Re: support donations (was Re: future of Looper's Delight (long)

[Violet Xoxox <violet@missviolet.com>]

Daryl wrote:
>I like Kevin's idea a lot. I think any kind of subscription would keep
>new folks away. I'm inclined to think that an occasional appeal would
>raise all that is needed.

I agree.  I don't believe Kim would have been on board with making
subscription required to access the site.  He would have wanted it to be
available to everyone.  He was more of a "hey, let's all work together"
kind of guy.

So for now, if you can help and are so inclined, please do.  If you can't,
that's okay, too.  Every donation is being earmarked just for the server,
so rest assured it won't be used for anything else.  If there's a point
where things are looking dicey, I'll give a holler.

When we have the site built, if we're having trouble we may add some
premium features that people could pay a few bucks a month to access (porn!
no, just kidding), things that wouldn't affect anyone's use and enjoyment
of the site, but would give donors a little something special that they
could do (like adding music clips or video to their profile pages).  That's
what I was going to do for Kim anyhow, for a re-vamped Loop Artists Of The
World section; we wanted people to be able to put audio/video on their
profiles, but of course that takes up more resources and puts a heavier
load on the server, so we would have offered that as an extra feature to
help offset the cost.  That way you'd be helping out, and you'd be getting
something back in return.  And for people who didn't care about that, they
would still be able to SEE AND USE the entire site.  Nothing would be
blocked from anyone.  It's a win-win.

One thing we don't have to think about is finding a new webhost or worry
about domain registration, as we are a webhost/registrar.  (Violacea.com)
We're hosting several sites, it's just that we've always been lax about
reminding people to pay.  It wasn't so critical to the server's existence
before.  I'm going to have to be better organized on that now, though!

Because we ARE a webhost, one option we have is to host more sites, so if
any of you have personal sites/blogs already, or you would like one, we'd
be happy to set it up and host it for you.  In fact, I've been talking to
the people helping behind the scenes about the possibility of creating a
sort of Looper's Delight Collective, hosting loopers' sites under a group
banner ... a network of related sites.  Similar to when there used to be
webrings, but these would all be HOSTED in the same place and could even be
tied into Looper's Delight (instead of having a profile page, you'd have
your own site/domain to showcase your music).

There are a lot of possibilities.  I just can't focus heavily on such
things at this moment, because, well ... you know.

So for now, let's just take it slow.  The donations you're all making are
wonderful and I'm touched by how much you care.  I am SO proud of what Kim
created - what you all created together.  We're doing okay so far.  Please
try not to worry or scramble too much.  Trust me, you'll hear me screaming
if anything really bad happens.  :)

Violet
xoxox