Site Donation FYI

[Kaiser Toro]

Originally Posted by Thorn

OK, so, I just clicked on that little green Donate link just to check it out, and found I can give directly on my credit card. Had I know that I wouldn't have used up a stamp to mail yall a check. LOL

Had I known it was that easy I would have done it sooner. Mine is in.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Yvette

The official TOMB tailgate, not the actual board.

Paul Kuharsky knew that but it's not as much fun, it made a better story and I love it. It's helped old friends find us and Kevin got some great publicity along the way, too

Before I forget and as it should be, we're subsidizing your site. We're cool with that too!

No offense, Yvette, but this server was here before it was offered for your piggyback. I'd say that Texans fans are subsidizing your site.

We're cool with that, too, but mainly because we have no other choice. Times are tough, and Texans Talk standing in two feet of pig feces is better than no Texans Talk at all.

[PapaL]

Ebony and Ivory living in harmony.

Now don't just up and move "our" server to Tenessee in the middle of the night either or we will have BIG problems. =)

Well played folks. Texans fans have class.

[Hookem Horns]

Yes, I am guilty. However this offer was to Yvette and company, not Bud Adams. They are merely victims as were at one time.

In all seriousness, this move should benefit us both. By bringing in another fan base to our server it should lessen the financial burden in keeping this thing going. I don't expect as much from them (since their member base is much smaller than ours) however everything helps.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by Silver Oak

well, let me stop all of this hugging and brotherhood crapola with a nice solid "Titans suck".

A Present and Future Contributor.

I'm with you.
I had no idea my contribution would encourage all this touchy-feelie junk. I just want them to continue to be around for our constant (but tactful, we are Texans) needling when we take over the division.

[Vinny]

Originally Posted by Texans_Chick

So in other words, the Texans were cool in giving us the official MB board history to here so we could continue it and replace the aging MB that was the old TT.com.

And the Titans created some lame face book page, and the only way their official board could save itself was to ask for help of a cool Texan fan.

Dogs and cats living together indeed!

Seems to me that this is yet another illustration of how little concern Bud Adams and his organization has to its most dedicated fans. They can only hope that this is the worst of it. I've never really hated Titan fans--usually I just feel sorry for them because Bud is their owner. Man cares little about the fans other than lining his own pocketbooks.

Contributors are cool.

I worked very, very hard on that migration and it almost didn't get done but it was a pretty unique situation (fan leadership negotiating with the official site leadership on this) but the Texans, the Texans web developer, Nick and our fans have zero disconnect and are all on the same page. Nick Schenck deserves all the credit and he really has the fans interest at heart and it isn't 'just a job' for Nick. Nick gave me his ear and let me build a case for the fans and to his credit we were able to keep our little fan society together and actually strengthen it as Kevin came into the picture with texanstalk.com. I worked with the Titans web development company for a few years also (they used to be the Texans web development team as well) and they were not as enthusiastic about the fan side of their product. I'm really proud of the fans as well as the Texans internet management team as everyone (especially Kevin) was helpful in making this happen.

[badboy]

I think it is helpful if one of you keep the total percentage received each month where we can see it. If it appears there will a shortfall or something else is needed to maintain or improve the board,some of us are willing to go above our donation. I was leery of Paypal and sending a check at first. This system of not having to have a Paypal account to contribute made the difference for me.

Originally Posted by Hookem Horns

You have probably noticed the new Donation feature. This a mod that will help us track donations and allow everyone to see how we are doing each month. Here are some things for everyone to know.

1.) You do not need to have a Paypal account to donate through Paypal. There is an area that says ...
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue

Just click continue and you can proceed.

2.) If you are uncomfortable with submitting a credit card online you can send a check. To do so send it to ...
Texans Talk (also make the check out to Texans Talk)
7805 Elkhorn Mountain Trail
Austin, Texas 78729

3.) If you are not planning to donate please do not click the green "Donate" link, click an amount and submit just out of curiosity. This creates an unconfirmed donation.

4.) For now the donation goal is set to $150 a month. Our actual expense is $300 per month. However I have allowed another NFL team to host their board on our server. I am hoping between both of us we can reach the $300 per month to cover this thing.

BTW, the goal thing is for all to see the how we are doing. We will not be pulling the plug if the goal is not met (unless we run out of money )

5.) If you do donate the donation goal bar does not automatically update. It must be manually confirmed by me. Once I receive an email from Paypal and I can confirm the donation I will update the donation bar. I will try to stay on top of this however feel free to PM me if a couple of days goes by and your donation is still not confirmed.

As always we always appreciate the donations and your support.

I will make a donation when I can. temporairily out of work due to a herniated disk in my neck and not sure when I will go back to work. It's not often when I feel a donation is a worthy cause but here I do.

[old_man_1898]

Although i agree "Titans suck BIG TIME" with their drama queen qb. But i do have to admit that it was a very nice gesture for Kevin to allow them to share forums with us. You can't blame the fans if the owner broke the hearts of every single Houstonian. And besides, where else can we go make fun of them when we beat them on MNF this year??

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by badboy

I think it is helpful if one of you keep the total percentage received each month where we can see it. If it appears there will a shortfall or something else is needed to maintain or improve the board,some of us are willing to go above our donation. I was leery of Paypal and sending a check at first. This system of not having to have a Paypal account to contribute made the difference for me.

Excellent idea!

[badboy]

Originally Posted by whiskeyrbl

I will make a donation when I can. temporairily out of work due to a herniated disk in my neck and not sure when I will go back to work. It's not often when I feel a donation is a worthy cause but here I do.

I got you covered. I will donate for you tomorrow with mine. I will IM you concerning your neck as I may be able to offer help there. Steve

[badboy]

Originally Posted by Hookem Horns

You have probably noticed the new Donation feature. This a mod that will help us track donations and allow everyone to see how we are doing each month. Here are some things for everyone to know.

1.) You do not need to have a Paypal account to donate through Paypal. There is an area that says ...
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue

Just click continue and you can proceed.

2.) If you are uncomfortable with submitting a credit card online you can send a check. To do so send it to ...
Texans Talk (also make the check out to Texans Talk)
7805 Elkhorn Mountain Trail
Austin, Texas 78729

3.) If you are not planning to donate please do not click the green "Donate" link, click an amount and submit just out of curiosity. This creates an unconfirmed donation.

4.) For now the donation goal is set to $150 a month. Our actual expense is $300 per month. However I have allowed another NFL team to host their board on our server. I am hoping between both of us we can reach the $300 per month to cover this thing.

BTW, the goal thing is for all to see the how we are doing. We will not be pulling the plug if the goal is not met (unless we run out of money )

5.) If you do donate the donation goal bar does not automatically update. It must be manually confirmed by me. Once I receive an email from Paypal and I can confirm the donation I will update the donation bar. I will try to stay on top of this however feel free to PM me if a couple of days goes by and your donation is still not confirmed.

As always we always appreciate the donations and your support.

Just a reminder everyone that it is a new month and time to donate to the message board to keep this thing going! It is very inexpensive and most of us use it frequently so you get a good return on the investment.

Steve

[scourge]

It would be much easier if you set it up for automatic withdrawls. That way I could set it and forget it.

[Hookem Horns]

Originally Posted by scourge

It would be much easier if you set it up for automatic withdrawls. That way I could set it and forget it.

There might be a way to do that through Paypal I will check. Thank you scourge and everyone else that has been supporting us financially!

The auto goal meter is set up at a $150 per month goal. It takes a little more than $300 a month to run this place and I was splitting the goal between us and the Titans site. Three months ago we exceeded our $150 goal to the point where our goals were met in advance each month until now. Hence no goal meter the last couple of months until this month (hence the goal meter kicking in for July).

We are still not making the $300 per mainly because of the Titans. It's no knock on them (despite them being Titans fans ), it's just that they don't have the same membership numbers we have and are still getting that thing off the ground.

I might need to adjust the goals since we can pull more weight than them. If I do this I want all to know in advance why and that it isn't because our expenses have gone up.

[badboy]

Originally Posted by Hookem Horns

There might be a way to do that through Paypal I will check. Thank you scourge and everyone else that has been supporting us financially!

The auto goal meter is set up at a $150 per month goal. It takes a little more than $300 a month to run this place and I was splitting the goal between us and the Titans site. Three months ago we exceeded our $150 goal to the point where our goals were met in advance each month until now. Hence no goal meter the last couple of months until this month (hence the goal meter kicking in for July).

We are still not making the $300 per mainly because of the Titans. It's no knock on them (despite them being Titans fans ), it's just that they don't have the same membership numbers we have and are still getting that thing off the ground.

I might need to adjust the goals since we can pull more weight than them. If I do this I want all to know in advance why and that it isn't because our expenses have gone up.

Not to be crappy but with all the folks using the board, $300 should be easily taken care of. HH keep us informed how the donations are flowing. Most of us don't want to lose this MB.

[scourge]

Originally Posted by Hookem Horns

There might be a way to do that through Paypal I will check. Thank you scourge and everyone else that has been supporting us financially!

That is how it was set up through another site I donated to. Either individual donations or auto withdrawal. Both through PayPal. If you can get that set up, cool.

[Texan_Bill]

Originally Posted by Hookem Horns

Three months ago we exceeded our $150 goal to the point where our goals were met in advance each month until now. Hence no goal meter the last couple of months until this month (hence the goal meter kicking in for July).

On the upside; this morning when I logged on (~7:30ish) the goal meter was at 3%. Now at 3:30 it's up to 77% of the goal and it's only the 2nd.. That's pretty nice. So, if you adjust the goal, I think the new number would still be met.

And if I haven't said it in a while: Thanks for TexansTalk!!!

[drewmar74]

Originally Posted by Texan_Bill

And if I haven't said it in a while: Thanks for TexansTalk!!!

QFT!

My donation will be there around the 15th as usual.....

[silvrhand]

Just out of curiousity but why so much for the monthly costs, seems a bit high for a couple vbulletin forums.

[Hookem Horns]

Originally Posted by silvrhand1

Just out of curiousity but why so much for the monthly costs, seems a bit high for a couple vbulletin forums.

We are on a dedicated server. We've tried cheaper hosting solutions (lower end servers) in the past and have had problems because a busy board is a bandwidth hog. Some of the old timers here will remember some of those issues. I haven't found a shared server solution that would take us either because they don't want boards due to the the above issues I mentioned.

I have talked to several other NFL fan site hosts (some with less traffic than us) and they have had similar issues and had to upgrade as well because of their boards. The NFL has even had problems with their boards especially during the season (crawling, crashing, etc). Some teams have gotten rid of them altogether because they are a headache.

The dedicated server we are on now should never give us issues and hasn't since we moved in here. It is lightning fast. Maybe it is a little overkill but as long as people contribute and I can keep affording to make up the difference it's worth it to be here. However as I have mentioned before if someone has any cheaper hosting solution ideas I am open to hear about them as long as we don't compromise the quality of the experience here.