EQEmu losing hosting

[techguy84]

I am not to concerned about how the donations are made, so long as they go to the project and not peoples private pockets. Not accusing anyone here by any means, but I have seen it before in other places.

As far as having a dedicated donations spot, I think that would be great. One pool for everthin to go into. If you get 10 people putting 10 dollars in per month, thats just enough to slide by on a decent dedicated host. In addidtion to that, If we wanted to to Ad's, I am not opposed to that. I find absolutley nothing wrong with it, so long as people dont abuse them like they have in the past.

As far as giving a donor special status, there isnt a whole lot to do. I dont want someone putting in 10 dollars only to have the abilty to ask stupid questions so that idea to me wouldnt be a good one. Stupidity does not come at a price. I did not get that 10 dollars J.Smith put in, why should I have to answer his questions regarding wether or not I can send him my
eqgame.exe client.

Things like matt said, like avatars, diffent color names on boards, and possible a little notation(picture, subtitle, ect...) to let people know that that person contributs to their pleasure is a great way to do it. Sourcefourge has the little gear things to indicate dontaions, level of donations ect.. so we could have something like that.

Anyhow, I really dont have much room to speak, as I am technically only a member for around a month now(not including quite a few years ago) so maybe I shouldnt speak.

I just know this, I am going to try to help, any way possible. I love the project, although I dont play a lot of EQ anymore, but the things that people have done here I have much respect for. I dont want it to die, or become a limited little offset that doesnt have anything but a 4 year old release of the emu and absolutly no one moderating the forums.

Blah blah blah, I could go on for days. Oh look candy.........

-------Edit------

Furthermore, I just though of a cool feature if this would be possible. I know not with the current time frame, but something we could work out once we are in the clear again. The abilty for anyone to see the current donation amount that has been put in. SoD has the little light indicator, with could be just a load of ****, but something like that. Like a link that goes to the donation page for donating, and on it it would say

Current Donation Pool : $325.95

I think that would be a awesome feature so we know how much is in there at all times and we can dontated to a specifc level if need be, or heaven forbid, J.Smith decided that he was going to take $200 for gas money. We would still have enough for the server to keep moving, so who would be the wiser that he did that.

[Angelox]

Hey, If the guy pays some money, I'll answer anything I can. If you look good at all this, there are not too many of us; maybe 20-30 active in the forums and maybe 300 players (tops) on the servers.
I'm the first one that gets fed up with same old question that you can find with a search - but if it 's a donor, so be it! We got less than ten days now, before this whole thing goes belly-up and it all poofs! If we let it get to that, it's going to me much harder getting it back together again.
In any case, we have to take immediate action and send money to either Doodman or FNW. I'm trying to figure out how to Paypal him via someone else, I may have to stoop down and make an account. There's nothing else we can do in ten days.
To everone that reads this; This is all going down the drain unless we act now.

[techguy84]

You can make a donation via credit/debit card through paypal without being a account holder. At least you can pay through pay pal anyhow. I use paypal for a way to accept credit cards for my business. Most people just pay me in cash, but some have the option to pay via credit/debit without a account. There just limited to $2000.00 transactions. If you are planning to donate more than 2k, you proably have a server solution that can host it at your own house.

There was a lot more to this post, but after thinking about it, anyone that donates is a great person and should deserve some nice perks.

[Angelox]

EqEmu needs money! I know it hurts to cough up money, but sometimes you got to! Look at it this way: any crappy-assed game you buy will get you a few hours of happiness and costs around 50.00. Sony charges around 18.00 a month for membership! How long have we been into EqEmu and what have we given it?
I know we all don't have money for this, but some of us do and can donate. So you all know who you are, please donate! We don't want to loose EqEmu.
Thanks for the idea techguy84, I saw how to pay via PayPal and not join, so that's not a rant anymore.

[johnyp]

Summer is coming up and once I get out of school, and back to a job, I can contribute about 20-30$ a month.... I think You will have plenty people contribute, I just dont think the people that play on the servers ever go on this website or read the forum, but once the word gets out there will be donations and appreciation for what you guys do.

Thanks again guys!

Peace!

[whirll]

Sadly, I'm on disability..which means im on a fixed income. If i could though, I would certainly donate to this cause. Eqemu has kept me from going out of my mind numerous times, and really I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation. I hate that I rely on others that donate but as a whole, I love eqemu. I hope people pull together and keep the project running.

[So_1337]

I haven't donated in the past because the methods I've seen thus far on this forum are directed at individuals, and it seems a lot of people come and go here due to life being how it is. I know the main ones (FNW, Doodman, etc.) are recipient options, but I've been looking for an opportunity to put money towards a cause exactly like this one.

That said, how can I put money towards hosting these forums? I'd prefer it not go directly to any one individual (as I don't know anyone well enough to show any favoritism ), but if there isn't a method in place for donating directly for the hosting then I'll settle for one person who gives their word that that's what my money will go towards.

Donation inbound, pending the response. This is such a fantastic project to be (even a small!) part of, let's keep it going

[gernblan]

Originally Posted by Angelox

Hey, If the guy pays some money, I'll answer anything I can. If you look good at all this, there are not too many of us; maybe 20-30 active in the forums and maybe 300 players (tops) on the servers.
I'm the first one that gets fed up with same old question that you can find with a search - but if it 's a donor, so be it! We got less than ten days now, before this whole thing goes belly-up and it all poofs! If we let it get to that, it's going to me much harder getting it back together again.
In any case, we have to take immediate action and send money to either Doodman or FNW. I'm trying to figure out how to Paypal him via someone else, I may have to stoop down and make an account. There's nothing else we can do in ten days.
To everone that reads this; This is all going down the drain unless we act now.

I donated already but I think it would really help to know a NUMBER, as in how much MORE is needed to make this work? Then maybe some of us can step up and make it happen financially.

So please, can someone give a report on how much is already in the server fund and how much more is needed, and quickly?

[Angelox]

I've done what I can my friends, and that is rally us together and pump in some money. Other than that, Im just a mod here and my prime directive is to help stop spam and porn topics.
I can't speak for Dood and FNW, they gotta do that themselves or authorize someone to rep them. In fact, I'm just as freaked out as the rest of you.
The way I see it , even if it doesn't happen after the deadline, they still earned whatever we donated: We should have been "donating" a long time ago.
This project is well worth what ever we send their way.
I can tell you the two people to donate to is FNW and the Doodman - So if you sent money to Doodman, next time you should do FNW. I don't really understand why, I guess bounce from one to another with the donations for now, or maybe just split the money up two ways when you donate.

[techguy84]

WOOT GO GO POWER EMU, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER EMU....... sorry, had to get that off my chest. Anyhow, I dropped a dime in today, kinda all I could do at the moment, with gas crested right at 3.15 a gallon at the moment, it crippled me today to fill my car up and it take a whopping $42.00. I cried as the woman swiped all seven of my credit cards in ecstasy. I think she like it.

Anyhow, If the project does go under, is there anyway to make a login server. Does it have to have the same crypto as what we are not allowed to see, or can we design are own? I suppose that may be a dumb question as it has to work with the client itself. But like a variant of the mini login that can read by user name and password, maybe with no encryption. I dunno, just a way for some of us to keep a server going, ya know?

[fathernitwit]

All,

The reason we are not posting any hard numbers, is that right now, we do not have any hard numbers. We are still working various options to decide what is the best route to take, and each of them has different expenses. This is why we put out a general call for donations: we know there are going to be expenses, but we do not know what exactly. We figured it was less impactful than setting a worst case goal for people to shoot for, possibly making sacrifices they are not 100% comfortable with, and then have people upset if we find a lower cost solution.

We have gotten enough donations to ensure that the project will have hosting for at least a few months, even if we have to go out and rent a new dedicated server. However, we are looking at the combination of several factors in order to choose a long term, sustainable solution. The major pivot points are related to long term overall costs, personal costs incurred by Doodman or I (not just money), and sustainability of community support. We will keep you informed as decisions are made.

Thanks to all who have donated.

The big issue with hard numbers is as soon as you hit that magic # people stop donating, then there has to be a call out in a week for the next month, by not posting it right now people are continuing to donate.


Hard numbers will come, nobody is going to pocket the money and run.