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Happy New Year!
As the final hours of 2021 here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
In light of the holiday, I am inviting the editorial staff to post stories on a weekend/holiday schedule. Thank you for all your hard work in 2021. Here's wishing for a better year to come! Enjoy!
We did it! [*]
([*] I think).
Current Status:
Thanks to a VERY generous subscription of nearly $1,000, we reached our fundraising goal for the second half of the year THANK YOU!: $4,132.81 on a goal of $3,500.00 (all amounts are estimates):
mysql> SELECT SUM(payment_net) AS Net, 100.0 * SUM(payment_net) / 3500.00 AS GoalPercent, MAX(ts), MAX(spid), NOW() FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts > '2021-06-30' ;
+---------+-------------+---------------------+-----------+---------------------+
| Net | GoalPercent | MAX(ts) | MAX(spid) | NOW() |
+---------+-------------+---------------------+-----------+---------------------+
| 4132.81 | 118.0802857 | 2021-12-30 17:36:36 | 1744 | 2021-12-30 23:45:49 |
+---------+-------------+---------------------+-----------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)mysql>
And for those of you interested in the details:
mysql> SELECT spid, ts, payment_gross, payment_net, payment_type FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts > '2021-12-29 22:06:03' AND payment_gross > 0 ORDER BY ts ;
+------+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+
| spid | ts | payment_gross | payment_net | payment_type |
+------+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+
| 1728 | 2021-12-29 23:16:21 | 20.00 | 18.81 | user |
| 1729 | 2021-12-30 00:15:05 | 100.00 | 96.80 | user |
| 1730 | 2021-12-30 01:08:02 | 20.00 | 19.12 | user |
| 1731 | 2021-12-30 01:13:58 | 30.00 | 28.01 | user |
| 1732 | 2021-12-30 01:45:50 | 50.00 | 48.25 | user |
| 1733 | 2021-12-30 02:35:54 | 40.00 | 38.54 | user |
| 1734 | 2021-12-30 03:12:48 | 20.00 | 18.81 | user |
| 1735 | 2021-12-30 04:24:07 | 924.43 | 897.32 | user |
| 1736 | 2021-12-30 07:05:37 | 20.00 | 18.51 | user |
| 1737 | 2021-12-30 07:50:05 | 20.00 | 18.51 | gift |
| 1738 | 2021-12-30 09:23:14 | 20.00 | 19.12 | gift |
| 1739 | 2021-12-30 12:22:42 | 20.00 | 18.51 | user |
| 1740 | 2021-12-30 12:24:24 | 20.00 | 18.81 | user |
| 1741 | 2021-12-30 13:59:52 | 40.00 | 38.11 | user |
| 1742 | 2021-12-30 17:33:36 | 20.00 | 19.12 | gift |
| 1743 | 2021-12-30 17:35:13 | 20.00 | 19.12 | gift |
| 1744 | 2021-12-30 17:36:36 | 20.00 | 19.12 | gift |
+------+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+
17 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql>
That's great news! So why the equivocation?
Looking Closer:
Actually, it's more of a stepping back to look at things over the course of the entire year:
mysql> SELECT SUM(payment_gross) AS Gross, SUM(payment_net) AS Net, ts, max(spid) AS SPID FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts > '2020-12-31' ;
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| Gross | Net | ts | SPID |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| 6916.61 | 6611.75 | 2020-12-31 21:47:25 | 1744 |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)mysql>
The fundraising goal for the first half of the year was also $3,500.00. So... (2 x $3,500.00) is $7,000.00 but we have a total of... $6,916.61?
The Crash:
And then I remembered. Early this year we had a server (fluorine) crash. We had backups (yay!), but they were borken (Boo! Hiss!). We lost over a day's worth of activity, including a number of subscriptions. I *was* able to manually reconstruct people's subscriptions (time) based on information displayed on a window I just happened to have open at the time. But that was in a table separate from what is used to generate these numbers. After 3 days' effort, I'd patched things up as well as I could. Thankfully the official numbers (on which income and taxes are calculated) are kept on a completely separate server. Whew! One that I DO NOT have access. I'd concluded that we'll just have to sort things out at the end of the year. And that time has draw nigh.
tl;dr:
We're probably all set for the year, but there is also the matter that (unknown to me) we had previously been running at a deficit for a couple years. So anything additional you can contribute will go to replenish our funding base. (NCommander and Matt_ each put up $5,000.00 of their own money that to get us started.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 01 2022, @11:21PM (1 child)
I ask the following question without any intent of being snarky toward you.
You and others have said there's not enough help with editing stories, that it's time consuming and there's not enough staff to post as many stories as in the past. Why would anyone volunteer now to help this site?
Nobody gets paid for working on the site. It seems like much of the discussion is about politics and takes place in journals, not in the actual stories. It seems like being snarky toward editors is almost a sport given how much it happens. Whether it's sock puppet accounts or trolls hiding behind AC posts, it seems like less than a thankless job. I know, I'm no saint when it comes to civility, and I regret the rude things I've said in the past. But incivility seems to be the norm around here for many people, without regard for how it affects the people on the receiving end of the attacks.
It seems like the value of being a staff member would be less than zero considering the time commitment, lack of pay, and the nasty behavior of some users. I can't imagine I'd have the patience for be continually insulted by people hiding behind anonymity. Maybe the staff are better people than I, to put up with it.
I work as a professor by day in a physical science. I'm temporary faculty and the pay isn't all that great, so I'm trying to build a business on the side. I also need to make time for family and for my own health. If there was some intrinsic value to volunteering for this site, perhaps it would make sense to help out in the time I have left over. But I'm not seeing the intrinsic value, particularly given the lousy behavior by some individuals in this thread and others in this story. Like many faculty members, we might get ten favorable student evaluations, but the one or two rude ones are what remember. What am I missing?
If you could convince me that I'm missing something, that there really is intrinsic value that offsets the time commitment and foul behavior of some people here, I might consider volunteering. But I think I'd have a really hard time volunteering to edit stories that will get few comments if the only "reward" is rude comments and attacks like what's on display in many comments here. Again, what am I missing?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday January 02 2022, @04:04AM
Nothing, nothing at all. But the good community members far outnumber those whom we would be happy to see go elsewhere. Posting as AC doesn't necessarily make a bad post any more than posting under a pseudonym ensures a good one. The good members might not be as vocal as as the others but we provide this site for them - and are very pleased to be able to do so.
We are a victim of one of our core beliefs - Freedom of speech is priceless and should be protected. And that means those with whom we disagree also have the same right. But if that risks the very existence of the site then as a community we may have to take decisions that we would rather not have to take.
I also have a pseudo motto : Illegitimi non carborundum - which can be loosely translated [wikipedia.org] as 'Don't let the bastards grind you down!'