is paypal the only means of contributing?

Proud to be giving back to a site that's, in a sense, given me my livelyhood now.

Originally Posted by SuperSpy00bob
(BuMp)

The old news is still archived, the new news is being added to ja.zz.

:-)

Originally Posted by Tanj!
Bumpity bump bump

Everyone contribute.

<BTW why isn\'t this in the new nifty thread mode?>

I appreciate the need for a useful website such as yours to ask for contributions. Of course the links on you website connect me with other "links" that are full of advertisements for vendors some of which I buy from. There is nothing wrong with that. HOWEVER: The fact that you are eliciting contributions thruough an affiliation with AMAZON.COM is very questionable inasmuchas their PRIVACY POLICY clearly states that they will share information (such as your e-mail address) with their commercial partners. I realize that it is much easier for you to receive contributions thru the use of a sophisticated commercial enterprise, but not at the expense of MY PRIVACY.

Maybe not even subscriptions for content, maybe just subscriptions for the forgetful. Transgaming goes that way, and 5$-15$/month isn't bad, whereas a 60 or 180$ lump sum is a lot less appealing.

Forge, why would anyone pay to mock you and not let you reply? Replies are half the fun, at least for the spectators :)

Damn,
Donations didn't work well for stomped.com, too many tight-fisted spoiled folks out there. I donated to them, and a short while later, offline. What a waste of money. I will think about donating, but I like the idea of subscription ad-free service vs. the free add-loaded service. I would pay to have a nice, clean easy to read site, and also be automatically entered into hardware drawings and such if available. Let me know when that happens and I am in.

Yeah, day jobs suck.

Lao - I would think I'm owrth a bit mroe than that. We oughta auction off 'one (1) public mocking of Forge, which he is not allowed to ignore nor reply to'. That oughta cover a bill or two. :)

You dudes rule, and that's a fact. This website is easily more valuable to me than any magazine subscription, except of course Scientific American.

It's time for me to admit that information has its price, even if I can access it freely. From now on, I plan to budget at least $100 a year to support the websites I deem worthy of supporting.

TR, you just got thirty bucks of that from me, because I figure I can cover myself and one other person who can't. Consider Anonymous Gerbil #29 to be bought and paid for, provided I can say this:

Anonymous Gerbil #29, go pee up a rope.

Yep. That really was worth fifteen bucks.

It is my fervent hope that someday you guys won't have to work a day job to do the Tech Report. I hope my small contribution helps you to continue to be the paragon of excellence that you are.

woot!!!!!!11 No more anonymouse, thanks Damage.
Monkey Opps, i mean money on the way.

Damage, i followed you over here from Ars and I am happy I did.
(I still remember the damage box and how in awe i was)
I can donate some $tuff, but not until someone fixes my ability to post in the discussion area.
I can post in the forum using my user name ( DPOSCORP ) and my password, but i cant post with it here, and i always have to post anonymously. Fix that and you get some money from me. :)
Just email me with my passord or let me use the one i use on the forum.
Dposcorp.
NOSPAMdpoff@aol.com.

Paypal scares me more than Amazon -- a year ago I was the opposite. I went ahead and used Amazon. Whoopie if someone has an idea of what I do, I have nothing to hide from anyone or my wife ;) Let them all think I am a normal citizen.

Otherwise paying $15 for a years subscription as I see it, is fine in my book. Keep up the good work guys...

[q]No bloody thanks.[/q]Good choice. I also prefer the bloodless thanks. :-P

http://news.com.com/2008-1082-843349.html

(loosely) speaking of credit cards and transactions and personal info, and demographics being bought and sold, and advertising being targeted to you, profiles being built on you without your knowledge or permission, all to be more easily targeted and exploited...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020220/ap_on_hi...

Buy everything on credit? No bloody thanks. Give out demographic info for the chance of prizes/ freebies? No bloody thanks. Trust paid-for certifications from "trusted" organisations on the food I eat? No bloody thanks. Rely on anyone or anything to tell me what's right for me? No bloody thanks. Give up my power willingly to some faceless corporation trying to own me? No bloody thanks.

Phew, boy am I glad this rant is over.

[q]FWIW, here in America people use their credit cards to buy a pack of gum...[/q]God bless America!!! If I can't crap on credit, I just don't go!

BabelHunter--

(nod) ok, fair enough...FWIW, here in America people use their credit cards to buy a pack of gum (I've actually seen this). Every 2-bit Dennys accepts credit cards. Not saying it's a good thing, but that's how it is...

--BlueDjinn

[quote]
BabelHunter--just out of curiousity, what exactly do you think happens to your credit card number when the sales clerk at The Gap (or whereever) swipes it through the little keypad thing?
[/quote]

I do trust them for I havo no reasons not to. OTOH, sending my number through the internet on my own seems a little bit... odd.

[quote]
For that matter, when you hand your card to a waiter at a restaurant who takes off for a couple of minutes, how do you know that he didn't jot your number down himself?
[/quote]

here in germany it is totally uncommon to pay with a credit card in a restaurant, it is accepted only in expensive ones where I think the waiters earn enough money not to risk their jobs because of some stupidity.

I know, I´m paranoid ;-)

Scott, I'll give my tiny tidbit and be glad to. Also remember we like this site enough to tolerate more ads.

How about ability to get first post?
http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/0/0/
http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/1

:D

Personally I would like to see a bit more incentive, howabout:
25$ == 1457 P037!!! priviledges at http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/9/
50$ == ability to nuke forge's forum comments
100$ == ability to edit(hehe) forge's forum comments
200$ == ability to write a front page diatribe^H^H^H^H^H^H^H story(about forge)

[q]The day I have to pay for every damn site I visit is the day the web dies.[/q]

It must be an awesome responsibility to have the future of the entire web resting on your shoulders. We feel for you.

And not to mention what we used to do before ya-all got web - we read magazines.
----------
Or newsgroups.
There will always be ppl reviewing hardware for the love of it. Whether amateur, professional and/or out of trial and error. The thoughts will be up there, in any case. The day I have to pay for every damn site I visit is the day the web dies.

Most of the Internet is already fiber, at least the part that carries the major traffic. About the only parts that aren't fiber are terminal or "last mile" areas. And the reason that terminal links aren't all fiber is cost. Most folks aren't willing to pay more than $20/mo. for Internet service, regardless of data rate. And I don't know of too many Internet servers that regularly saturate a 100Base-T Ethernet. So fiber is no panacea.

Even if ISPs lower prices on bandwidth, how does that help the website operators? IMHO the old-fashioned advertising system that has been borrowed from radio and TV is the biggest problem. It's also the easiest to change. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but I think that a good place to start might be with the option of having ad-free content. The casual browser could get the same articles and such, but with ads. Regular visitors could pay to be served up the same stuff in an ad-free format.

Yes, I know that there's ad-blocking software out there. But ad-blockers can be circumvented too. Some people don't have all that time to waste on getting something for nothing. Ads are going to get more obnoxious as long as we keep the [itatus qu/i]. VCRs and time-shifting forced TV advertisers to get their act together, because they lowered the value of the obnoxious ads. We can do the same for the Internet. It would be a mistake to try to eliminate advertising, but keeping it at bay is a Good Thing.

I don't know about you, but I stopped subscribing to magazines. Not only do I pay $10-25 per year, but the still fill almost 1/3 of the magazine with ADS! That's like paying for tech report's content, then getting it and having 2 banners per page, with the occasional pop-up! ugh.

I had another comment before reading these, but my thoughts about #29 got me all flustered.

My current college fund doesn't really have any stretching room (I have even stopped buying new hardware! *gasp*), but I'll click on a few banners for ya.

<personal rant>
eventually either:
a.) all sites will have to go subscriptiion based
b.) isp's will have to charge a heckofa lot less for bandwidth
c.) advertisers will have to be smarter and have less annoying advertising

my personal opinion is that as the internet matures and all the piping gets replaces with massive fiber-op lines eventually it will cost alot less for bandwidth. However, that could be a long ways off as someone has to pay for those massive lines.

for all the idiots who say "there will always be another site to go to." you are even stupider than you are an idiot. the instant people start hitting those sites with millions of page views their isps will shut them off. lol morons.

</personal rant>

did i have a point? somehow i forget what i was ranting about.

-danny e.

[q]Hmmm...I see possibilities here! What would I pay to see...?[/q]Maybe more gratuitous butt shots like in the Visor Edge review? ;)

Any of you guys got a P.O. Box:)

Later

#32: Please e-mail me to make arrangements. Thanks!

29 said
"You can't make it? Awww, tough. There are lots of other sites to visit. "

G'bye 29, be sure and drop us a line when you find a job.