The "better software" pledge:)

OK - so if Empeg can't and shouldn't upgrade the software here, I'm proposing that we do.. Here's what I suggest:

10 volunteers, donating 10$ each..
You can count me as the first volunteer...
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Hmm.. We could techically let Paypal pay the bill:) they're offering 5$ for new signups, as well as a 5$ bonus for each person referred... - if you're not familiar with their service it allows for easy payments via credit card/etc...
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Heh, I thought of doing it through Paypal as well. Paypal's signing bonus multiplied by the number of BBS regulars would be more than enough. One question: Can you sign up for Paypal outside of the United States? PaulH is in the UK.

But, provided that there was a way to work out the finances, you can certainly count me in for ten bucks, too. The spell-checker alone is worth that to me.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

10 volunteers, donating 10$ each..
You can count me as the first volunteer...

Me too, that is donating US$10; not being the first volunteer. Am I nr 3 now??

Henno
# 00120

Heh, I thought of doing it through Paypal as well. Paypal's signing bonus multiplied by the number of BBS regulars would be more than enough. One question: Can you sign up for Paypal outside of the United States? PaulH is in the UK.

---

I know they don't except credit cards from outside of US, not sure about RECEIVING money.. we could easily send him a check once the money was collected though...
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

10 from me, just tell me where to.

Corby
SN#320, 6-Gig Blue

OOps... I started a thread just like this one before I got to this one.... that'll teach me to look before I leap, won't it. I'll cancel my thread... and you can put me down for $20.

taanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Count me in as well ...

OK - as of this posting, it looks like we're already up to $70... PaulH, are you reading this thread? Another question is how the money should be collected. Paypal would be a great option for those of us in the US, but is there an alternative for non-us residents? Since PaulH lives outside of US, I don't have a problem with collecting cash for this project, and then either purchasing the license myself, or sending a check to PaulH.. However, I really think we need his input at this point.
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Count me in for $10 as well.

Bill

Ditto. I'm in for $10.

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

I'll add my US$10 to make it US$100 total.

I'm in for $10 as well. And as stated before paypal may even pay for the majority of the bill.

You can count me in for $10.

As soon as someone decides how to collect the funds, I'm in for $10.00, too. The newer versions are definately worth it (I deployed it at work for internal forums).

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca

Hey guys,

With our donation promises, PaulH was kind enough to go ahead
and purchase the commercial version of the software. Now it's time for us to make
good on our promisses. I'm willing to collect the money in the US, and to make
arranagements directly with Paul to get him the money once it has been collected.
If you'd like to make a donation and live outside of the US, you should probably
contact Paul directly to make other arrangements.

I think the easiest way
to collect the money would be through Paypal.com
(...sigh - although I notice that as of this posting their site is down...) Once
they're back up though, just sign up using the above link if you haven't already,
click "send money," use my email address (mrahm[at]mse.ufl.edu), and
then post a reply to this message with the confirmation from paypal. Please note
that you'd receive a $5 bonus as a new user bonus, and I'd receive a 5$ if you
sign up using the above link, which I'm willing to re-donate to this BBS.

Here's
what I have people down for so far:

• Myself - $10


• Tfabris - $10


• Henno - $10


• Corby - $10


• Tanstaafl - $20


• Xavyer - $10


• BillB - $10


• Dearing - $10


• Stan - $10


• Bmihulka - $10


• Scoco - $10


• Lord Bleys - $10

PaulH was nice
enough to upgrade the BBS software out of his own money with us promising donations
- it's time for us to come through for him...

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Cool. I'll head out and do it right now. I was hoping that the outage was an upgrade. I logged on this morning, and Christmas came early this year.

One thing I'd like to see though: Some acknowledgement from PaulH in this thread that this is OK with him. I'm headed to PayPal right now, but I still never saw an official "Thanks, guys let's do this" message from Paul.

Now, we get to find out whether the spell checker is UK-english or US-english. Whoops, just checked- it's US-english. Two cultures separated by a common language...

And Paul: What's up with the HTML in my signature suddenly not working?

<A HREF="http://www.jps.net/tfabris">Tony Fabris</A>
Empeg #144

One thing I'd like to see though: Some acknowledgement from PaulH in this thread that this is OK with him. I'm headed to PayPal right now, but I still never saw an official "Thanks, guys let's do this" message from Paul.

---

I've been in contact w/ him in private email, and have gotten the OK from him to go ahead with this. I've asked him to check out this thread and say so personaly though:)
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

I must say I'm very impressed with the new BBS Software. I haven't yet fully explored it, but I like what I see so far!
I tried that paypal link and got an Internal Server Error. Is that because the site is down, or is there a problem with the link? I'll try again this afternoon.
Jason

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

Thanks to everyone who has pledged money towards the
software upgrade of the BBS. Also thanks to Dionysus
for his organisation.

If those who have been kind enough to pledge could now
please arrange your payment thru Dionysus.

Watch out soon for the Buy PaulH an Mark II empeg
appeal

Not sure about the spell checker stuff - certainly need
to look at adding some things like "empeg" to it!

Dunno about the html in the sig - try the faq! I've not
really had time to play with all the new features yet!

Cheers

Paul

The internal server error is due to "technical difficulties" with paypal right now.. hopefully they'll have it fixed soon.
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Paypal seems to be responding to my requests now (albeit slowly).

One question:

I've pledged ten dollars. According to their website, you get a $5.00 bonus for referring me (since I followed your supplied link). So does that mean I only have to send you $5.00 (which actually would be covered my my $5.00 sign-up bonus), or do you consider that five bucks your, ahem, handling fee?

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

So does that mean I only have to send you $5.00 (which actually would be covered my my $5.00 sign-up bonus), or do you consider that five bucks your, ahem, handling fee?

---

Neither... I'll add up all referral bonuses as well towards the 100$ mark, and well post another message when we reach that mark...

-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

That is... If we can get PayPal to work for us at all. I've been hammering at the thing for an hour and I've only been able to confirm my e-mail address so far.

Maybe they should have thought more carefully before launching their new online business via a single 14.4 modem?

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

Nothing's worse then wanting to spend money and not being able too!

sigh - although I notice that as of this posting their site is down

Dionysus --

I'm trying (really, I am!) to send you the $20 I promised, but PayPal is still down. What is this, like three days now? Anybody have any inside dope on what is going on there? This has got to be costing them a huge amount of money, not to mention the indirect but possibly even more expensive costs associated with loss of confidence in PayPal as a viable enterprise.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

I was able to get my stuff done with PayPal last night after midnight. I guess I was the only user logged into their single 14.4 modem at that particular moment.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I noticed:( what sucks is I just sold something on Ebay for $315, and the person has actually paid me via paypal (I received confirmation email from paypal), but I can't get to that money..

If you guys want (in the US), you can send me a check.. Email me at mrahm[at]mse.ufl.edu if you'd like to do that..
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

PayPal is (barely) up again. It took a few tries, but I finally got a payment thru. Details below:
******************
Payment Sent
NAME:
Mark R******
EMAIL:
*****@mse.ufl.edu
DATE: TIME:
05/17/00 10:05:55
SUBJECT:
The "better software" pledge
NOTE:
Here is my US$10. stan
STATUS: AMOUNT:
Completed -$10.00
******************

Got it...
So far, I've received 10$ from tfabris, and 10$ from you (stan). Add that to my $10 and we're up to $30...

-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Add that to my $10 and we're up to $30...

Just for statistics: I've put GBP 10 in an envelope and snailed it to Paul. That adds US$ 15 to the total

Henno
ex 00120

Hah! I made it through! Took a minimum of four browser-back and try-it-again for each step of the proceedings but Dionysus now has my money to send to PaulH.

This was the first time I was even able to get onto their website!

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

...just received a $20, and a seperate $10 donation from paypal - come forward if you're the ones that sent this:)Paypal doesn't have your empeg handle on it... that makes it $75 total including henno's $15...
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

The $20 one is from me.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

This was the first time I was even able to get onto their website!

It's obvious that they're having some capacity-related system troubles just these last couple of days. At least the money isn't getting lost. Although our little BBS upgrade seems to have been poorly timed to coincide with these recent outages, I've never heard of them having this kind of trouble before.

When I first heard about them a couple of months ago, I smacked myself in the forehead and said, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's one of those dot-com startups that you wish you had been in on the ground floor of...

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

$10 came from me.

D

Payment Sent

NAME:
Mark R
EMAIL:
mr***@mse.ufl.ed*

DATE: TIME:
05/17/00 19:25:28

SUBJECT:
money from scoco

STATUS: AMOUNT:
Completed -$10.00


and then post a reply to this message with the confirmation from paypal.

..Just to confirm, we're up to $70 from paypal; plus another 15$ promissed in snail mail .. Almost there guys!

-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Thanks for the upgrade guys, but I fail to see what was wrong with the old software.

Term

Okay - FINALLY got the transaction to go through at Paypal. You've got my $10 now as well.

Bill

Thanks for the upgrade guys, but I fail to see what was wrong with the old software.

Well, let's begin counting, shall we?

1. "Send Private" didn't work.
2. "New" marks were buggy, especially when they involved posts you'd just made.
3. Attachments didn't work (anyone test them on the new BBS yet?).
4. Less secure (some of the upgrades have been security patches).
5. Didn't have a spell checker.

I could go on... but the most important thing is that we want the BBS to continue going strong when the Mark2's are released and the user base increases in size. For that to happen, you want the latest bug-fixed version of the BBS software and the support that comes with it.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I finally got through with paypal.

Payment Sent






EMAIL:


m**@***.***.edu

DATE:

TIME:
05/17/00

14:30:59

SUBJECT:


Empeg BBS Fund

STATUS:

AMOUNT:
Completed

-$10.00






-Waiting to replace the hole in my truck with a Mark2

Payment Sent

NAME:
Mark Rahmani

EMAIL:
[email protected]

DATE: TIME:
05/17/00 22:09:38

SUBJECT:
Empeg BBS Payment

NOTE:
This is from Corby!

STATUS: AMOUNT:
Completed -$10.00

Uh oh, I saw the "new" bug appear on this version as well. From thread top level view, I noticed not all the new messages were "color" marked by the icon... uh oh.

Ok Tony's been begging for someone to try an attachment. Here goes!

Darn, the attachment did not work!

Calvin

...Actually, we're over the mark.. We're up to $95 from paypal, with a couple of snail mail's on the way as well... I'll post a message of who actually donated what as soon as I get a chance to connect real names w/ bbs names:)
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Thanks for the upgrade guys, but I fail to see what was wrong with the old software.

---

I think there's alot of upgrades on the backend as well that we don't necessarily see but will make Paul's life alot easier... It's supported, which means security patches, upgrades, etc... It supports moderators, which aren't necessary now but may be needed as we get more users, etc... Also I think it can show better statistics in this version then the free version...
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

tfabris - 5$, 5$ referral bonus
stan - $10
Tanstaafl - $20
Dredd - $10
Scoco - $10
BillB - $10
Bmihulka - $10
Corby - $10, $5 referral bonus
dionysus - $10

Subtotal: $105

---

Snail Mail:
Xavier - $20
Henno (directly to PaulH) - $15
Subtotal: $35
Total: $140

I'll send a check to Paul with the balance that I received as soon as he emails me his address:) It's over the $100 promissed, but it's not enough for the amount of work that he's put into this.. Also, (at the risk of sounding redundant) I think the fact that we could pledge money, then actually follow-through with it after the upgrade had already been performed proves that we're a better BBS. :)

-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Since we're over the mark, it occurs to me that wwwthreads has pay-support contracts. I think they're yearly. How much were they? Paul could buy an additional year of support or something.

Or he could just take his S.O. out to dinner.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

Well, [censored].

Okay, PaulH... If you're listening... can we cash in on that support and see why attachments still aren't working?

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

In reply to:

---

Well, [censored].

---

Hehehe... do we REALLY want to enable the curse-word-filter?

D

yeah; there's a couple of features that should be turned off... THAT one, and the anonymous postings if you ask me..
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Yeah,... anonymous bugs me as well (turned that off in after about two days on my wwwthreads install).

PaulH: To disable anonymous, remove "Guest" from every board's "Write access" list. To disable the badwordfilter, change ./filters/badwords and just make it one line of something like "Thiswillneverappearmyxlpltzk", and poof, [Censored] disappears.

d

A curse word filter? This isn't a board where people will have their sensibilities damaged, away with it.


Hmm.. a thought has occurred to me, what is Paul as a joke, made the word "empeg" a bad word for the filter. Then there will be [censored] everywhere. :)

Calvin

Reminds me of a celebrity chat transcript I saw. I think it was Penn Jillette on AOL, who was typing up answers to fan questions in a celebrity chat. Or maybe it was someone else. Anyway, it was hilarious when he let slip a small expletive, and discovered that some of his words were being censored. He started deliberately trying different words in his responses to see what would and wouldn't be censored.

Then there's the time that Douglas Adams had the "F" word censored out of one of his novels for the American edition printing. He replaced the word with "Belgium", then wrote a two-page footnote explaining why "Belgium" was a horrendous insult to most of the rest of the galaxy, and that us backwards Earth folk were blissfully using it in everyday conversation.

Then there's what George Carlin said oh-so-many years ago: There's no such thing as bad words, just bad intentions.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

FYI - I'm sending a check today to Paul for $135 - this includes Xavier's 20$ pledge that I recevied in snail mail, as well as a last minute donation through paypal from Dearing...

Also, Henno has said that he's going to snail-mail a check for $15 eqiv. directly to Paul, so that's $150 total
-mark



...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

as well as a last minute donation
through paypal from Dearing...

Good, I'm glad you got it.

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

Dredd wrote:
...just make it one line of something like "Thiswillneverappearmyxlpltzk",...

Are you sure you spelled mytzlplxzk correctly there?


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