SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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 Tuesday January 04 2022, @12:24AM (4 children)
You seem to be taking this entirely too seriously, janrinok. Entertaining, if you were not an editor.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 04 2022, @02:18AM (3 children)
I imagine it doesn't seem so to janrinok.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:13AM (2 children)
The problem, exactly.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:33AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:45AM
Many in our community are complaining about the number of spurious off-topic comments that appear in threads and are asking why we do nothing about it. The stories are there to generate a discussion and some are more successful than others. However, trying to change the subject under discussion by hijacking the comments and raising one's own personal objections and complaints about spurious matters is one of the things that quickly drives people away from a thread. Repeated occurrences could result in a temporary comment or moderation ban.
Raising complaints about moderation is ALWAYS off topic and there are procedures detailed elsewhere on the site [soylentnews.org] explaining how to alert staff when you think that specific types of moderation abuse have occurred. The sending of an email is by far the most efficient method to use as there is no guarantee that comments on IRC will be seen immediately. You MUST include the comment identity number (CID) in ALL complaints.
A lot of work might have gone into the preparation of a story - from the moment somebody decides to make a submission to it appearing on the front page. Spoiling a discussion is disrespectful to other community members and a cause of some annoyance to all of those involved, and particularly to those who wish to hold a sensible discussion about the topic in hand.
There are plenty of alternative ways to raise personal complaints and we do not object to anyone raising genuine concerns and issues. But some use thread hijacking as a means of keeping their own visibility and personal issues in everybody's face. This is unacceptable and we will do our best to prevent it where possible. If in doubt, an email to admin@[the usual address] will get the most timely response from staff. It is important that a complaint provides sufficient information for us to identify and act on the issue in a timely manner.