to day expenses of running the site? Shouldn't that really be a business expense footed by the owner to be (hopefully) recouped when the site is sold?
Again, I'll state that I have no knowledge of web commerce or how anything like this really works. So please enlighten me. All I know is that there is an owner and it isn't me.
Are .org sites under different rules than .com sites?
I would think that was a valid argument IF the site was making money (IE through advertising) right now the value of the site through traffic is only relevant if those clicks generated advertising revenue. Sure it could be sold on the basis of visitors and that may be attractive to a buyer thinking of adding adverts, but how many would stick around if the site was suddenly full of advertising. RF raises funds MAINLY to keep the site ad free.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Good point, Stroppy. Would be interested in hearing other opinions.
And for the record I've always contributed when asked and will continue to do so but it is a question I have always asked myself.
I don't know or care to know those headaches of site ownership, I just know that the site, as-is, has a perceived value of use for me that I haven't really found elsewhere. I even love the healthy debates like this.
WANTED
US 1st Printings. I have THESE
#92 IT Portfolio (or the #95 IT to swap for the #92 that I have)
Any #95 SK-related Cemetery Dance Edition
Any #7 PS Publishing Edition
Sleeping Beauties: Signed Tour version.
I took the site over from Matt and the other 3 owners. They sold the domain name ending in .com to Stephen King. King's people apparently bought it as a "gift" to the filmmakers of The Dark tower movie that seemed imminent. I was told by Matt that King (one of his accountants) paid $10K for the domain name. Matt broke even as the original group had paid a domain squatter $10K for the .com name.
I was a volunteer staff person from day one, starting out as a Facilitator, then a Manager, and became Special Projects Manager when I was working on building the wiki and the calendar.
King's people were not interested in the actual content of the message board, and Matt and his group were also burnt out on running the site.
The message board meant a lot to me for many reasons. I had spent hundreds of hours building the Catalog and I loved the people on the site. I didn't want it to die, so I bought the content and the vbulletin license for a small amount (Patrick is 25% owner, I own 75% and I run the day to day operations).
If I knew of a way (or perhaps per Bob's observation did a better job) to grow the site to something worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, then I would do so. I'm always open to suggestions.
The site is effectively a hobby and a passion for me. Some day I may grow bored with it and sell it or just turn the switch off.
I really don't want to have a pay membership site as it could actually reduce the number of members and content. I also am resistant to implementing a fee based Classifieds thread. Much like Craigslist I figure that more people will visit the site for great deals on King stuff either through the Classifieds or the Intriguing auctions thread.
If someone wants to donate money, please do so, if they don't then that's fine too. Even someone resistant to a monetary donation can help the site by submitting interesting posts, pictures, auctions or sale items.
But is it fair to argue that keeping the site ad free makes a better environment for us current users and more attractive to future users? Both retention of users and attraction of future users result in a definite plus for the owner and enhance his investment. Shouldn't management pay for that enhancement?
I look at this site similarly to others sites I frequent that aren't commercial. It being non-commercial is one of its main attributes.
I am a sustaining member of my local college radio station. WFIT has some NPR news, plays DemocracyNow! in the morning, has a blues hour on Saturday, and has other interesting programming that I enjoy. They don't have commercials to pay for their operating costs. Instead they have fund-raising drives.
I visit various web sites that are non-commercial. They have similar fund-raising drives. Those that I frequent I support.
I like the current system here in that Jerome does a similar fund-raising drive.
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
Is the local college radio station publicly owned or privately owned? Does it make a difference?
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
Jerome--have you ever thought of asking people to donate books for auction instead of a cash donation? Or is that too close to Haven?
By no means is this an original idea, but perhaps we could do a drawing for books to raise money. For example, a drawing for a 1st/1st IT, where users pay 5$ for a chance to win. If 100 users participate, then that nets the site some profit which can be used to pay for the domain, hosting, etc. Obviously we would need to base entry prices for the drawings on the price of the prize, and on how many participants take part on average. I think it may encourage some users who aren't motivated to donate 5$ to pitch in, even if it's out of self-interest
"No two persons ever read the same book." - Edmund Wilson