[Opensim-users] Funding/Donating to the OSGrid Project
Robert Klein
rtkwebman at gmail.com
Sun Nov 15 17:02:40 UTC 2009
+1 to what Diva says about contributing time and free stuff!!
Diva Canto wrote:
>
> +1 to donating to OSGrid.
>
> Just want to make sure that there is no confusion here, as this thread
> is in *opensim*-users. The OpenSim project and OSGrid are two separate
> and independent things. OpenSim is... well OpenSim. OSgrid is an
> OpenSim-based grid run by Adam, Nebadon, Charles and a few other
> volunteers. The people behind OSGrid are instrumental in testing the
> bleeding edge OpenSim, they are the frontline of large-scale OpenSim
> testing; but they are not the only testers.
>
> The OpenSim project itself also takes donations, but we don't really
> value that kind of contribution. We value people's time best. You can
> find info about it in this obscure page:
> http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Donations
>
> Personal note: at this point, what I would value most coming from people
> who aren't programmers but who want to donate something to the OpenSim
> project would be free content -- avatars, clothes, etc.
>
> Len Brown wrote:
>> Thank you so much Adam! I really appreicate you taking the time to
>> detail these things for me.
>>
>> What brought the contribution issue to mind especially is that
>> until recently I had been paying Linden Lab for a full private region in
>> Second Life. And you may know those regions go for $295 per month (even
>> "light use" regions are $195 a month). That's a hefty chunk of change.
>> Of course, now I use OpenSim almost exclusively and would be far more
>> willing now to pay a monthly contribution to this project rather than
>> continuing to breastfeed the Linden Lords. :)
>>
>> Last I heard they have around 300,000 regions they are feeding off of
>> now.
>>
>> Thanks again and I'll be very happy to initiate a decent monthly
>> contribution soon if the contribution portion of the site gets updated
>> and more properly managed.
>>
>> BTW, you mentioned having to change the stats in several places on the
>> site. Is it not running on PHP or similar? Even if it still had to be
>> manually entered into the database, surely drawing the stats for
>> contributions from a single database field would simplify matters.
>>
>> I had a non-profit site for a few years and had a small bar meter graph
>> in the header (on every page) that relied on a field in the database.
>> Once a week I entered that week's donations and expenses in and the bar
>> graph updated to reflect it. It made sense because on that same day I
>> also spent donated money for hosting, supplies, etc so it was a fairly
>> simplistic process. I then displayed what purchases I made as a simple
>> pop up when the donation meter was clicked on.
>>
>> I had a disclaimer, as you do, that I had authority to determine in what
>> ways the donation was to be used, but by also displaying what I used it
>> for then there was little question coming from donors. I even had a
>> "back-pat allowance" that I openly said was pocketed money for personal
>> enjoyment (generally 10-15% of the total donation amount monthly). I
>> never had a single complaint, but I believe that was because I was
>> crystal clear from the start - if you disagreed with my use of donations
>> then you had the simple choice - not to donate.
>>
>> Thanks again Adam!
>>
>> - Len
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 2:07 AM, Frisby, Adam <adam at deepthink.com.au
>> <mailto:adam at deepthink.com.au>> wrote:
>>
>> Sorry about this – we switched it (or should have) recently over to
>> a fixed message on the screen (may not have been put on the live
>> site yet, I believe Dave was supposed to be doing that?), since
>> tracking the donations turned out to require a manual count of the
>> subscriptions every time it needed to be updated (which naturally
>> resulted in it not getting done after a few months), and it needs to
>> be updated in about fifteen different places on the site’s code.
>>
>>
>>
>> That said, I do think it is still a little shy of the target right
>> now, but we’re ahead of our costs which is good – I would like to
>> prod Ckrinke (*prod prod*) to do some kind of news piece on the site
>> with just a quick update on where the fundraising efforts are going,
>> and what the current donation levels are – we’re trying to hit a
>> target of having about years operational fees in balance (which
>> should be described on that page) which gives us a bit of long-term
>> security.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you are curious about what it’s being spent on – right now, I
>> believe (and don’t quote me here, I’m not doing the books) we’re
>> slightly ahead of our current costs which are entirely consumed by
>> server lease fees. We also had a couple of one-off expenses this
>> year with paperwork filing fees in CA to get the registered
>> organisation wrapped up (and we’re formally applying for federal tax
>> exempt status this week – long process). If I had to guess based on
>> the balance in the bank account; we’re taking in about $250/mo right
>> now, and our target is $300 (so 80% or thereabouts).
>>
>>
>>
>> We do also get a couple of one-off payments which we don’t count
>> towards the regular monthly commitments; we’ve had a couple of very
>> generous persons who have donated $100+ at a time; which we’re
>> putting into a rainy day fund that will be used to cover shortfalls
>> in other months (ie; if we have a month where donations is less than
>> our costs, as has happened occasionally), or may be used in the
>> future to purchase new hardware (we are eyeballing replacing the
>> current asset server with something more purpose built for the task.)
>>
>>
>>
>> Costs remain right now at $160/mo + one-offs; so the donations are
>> still much appreciated – once we hit that magic $300/mo, we want to
>> go ahead and buy a second UGIM server to act as a hot-backup to the
>> current systems (since right now our regular backup is in Nebadon’s
>> basement – and not really ideal if we ever need to do a big restore
>> like in January.) – this is non-essential for the grid operations,
>> but we do want to insure ourselves against catastrophic hardware
>> failure and has been a priority to setup hopefully sometime this
>> year.
>>
>>
>>
>> In addition to the donations, there are also the sponsors – OSgrid
>> is sponsored to a fairly considerable tune by people who have
>> donated dedicated servers to the grid. The electric sheep company
>> provides our central database & UGIM server right now, Dave
>> Coyle/Knifejaw Systems provide a fairly powerful box that hosts LBSA
>> Plaza & others; DeepThink (disclaimer, I’m part of D.T.) donates two
>> boxes which host the remaining plazas (inc. Wright) [which deepthink
>> recently just upgraded].
>>
>>
>>
>> As mentioned on the site – OSgrid is a registered nonprofit, and
>> while the above may paint a somewhat rosy position; in absolute
>> terms it is still only ~$250 per month; and we desperately want to
>> both; a) have savings for a rainy day (e.g.; a critical machine
>> fails & needs replacing), and b) purchase some new equipment from
>> time to time to expand our services when possible; which means that
>> every donation is very-much appreciated – and it can be assured
>> we’re doing our best to keep our costs down & not wasting any funds
>> we receive.
>>
>>
>>
>> With all the above said, the opensim-users list isn’t really the
>> place for osgrid specific discussion (#osgrid on freenode is
>> probably the proper place) – but I hope I answered any questions or
>> concerns you might have about the donations & where they go.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>>
>> Adam
>>
>> (OSgrid Vice President)
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de
>> <mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de>
>> [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de
>> <mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de>] *On Behalf Of *Len
>> Brown
>> *Sent:* Saturday, 7 November 2009 10:52 PM
>> *To:* opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
>> <mailto:opensim-users at lists.berlios.de>
>> *Subject:* Re: [Opensim-users] Funding/Donating to the OSGrid Project
>>
>>
>>
>> I just noticed this on their donations page:
>>
>> "*Current Status:* $50.00/mo pledged. (Last updated: 11:36PM PST,
>> Monday 20th July 2009)"
>>
>> That is quite interesting as well. I don't see how they come to the
>> conclusion that a $50 donation pledge is "58% of Target" which is
>> $250.
>>
>> :)
>>
>> - Len
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Len Brown <lenwbrown at gmail.com
>> <mailto:lenwbrown at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I've been wanting to make a monthly donation to OSGrid.org but
>> for the last several months (as far back as I can recall) the site
>> has shown a static "Funding at 58% of Target" and not changed
>> whatsoever. I find that extremely hard to believe. Is OSGrid
>> simply lying and maintaining that 58% donation figure for months on
>> end to compel people to donate? for all I know at this point, they
>> may be receiving thousands in donations per month, but of course,
>> without transparency, that is impossible to identify.
>>
>> I regularly donate money to open source projects I have an
>> interest in, but only when their donation requests are transparent
>> and clear. On OSGrid's donation page, they state their target is
>> $250.00 per month. I just find it very hard to believe that, with
>> the thousands of users and connected regions they are still only
>> getting about $150 per month without any changes in that
>> contribution level all through the summer and fall.
>>
>> I have the suspicion that others who would like to donate as
>> well are turned off by the seemingly forever static contribution
>> coverage percentage. If I saw even a little fluctuation I'd at
>> least know there is some variability in contributions and I'd not
>> hesitate to offer a monthly contribution via PayPal.
>>
>> Heck, even if they said that contributions were at 100% but
>> that they could always make use of more money, even if for personal
>> compensation to those working on the project, I'd not have the
>> slightest problem with that. I have no reservations about making a
>> donation that the recipient pockets - as long as they are actively
>> contributing to the project in some manner.
>>
>> But for now I'm donating my money to other groups while
>> OSGrid.org maintains their contributions as only 58% of their meager
>> $250/month goal...
>>
>> - Len W. brown
>> lenwbrown at gmail.com <mailto:lenwbrown at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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