Supporting Members
 

I just renewed my subscription and found out that there are only 28 subscribers. :(
Membership
Members: 14,290, Active Members: 6,841

Re: Supporting Members
 

John's talking about people who donate $5 to remove the banner ads up top for 6 months. This $5 goes towards operational costs for ChiefDelphi.com. If you're interested in helping out, click the 'PayPal' logo between the banners, then click it again when it appears in the upper right of the advertiser/supporter list page above a list of supporters.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Interesting. Can you give gift subscriptions to a current member if you already have one? If not would that be a practical suggestion?

Re: Supporting Members
 

You'd have to send me a private message and we could work something out.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Brandon, I know team 47 have no obligation to do so, but I am hopping you can tell us a little about how the money contributed to this website was spent on its maintainance/improvement.

Knowing your $5 goes toward a bigger hard drive or higher bandwidth might go a long way to convince more people to donate.

Just a thought.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Is there some kind of reminder when you 6 months will be up? I have no idea when I paid.

Re: Supporting Members
 

You get an email reminder.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Thanks John for pointing out this little know way of helping support this great community.
I'm in now. Lets hope we see the numbers make a large jump upwards. It's only $5 and soooo easy!

Re: Supporting Members
 

Yep, I just renewed mine last week as soon as the email reminder came in.:)

Re: Supporting Members
 

Here's an idea to perhaps raise awareness of the "donate" feature:

Perhaps you could have a little icon or something (similar to UFH or WFA, but not as big or important looking :p) that would show up next to a persons username, or maybe underneath a person's rep dots/IM icons, that would indicate that person's support of the forum. Everyone loves having extra stuff next to their username, and this might encourage people to donate, as well as distinguish those that already do. Perhaps a little star saying "ChiefDelphi.com Supporter" right next to it, that would link to the donate page.

Just an idea. :)

Re: Supporting Members
 

**** BUMP ****
It's my six month rant about Chief Delphi. I just renewed my subscription and found that there are only 19 subscribers now. Down 9 from six months ago.

Current Stats...
Threads: 49,917, Posts: 615,743, Members: 15,601, Active Members: 3,527

For only $0.02739726027397260273972602739726 a day you can show how much you appreciate this community.

Every time some adds their 2 cents worth, do they really mean it ? :ahh:

My thanks go out to Brandon, Mike, Team 47 and all those that support Chief Delphi. I am here daily and I am thankful they are.

That's my $0.02739726027397260273972602739726 worth.

Re: Supporting Members
 

So..... who's donated? :)

Click that little PayPal button and see if your name is on the list of $5.00 donations. If not, add it. It's cool, fun, easy, and so very important in helping ChiefDelphi.

Jane

Re: Supporting Members
 

Just curious.

If we are ordering something from IFI and we reach their site through one of their banner ads, do you get a % of that?

If so, I'd gladly take that extra 20 seconds per order to support CD.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Wow, that was easy! look at the results

Re: Supporting Members
 

Simple way to tell if you have expired is that you get the banners back at the top of the portal. There are presently 17 people who are able to help with a $5.00 donation every 6 months. To see the supporters of CD click on the Quick Links and go down to supporters.

I don't know if people are aware but the money that is donated goes to the running of CD website. Team 47 has graciously run, managed and paid for this service for a while. In recent years Team 47 has had some reductions in support as have many teams. By us supporting the running of the website with our small donations it allows Team 47 to use it's funds to run the team. The CD website is a great tool that all of us use. It would be a shame to lose it because of lack of support. Team 47 has done a great job in getting sponsors for the website but can still use our small contributions.

Many have said what a great place CD is. Please vote with your donations.

Re: Supporting Members
 

A lot of the people on this forum are still in high school and do not have a credit card/paypal account. I would definitely if I did. :)

-vivek

Re: Supporting Members
 

The gift of a Chief Delphi Supporters Membership would make a wonderful holiday present.

Put it on your list :cool:

Re: Supporting Members
 

Give Mike Martus an email or PM and he can arrange something if you wish to contribute and don't have a paypal account.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Now there are 21 people.. :) (unless I counted wrong)... I've been meaing to but I've been busy and I was not able to verify my account with PP until recently... That is THE big problem for us high school kids.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Soon as I get more money I'll donate.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Done! And now there's 23 people. I agree there should be an icon in user profiles or whatever with a link so more people know about it. I'm willing to spend $10 for two more people. PM me and I'll contact an admin to see about getting it setup.

Re: Supporting Members
 

How would I donate without a credit card (since I'm still in high school). I know vivek mentioned it above but no one really gave an answer except to email Mike Martus. Would I mail the money in and do I have to wait for a certain time of the year to start my subscription?

Re: Supporting Members
 

As mike Martus is the one that is the contact for the website, he is the one that you should be talking to.

The way it works with CD is that when you contribute, your donation time begins. Before your 6 months is up you will get a reminder email from CD but there is only 1 email that comes out to remind us.

Re: Supporting Members
 

To all the supporting members we say Thank You. We are supporting the site thru several sources, the Pay Pal system of $5.00 is one easy way to show support for the community of FIRST.

We do understand that often Pay Pal is not an option. If this is the case contact me and arrangements can be made for other options.

mmartus@chiefdelphi.com

Our sole intent is to keep the site self supporting. 100% of all donations are used for fees, software licenses and upgrades for this site. All labor is donated by the webmaster "Brandon".

Re: Supporting Members
 

Saaaay ...... That was easy! :cool:

Re: Supporting Members
 

Ed's right. Very easy.

When I did it, the ads at the top of the portal page went away. Was that supposed to happen? I had gotten used to seeing the ads. :confused:

Re: Supporting Members
 

Up to 29 members. That's a good start.
A great New Years resolution would be to become a supporting member :D

Happy New Year to all our Chief Delphi family.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Yes, the ads go away if you're a supporting member and as long as you are logged in.

You can still see the ads if you go under "Quick links" in the orange menu bar and then "Supporting members". They just won't show up on the pages as you regularly view the forum. ;)

Re: Supporting Members
 

The value of CD is clear - 5 $'s is a bargain for the hours of entertainment and education that I have gotten from the forum. I assume the same is true for the students, but it is probably more difficult for them to bear the expense. If there were a way to make access free for students but charge non-college mentors $5 every 6 months, I suspect that CD funding might be a non issue.

Seems like this thread may be an informal method of enacting such a policy.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Being a member is free. The whole point of removing the ads is to thank those that help support the site financially. I dont get what your asking for them to do.

Re: Supporting Members
 

I am not asking for them to do anything. Just making an observation of the discussion dynamics and the likely result. It will be interesting to see how successful the informal process is. CD is a very worthy cause, which I am very glad to give to - I suspect most mentors feel similiarly

Re: Supporting Members
 

My point is to remind the community of the value of Chief Delphi. A little guilt trip, if you choose to see it that way. All CD is trying to do is cover expenses.
Because something is on the Internet, does not mean it's free. There are expenses. We all pay for access in one form or another. If you manage sites, you pay for hosting and licenses.
This resource is the heart and soul of the FIRST community. You can be involved in FRC, FTC and FFL without ever reading CD, but you are missing out on the community of FIRST.

Just my $0.027322404371584699453551912568306 worth.
Happy New Year!!!!!!

Re: Supporting Members
 

Time to bring this back to the front. As with all things there is a need for the community to help support this great website. Chief Delphi has done a great job in making this the best forums on the web. To that we say thanks. We also need to help them as money does not come easily now. For a mere $5.00 every 6 months you can help keep this forum going.

Please note that this blatant plug comes not from CD but from concerned members. There are many that don't know about donating or those that are new to CD. Nobody has to contribute but some of us believe in CD and want to help.

Right now there are 17 supporters. I know that there are many others that could help. If you would like to help follow this link:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/advertisers.php?

Re: Supporting Members
 

Thanks for the reminder, I've been meaning to renew...

Re: Supporting Members
 

It's now on my holiday gifts-to-give list for the 2nd year in a row ^_^.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Renewed mine 2 weeks ago, best $5 ever spent.

CD is the only place I can think of that you can inspire thousands for only 2 easy payments of $5 dollars a year!

Re: Supporting Members
 

Is there any way to donate & still have the ads show up? :p

I'm actually serious about that, since they are entertaining sometimes to see what new ones come up, & so focused towards the FIRST community, that they really don't bother me one bit.

Let me know! I've been meaning to renew & was just wondering if that was possible.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Send a message to Brandon and ask him.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Soon as I get a few bucks, I'll renew, and might cover a few other accounts, also.

Re: Supporting Members
 

sure, just log off.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Not possible .. I'll see what I can do to get them to show up for those that want to see them.

For right now, just use this menu path:
Quick Links -> Supporters

That will show you all the advertisers and their banners.

Re: Supporting Members
 

Maybe in the options, have an option to toggle the ads on and off, only if the user has supported CD?

I like the ads where they are. CD just feels weird with out them there, like something is missing. It is actually the only reason why I haven't supported the forums yet.

Re: Supporting Members
 

FYI : There is now an option for $15 to remove the banners for 2 years (you save $5).