Bear Down Wildcats- State of the Union- PLEASE READ!!!
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:06 pm
Hello Bear Down Wildcats-
Thank you for taking the time to read this post / thread. I hope everyone takes the time to read it.
Over 6 years ago a rabid community of Arizona Wildcat Fans (and many non-Arizona sports fans) were suddenly left without a community home. There was no way to create that same community by joining up with other board communities. We had to create it on our own.
We had to do it our way, we had to do it quickly (before we lost contact with our core community) and we had to do it at no cost for our members.
Oh, and we had no one with any real experience setting up a message board.
In June 2014 we had exactly 1 person step up for the task. And that person was UADevil.
In a matter of days UADevil set up this site and we were off and running. Most people said we would never re-create our old community and thought we would quickly disappear but 6 years and almost 500,000 posts later (Mostly by Merkin and Chicat) we are still here. Thanks to all of you who make this place what it is.
In these 6 years we have never asked anyone for a single penny to help support this site. Not once.
In these 6 years – UADevil has paid for this site year after year, maintained this site when it has gone down unexpectedly (UADevil spent several days getting us back up and running this last week), had to rebuild this site several times because of necessary upgrades… all without ever asking to be compensated or complaining about the burden.
And let me be clear…. He is still not asking to be compensated.
But this burden should not be his alone.
Costs include: Hosting, domains (purchased a new one recently, will be a fully functional backup site for extended downtimes so folks can still interact), some extra security addons with the host, and a couple of software licenses for various editors. Annually it runs about $600.
Also, there are some potential future upgrades that come with a price tag… including upgraded hosting
The Mods here feel awful for not doing this sooner, but the time has come for this community to step up, make sure we have a future and let UADevil know how much his work / effort and his invested $$$ are valued.
THE PLEA
We are now asking for donations. This will never be a pay site, but we will need to contribute from time to time. No one is going to make money from this… it’s all going to be for covering the maintenance costs.
If you’ve been posting here since 2014… You should donate.
If you’ve been lurking here since 2014… You should donate.
If checking in at BearDownWildcats is part of your daily routine… You should donate.
If you freak out when our server goes down… You should donate
If after a day of our site being down, you felt like a family member died… You should donate.
If you come here for UofA sports info….. You should donate.
If you come here to get some inside UofA info from a few inside sources here…. You should donate.
If you come here to make fun of ASU…. You should donate
If you come here for heated politics discussion… You should donate
If you come here to troll… You should donate.
If you come here to discuss movies, music, whiskey, places to eat in Tucson, places to visit all over the world, the stock market, Natural disasters, dead people, stupid people from Florida, etc….. YOU SHOULD DONATE.
No amount is too small, none too large. It doesn’t have to be today (Although today would be a great day to make a donation!) 1 large donation, several small ones…. Whatever works for you.
We are having trouble getting an integrated PayPal portal set up on this board so for now, please direct all PayPal donations to:
UADevil
PayPal ID: rsbtrekker@gmail.com
Feel free to comment on this thread if you make a donation to show this community that you support it.
Thank You and
Bear Down
Thank you for taking the time to read this post / thread. I hope everyone takes the time to read it.
Over 6 years ago a rabid community of Arizona Wildcat Fans (and many non-Arizona sports fans) were suddenly left without a community home. There was no way to create that same community by joining up with other board communities. We had to create it on our own.
We had to do it our way, we had to do it quickly (before we lost contact with our core community) and we had to do it at no cost for our members.
Oh, and we had no one with any real experience setting up a message board.
In June 2014 we had exactly 1 person step up for the task. And that person was UADevil.
In a matter of days UADevil set up this site and we were off and running. Most people said we would never re-create our old community and thought we would quickly disappear but 6 years and almost 500,000 posts later (Mostly by Merkin and Chicat) we are still here. Thanks to all of you who make this place what it is.
In these 6 years we have never asked anyone for a single penny to help support this site. Not once.
In these 6 years – UADevil has paid for this site year after year, maintained this site when it has gone down unexpectedly (UADevil spent several days getting us back up and running this last week), had to rebuild this site several times because of necessary upgrades… all without ever asking to be compensated or complaining about the burden.
And let me be clear…. He is still not asking to be compensated.
But this burden should not be his alone.
Costs include: Hosting, domains (purchased a new one recently, will be a fully functional backup site for extended downtimes so folks can still interact), some extra security addons with the host, and a couple of software licenses for various editors. Annually it runs about $600.
Also, there are some potential future upgrades that come with a price tag… including upgraded hosting
The Mods here feel awful for not doing this sooner, but the time has come for this community to step up, make sure we have a future and let UADevil know how much his work / effort and his invested $$$ are valued.
THE PLEA
We are now asking for donations. This will never be a pay site, but we will need to contribute from time to time. No one is going to make money from this… it’s all going to be for covering the maintenance costs.
If you’ve been posting here since 2014… You should donate.
If you’ve been lurking here since 2014… You should donate.
If checking in at BearDownWildcats is part of your daily routine… You should donate.
If you freak out when our server goes down… You should donate
If after a day of our site being down, you felt like a family member died… You should donate.
If you come here for UofA sports info….. You should donate.
If you come here to get some inside UofA info from a few inside sources here…. You should donate.
If you come here to make fun of ASU…. You should donate
If you come here for heated politics discussion… You should donate
If you come here to troll… You should donate.
If you come here to discuss movies, music, whiskey, places to eat in Tucson, places to visit all over the world, the stock market, Natural disasters, dead people, stupid people from Florida, etc….. YOU SHOULD DONATE.
No amount is too small, none too large. It doesn’t have to be today (Although today would be a great day to make a donation!) 1 large donation, several small ones…. Whatever works for you.
We are having trouble getting an integrated PayPal portal set up on this board so for now, please direct all PayPal donations to:
UADevil
PayPal ID: rsbtrekker@gmail.com
Feel free to comment on this thread if you make a donation to show this community that you support it.
Thank You and
Bear Down