Donation campaign for Gandalf to fund a new server

[lch]

As you should know, Gandalf Parker has been hosting servers for the members of the Dominions community, from which the main server has broken down last month, and Gandalf is unable to cope with the cost to replace the server hardware.

In the immortal words of Pashadawg:

Pashadawg said:
Dear Fellow Dominions Lovers: As you might have noticed, Gandalf Parker's server has gone down and is in need of repairs. Unfortunately, times are tight for the Old Man, and he is not in a position financially to make the repairs on his own. He's been very giving to our community, and a group of us think we should rally together and offer some assistance to the Old Man so he can speedily make the repairs and keep the Domini... [END OF TRANSMISSION]

Unfortunately Pasha's IRC client ate up the rest of that, so with my limited skills in phrasing a request like this, I have started a donation campaign on Pledgie for this.

Just click on this button:


You can then donate any amount to the pledge via PayPal, you will be listed among the donors (unless you chose to donate anonymously, which is possible, too), and the image above will update to reflect the current status of reaching the donation goal of $400. We have 5 weeks to reach that goal!

You do not need to register on Pledgie, you only need a PayPal account!

Here's what I came up with:

Gandalf Parker has provided a server for the Dominions community since years, where members could get free email and webspace and even host Dominions games on their own.

Last month, the main server died, which seems to involve the power supply and maybe the mother board and CPU. Since Gandalf's money is tied to pay mortgage fees, he can't afford to get new replacement parts for the server hardware. The costs that are expected to fix this total out at about $400.

If you have enjoyed the services on his server, his contributions to the Dominions games or the games being hosted on his servers, for example lch's games, then please consider donating some money to help fund new server hardware. Any amount helps, even as little as you'd pay for a coffee at Starbucks or a visit to the local cinema. And if you have played in one of the games hosted on the server, then consider that you probably got a lot more out of it compared to drinking one coffee or watching one movie.

I hope that this pledge convinces some people to donate a few bucks, even just a little donation by a lot of forum members will make a huge impact in the end and help out Gandalf Parker.

[Agrajag]

Any amount helps, even as little as you'd pay for a coffee at Starbucks

I doubt 0$ would help out much

More seriously, does Gandalf "approve" of such a pledge, does he even know about it? (or rather, knew about it before you put this page up) Because that could cause some trouble...
Of course, had I had an income, I would have helped out either way :S

[lch]

Yes, Gandalf knows about this, and all the money that is being donated directly goes into his PayPal account. No money is ever being held by Pledgie or me. Pledgie is just used to track the campaign status and the donors. No information about your email address, PayPal account or credit card number etc. can get tracked.

[Gandalf Parker]

Agrajag said:

I doubt 0$ would help out much

Actually $0 does mean something to me. Ive dropped far more activities from "lack of interest" than from lack of money. I think thats true of most of the people who do things for free for the community. Its one reason I often push for people to thank the great folks doing mods and maps and such that we all are enjoying.

More seriously, does Gandalf "approve" of such a pledge, does he even know about it? (or rather, knew about it before you put this page up) Because that could cause some trouble...
Of course, had I had an income, I would have helped out either way :S

Well I couldnt go for the idea of asking myself. But since lch was running most of the games on the server that died I felt he had justification for trying to speed up the repairs.

The account I gave him isnt my personal account. Its actually the house account. Thats so that the budget manager (she who must be obeyed) can see the activity and consider this to be abit more than just my personal toy that I broke. I will make sure the money gets spent on servers but this way Im not just talking a good sales pitch about it.

[Agrajag]

Actually $0 does mean something to me. Ive dropped far more activities from "lack of interest" than from lack of money. I think thats true of most of the people who do things for free for the community. Its one reason I often push for people to thank the great folks doing mods and maps and such that we all are enjoying.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of your "paying with appreciation"/"The cost of free stuff [is thank-yous]" campaign

Well I couldn't go for the idea of asking myself. But since lch was running most of the games on the server that died I felt he had justification for trying to speed up the repairs.

Sure, I just wanted to be sure because I've seen once when someone wanted to organize donations for someone else, and the other guy got offended by it, so I wanted to make sure this wasn't the case.

Also, your post made me realize that Ich is actually called lch, that was quite a surprise. (You'll always be Ich to me though )
(The difference, for those that didn't catch the hint and can't tell the difference because of the font, is ICH and LCH)

[Ballbarian]

Thanks for setting this up lch.

Don't feel bad Agrajag. For the past year plus, I thought his name was ich (sounds like "ICK"). I always thought it was pretty creative that he had a grumpy, three eyed, squishy, purple monster for his avatar to go with a handle like "ICH".

(LCH, you will always be ICH to me as well. )

[JimMorrison]

Ballbarian said:
Thanks for setting this up lch.

Don't feel bad Agrajag. For the past year plus, I thought his name was ich (sounds like "ICK"). I always thought it was pretty creative that he had a grumpy, three eyed, squishy, purple monster for his avatar to go with a handle like "ICH".

(LCH, you will always be ICH to me as well. )

I feel violated.

[Agrajag]

Ballbarian said:
(sounds like "ICK")

It's worse for me, since I read it with a chet, which turns it into the Hebrew equivalent of "yuck!"