http://www.dokuga.com/supporters

*sigh*

It's a fact of life for almost any large site on the interwebs... must raise funds to pay for hosting and other important stuff to stay up and running. Here on Dokuga, thanks to Miss K's generosity, it's a fact of life that we've been able to avoid for years.

Now, however, it is time for Dokuga to stand on its own. Time for Dokuga to put on its long pants, and make its own way in the world. Time for those of us who run the site to put on our best puppy-faces? Eh, maybe that won't work so well. Anyway, you get the gist, I'm sure. We're here to beg... a LOT.

After speaking with our current hosting company, I discovered that our site has over 400GB of data spread over 2 hard drives. The sheer size pretty much negates downsizing to a Virtual Private Server. So, that left us examining where else we could downsize the current hosting plan... and the best we could come up with so far was to switch from 8GB of RAM to 4 or 6GB. Depending on processing demands, however, this could slow the site down - maybe a lot in some cases. Still, it could save us $50 a month too, bringing our monthly hosting fee to around $184.00.

Next, I just know I am going to be inundated with ideas for cheap hosting. I just know this!! There is another problem, however. I don't "own" this site, Miss Kagura does. Without her authorization, I'm not even sure I CAN move it to another host. Sticky ownership questions and things that the hosting company soooo does not want to get caught in... I don't blame them one bit!

This site is still Miss K's baby. This is her intellectual property. Priestess Skye, ladybattousai and I just want to be able to keep it alive UNTIL she comes back to us. To do that, we're going to need a lot of long-term help. It is possible that we might consider hosting advertising, if it comes to that (although Miss K hated that idea with a passion); we are committed to do whatever it takes to keep this site ALIVE.

So, long story made somewhat shorter, WE NEED YOUR HELP! This will be an ongoing effort to accumulate the funds necessary to pay for hosting, hopefully in advance.

Current hosting plan: around $240.00 a month
Curtailed plan: around $184.00 a month

Current funds on hand as of 10:00pm 1/12/11: $309.27

If you can donate funds, please consider it. If you can't, please don't feel bad... consider donating your work - stories, art, beta-work - and contact Priestess Skye to let her know! At any given time, we have over 900 people LOGGED IN. Yes, that's just the logged-in MEMBERS. That does not count the 'guests.' If everyone could give just $2.00, we'd have almost enough to pay for the whole year!

Whatever happens, I want you all to know that I am incredibly proud, awed, and inspired by the love, dedication, support and encouragement that has poured in to the site from around the WORLD since this crisis hit. DOKUGA PEOPLE ROCK!!!!!!!!

~~Wiccan~~

Where can I donate? I can give maybe about five dollars so where can I send it? I want to help. Dokuga MUST stay alive! Where else where I see all you awesome people and read such wonderful Sesshomaru/Kagome goodness?

Hugs,
LadySafire

LadySafire wrote:
Where can I donate? I can give maybe about five dollars so where can I send it? I want to help. Dokuga MUST stay alive! Where else where I see all you awesome people and read such wonderful Sesshomaru/Kagome goodness?

Hugs,
LadySafire

Click on the Supporters link she listed, it gives you and email addie you need over on Paypal. All the information is right at the top of the supporters page .

Is there another form of donation? I had a really bad experience with paypal
(They fought me over a double processing error that was their fault and I didn't get my money for over two months, and I found out later that it happened to a friend of mine too and my mother had another problem, though it wasn't the double processing just the wrong amount altogether!).

Otherwise, I can prolly manage a small donation from time to time..

If there is anything other than paypal, maybe an address I can send a cashiers-check?
Or something, I would love to help.. but I can't support paypal anymore not after what they did.

Other wise I fully trust the Mods/Admins of this site and have no problem sending them a cashiers-check or even just cash.. I will even pay for the postage-insurance if need be. However that comes down to "If" anyone is willing to give a address or P.O. Box.. or something.. so that may be an issue since that is personal info.

Though if there is any other idea as well lemme know, It doesn't have to be mailed just something other than paypal.

=#=War=#=

Wow that is a big website to cover nearly half a terabyte nods. o_O. It might be a good idea to downsize if you can save money in the mean time, but that's entirely up to our lovely admins, nods.

I can't really donate myself. I don't use Paypal, shop online, or trust the internet as being a secure method of monetary transfer. So I apologize in advance, I wouldn't be very helpful there.

I do art stuff, but I'm a little iffy about commishing work, or drawing for other people, since I don't believe I'm good enough for others to pay for my work. It's time consuming too, so yups that's another whack against it.

If you wanted to offer stories as gifts to any of our members that have donated, I'd be willing to assist. Only trouble is I've only ever written fanfiction for Inuyasha, and I'm sketchy at best with other fandoms, except maybe Naruto. I'm also incredibly paranoid about copyright, and would totally prefer any stories I would write for anyone to be 'gifted' like a secret santa or something.

O.o I guess I should PM Priestess Skye! XD Sorry, I read that bit last.

Storm War wrote:
Is there another form of donation?
=#=War=#=

War, I'll be PMing you later, 'k??

Pyerite wrote:
O.o I guess I should PM Priestess Skye! XD Sorry, I read that bit last.

Not to worry, m'dear... just PM Skye and she'll make sure you're on her list!!

~~Wiccan~~

I'm so sorry to hear about this! I was wondering why the site was down for so long. I sent you everything left over in my Paypal account. It was only about $6.50, but I plan on adding some more soon.

I thought of one idea, but I wanted to see what you all thought about it. I'm a knitter and I might be able to do some custom designs to sell. Maybe I could create some things and sell them on ebay/promote them here? I'd be willing to donate all of the proceeds towards the site. What do you think? Or maybe these would work best as "high level" donor gifts? Here are some ideas I've come up with that I think are doable for me. I'm up for any ideas though!

1) A Sesshoumaru inspired scarf (all white with red sakura blossoms? Or maybe try to recreate his gold/purple sash)

2) A Kagome inspired scarf (maybe doing green/white for her school uniform? open to ideas)

3) Sesshoumaru knitted plush (might be hard, but I'll give it a shot!)

4) Kagome knitted plush (again, might be hard but I'll try!)

Hmmmm.....I'll try to think of ideas and draw up some sketches. Any suggestions? Would you admins be okay with this?

Awesome Thanks!
^_^!

=#=War=#=

<3333 i will definitely help out as much as i can wiccan <3

With my computer being dead, I am unable to really earn money and donate. However, if I can talk one of my friends into talking her art professor into letting me use the computers in the art lab that have tablet drivers - I plan to start taking commissions again to buy a new laptop. If I am able to use the lab, I'll dedicate a percent of what I make on each commission towards Dokuga.

If I am unable to, several people on campus have commented on some of the jewelry I've made. So I might start making bunches of stuff and selling them on campus and on DA. So, like with the commissions, I'd put a portion towards Dokuga.

It wont be much, but it'll be something .


*Shriibot loves dokuga.*

I think a fundraiser like WildCat was mentioning would be awesome. People could donate whatever artwork, crafts, stories, or whatever that they could and you could maybe sell them on eBay? Or maybe here. I could do something like this [except Sesshoumaru/Kagome style] (Uh, this is a couple years old...and combines my love of My Little Pony with my love of Inuyasha fandom, lol):
img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/Tiegrsi/Customs/Inucustom3.jpg
img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/Tiegrsi/Customs/INucustom2.jpg

Or something that is just made with clay.

I want to help to!

If you want to commission me for Dokuga stuff, I'll donate % of it to Dokuga also XD.

YAY DOKUGA! LIVE ON!

Hannah Tyson wrote:
I think a fundraiser like WildCat was mentioning would be awesome. People could donate whatever artwork, crafts, stories, or whatever that they could and you could maybe sell them on eBay? Or maybe here. I could do something like this [except Sesshoumaru/Kagome style] (Uh, this is a couple years old...and combines my love of My Little Pony with my love of Inuyasha fandom, lol):
img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/Tiegrsi/Customs/Inucustom3.jpg
img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/Tiegrsi/Customs/INucustom2.jpg

Or something that is just made with clay.

That is SO FREAKIN' CUTE!!!

I've talked to Skye about this and we'll have an Admin confab over the idea a little later... frankly, I am totally in love with the idea of eBay-ing stuff and doing the Promo over here. But that's just me right now. I'll get back to you folks when we reach consensus!

~~Wiccan~~

I'll help any way that I can.

I am defiantly up for donating my skills to do a commission piece. Also I will be donating $$ Monday.

As you already know I'm wore than willing to help! I also get paid tomorrow so be expecting a donation from me sometime after 5 central.

I want to help but........where do I wire the money?

I can donated IY manga issues 1-10 if you want to raffle off fan items. I have extras of those. Just send me an email. Wiccan, you may still have my email, but it is nile at blondish dot net.

HostGators basic server plan is $219/month. I use them (that plan) now after having moved from a previous poor host.

They have other dedicated accounts as well. Just be careful. Not all webhosts are configured up front to handle CMS like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress, so make sure to ask them to make sure your server can handle the CMS Dokuga is on along with the load.

For those who may not have the time to do commissions...

What about an auction?

artists can auction off a piece they've completed- the highest bidder gets the original work or an uncropped/watermarked/grayscaled version sent to them. So basically an 'exclusive' piece (Example and by no means reality in anyway- how many on the site would bid for a limited 'Kami' piece by ROo~~? )

also what about auctioning off a new story or a 'hidden chapter' for some of the more popular fanfics? highest bidder gets to squeel over some hidden information, or over an unpublished piece by a favorite author?

also try special wallpapers - a person who makes a 5 dollar donation can get "LimitedTimeWallpaper1" a person who makes a 10 dollar donation gets "LimitedTimeWallPaper2" etc.

same could be done for special chapters or stories so a 5 dollar donation and the donator gets sent/PM-ed the special hidden chapter.

its more just a 'thank you' and a little extra encouragement to donate ^_^

--------------

also perhaps consider moving somethings off-site to a free host. The forum could use a free forum host for example. This might not reduce the space usage alot but if you lower the GiG having an off-site forum for people to lurk around might keep the site at a decent speed.

For chat maybe consider a free host of some sort? Chat queues rack up space usage quickly if I recall...

If you move some of the chatting and groups to a well known forum format that's free you might even improve the site by creating an easier to access area, with an easier ability to make 'group/club' specific forums. It also means you have an alternative 'safety' host if anything happens to the main site.

A lot about fund-raising is visibility, get a paypal button up ASAP. If people don't see it they won't bother looking. 'advertise' special auction, donation incentives and available fund raising commissions.

Those artists with high viewer Devart accounts, maybe name drop or link a young artist's account in your journal- this can be a reward/encouragement for younger/inexperienced artists to contribute their works and help try to keep Dokuga running. ^__^ It also helps out the young artists and build up the community by supporting each other.
------------------

as for me....

I'm not a good artist but I think I'm a good colorist, so I'd be willing to collaborate with a better line artist to make a piece to auction off ^_^ or use as a special donation wallpaper.

Well I know it's a tad odd, but I'd be willing to help out with making a Sesshy/Kags AMV to a song of the person's choice. I guess it's weird but if it helps I'd be happy to put some hours into pulling hair on Movie Maker.

Sessy21 wrote:
I want to help but........where do I wire the money?

Hello! You can go right here to our Supporters page and it will let you know all of the information you need to donate monetary funds.

Donated One thing to note, some non-US countries won't have the Gift option (or anything about Friends and Family?). I just picked Other under Personal, the main difference is it just makes the person donating pay the fee.

I wouldn't mind doing a few digital or traditional sketch commissions (without backgrounds) for $10 and giving that to Dokuga Unfortunately I can't do anything in colour, because it would take me forever

Shae wrote:
Donated One thing to note, some non-US countries won't have the Gift option (or anything about Friends and Family?). I just picked Other under Personal, the main difference is it just makes the person donating pay the fee.

Thanks for pointing that out, Shae... obviously, I was unsure of how that worked overseas, but I'm glad that I know now!! I will amend the information on the Supporters Page when I update all the statistics tomorrow. And yes, I received your generous donation and you will be getting a personal email in acknowledgment tomorrow as well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

~~Wiccan~~

You're welcome Anything to keep Dokuga going.

Ah that's right, I also had an idea that perhaps you could work out how much things will cost over a year, and then do a donation drive once a year or something? I know I would be willing to donate regular amounts like that, and it looks like many others are willing to keep this community going too.

Shae wrote:
You're welcome Anything to keep Dokuga going.

Ah that's right, I also had an idea that perhaps you could work out how much things will cost over a year, and then do a donation drive once a year or something? I know I would be willing to donate regular amounts like that, and it looks like many others are willing to keep this community going too.

We were just talking about that today!! Talk about great minds thinking alike, eh?

I have had a number of people approach me to say that they'd be willing to do something like that. In addition, it was also suggested that we keep the PayPal information on the Supporters page, just in case anyone drops in with an itch to donate during the "off season," as it were.

Things are still pretty hectic, as you can imagine, but all the finer details will be worked out over the coming days and weeks. I have NO DOUBT that Dokuga will continue to grow and thrive with such talented, dedicated, caring and giving members!!

~~Wiccan~~
PS - It's 3am here.. I think it's time for me to get SLEEPIES! G'night everyone!!