On Mon, 30 Apr 2018, Dennis Tillman W7PF wrote:
I would happily shell out $10 or even more.
The solution might be simple but it would require cooperation and
organization (maybe contact groups.io guys?)
The thing is most of us are participants in several groups, not just one.
There is HP-Agilent, Lecroy and some others. If we could somehow split our
payments of, say, $10 between those all groups we are members of that would
solve the problem of excessive funds.
Maybe we should ask groups.io administrators if they could charge members,
not moderators something like $1 per group per year?
Just an idea...
To Jack, and the many others who have gently reminded me I need to recover
the modest annual cost of hosting our data on Groups.io. Thank you. I
think it is time to explain my inaction.
The short explanation is I have been avoiding it. I'm probably
overthinking this but I just realized the TekScopes members can probably
firure out solutions to every one of my concerns. Below are my concerns
in no particular order. By writing them down here I am asking for your
help. When the replies dwindle to a trickle I will distill down the best
ideas and if necessary put them up for a vote.
The annual cost is ~$100. I paid for the first year to get us started
without further delay because it appeared Yahoo would shut us down at any
moment.
THIS IS GOING TO GENERATE A LOT OF MESSAGE TRAFFIC SO PLEASE ONLY REPLY
AFTER READING ALL OF THE PRIOR POSTS AND REPLY ONLY IF YOU HAVE A
CONTRIBUTION. I am concerned that there will be too much traffic so keep
your replies short and to the point, and avoid unnecessary back and forth
that might keep the thread going longer than necessary.
MY CONCERNS / QUESTIONS / ISSUES / RANDOM THOUGHTS:
* Any request for funds is going to result in more than $100 being sent to
me. For example if we have 7,000 members and 10% are active at any given
moment and they each sent in $1 that would be 7 years' worth of Groups.io
storage costs. * Michael Dunn and I would both have control over the
funds so in the event something happens to one of us the other could carry
on alone. * What do we do with the excess donations? Where should they
be kept? Commercial banks charge too many fees. Perhaps a credit union
is the answer. What about the Tektronix Credit Union? Can I apply if I
was not an employee of Tek?
* Donating less than $1 is impractical.
* Fairness dictates that the cost be spread evenly so everybody
contributed equally. This is also impractical. * Everyone should have
access to the donation list of who contributed and how much for total
transparency. That way everyone can confirm their donation contributed to
the total. * There needs to be an automated way to accept and post the
donations to the donation list because my wife and I do not have the time
to do it. I have no idea how to do that part of this, but maybe somebody
has the answer. * I am hopeful whatever mechanism is chosen it accepts
PayPal and checks. It is impractical to send a money order for $1. It is
also not a good idea to send $1 in cash. * How do foreign donations get
handled? Maybe the automated system I alluded to above has the answer to
that.
Dennis Tillman W7PF
-----Original Message-----
Jack Reynolds wrote on Monday, April 30, 2018 4:36 PM
<snips>
Hello all and especially Dennis,
I remember reading for a while
before the switch to groups.io that there were going to be some modest
financial costs for the switch and for the maintenance of the groups.io
group which would be dealt with after the switchover.
Dennis, would you be so kind as to update us on the who, where and how much, etc.?
Thanks,
Jack Reynolds
--
Dennis Tillman W7PF
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*
* KSI@home KOI8 Net < > The impossible we do immediately. *
* Las Vegas NV, USA < > Miracles require 24-hour notice. *
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Sergey Kubushyn