Keep Weekly Davespeak Alive - Donate to the 2008 Annual Fundraiser

[Rob]

What's Going On?
Weekly Davespeak is holding its annual fundraiser to pay for the services associated with running the website. We do not run advertisements of any kind, so this is the only way we collect money to pay for the site.
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Main Costs
Weekly Davespeak has the following costs:
Dedicated Server: $130 / Month + $35 / Month for managed hosting and $9.99 / Month for cPanel an important administration utility license.
vBulletin: $40 annually for license renewal
Email Newsletter Service: $50 / Month (4000+ newsletter subscribers)

Secondary Costs
Paypal Finances: Paypal takes ~5% off the top of donations. In order to take contributions securely via credit card we need to be include this service charge in our fund raising target.

Total Donation Target: $2876.87

How Much Should I Give?

Individual donations donations of $5-$10 should be enough. During last year's fundraiser, the average donation was $13.00. Donating more than the suggested amount is greatly appreciated but should not be necessary.

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Donor Options:
Paypal reports directly to Weekly Davespeak with a few details about the transaction, (though none of them include your credit card). We give "donor status" on the boards for those who donate. This entitles you to the donors-only Red Rocks video from two years ago, along access to the Donor forum. If you would like your donation linked to your username, either:

1. Your Paypal account must be under the same email address as the WDS forum.
2. You need to tell us "Notes" of the payment what your WDS forums username is.

This is all automated for you if you are logged into the forums and use the Donate with Paypal button on our donate page. If your account is not updated to donor status automatically, we will update during our audit at the conclusion of the drive.

Remember, you do not need a Paypal account to donate, as Paypal accepts all major credit cards.
WDS Donors
Donations to Weekly Davespeak are mostly anonymous as we do not wish to compel users into donating by publicly highlighting who has and has not donated. Instead we ask you to consider how you have used and plan to continue to use WDS in the future and make a donation based on your personal connection to the site.

The Future of WDS (A Brief History Of Annual Achievements)
In 2006 we promised to take steps to change the technology behind the main site so it can be easily updated and maintained by a group of people rather than a one individual. We followed through with this promise with the introduction of Drupal. We also removed advertising for both registered and unregistered users of the site.

In 2007 we created the goal of distributing the workload of updating the main page and in the newsletter over a larger group of people. We followed through by reorganizing the administration forums hiring a Content Editor and designating a community director. These changes mean that Weekly Davespeak can continue to run if Rob is 'hit by a bus.'

In 2008 we will be concentrating on further improving the core IT behind the site. This means designing new templates for the main 'content' pages on WDS to allow us to upgrade to the newest version of Drupal. We also plan to upgrade the vBulletin forums to 3.7, which includes a number of significant feature enhancements.

The future of WDS depends on the success of this fund raising campaign. Weekly Davespeak is in its fourth year of operation it receives well over 83,000 unique visitors a month, (21% more than this time last year!).
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Donate!
The donation link is here. The page shows you how much has been donated, and how much we have left to raise.

I'd like to personally thank you for your contribution and don't forget, WDS is run by a staff of volunteers. We have a decent sized target this year and hope to increase that number, so please, please--donate to the site.

rob

[Rob]

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Why do we pay for a newsletter service?

The WDS newsletter has a subscriber list of over 5100 people. In order to send emails out to a group this size you really need a service who can manage spam concerns. We take spam very seriously and thus require a double-opt-in system in order to subscribe. Even still, people have hit "report spam" on before which is taken very seriously website hosts. Using a professional service protects Weekly Davespeak from accidental spam reports.

Why is the fund raiser target higher than last year?

Last year we successfully raised our target of $2874.65 Our newsletter subscriber roll broke 5000, which puts us in a more expensive payment area. The vBulletin annual license fee went up $10. We would like to raise funds to pay for the site keychains. In the past keychains were paid for out of pocket by the site administrator.

Wait a second, I see links up for Bonnaroo and Vegoose sometimes, isn't that advertising?

We reserve the right under certain situations to show ads for strategic partners. I.E. WBCN's Cali asked for a promotion once, The company behind Bonnaroo (Superfly) has been good to us, etc.

Hey, I only counted one Live Trax give-away last year, although 4 were budgeted for, what's up?

Good eye. We gave away one Live Trax CD which was paid out of last year's budget, and did not give out the other three. The money designated for these went towards an $85 forum plugin by Nuhit that is still under evaluation. More questions on this, please PM me. We've ratched this down to 2 Live Trax CD give-aways this year.

I want to donate, but I don't like using my credit card on the web

We have chosen PayPal to process all donations to Weekly Davespeak because it is a secure and popular method for sending money using the web. We strongly recommend using PayPal to donate to Weekly Davespeak because it allows us to easily upgrade your account status to donor levels, and it is safe. If you really don't want to send money using PayPal, we will take checks mailed. Please use the Contact Us link to ask for our postal address and info.

What If the Band Breaks Up or the World Ends?

Dave Matthews Band has been touring consistently without a break longer than the Grateful Dead. It is reasonable to expect that a hiatus could be declared at any time. If this happens, WDS will continue to cover Dave Matthews' solo efforts and those of the other band members. If the world ends you go on to your next place happily knowing that you did the right thing donating to Weekly Davespeak.

Got another question that is keeping you from supporting WDS? Please either send me a private message or post in this thread.

Donate Now

[theponderousman]

Hey so as a long time user I just want to say thanks to everyone that's been a part of this site since the beginning and since I joined. It's my home away from home a lot even though I haven't been posting as much recently. If you're even wavering on donating or not, take a moment and think how much you get out of this site. The people, the music, the news, the 'rumors' (or those like me that try and squash them ) and know that it's not free (great break down Rob).

You'll be getting my $$$ very soon and I encourage everyone to do so as well. Awesome job to all involved and thanks for your time!!!

Christian, ThePonderousMan

[niskykeepr31]

Look at it this way....if you had to pay 10 dollars to be a part of this site for a year....would you...i know i would.....probably even more.....definatly worth the donation...GO WDS....also i was thinking today...when i think weeklydavespeak and i think the letters wds....when they go through my mind they go as 'wee-d-s' not 'double-u-d-s'.....thoguht thta was funny...anyways...enough ranting...DONATE...mine will be in shortly

[DaveMatthewsBrett]

As a long time user from far away Germany I donate and I as well want to say thanks to everyone that's been a part of this site, and a huge THANKS to Rob and also to Kim !!!

Keep this site alive - it's a watchtower in the web !

[annajacobs]

Originally Posted by DaveMatthewsBrett

Keep this site alive - it's a watchtower in the web !

^^^i like this!!!!!!!!
thanks to all the admins that keeps this site alive, donating is the least we can do to help 'em out!!!

[Cathy W]

Kind of a no brainer to donate IMO.

Most of us pay $35 to be a warehouse member and I think you get so much more out WDS. The freindships alone that we have to opportunity to make is worth $10 don't you think? Plus add in all the news - witty banter back and forth in the threads - and the live shows/mp3's you have access to - worth way more than $10.

Dig deep folks, give more than $10 if you can, it is such a small amount we can contribute to something we get so much out out EVERY DAY!!!!

Thank You to all those who put their time in here and make this a place the DMB community WANTS to come and be a part of.

[sbdmb_fanatic]

well since i am in a financial crunch, being poor and all and not even buying the new lt. i will have to dig real deep for this one... but i love this site, it is my favorite thing on the web.

[Warehouse]

Donation made, keep WDS alive folks!

[cpxc.]

I gave a quarter of what is in my bank account. Any who I was thinking if you would be so kind and add skins to the forum? I like to jazz my favorite sites up a little.