[ForSale-Swap] Update

[Tim]

Members,

Just wanted to update you on a few things.

The move of all qth.net reflectors from the old Majordomo list-management software to the new Mailman software is about 2/3 complete. As we have seen, the change has been virtually transparent to list users. For we administrators, the changes have made our job much easier. 

Elsewhere... Al Waller, K3TKJ, is about to have a second broadband connection hooked up on Friday morning. The T1 now in use has been running at 105% of capacity which is why qsl/qth.net sites may seem slow at times. Financially, the new connection's cost will be ON TOP of the old, original T1 connection... which brings me to the REAL point of this "update" communication.

Al has said this:

"Other than the technical things with the servers, much of my time is spent trying to find creative ways to finance what we do and not make it commercial. I usually remind our users in the late Fall of donations and during this time of the year I have 2 "Platinum" sponsors that I contact. These 2 account for about a third of our yearly expenses. Today I made the calls and both are not able to help us any longer, I can understand this. The economy is flat and who knows when it will get rolling again."

He continues with:

"This means we are $10K short for the year at the start, but it gets worse. I can't put any more money into this than I already do, to do so would not be fair to my family. The only place I see this being made up is from the users with a great deal of effort on our part. If every user gave us a dime we could operate for 18 months or so, If every user sent us $1.00 we could operate for the next 20 years. What actually happens is about 600 users/clubs donate an average of $10 each and we never hear from the rest. I'm not ungrateful for the donations don't get me wrong but it is the same users year after year and that will cease too, I'm afraid. With no help we will be in deep dodo by Fall."

Bottom line: donations to help offset the costs of running qsl.net/qth.net would be gratefully accepted by Al. ANYTHING would help, even just a one dollar bill. You can mail to: QSL.NET, Inc.; 34087 Old Hickory Road; Laurel, Delaware 19956. Or if you would like to do it electronically, go to this web site: http://www.qsl.net/donations.html

I'll get off your backs now; but please, before you forget all about this issue, drop whatever you can afford in an envelope and mail it off to Al; let's give him a pleasant surprise!


Tim
List Owner
ForSale-Swap