Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Donations

Polverone - 16-4-2005 at 23:47

Go here to make a donation. I had to put the form in a separate page because the latest XMB screws it up when shown inline.

Click the image to donate via PayPal. Send me a U2U message if you wish to donate some other way.

I might as well update this first post with the times to inform that donations are going to go toward virtual private server hosting for SM. The current host has just not been very reliable, so it's time to find a new home.

[Edited on 6-2-2009 by Polverone]

cyclonite4 - 17-4-2005 at 08:28

I'd donate now, however my current financial situation isn't stable. Expect donations in the future ;).

I must say, that animation of yours is funny :D.
"King among men...." :P
I'm sure any excess funds wouldn't end up being invested in vulture ;).

chemoleo - 17-4-2005 at 08:49

So, Polverone, do you have a mustache or not? :D


Here's the computer illiterate asking, how is HTTPS and the other things you mention better/beneficial? I know I could look it up, but other people might be interested too.

Quote:
If funding in excess of that is received, we'll see what to do...

Don't you have to pay for your multimillion dollar playboy yacht at some point? :D

BromicAcid - 17-4-2005 at 08:52

Like many people here I don't have much money to spare, but that doesn't mean you're getting nothing (Donation on it's way).

However I do have a lot of chemistry books and such, maybe a chairty auction on eBay for sciencemadness? Might be fun :D

Maybe "Donate $50 and get a SMDB T-Shirt!" Now that would get the donations coming :)

[Edited on 4/17/2005 by BromicAcid]

Ramiel - 17-4-2005 at 09:21

But then there is the problem of a run of shirts, and mailing costs... why not just set up a secret society type thing - so we can print sciencemadness on our t-shirts and pay a fee to the pope. Er! i mean, um Polverone! hehe :D
Seriously though, i would definitely buy a shirt or two. merchanise is an interesting option.

What happens if I don't have a credit or cheque account, can I just mail a card with aussie bills in it? don't spend it on akubra hats and toohey's new export!

Magpie - 17-4-2005 at 10:04

I will cheerfully make a donation. But I make it conditionally on sending vulture to a spa for a well-deserved preening and beak waxing. :D

BromicAcid - 17-4-2005 at 10:20

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/

Just one example of a place where one can upload their on pictures and design their own T-shirts and market them through the site. There is no overhead, if a shirt is sold the site produces a shirt for a set cost and ships it off with the markup going to the seller. Might be a good plan in that there is little risk and decent possibility of gain.

I wonder if they have sneakers, I'd be neat to have a sciencemadness hat, shirt, pants, shoes etc. All on at the same time :D

HTTPS explanation

Polverone - 17-4-2005 at 12:05

HTTPS is secure (encrypted) HTTP, hypertext transfer protocol. If we buy a dedicated IP address, I can provide secure access to the board. This is good if you ever start to fear that the government is reading your thoughts and your electronic communications with sciencemadness, because you can move over to the encrypted connection and be reasonably assured that at least one of your problems has been eliminated.

Many people have previously offered to chip in a little money for the site. I wanted to be sure that sciencemadness was moved over to its new host with the domain name restored before I accepted anything, to prove that the site was still in at-least-minimally competent hands.

It would take about US $160 to pay for the year of hosting and domain renewal that I have recently purchased. Getting a dedicated IP address to offer HTTPS would cost another $20. In the event that money beyond that comes in, it could be held in reserve to (for example) buy a higher-bandwidth hosting plan in case the Library or something else begins taxing our resources again. It could be saved to pay for next year's hosting bills. I'm open to other suggestions about good uses for excess funding, should excess funding actually materialize.

Yes, I think I can accept mailed cash, but it might be a good idea to stick the bills inside a slim book or something, so it's not discovered and stolen by someone unscrupulous along the way. Contact me for the mailing address.

hodges - 17-4-2005 at 13:36

I just made a donation.

Wonderful!

Polverone - 17-4-2005 at 17:04

Thanks, Hodges! Also, thank you to the others who have donated! I just checked my PayPal account for the first time since putting up the link yesterday, and there's already 4 donations totaling $145.09. At this rate we will soon be able to afford a dedicated IP address and <strike>that robe for Vulture</strike> other goodies.

BromicAcid - 17-4-2005 at 17:20

..... If we get funds significantly in excess of the target amounts perhaps we could purchase one membership to a chemistry database. I have access to the ACS database and can search all the archives at the drop of a hat, very convenient. So maybe there is some other database like searching the CAS that we could purchase one membership for and give one member the task of looking up requests on a day to day or week to week basis along with references. Just a thought.

My chemistry club at school is funded mostly through selling goggles, maybe sciencemadness should have a goggle store ;)

[Edited on 4/18/2005 by BromicAcid]

ordenblitz - 17-4-2005 at 19:35

Ok there you go.. you should have enough for the robe.

Polverone - 17-4-2005 at 21:00

Thank you, ordenblitz! Thank you, BromicAcid! I need to get my PayPal account verified (I didn't realize at first that I would need to do that just to accept donations), and if all goes well we should have HTTPS within a week.

Buying database access sounds nifty, but that sort of thing is usually quite expensive, and we probably already have users of most major databases here already. I can access ACS journals, CAS, and many Elsevier and Wiley Interscience journals. What I really miss are the Royal Society of Chemistry journal archives. I have partial access on microfilm, but not electronic access. We seem to be doing okay with people posting their journal requests here already.

In the near future I plan on migrating the Library back to sciencemadness's own server, to take the load off of BromicAcid's webspace. The selection should be slightly expanded and all the old books have been touched up so that electronic pages match book pages and the initial appearance is more pleasing.

I welcome further suggestions on how donations can be used to help the site. If nothing else, they will assure hosting into the future.

cyclonite4 - 18-4-2005 at 06:11

Maybe rather than sell merchandise like shirts... sell sciencemadness lab equipment. Of course you could still get SM clothing, and lab coats :D.

I know I wouldn't mind paying inflated prices for laboratory equipment and glassware if it was going to such a cause.

Ashendale - 18-4-2005 at 08:33

Yeah.

Or beginners set.
Like many people don't know what to buy first, so you could be able to buy different sets, depends how much money you got.

Let's say "Labware I - 75$-100$"
That includes most common labware

"Labware II - 100$-125$"

That would include more labware

etc.

They wouldn't be the little child kits (only some chemicals/limited amount and variety of labware), but proffessional. Also maybe some little book made by scmd members of which experiements to test for fun. (If you can't figure out yourself). They should be in urr...don't know how to say it. Well like Sodium hydroxide should be NaOH, not...sodium hydroxide :P

For many non-english speaking people it's very confusing. For me myself, when browsing this forum, is sometimes very hard trying to figure out, what chemical are they talking about :P

Don't know, how good/bad idea it is..

Blind Angel - 18-4-2005 at 09:33

We should have black SMDB coat, as a sign of distinction. The Black Labcoat Society :P

Btw, happy that you finally accepted donation for this wonderfull site.

vulture - 18-4-2005 at 11:52

I'll do a little fundraising rally around my persona (which some people here seem to adore beyond reason, save your money for a shrink!): For $500 + travelling expenses the vulture himself will come and take away all your excess carcasses.

Note: Carcasses is open to interpretation.

Also Note: Acting like Sam or trying to set me up is really not a good idea. Vultures first circle, you know?

[Edited on 18-4-2005 by vulture]

Esplosivo - 18-4-2005 at 11:57

Quote:
Originally posted by Blind Angel
We should have black SMDB coat, as a sign of distinction. The Black Labcoat Society :P


I for sure would buy one of those!:D

rift valley - 18-4-2005 at 15:31

I donated but it will take a few days for the bank to wire the cash to paypal. Keep up the good work:)

i want 50% of my donation to go towards:


for Vulture of course

[Edited on 4/18/2005 by rift valley]

Donation

MadHatter - 18-4-2005 at 15:58

Polverone, $50 on its way via PayPal ! Glad to help ! The secure server is a great idea !
Most companies I do business with on the net use HTTPS.

BromicAcid - 18-4-2005 at 16:04

Hows about we get some embroidered patches with the sciencemadness logo. Now that would be classy :D It seems to me there is at least some demand for sciencemadness merchandise, I would wear it proudly :)

I feel like I should be donating a certain dollar amount per post I've made, but even at $.10 it would be killer ;) I am so glad to see everyone donating!

[Edited on 4/19/2005 by BromicAcid]

Polverone - 18-4-2005 at 17:16

No, BromicAcid, you are mistaken. If anything, I should be paying for high-quality posts like your many fascinating accounts of inorganic adventures. The value of this site is contained in the thousands of worthwhile contributions by its many members. I would be glad if I could get $0.25 for every incomprehensible post by The Gender Changer, though.

Some time back, maybe a year or more, I made available high-resolution copies of the Sciencemadness logo so people could make their own merchandise with it. Is there really some interest in buying logo'd merchandise from me (or maybe another moderator, if you're not close to the US), even though it would be trivial to make it yourself? I feel funny selling something with an artificial value like that, but I suppose it's not any weirder than taking donations, and I would be happy to see members wearing publicity for the site.

neutrino - 18-4-2005 at 18:41

I personally like the idea of a book about what you can do with everyday things. It could be easily sold as an e-book. I would guess that it would be popular among pyros who want to know more about the chemicals they play with and those rare hobbyists out there. If we could reach that second group, we could easily make money and get new members.

Ashendale - 20-4-2005 at 03:46

Well, the problem with e-book is that it can be easily distributed and recieved without paying...which really isn't the idea of it.

TheBear - 20-4-2005 at 10:35

I haven't got a credit card and will probably not get one in the near future, so donations might have to wait (or am I missing out on some other way to put money on a paypal account?)

So in the mean time I made an alternative design for a sciencemadness T-shirt. (see attachment).

EDIT: If anyone wants the original photoshop file just PM me with your email (it's 600 kb).

[Edited on 20-4-2005 by TheBear]

scimad.jpg - 53kB

neutrino - 20-4-2005 at 13:06

Well, the idea of the book isn't really to be some great commercial venture; it is only to make a little money. Besides, how much could we expect for something many of us could write in our sleep? There’s nothing to loose (except maybe a little time), so why not?

chemoleo - 20-4-2005 at 13:12

A big glowing brain eh...isn't that a logo more suitable for synthetika? :D

Neutrino - BromicAcid & others are working on just such a book. There's a big thread on it somewhere, and the progress of it can be seen on his website ('the book project' ) .

[Edited on 20-4-2005 by chemoleo]

Cyrus - 20-4-2005 at 15:46

Tsk tsk. Black lab coats. What nonsense.

What we really need are teflon coated aluminized lab coats with a thin layer of asbestos or kaowool inside of that, and a layer of teflon inside of that. Heck, maybe we could add silicon carbide armor plates...;)

With a sciencemadness logo. Speaking of logos, I think something like a florence flask or erlenmeyer flask would be more suited to this site than a brain... but that's just too typical. Hmm....

The_Davster - 20-4-2005 at 16:15

What's all this on new Sciencemadness logos? What is wrong with the one we have? I am rather partial to it.

HNO3 - 20-4-2005 at 18:00

Maybe we could sell chemicals to each other and donate 5% to the Board.:P

neutrino - 20-4-2005 at 18:23

chemoleo: I was thinking along the lines of a book that was more targeted to the general public and gave tips and instructions for chemistry demonstrations. The book you’re referring to seems more targeted to the hobbyist with some experience and interest. I’m thinking of a book that targets the novice who don’t have a very strong interest in chemistry (yet).

on topic

Organikum - 21-4-2005 at 06:57

This thread is actually about donations and neither about SCM paraphelia nor new logos (I like the one we have) or book projects.


I am happy so many have already donated, seeing how much is talked about donations on other boards and how pitiable the outcome is I must say that I am very proud of the SCM community.

My own donation is on the way :D

/ORG

Eliteforum - 22-4-2005 at 09:02

:)Donation also sent, small but more to come.

Eliteforum - 25-4-2005 at 14:55

What's the total so far?

BromicAcid - 25-4-2005 at 15:07

I've been wondering that too, but what if someone who is thinking about donating sees a large total and feels that their donation doesn't matter and decides not to donate from seeing the sum of money. On the other hand someone may see the amount of money donated and feel left out and pressured into donating something to sciencemadness.

Polverone - 25-4-2005 at 18:30

About $375 has been actually received, and some people have send me U2U messages indicating that money is on the way via mail. I would say it has already been a very successful donation campaign. It has paid for all the expenses involved in this year's worth of hosting and has enough left over for next year's expenses too, if prices hold. I've seen other places conduct donation campaigns with relatively little success, so I probably wouldn't have even tried here if so many people had not contacted me before, saying that they would like to donate. Those pledges turned out to be correct! Given the size of our community and the expenses involved in running it, I would say the donation campaign has done marvelously well.

Eliteforum - 26-4-2005 at 04:06

Any with any luck, continue to do so! :) Does this mean we can afford the SSL?

chemoleo - 28-4-2005 at 09:17

Ok, a letter is on the way. It's in Euros, so you can decide yourself when to exchange it (i.e. when the dollar is lowest :D). Or, when you get to Europe, drink a couple of good beers on SMDB ...

PM me though when u get it, thx.

Polverone - 28-4-2005 at 11:42

Thanks, chemoleo! Yes, we can afford the setup for SSL now. In fact I purchased the dedicated IP address (the only thing we really need to set up SSL) some days ago. The problem with actually getting it working is that I can't figure out how to get the site "SSL manager" that I have available to actually start using a certificate. I asked Micfo to explain it, and the tech who responded told me to just give him the cert and key, and he'd install them. But I'd prefer to figure that out myself. It is on the back burner for the moment while I work on other things. For example, the archiving software is nearly ready. I should be able to make a static HTML backup of the forum soon and provide it for download. I also really need to tend to the Library, which has recently been expanded by several books but has not had its listings updated to reflect it.

[Edited on 4-28-2005 by Polverone]

TheBear - 28-4-2005 at 11:55

Off topic: Oh, I never meant that we should change the logo we have. I love it! I was just brainstorming for an alternative design for a T-shirt. (When you've filled your wardrobe with sciencemadness T-shirts you might want some variation :) )

Back on topic:

I have now actually applied for a Visa credit card only to be able to make a donation to this board. So as soon as I've got it and the paypal account there should be a minor donation on the way.

More good news

Polverone - 4-5-2005 at 17:37

Organikum sent $100 via mail, which I received a few months ago, and I just noticed that I have received another $50 donation through Paypal. I don't recognize the email address of the most recent Paypal donor, so I unfortunately cannot give that person credit here. It looks like our forum's financial future is more secure than ever. In fact, the donations have been so generous that I am starting to daydream and think of how we might be able to expand further...

Organikum - 4-5-2005 at 18:24

Quote:

Organikum sent $100 via mail, which I received a few months ago
Ah! The tunnel-effect, it worked! Thats great. Money received before it was sent - now we get really filthy rich! ;)

/ORG

Polverone - 4-5-2005 at 18:53

Err. Make that a few days ago. Though I am not opposed to investigating possibilities for time traveling money.

Organikum - 4-5-2005 at 18:55

Quote:

possibilities for time traveling money.
I suggest we just print it. :D

But on a nearer look we might give homeopathic money a try? Or the ol´ pyramid trick? Lead to gold? hmmmm..

/ORG

[Edited on 5-5-2005 by Organikum]

Eliteforum - 5-5-2005 at 04:47

The board we have now is all fine and dandy, but if there's an excess of $ perhaps upgrade the board to another version, or another board all together. (The board software I mean)

More donation goodness

Polverone - 6-5-2005 at 09:34

Chemoleo was able to send in 20 euros. At current exchange rates, that's about $25. But if rates change enough, I will be able to <strike>pay my rent and hire a butler</strike> move sciencemadness into a high-end datacenter with his donation alone. Thanks, Chemoleo!

Madandcrazy - 15-5-2005 at 06:29

Are Chemolo able send collected donations to the sciencemadness
high-end datacentre ?

a very special donation

Polverone - 15-6-2005 at 17:23

HNO3 was able to send me some chemical goodness: elemental titanium, lithium, and bismuth, vanadium pentoxide, cobalt carbonate, and activated zinc sulfide. Thank you, HNO3! You can rest assured that I will enjoy my new <strike>toys</strike> tools. It's Christmas in June here at the Polverone homestead!

[Edited on 6-16-2005 by Polverone]

Thanks, rogue chemist!

Polverone - 17-7-2005 at 00:24

Having donated CAD $40, rogue chemist joins the ranks of those who have helped to keep sciencemadness online now and in the future. Thank you very much for your contribution! It is a joy to be able to focus on technical and administrative concerns, knowing that sciencemadness is financially provided for.

Thank you, woelen!

Polverone - 12-9-2005 at 00:17

Thanks go to woelen, who has also made a contribution to support the continued operation of Sciencemadness. I think that's a record-short period of time between a member joining and donating!

I've enjoyed looking at his investigations of colorful complexes and oddities in inorganic chemistry on his own site. I'm gratified to see that he has enjoyed this site as well and that he has been able to assure its future both as a contributor of operating funds and of quality discussion.

BromicAcid steps up again

Polverone - 30-10-2005 at 16:15

Not only is BromicAcid one of our most prolific and adventurous amateur experimentalists, he's again donated to the Sciencemadness operating expense fund. Thanks, BromicAcid! Your financial contribution helps keep the site running and your posts keep people visiting. What a great guy!

[Edited on 10-31-2005 by Polverone]

Thanks to an anonymous donor

Polverone - 31-10-2005 at 23:31

A member who wishes to remain anonymous has just made a donation to the Sciencemadness operating fund. Thanks to him and so many like-minded people, this site remains up and running now and in the future. Believe it or not, my finances are tighter now than they were when I was an incomeless student, so I'm very relieved that this site can run on user donations and not out of my own pocket. Hooray for Sciencemadness members!

Thanks to an ursine friend of sciencemadness

Polverone - 23-1-2006 at 12:17

Member TheBear has just joined the illustrious ranks of previous contributors to sciencemadness's operating expenses fund. I would like to heartily thank him and all those who have enabled sciencemadness's web presence with their generous donations.

Woelen, another repeat donor

Polverone - 18-2-2006 at 18:29

I just checked my gfxlist mail account for the first time in a week or two and saw that woelen has again contributed to sciencemadness's operation. I believe that next month it will be time to renew hosting and domain names so this is a nice time to see another donation. Thank you again, woelen, both for your financial and intellectual contributions to this site and amateur science in general.

An anonymous donation!

Polverone - 4-3-2006 at 19:49

Checking again, it seems that somebody made a $20 donation shortly after Woelen. I do not recognize the name or email address associated with the donation, and I don't want to post the name in public without permission. Still, I want to say "thank you!" to whichever member or lurker made the contribution. I just renewed the domain name for another year and I will soon be buying another year of hosting. Thanks to all donors and everyone else who has made Sciencemadness what it is today.

Ramiel is awesome and should be thanked.

Polverone - 15-3-2006 at 19:01

With an extremely generous $140 donation, forum moderator and all-around swell guy Ramiel has essentially paid for the coming year of web hosting. He asked to be thanked with pretty plastic baubles. Since it is difficult to send actual baubles, show your appreciation to him with pictures of pretty baubles.

I'll start:
<center></center>
Thanks again, Ramiel!

praseodym - 18-3-2006 at 02:39

This is from me.

mericad193724 - 27-6-2006 at 11:24

Here is another....

YY-012.jpg - 13kB

Excellent news

Polverone - 21-8-2006 at 08:07

Thanks to an extremely generous $300 donation by Ordenblitz, our hosting package will be upgraded again. We didn't really need additional bandwidth, but we were growing very cramped for disk space, a problem that has recently limited Library expansion and the provision of a new offline forum backup archive.

Additionally, attachment size limits will be relaxed somewhat and attached images will be made to display inline, to simplify future picture sharing. For those who wish to use the more "traditional" sciencemadness scipics FTP account, I am going to raise the disk quota to 500 MB from 100 (~60 currently used) which should leave plenty of room for future expansion.

An update, and further thanks to woelen

Polverone - 25-8-2006 at 19:55

Another of our outstanding members, woelen, has recently made a donation to Sciencemadness as well. I initially overlooked it among the flood of spam in my inbox, and hope that my delay in acknowledging it has caused no hard feelings.

Update on the hosting upgrade: I have requested the upgraded package from Micfo, and they said that it can be enabled as soon as the invoice is paid. But the invoice was automatically and immediately paid from my on-file credit card. I have sent a reminder and I hope that the new package will be online in 24 hours.

After it is activated, there will be a few minor changes. The maximum file size for attachments will increase to five megabytes from one. The available scipics FTP space will be increased to one gigabyte from 100 megabytes. I will also set image attachments to display inline, to simplify image inclusion for posters who don't want to deal with the scipics FTP system.

Polverone - 27-8-2006 at 09:11

The changes are now in effect. The FTP quota has been raised to 500 MB. Attachments can now be up to 5 megabytes in size. Common image attachments will now display inline, as in this post.

active.jpg - 31kB

MagicJigPipe - 3-2-2008 at 23:24

I will admit I didn't take the time to read this entire thread so forgive me if this been mentioned.

I would love to have some sciencemadness stickers, pens, magnets, pencils (to give to friends), patches, etc... I know those are easy to make/obtain. I would buy them even if they were marked up substantially because it would be going towards a good cause. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be with the money going to anyone but Polverone but nevertheless, I think it's a great idea.

I will donate sometime in the near future. Perhaps in 21 days when I receive my tax return.

Magpie - 4-2-2008 at 22:12

I have just made a donation. Again I wish that it be spent on Vulture, ie, that he be allowed 2 mating sessions with the Andean Condor of his choice! :D

Polverone - 9-2-2008 at 11:14

Magpie, I just noticed your donation when I checked my email. Thanks for your contribution! I just renewed the domain name for a few more years, and your donation has already paid that off. I also recently received a slightly smaller donation from someone who did not identify their SM user name. I don't wish to expose their personal email account, so I'll just say "thank you!" to the anonymous benefactor, whatever name you may post under.

When I started this forum, I was a student long on time and short on money. Since around November of last year it's been the opposite: I have a well-paying job but find an enormous part of my time taken up by it. I could pay for Sciencemadness entirely out of my own pocket, but I find it encouraging that the members of this forum have made a community effort to pay for the infrastructure that we all use. I apologize that I haven't been as active in moderating as I was formerly, but this site has always been about our membership and not me personally. I thank everyone who has made Sciencemadness as good as it is, whether it be with original experiments, reference-hunting, financial contributions, or asking intelligent questions. I've done a lot for this site, but the members have done so much more.

My contrarian view

franklyn - 9-2-2008 at 17:31

Those of you in the employ of academic institutions are accustomed to
having your hand out for endowment but you really need to develop a
revenue generating model for Sciencemadness. Providing a subforum of
dedicated links to suppliers and affiliated businesses to advertise for a
paltry sum , can be made available and will more than pay for your site.
You of all people must realize there is a real need for an alternative to
EBay for obtaining supplies and equipment. Be aware I live in New York
the mendicant capitol of the world and have heard all the pretexts and
remain unconvinced or moved by claims of insolvency. Call it bourgeois
materialism as you like , I expect a tangible return on my money and I
do not reward others un-enterprising folly.

The Cloisters medieval conservatory has all the money on earth in grants
yet has the audacity to solicit a " suggested " $10 or so admission fee.
When he visits it , my cousin who is a commercial real estate broker here
will lackadaisically submit whatever small change he may have , 59 cents ,
31 cents and a Canadian quarter , just to enjoy the reaction of the
pretentious snooty pages.
John D. Rockefeller was perhaps the most generous of all , he gave dimes
to people. His grandson David former chairman of Citicorp would not , I
can assure you , do anything so plebian as to fish in his own pocket for a
contribution , though he might very well have his social secretary arrange
a charitable ball ( tax deductible of course ) where emotionally moved
simpletons can in turn fish in their own pockets for contributions.
The Cloisters was founded by the Rockefellers.
.

dishonesty & honesty.jpg - 84kB

microcosmicus - 9-2-2008 at 17:42

Exactly how much does it take to run ScienceMadness? Before discussing
particulars of how to raise the money, the first question is how much needs
to be raised.

As it turns out, I have quite some experience with trying to raise revenue for a
similar website, PlanetMath --- we even worked with a fundraising consultant
last year.

Polverone - 9-2-2008 at 23:13

Sciencemadness is not terribly expensive to run. It's something like $25 a month for hosting and $15 a year for the domain name. Once upon a time that was a pretty big expense to pay out of my own pocket, but nowadays it doesn't seem like much. That's why I continue to recognize and thank members who donate but I don't actively solicit donations any more.

I prefer to keep SM advertisement-free. I don't think the aesthetic and organizational drawbacks of advertising would be outweighed by the revenue. This is a low-traffic site, catering to a rare hobby, and if it's not going to be grand it should at least be elegant.

our newest contributor -- Panache

Polverone - 27-8-2008 at 10:43

Panache has just donated $20 to Sciencemadness. Thanks for your contribution, Panache!

Polverone - 29-9-2008 at 20:01

Prole has just contributed $10 to the running of Sciencemadness. Thanks, Prole!

Polverone - 2-10-2008 at 07:58

Hashashan has also contributed $20 to Sciencemadness! Sorry for not acknowledging you earlier; it had been a while since I checked my email.

Polverone - 6-10-2008 at 21:42

Thanks go to Mr. Wizard too for $10 contributed to Sciencemadness!

It seems there's been quite a rush of donations lately... either that or I need to check my e-mail more often.

Eliteforum - 9-10-2008 at 01:41

Can you send me a payment request from paypal to my registered email address? Have some left over money on a US bank card (in dollars) that I can't use over here.

Polverone - 1-1-2009 at 10:19

New member Gon is so enamored of sciencemadness that he just donated $50. I thank him and wish him a happy New Year. Contributions like his ensure that we'll be around for years to come.

stateofhack - 2-1-2009 at 12:16

I would like to make a donation, do you accept paypal and if so where is the email?

Thanks!

Polverone - 2-1-2009 at 14:38

Yes, paypal is accepted. See the first post in this thread for the donation link.

Polverone - 2-6-2009 at 08:53

Phosphor-ing has recently donated $40 to Sciencemadness. As I have the time I plan on using his donation, and previous recent donations, to obtain the lowest-price plan on linode and configure the system for Sciencemadness. Obviously the sticking point is how much time I have free, since SM members have already donated enough since the new year to pay for 5 months of Linode hosting.

The lowest-price linode plan seems fairly well provisioned. It is actually slightly cheaper than what Micfo charged for our hosting plan before the plan was discontinued and we were downgraded to the server ghetto. I believe that 360 MB RAM will be sufficient to run Apache, PHP, and MySQL with reasonable performance. We're currently using about 7 GB of disk space for regular files and 3 GB for the forum database. Since the plan offers 16 GB of disk, that should provide for system software needs, 1 GB swap space, and current storage needs, plus leave a few gigabytes for future growth. The base Linode plan may offer more disk in the future or I may need to eventually migrate to a larger plan, but I think the lowest plan as it stands would be fine for at least the next year.

If Phosphor-ing's example has inspired you ;), read the very first post in this thread to find out how you can make a donation too.

Polverone - 3-6-2009 at 10:00

Argyrium just made a donation too. Thanks, Argyrium!

Polverone - 15-7-2009 at 11:44

IPN just made a substantial donation. Thanks, IPN!

If donors are wondering why we're still on the unreliable Micfo server instead of a VPS, the answer is twofold:
1) Micfo's terrible unreliability has become a tolerable (IMO) unreliability. We at least haven't suffered DNS problems in a couple of months.
2) I am working on a virtual machine-based backup solution for SM, so people can run the forum on their own computers (using a snapshot of the database with sensitive information removed). This involves customizing a Linux image and the backup process and trying to make it simple enough for more than one or two users to benefit. It costs me no money but it does cost time.

I don't want to start spending money on a VPS until I will have the free time I need to make use of it. There will be some work required before I can transition the site.

woelen donated!

Polverone - 20-7-2009 at 10:02

Thanks for contributing to SM, woelen. You not only contribute excellent threads but you pay me to participate. What generosity!

zajcek01 donated!

Polverone - 21-7-2009 at 15:36

Thanks for the donation. It is really appreciated.

Rogeryermaw has donated!

Polverone - 15-10-2010 at 16:01

Surprisingly, his first name as revealed by Paypal is not actually Roger. I hope that the real Mr. Yermaw, wherever he may be, is pleased to see the very interesting phosphorus experiments posted under his name.

Rogeryermaw has donated $15 to the continued operation of Sciencemadness and has pledged to get a shirt with the site logo on it, and I'm looking forward to seeing that. Maybe with enough encouragement he'll share pictures or video with the whole forum :D

psychokinetic - 15-10-2010 at 22:26

Sorry for no donation, but a SM shirt sounds great.

Bismuth - 15-10-2010 at 23:45

I concur. I would probably wear it everyday.

Thanks to two anonymous donors

Polverone - 19-10-2010 at 08:49

A member here, who has explicitly said he wishes to remain anonymous, has donated $50.
Another donation of $30 comes from someone unknown: his payment email address does not match any member email, and there was no note left to his forum identity. I presume he wishes to remain anonymous too. Thank you for contributing, anonymous persons, and I hope that you continue to enjoy Sciencemadness.

Thanks to Arthur Dent!

Polverone - 30-11-2010 at 09:56

He has contributed $25 to Sciencemadness, and it is very much appreciated. I hope that you continue to enjoy the site, Arthur.

Rogeryermaw - 16-5-2014 at 15:29

is your donation link still correct? hope so... should have asked before i dropped money on it....

Texium - 7-8-2014 at 22:34

I will happily donate once I have the funds to, and if donations are still being accepted.
At the moment though, I wanted to check and make sure that it is still ok to print a t-shirt with the Sciencemadness logo on it. I think that it would be really cool to have one, and since I recently had a different custom shirt made that turned out really well, I'm eager to make an SM one.

Polverone - 7-8-2014 at 22:45

Sure, go ahead and print a shirt for yourself. The donation link still works but the site is well-funded for some time to come.