Re: [T3] TYPE3.org fund drive

[Greg Merritt <gregm@vwtype3.org>]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Steven Ayres wrote:
> * number of subscribers, averaged over a year, and
> * annual out-of-pocket cost of operating type3.org?


Steven -- and everyone --


	The current cost for the hosting (list+Web) is $18.95/month.  I
grabbed an account billing summary and placed it here, fwiw:

	http://vwtype3.org/statement.html

There's also $35/year for the VWType3.Org domain registration.  I also
grabbed plain-old type3.org when it became available; that's at a cheaper
registrar, which includes registration and simple dns for $15/year.

	(Kind of amazing, actually -- when we first registered
VWType3.Org, I believe it was $70/year for the registration and
$70/month(!) for the list & Web!)

	I estimate that I'm down about a net $150 after all previous
expenses and previous fund drives -- and sporadic contributions over the
last year or two.  I'm cool with just looking forward and covering the
future ongoing costs, but if folks are inclined to backfill, I won't
complain. :)


	Here is the current count for list subscriptions:

[gregm@cedant5 mail]$ wc -l type3*/dist
     162 type3-d/dist
     166 type3/dist
     328 total
[gregm@cedant5 mail]$ 

Currently -- that is, as of a few minutes ago -- it's 162 for the digest,
166 for the regular feed. The total count ebbs and flows, and people go on
and off the list on a daily basis.  I believe it has been been over 300
for a good number of years now.

	Also, in August, there were 21,980 impressions of the by-thread
index on the Web -- this page:

	http://vwtype3.org/listarchive/threads.html

Some folks may not subscribe, but view the postings on the Web.

	Of course, "doing the math" suggests that we'd be covered at about
$1 per *year* per person...!

	Note that I do not want to manage a list that requires
contributions for participation.  I believe that the only requirements for
participating in the list should be an interest in Type IIIs and a
congenial disposition. :)

-Greg

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