2008 Fundraiser is launched !!! Important information you should read!

[FA Frey XC]

Well met, and Happy 2008!

It's time for a couple announcements, so without further adieu, let's proceed!

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#1 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

We're pleased to announce that the Dynaverse Gaming Association has FINALLY been accepted in the State of Texas as a filed and offical non-profit corporation. To that extent, we've launched the official DGA website - you can access it here:

http://sfcdga.org or http://dynaversegamingassociation.org.

(big thanks to SFHQ_XC who did the site!)

You can view the legal paperwork, and we'll be listing the donations and who donated on this site as well. We're working on getting the financials available now that we're a legal non-profit, and we've started working on the 501.c with the Internal Revenue service.

Why all the hubbub? Well, the original concept of forming the DGA was simply to protect the SFC assets I currently hold - the SFC EAW / OP / SFC3 directory services, and now the SFC EAW Source code. Since these items are listed as assets of the DGA, it's now impossible for any other agency or individual to :

A.) Use these assets to run their own directory services
B.) Use these assets to charge for access to the directory services.
C.) Use these assets to create a new / updated version of EAW and charge you for it.

As you all know, we've been working steadily on getting the EAW Source set up for our development team. I'm pleased to announce that several of the most notable SFC community sites have all announced their support of our project, as well as offered resources. Now, as you know, Dynaverse.Net has always been about the community - and we see this collectively as a chance to work on something we've always wanted - the best of SFC rolled into one - and bring our community together in a way that's not been done before.

We've secured the brightest talent in regards to models and textures, names you likely know and respect, and plan on coming up with updated graphics as well as some other goodies... so stick around and just watch as we go.

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#2 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

It's that time again! Dynaverse.Net's yearly fund raiser! As you all know, Dynaverse.Net is operated by the Dynaverse Gaming Association, which is a non-profit corporation. This year, our goal is to raise enough cash to build a new server for D.Net. We're expecting the cost to be around $1500 total, but this includes a new chassis, dual opteron's, a nice 4 GB for memory, and several SATA drives in a RAID to ensure no data loss. We can then transition the original D.Net server over to a more suitable role, as it's certainly starting to show signs of it's age.

Want a faster, zippier D.Net? Then dig in deep, and donate. You can go HERE to donate. And remember, donate more than $25 dollars and you become a voting member of the DGA! This entitles you to become an even more active member of the SFC community, as you'll get to participate in DGA voting events!

Remember, it's *YOU* who help keep Dynaverse.Net, the teamspeak server, the IRC servers, and most importantly the Directory servers running. We cannot stress how important it is to be able to plan and implement some of these upgrades. Consider:

The Gaming server upgrade: THOR was rebuilt into a pretty robust server (Athlon XP 64 2.1Ghz, 1 GB DDR 2, SATA, etc) and as such the community benefits - (now Campaign servers can run full throttle without worries) all in all this cost me about $500 on just parts to get everything where it needed to be...and that was just a couple hard drives and two sticks of memory. This doesn't include the monthly bills to provide:

1.) Shelter
2.) Power
3.) Maintenance
4.) Backup components for critical failures.

You may think that we've just got a couple servers sitting in a office somewhere, but it's much more than that. Each server is backed up fully once a week, with alternating incrementals each day. We've got a tape drive that we could drop secondary backups onto - if we had some tapes. There's a LOT of stuff going on in the background that we here at Dynaverse.Net do for infrastructure that doesn't come cheap - but I'll have nothing less. In the almost 10 years of my history hosting sites and services online, I've had no more than 2 days of continual service interruption - meaning the servers / sites have been offline for no more than 2 days.

So we really try to utilize a very professional attitude towards the infrastructure we utilize to provide you with these services for free! All we ask is that during our fund raiser, you see if you can donate whatever you can IF you can. As we always state, donations are *NOT* a requirement to use the services... but the more donations we have, the better we'll be able to provide those services and much more.

Bottom line - the more you contribute, the easier I can make it for our developers. The more you donate, the easier I can deal with the likes of Paramount in regards to licensing of the ST francise. The more you donate, the longer we're going to be around!

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That's pretty much it! Check out the DGA site, and please think about donating. If just 100 people donated $10, that's $1000 and we're 2/3rds of the way towards that new server! If you have server hardware you'd like to donate, by all means simply contact me via PM and we can set something up!

Of course, the last thing we want to say to you all is

THANK YOU!!!!

If it were not for your continuing generosity, and support, we'd likely not be here today, atleast in the shape we're in! The SFC community is quickly becoming one of the longest running communities online, and considering the first SFC game came out in July of 1999 and it's now 2007 and we're still going strong that's quite a feat.

It couldn't have happened with out you, my friends.

We look forward to another 8 years of companionship, fun and gaming with you all!

Regards,

Frey & the D.Net Admin team

[marstone]

  I for one will be throwing in some financial support this year.  How many of you guys can make it your chinese new year resolution to use alittle of the tax returns (some of you guys will be getting) to help support the game we all love.

Kurt
/|\

[marstone]

Your link for the donation is dead.  Just comes up as "HTTP:///"  The dough shan't be rolling in to quick with that link. No need to hurry fixing it for me yet.  My donation will come on friday or saturday.

[FA Frey XC]

Heh, I posted this at work.

It's fixed now

Regards,

[Capt Jeff]

Say I'm old fashioned and want to send a check

Who/what do I make the check out to,

And where do I send it?


Might take a few weeks to get the check out, but it should be worth the wait

[atheorhaven]

All I can say is FANf*(k'n-tastic!

Glad that the rumor about source is true!  Check option is also a good thing Frey..   Makes it easier for sending things through snail mail for us non-US types..

[FA Frey XC]

If you want to send a check, make it payable to me:

Frey Petermeier

Address: 2918 Lakewood Dr.
Garland, TX. 75042

Regards,

[worfhonour]

Hi,
How could I resist, resistance is futile, lol 

Look after those SFC3 servers for the SFC3 community.

WorfHonour 

[Strayy]

The Tavern's donation is in subspace... along with a case of Romulan Ale, and a bottle of scotch for Frey 

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Hi Frey,
Could I send you some cash, and to the same address? I don't have a paypal.

Looking forward to the new DGA.

[Czar Mohab]

THANK YOU!!!!

No Frey, Thank you! All of you!

Czar "Donation pending approval from the 'boss'" Mohab, who notes, it may not be much, if at all. 

[FA Frey XC]

It doesn't matter how much - if you donate, you're helping out.

Thank YOU, those who have donated already!

Regards,

[Tus]

donation sent

[Commander Maxillius]

Wow, I had no idea how much actually went into keeping this site up!  I'm going to have to save that address so that if I ever get my debt situation cleared up D.net can get some of my money too.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Frey I've tried to send via paypal 7 times now and it doen't appear to be going through. send me a pm in a couple days and if it still hasn't gone through i will mail you a check.

I can't afford alot right now, but I definately will send you something for all the wonderful service you provide.

I don't know whay but paypal is being a royal pain in the Ass.

[Fedman NCC-3758]

PayPal working fine.

Donation sent.

[marstone]

grrrr, income tax got pushed back an extra week so have another week to wait before I can send in my donation.  But hay, everything good is worth waiting for.

[ModelsPlease]

Ask and you shall recieve, I am at your teams disposal Frey. This quite possibly is a dream come true.

[marstone]

  Donation sent (finially).  Here is hoping that you get twice what you are hoping for.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

Just completed paypal donation. 

[FA Frey XC]

UPDATE:

As of today, we've received over $800 in donations!

That means we're only $500 away from our baseline server cost !

 

So, to those of you whose generosity has been overwhelming ... THANK YOU SO MUCH!
To those of you who still plan on donating ... THANK YOU SO MUCH!

And for those of you who can't spare a couple bucks, then we'd welcome your time, talents or whatever! If you'd like to volunteer, then just contact me, or any of our Admins and we'll see what we can do!

Let's keep the momentum going! We sure appreciate it !!!

Regards,

[Fedman NCC-3758]

Salute!

[FA Frey XC]

We're still about $500 away from our new server...

Let's not let this just peeter out... if your waiting for your refund or something, shoot me a PM and let me know you intend to donate. We need at least another $300 to make the server a possibility, as I can't afford right now to chunk out $500 bucks and pay the internet / electric / etc. bills. Plus the DGA domains are due for renewal, that's about $100 right there.

This way I can figure in the remain balance in my budget, and give a time line as to when the new server can be expected to be put into service, or if we don't make the $300 minimum, announce just *where* the funds are going.

Once again, thank you all who have donated, and we appreciate your support!

Regards,

[F9thCenturus]

We're still about $500 away from our new server...

Let's not let this just peeter out... if your waiting for your refund or something, shoot me a PM and let me know you intend to donate. We need at least another $300 to make the server a possibility, as I can't afford right now to chunk out $500 bucks and pay the internet / electric / etc. bills. Plus the DGA domains are due for renewal, that's about $100 right there.

This way I can figure in the remain balance in my budget, and give a time line as to when the new server can be expected to be put into service, or if we don't make the $300 minimum, announce just *where* the funds are going.

Once again, thank you all who have donated, and we appreciate your support!

Regards,

I'm still waiting for my check for working the Super Tuesday polls.  I'll give what I can when I get that chance.  And I agreed to sign up to work the California state primaries in June, so when I get that check, I'll see what money I can send along your way as well.

I'm still debating whether or not to work the November polls.  If the Super Tuesday chaos is any indication, I don't even wanna know what can and will go wrong in November.

[TarMinyatur]

It is nice to be proven wrong. I lost hope that the SFC EAW source code would ever be released legally. Amazing.

[marstone]

Iam still looking to pop off another donation in the short term, probably not the size of the first one, but another one to help out. 

[r2ch]

Donation sent.

Thank you for keeping the servers live.

[FPF-Thrain]

Frey what's the count left for the server at this point?

I suppose I should have the cleaners take the plastic off my command chair and prepare for major maintenance and refitting......