Donations for hosting

[thelusiv]

Since VDrift's hosting is no longer free, we encourage users who feel like they have gotten a good product from the project to donate a little to help offset the costs of hosting.

In the beginning VDrift.net was hosted by SourceForge, but this was found to be far too slow for comfortable use. Following this, the project was sponsored by the Clemson Linux User Group until July 2007 when some hosting issues made it apparent that a slightly more stable host would benefit the project. The present host of VDrift.net is DreamHost, a shared hosting provider. Joe Venzon, author of VDrift, is paying for hosting out of pocket.

DreamHost has a feature that makes it very simple for users to make donations directly to the hosting account for the project. There is now a link on the left side of the page in the "Sponsors" block that allows anyone to contribute directly in this manner.

If you enjoy VDrift, and would like to make some kind of contribution but aren't sure how to go about it, this is perfect for you. Even if you can only contribute a very small amount, even $1 USD, it will make a difference, and help keep the VDrift project running.

Here's the donation link again:
http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=8277

[kidrock]

Second i saw this i went to donate. for some reason i cant set up a paypal account. something to do with my city not being valid. (NYC wtf???) any way i can donate straight to you guys?

[cotharyus]

Huh. I'd love to help out - we'll see about donating - but when did the changeover happen? Joe, maybe you and I need to talk.

[reece146]

Done.

[thelusiv]

Second i saw this i went to donate. for some reason i cant set up a paypal account. something to do with my city not being valid. (NYC wtf???) any way i can donate straight to you guys?

I'm not sure, maybe you have to type out the full city name. Either way there is a way to donate without having a PayPal account.

Huh. I'd love to help out - we'll see about donating - but when did the changeover happen? Joe, maybe you and I need to talk.

This happened around early-mid July.

[kidrock]

tried all variations of nyc including writing it out. i have a 50 dollar amex giftcard with 20 bucks still on it. thelusiv would you mind if i sent you the number on the gift card via PM and you can withdraw the amount you want? (all if you want to!) would love to donate to this project. maybe users who donate can get a special symbol near there name? maybe if you donate 4.99 or under you get a bronze star. 5 to 9.99 and you get a silver and 10.00+ is a gold star and for every ten dollars you get another gold star and after ten stars you get a trophy P.S. this is in U.S. dollars.

[thelusiv]

Well kidrock, I can't really process your credit card. Did you try just paying via Credit (without signing up for PayPal) via the page linked?

The symbols idea is a good one, but I'll have to look into some kind of forum mod to handle that. It won't be automated so Joe or I will have to update it manually. Maybe that's an idea to hold on to down the road when we set up our own PayPal donation thing (if we do that).

[kidrock]

Ok will check again. Good luck on that. i doubt you guys would have so many donations that you would need them automated. but up to you!

[cologne]

Done! -)))))

[joevenzon]

Thanks guys -- remember, this goes straight to the hosting fee, so we're not making any money off of it, which is the way I like it! :-)

[reece146]

Thanks guys -- remember, this goes straight to the hosting fee, so we're not making any money off of it, which is the way I like it! :-)

If you need a few bucks flipped your way for vdrift development specific hardware feel free to ask.

[thelusiv]

That's a good idea reece, I think we should wait until the next release or so goes by and start an organized effort to take donations for things like hardware for developers to use for testing. Besides control devices it would be nice to get other developers some more obscure types of computer hardware to try to get VDrift working on, for instance better PPC machines for Mac developers, and other things along those lines. People may even be willing to donate the hardware itself.

[kidrock]

willing to donate my iMac G5 20" PPC 1.5GB ram. but only after i get my Mac pro. possibly is a year or so? :wink: :wink: Still trying to donate. cant find an option other then inserting the amount to donate, and then putting in all my info and having it tell me that NYC or New York City or anything referring to
New York, New York, as not being a valid city!

[kidrock]

No go. guessing it wont let me do it because its an amex gift card. oh well. Do you accept cash? :?: :?:

[joevenzon]

So I don't process the donations, dreamhost does. If it's not working, don't stress or anything. We're paid up for a while.