In the past, the board has solicited donations from the member community to offset hosting and software costs. The board is user supported and ran. All admins and moderators are volunteers. All costs are currently paid out of pocket. We are asking for your support to covering hosting costs and allow us to upgrade our board software. Several questions surely come to mind:

1) What about moving to a cheaper hosting service?
Our current hosting service is pretty cheap for what we get. We are happy with the stability provided at this new host as well as the security afforded. Any reduction in costs there would sacrifice some stability &/or security. We have elected against this.

2) What about changing to free software?
All the software we use is free except the forum software itself. Given the small size of the administration and moderation staff, we are resistant to that. Given the options, the current software is paid for and we are not seeing security/stability issues on this version so we would just stay status quo.

3) So what are you asking?
Several members have said that a $20 donation per user to get "Dumpshocked" is fair. We are running with that.
Paypal = redjack (at) dumpshock.com

4) What about ads?
Dumpshock is an ad-free board and we are committed to remaining so if possible. I guess we could consider this a last resort option.

5) So what is Dumpshocked?
a) Your group changes from "members" to "Dumpshocked" announcing to the world that you are a committed supporter.
b) Dumpshocked members can email a moderator a custom avatar to be linked to their account. [PG-13 friendly]
c) Did I mention the prestige of being in the "Dumpshocked" group?

How can we donate?
Paypal?

I have a paypal account set up for redjack (at) dumpshock.com
(change (at) to @)

i'll try and get one of my buddies who has paypal to donate in my name . .

Thanks! Every bit helps us towards hosting and upgrade costs.

Redjack is there a certain dollar amount your trying to reach? Maybe a donation drive bar somewhere?

$500 covers hosting, software upgrade and maintenance for one year.

Got a new twist. As I'm working through the second issue of the Dumpshock Datahaven, I don't want to use Jack Pointer's for the commentary, I want to use Dumpshockers - Preferably members of the Dumpshocked or Admin groups. So here's the rules:

1) Use your real handle, so one submission per member.
2) Description of you as a character. If you handle is not based upon a character of yours, what character would you create for your handle?
2) Give me a brief description of your areas of expertise. You cannot be an expert on all things.
3) Give me notes about your posting style.
4) Allow any submitter or editor of the Dumpshock Datahaven full creative license.

Example:
Redjack
Description: A hermetic mage shadowrunner in and out of the shadows since 2050.
Expertise: Hermetic magic, summoning, metaplanes, initiation & enchanting. To a lesser degree: dragons and business.
Posting style: Matter of fact with a diversified vocabulary. Can be witty, depending on his mood. Sometimes states the obvious and will admit if he's wrong, but digs in if he's right.

[ Moved this topic to the Shadowrun Discussion forum to increase visibility ]

This means all current and former moderators and anyone in the Dumpshocked group, current or previous drive.

Can we also submit a character who is not our handle? I'm willing to pay up for that.

I'll take you up on that. I would allow an alternate handle if you didn't want to use your DS handle, as long as it does not conflict with an existing account or canon.

Just sent you $10 - I'm half laid off now, so that's what I can afford this month. Hope it helps a bit.

It's a character of mine. Nothing previously in canon. Thanks. Will scramble the money and send you what I get, under my handle. Rest via PM?

I think you guys are well worth the price of a book, I´m getting a bargain there. Hunting for a friend with Paypal account as we speak.

Yes.

ok, seems i have to hunt for a buddy with paypal as well, seeing how they all seem to have had some kind of problems with paypal as of late <.< . .
damn it, one of the 20 has to still have an active paypal account!
also: fuck a twenty, you're getting much more from me <.<

Yeah. Currency exchange rates work in dumpshock's favor.

Edit: Something wrong. Sorry.

yeah that too


right now, 1,00€==1,42$

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

CAN$20.00 = US$20.23

Damn, now I wish I had PayPal.

And Done. I'm impressed that you guys knew today was payday.

Holy crap that is awesome. If I had the money I'd donate for that. Oh well, maybe another time.

I get payed Monday and I'm getting a bonus so I'll definitely throw in.

Heh, I doubt anyone would want to play ME as a character

You'd be playing yourself.

Or have a character that has the same handle.

It's really a two fold thing.
1) A brief write up of your handle as a character in the Dumpshocked Column of the Dumpshock Datahaven. For example, Redjack was my first shadowrun character. He retired in 2nd edition as an accomplished initiate grade mage.

2) Editors and content creators of the Dumpshock Datahaven may use any Dumpshocked Character (ergo: one which the owner has provided a write up) as a commentator in Dumpshock Datahaven artices.

Example:

Don't worry, I got your point. I was merely thinking about what would happen if DDH would be populated by characters who really are "us" as we present ourselves at DS...that would lead to some interesting (and long) shadowtalk.

Anyway, since I have no character named Sengir, I'll just rechristen my favorite.

Heh, I've never had one called Brazilian Shinobi either, but I had one called Kage (yes, I know, everyone and their mother had a character called Kage) and Dente Amarelo (Yellow Tooth, a jaguar shapeshifter).

But Kage fit the bill as a decent shadowtalker.

Here is a lista of shadowtalkers me, Canray, hermit and many others created for the now sunk alt.War project

A donation to Dumpshock has been given in my name

Sometimes I forget how crazy a nutbar Truth is. Then he pops into my head spouting off things and I remember.

...

Damnit, now I want a tinfoil helmet. Not that those work anymore, the spy satellites that read your mind can get through the tinfoil if they've been manufactured after 1982.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....

*slowly walks from CanRay*

That's exactly the type of reaction you're supposed to have from Truth.

There's also DrugHunter that I didn't include in that list, and am hitting myself for forgetting. I have to go through my old notes to find all my old Shadowtalkers.

Money well spent.

You realise there's a Jackpointer with your name right?

Well, that's it, fight to the death over the right to use the username.

Real person vs Jack Pointer.... I'm torn on who to put my money on. On the one hand, the Real person is real. On the other hand, the Jack Pointer literally can't die, so it's hard to lose a death match.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the Black Mamba at Dumpshock account was created before the JackPointer account was.

Believe it or not, I actually have a tiny bit of money put aside JUST for something like this I'll wire that over as soon as possible!

Basically, think of him as Edward Blake / the Comedian from Watchmen, only with Cyber and Bioware worth more than a permanent high luxury lifestyle . .
Want more Redjack?

Hmmm. Seems as if my PayPal account is the cheap, free kind that doesn't work fast. I'll have money up in a few days and will transfer then.

Update: With the funds to date we have purchased the upgraded software for the board and I made a dry run on upgrading the board in a test environment. The software upgrade went well and took about two hours. In order to actually do this against the production board we will need to:

1) Migrate support for the spoiler tag
2) Rebuild the skin, pretty much from the ground up.
3) Test with community testers.
4) Fix issues from test
5) Schedule and implement the upgrade.

Given personal work schedule and work on the DDH, I expect steps 1 & 2 to take the next couple of months. Once we get ready to test we will open the test site up to the Dumpshocked group. Once the testers have a general consensus that we are g2g, we will schedule and implement.

Excellent!

DDH#2 looks like it just paid for the upgrade.

When Paycheck comes in, I'll send in my $20

Unless you say otherwise I assume you are still willing to take in money for future/running costs?

Yes. We would still like to have funds for hosting for the next year.

i'll see about icing lose another chunk like the one i had my people wire your way. </decadent exec>

We have nearly reached our goal. I am thankful to all who have donated.

Edit: Misposted earlier. All of the European donations cleared last night and I double counted them initially.

Thanks to all who donated. Currently, the software upgrade is on hold given broken functionality found in testing. We will consider our options and keep you posted.

-RJ