Donation Button Now Available

[Spinster]

For more than a decade, Robert Szabo's Civil War Reenactors Forum has been provided as a service to the Civil War reenacting community--to provide a venue for publicizing events, sharing research, recruiting, and enabling folks to keep in contact.

Through all those years, the Forum was funded by Robert Szabo,by hardware purchased by private individuals, and through donated access by a large provider. Recently, the availability of that donated access has changed, and the board must be funded at current commerical rates for useage. After dealing with this reality for several months, we've found that the volume of useage of the Forum is such that the funding must be shared.

This Forum was built with the beginner in mind, and we are committed to continuing to provide this service to the CW community. We are especially thankful to two anonymous individuals who enabled the Forum to get up and running again this week.

You can be a part of this effort. There is now a Donate button located in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This leads to a Paypal screen. You may send funds with your Paypal account, or you may use a credit card. These funds will be used to continue operating the CW Reenactors Forum.

We do not want anyone to feel obligated here. This is not a 'subscription'. There is no requirement to donate. No special privledges accrue for doing so. You do have our heartfelt thanks for being part of this effort, especially as the hobby moves fully into the 150th cycle.

Happy New Year, from all the Moderators!

[Union Navy]

How about a "funding member" line or icon, so we know who's pulling their weight around here? Or maybe a discount coupon for hand made socks?

[FloridaHoosier]

We as moderators have debated that, but have decided to forego any special icons, symbols, or visable atta-boys. Part of this is due to some wishing to remain anonymous, part due to the adminstration and upkeep (i.e. extra work) on moderators and staff to impliment, and also in part to not pressure people into giving so that have a special symbol. We're all semi-equal on here and aim to keep it that way. We do plan to thank individually those who contribute, it just will not be publicly.

[Spinster]

Yep,

What Ross Said.

We do not wish to present any pressure to new folks in the hobby to help pay for this, and an icon gives a attitude of "This is a Kewl Kid, and if you don't have it, you're not"

This forum has been funded for more than a decade by anonymous private individuals. We're not interested in changing that model--just in broadening the pool of those involved.

Sometimes doing a public service just has to be a reward, in and of itself.

[flattop32355]

We do not wish to present any pressure to new folks in the hobby to help pay for this....

But it's still a very good idea to send in a donation, in whatever amount one can afford.

"Sustaining Members" can donate more than once, as they wish. Ain't no law against it.

[Provost]

I am so very grateful for these posts.

When I took over these forums back in the late 1990's Bob and I and the moderators of that time had a certain vision of how we would operate. We wanted to keep this a place where everyone could chip in their $.02 without fear and on an equal footing with everyone else.

Over the years Bob and I and the other mods have worked hard to keep that vision alive, at no cost to the community of CW reenactors at large. As Mrs. Lawson says, we had a very wonderful gift of free bandwidth for most of that time. Unfortunately, that went away last fall. The result was that we decided to open up the process of contribution to others, but on the same basis as contributions have been made in the past. No glory, no recognition, no foo-fah, just a "virtue is it's own reward" mentality. So there we are.

The really amazing thing is that that wasn't something Bob and I had to impose on anyone. It was something that grew out of the discussions among our staff and some chosen advisors. All were of the same mindset. You can not imagine the satisfaction, the affirmation and the joy of seeing that vision burning in the hearts of others.

Thank you all for making this such a special place.

Provost