You might also consider a regular e-mail (sort of like Public Television)
where you remind people every 6 months or so of the situation and where to
send voluntary contributions. This way people new to the list will get the
history of the situation.
Now I'm off to make my first donation!
Jay Miller
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 11:53 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Bruce,
I agree with all you've said & thank you for the continued support of
the
list. Might I make a suggestion, add to the trailer on the messages where
one
can send voluntary contributions to continue the list. That way when one of
us
gets a wind fall we can set aside a portion for this valuable resource.
Thanks again
Dick Goulet
____________________Reply Separator____________________
Author: Bruce Bergman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 8/30/2001 5:15 PM
Hi again everyone...
Jared and I are both truly honored and bowled over with the response that
has been generated to this call for help! You folks are a generous and
caring group of people, and I can't tell you how much it means to me that
you've offered your help. There are literally almost a hundred responses to
this issue, and Jared and I have a big task ahead of us of totalling up
everything and sorting through the list traffic. I wish I could respond to
everyone personally, but at this point it is quite overwhelming. I WILL get
back to each and every one of you over the weekend or perhaps next week.
Please know that you have my heartfelt thanks for every message, and I will
personally respond to each message. It just takes a bit to get back to
everyone. :-)
Many of you suggested the idea of having a way for list members to
contribute on a yearly or monthly basis to keep the list afloat. Jared and
I have discussed this in depth, and we both feel very strongly about keeping
the list free of any kind of yearly or monthly charges. Don't get me wrong
-- I appreciate the idea! It's just a very complicated management problem.
I've been down this road before and know the route intimately. A few years
back, one of my lists wanted to do exactly the same thing, and started to
work out a mechanism for accomplishing that. I agreed to help out. Within
two months, it literally became a nightmare of sorting through
contributions, educating new members, dealing with unhappy members that
wanted to leave the list and get their money back, hundreds of checks and
cash, international money issues, feelings of preferential treatment, etc.
And that list was only 250 subscribers! We dropped it after only four
months, and everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. It's a super idea, but
just very hard to implement in practice. Someone else on the list posted
essentially the same comment, and they are entirely correct. The Amazon
donation idea is closest to something that could work, but even then there
are a lot of questions and coordination issues to work out.
Regardless, Jared and I both want this list to remain free. And I think
that's only fair, given how you folks are contributing and giving of your
own pocket to make sure it remains available to people. Now if, say a year
from now, there is a compelling reason to ask for monthly or yearly
contributions, we will reconsider it (I don't expect that though). The best
thing that can help us right now is either one-time contributions or a
monthly contribution for five months. The vast majority of you are coming
up with one-time contributions, which is just great. A couple people have
signed up for web hosting, which is even better. No matter how the
contributions come in, they will definitely help. Again, thanks for the
suggestions, however. For now, the ORACLE-L list will remain a free and
public list that anyone can join and use.
Several people have asked me to tell them how much to contribute. I'm not
comfortable with that, because I don't know your situation personally, and I
would much rather have you decide what you can afford. Don't be worried
about feeling like you are below or above the average. I am not keeping
tabs on individuals. This is quite akin to me just passing the hat around
the circle and seeing what ends up in the hat. I don't have any set
expectations or ideas for anyone.
I plan on posting a "results" message on Friday (tomorrow) outlining what my
decision is. At that time I will give you details about where you can send
checks or cash, or how you can use PayPal to use credit cards. I don't want
to collect ANY funds from anyone until I am sure this can work. I
appreciate everyone who wants to send money now, but it really wouldn't be
fair to you if I accepted your money before everything has been cast in
concrete. Please stay tuned.
I will talk to you all tomorrow, then!
thanks much,
bruce
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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