Attention: Tamriel Rebuilt Website Donations

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:18 pm

Moderator Note: Please do not unsticky this post.

Running the Tamriel Rebuilt website costs money. Unfortunately, we don't have a money tree dedicated to the running and hosting of TR. We would never expect you to pay a membership fee or anything similar; modding is a hobby, and should remain free to anyone and everyone. We also don't want to use advertisements, as those are unsightly, and don't really work unless people click on them daily. These days, most internet users use Flashblock or AdBlockPlus to block advertisements anyway.

We are left with a dilemma. We don't want to leave our reliable data center and tech support (Garfield) for a cheaper but less reliable alternative. So we have weighed our options, and determined that the most affordable and overall best method for remaining alive would be to open up donations for the project. This is, of course, voluntary. There is now a yellow "Donate" button (via PayPal) that accepts PayPal transfers and major credit cards--along with a few other methods--at the bottom of the forum. Keep in mind that any money transferred will be in dollar amounts ultimately, since the server is in California. This shouldn't be a problem for most people; the dollar is probably weaker than their currency anyway.

We invite anyone who would like to donate to this cause to please do so; we don't know how long we will have to keep this open, but hopefully it won't become a permanent fixture. It is important for me to note that any donations made will be anonymous; donors won't get any special rank or privilege, just the good feeling of having donated.

In the event we get more donations than are necessary, we will do what we did several years ago concerning cash: Due to large ethical and legal dilemmas with cash winnings for a prize that TR won, we donated the entirety of the winnings to Garfield who had been and has to this day offered his hosting and tech support services to us at no cost. This time around, we will donate any surplus amount to Zephyr, who designed, coded, implemented, modified, and expanded this website (including the accurate maps function and the claims browser; two HUGE boons to TR), and remained as its active web developer and project administrator for several years, also at no cost. This was all while he was a struggling university student. He has no idea of this plan and should any surplus amount be reached, we're sure he will appreciate such a gift, so long after the fact.

This entire situation came essentially out of the blue, so please bear with us as we try to cope as best and cheaply as we possibly can. I will be updating the bottom of this post with how much has been donated each day alongside our current payment scheme.

(Please note: the only reason it shows my e-mail address is due to the fact that I am facilitating the payments, as I have done in times past)

Thanks for reading!

Cost Per 18 Months: $100
Total Amount Donated: $1050
# of 18-Month Periods Paid-for: 4 (3/13/10 - 9/13/11), (9/13/11 - 3/13/13), (3/13/13 - 9/13/14), (9/13/14 - 3/13/16), (3/13/16 - 9/13/17)
Long-Term Goal (9 years, or six 18-month periods): $600
Amount Donated to Zephyr: $450

Nemon · Post by **Nemon** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:44 pm

Brilliant, Zephyrs contributions has been awesome.

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:27 pm

You guys are incredible! It's been three hours and you've already donated enough to keep us up for three years! Super kudos to you who have donated already

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:32 pm

Nemon wrote:Brilliant, Zephyrs contributions has been awesome.

he should have gotten payed long ago. the claims browser is an absolutely revolutionary piece of technology, and has changed TR for the better.hell, he should license it and make royalties

likewise, i dont know where we would be without his constant support and upgrading of the forum.

zhukant · Post by **zhukant** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:24 am

Heh I like that name =ÃƒÅ¾

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:24 pm

What's the number to now, Mr. Admin?

Post by **Haplo** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:30 pm

Some people are using e-checks and other methods of donating, which take a while to "approve", so I am waiting for those to finish, possible transfer fees and all, before I update the number. But it's a decent amount higher.

Post by **ko2fan** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:33 am

A little incentive for anyone who hasn't decided yet..

If you guys can hit $1000 I will dedicate 4 weekends to updating the forums to phpbb3 and working on the claims browser.

Get donating!

--
garfield

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:07 am

Amount updated. Since the initial flurry, only about $30 has been donated, which is why there weren't noticeable updates day-by-day... I was waiting for a bit of a lump sum to add to the total instead of updating it in one-dollar or two-dollar increments.

s17speedex · Post by **s17speedex** » Thu May 13, 2010 12:01 am

You guys are doing a great job- all can do is FCOM so I will donate instead- steve

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Thu May 13, 2010 3:11 am

I haven't said anything yet, so it is about time I did.

Thank you to all who have donated and those who donate in the future. I wasn't so much a fan of the donation button, but what needs to be done needs to be done.

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:07 pm

We have reached $400, enough for 6 years! Two-thirds of the way to our long-term goal already after only a few months! (Yet only two-fifths of the way toward capitalizing on garfield's incentive)

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:17 am

Amount updated. We are steadily moving toward meeting our long-term goal.

Post by **Haplo** » Sat May 21, 2011 12:54 am

Big news! We've hit our long-term hosting goal of $600. Any money over that amount (read: any donations made from here on out) will go toward a monetary gift for Zephyr for all his hard work on the claims browser and website that have allowed us to remain one of the most effective and organized mods in the entire modding community for nearly a decade.

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Sat May 21, 2011 12:55 am

We've remained relevant!

Huzzah!

Tes96 · Post by **Tes96** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:04 am

Haplo wrote:Big news! We've hit our long-term hosting goal of $600. Any money over that amount (read: any donations made from here on out) will go toward a monetary gift for Zephyr for all his hard work on the claims browser and website that have allowed us to remain one of the most effective and organized mods in the entire modding community for nearly a decade.

Have you reached $1000 worth of donations? Is Garfield still holding true to his word about dedicating 4 weekends to updating the forums to phpbb3 and working on the claims browser if you reach $1000?

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:32 am

Tes96 wrote:
Haplo wrote:Big news! We've hit our long-term hosting goal of $600. Any money over that amount (read: any donations made from here on out) will go toward a monetary gift for Zephyr for all his hard work on the claims browser and website that have allowed us to remain one of the most effective and organized mods in the entire modding community for nearly a decade.
Have you reached $1000 worth of donations? Is Garfield still holding true to his word about dedicating 4 weekends to updating the forums to phpbb3 and working on the claims browser if you reach $1000?

No, we've only hit $600, as I mentioned in that post last month. Although if you look at the rate of donations, I think you'd realize it's a bit crazy to think we could go from 0 to $600 in one year, and then from $600 to $1000 in one month...

As for Garfield's offer, I have no clue whether he would still honor that or not. At lot of things can change in a year. However, we will hold true to the statement that any money donated after the $600 amount will be given to Zephyr for his immense contribution to the project.

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 2:02 pm

Seems like that might be a good thing to check up on. Zephyr is cool and all, but I think it would garner more donations if it would benefit the project in some way.

Post by **ko2fan** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 10:30 pm

I will most definitely honour my commitment.

Post by **Haplo** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:32 am

Just a note of interest: we've now paid a second installment for hosting, we should now be good through March 13, 2013

Chin Music · Post by **Chin Music** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:46 am

Maybe even Sacred East will be out by then.

Maybe.

:p

Post by **Haplo** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:52 pm

Sacred East will most definitely be out by then.
Also, amount updated.

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:35 pm

Apparently it's Donate to TR Weekend. We just broke $1000 in total donations! I'll be contacting Zephyr to set up the gift exchange in the next few days. I'll also contact Garfield to see about the possibility of upgrading from phppBB2 to phpBB3 forums.

Hip hip hurrah, and a big thank you to all donors. This is really a monumental achievement for so small a neck of the proverbial woods. It just cements my and everyone else's belief that the ES (and specifically, Morrowind) community is the best out there.

TheUnending · Post by **TheUnending** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:37 pm

WOWZERS...

I looked at the current donation amount yesterday and Haplo had edited it up to 800 and now its up to 1050 O_o! AWESOMMMMEE!

Can't wait to see what phpBB3 looks like

!!

greendogo · Post by **greendogo** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:19 am

Oh, this is going to be cool! Huzzah for TR website updates!!!

Prophetional · Post by **Prophetional** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:53 pm

Okay, where IS your Donate button? Am I missing it? Did you take it away?

*feels like a dummy*

*continues searching*

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 6:17 pm

We took down the donation button because we already hit our basic target, awesome target and also our super-target. There's not really anything we can spend the money on besides gifts for our webmaster and the people who designed our site tools like the claims browser.

drfroth · Post by **drfroth** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:51 pm

That is the most responsible thing I have seen in a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG time.

Would you guys like to run for office? We have a entire political system here in America that could learn quite a bit from your last post.

Congrats for being stand up, sensible folks.

Tyrant · Post by **Tyrant** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:23 pm

drfroth wrote:That is the most responsible thing I have seen in a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG time.

Would you guys like to run for office? We have a entire political system here in America that could learn quite a bit from your last post.

Congrats for being stand up, sensible folks.

Really. Big kudos guys!

Attention: Tamriel Rebuilt Website Donations

Attention: Tamriel Rebuilt Website Donations

keep it up