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Originally Posted by thndrmtn92svx
How about we publicly recognize the administrators and moderators and let everyone else share in the wealth of knowledge as the members? Why do we need to stratify all of it?
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I'll answer your last question first, Michelle, if I may.
From the time the Network has started here, after Yahoo!, it has always been run and carried by the generosity of a few of the total membership. In particular Chris who ran the IT and provided the service from his own pocket and his own generous time and efforts.
We have had a couple of fund-raisers when equipment was needed, and we got response. This response was very welcome, but a weakness as per all large groups like this, we get all the support from a small percentage of Network members, the Usual Suspects.
We are attempting to put a sponsorship system into place that will pay for the year on year running costs. To achieve this in as fair a way as possible we want to engage a wider group of sponsors, broaden the net and share the load.
In widening the numbers supporting we also think that members will realise that without ads, we are on our own, we have to help one another.
As part of the name and logo changes, we hope also to recognise administrators and mods and so on, plus acknowledge those who add to the technical knowledge base. We plan to do this as simply as possible, incorporated into the same badge system, so we don't have a confusion of different labels.
We worked hard to get the sponsorship labels ready because the servers were creaking and we needed to avoid melt-down. That's why the stratification levels were ready before the rest. We actually need the new servers in place before we can port over the data and set up the new services.
I think this is the most exciting thing to happen since the Network launched. It will be bigger and better than before. It will be self sustaining. We will enjoy it more. It is one of our goals on the administration side to make sure that everybody gets proper recognition. The other goal is to ensure that nobody gets left outside or left behind.
This is a community. It was set up so we could help each other. I hope everybody online will help to keep that spirit working in the Network.
Joe
