Yes, the time has come. A large number of you folks have only recently found
this list, others of you have been around for years, and have been assaulted
with similar stories before. The bottom line is that I want your money.
No, I am not planning a cruise through the islands at your expense. What I
would like is a new machine. The total traffic related to the mailing lists
is getting up there. The regular mail distribution, the Web service, the FTP
access, it all takes a slice of time from the machine here on my desk. At
times, such as right after the SCCA Solo nationals when the autocross list
gets busier than ever, it makes a significant impact on the load of my machine.
And when I say a significant impact on my machine I mean waiting minutes, not
seconds, for my shell prompt to come back, while some email address is getting
resolved, or majordomo is cranking away on a request or whatever. I could
just pull the plug, or go to digests only so I can get the full use of my
machine.
I say "my machine" but it is really a machine dedicated to servicing the needs
of the University of Utah Department of Computer Science. And I have to say
that the automotive mailings have nothing to do with Computer Science.
But the British car list, Triumphs, MGs, autocross and such have very much to
do with what I am. I do not want to just say that things are too much, and
just turn it off. I want to continue the service as it stands. Well, in
truth I would like to improve the service, we shall see if that comes about.
I want you folks to buy yourselves a dedicated machine. Something I can stick
over here on the corner of my desk, cranking away day and night on Team.Net
mail, FTP access, whatever, while I use my my machine to make my living. A
decent 486 PC, maybe a Pentium, whatever, no fancy graphics, and we have
already bought a disk for it. Maybe even a low end HP700 workstation, so I
can just copy over the software.
There are roughly 4,000 folks getting mail from lists here at autox.team.net,
and I was asked if the Sunbeam Alpines and Tigers list could be added.
Earlier the Mini list was in trouble, and I blew that off due to already being
close to overload. True, some of those 4,000 addresses are really the same,
since folks do subscribe to more than one list. But gee, if I got $10 a year
from each and every one, I could be a full time automotive mailing list dude.
But that is pretty unlikely. Much more realistic is getting about $5 from
about 5% of those folks, roughly $1,000. That could be enough to buy a
machine that can handle the load. Besides, a dedicated machine could be stuck
on the other side of the firewall, improving FTP access for some folks.
So here's the deal. I'm going to beg for money for the next three months.
It is now the middle of October, let's say we run this campaign until the
new year, January 1996. I can maintain things that long before I just pull
the plug. Send me your money before then. Okay, some of you have already
sent me a check in recent memory, some of you are poor students who honestly
can't afford to help, some of you are just plain cheap, enjoying a free ride
at other's expense. Fine, don't worry about it, delete this message now.
The lists are still free for the asking, I'm not going to keep track of who
doesn't contribute. Not at this point, anyway.
I will, however, keep track of those who do contribute. Well, some of you.
If you send in $49.99 or less, I won't account for it. I'll take it as a
personal contribution for the efforts expended so far, perhaps an email note
to thank you for your help. It will still go towards the new machine fund,
just don't expect anything. If that is unacceptable, don't send me any money.
If you send in more than $50, I will make a note of it. The check will get
deposited into the bank, but it won't be spent for a while. On or about
January 1, 1996, I will take a look at the contributions made. Let's pick
$1,200 as the goal. By Christmas, $1,200 could get a fairly fast PC with the
needed accessories. If the total in the "New Machine Fund" is less than
$1,200 come January 1, or if I just get fed up and pull the plug, those who
sent $50 or more will get a check from me that repays their contribution.
Those who sent in less than $50 will be buying me a few brews for my past and
future efforts. If you send in more than $50 and want to buy me a few brews
regardless of the fund status, let me know. [Fat Chance!]
If there is more than $1,200 in the fund, I'll be shopping the after holiday
clearance sales for a dedicated Team.Net server. If there's only $1,142.89
I'll still consider it. I will try to keep folks updated on the fund progress
over the next few months.
If you have the bucks, give what you can. If you don't have any extra cash,
don't worry about it, enjoy the list with a clean conscience. It is your
choice. In the meantime, I will try to come up with a way to reward, say,
the top 10 contributors. Assuming there are at least that many. Yes, the
total number of addresses that get mail from this machine is on the order of
4000. And I fully expect that for every person who contributes, there will
be about 100 freeloaders.
If this fund drive fails, chances are there will be NO freeloaders on the
remaining lists.
Send checks or money orders, payable to Fat Chance Garage, to the following
address:
Fat Chance Garage
PO Box 58333
Salt Lake City, UT 84158
[The $1,200 figure is based on the 1.2 million outgoing messages that the 4
busiest lists generated in September. That's one tenth of one cent per
message. I know, pretty exorbitant!]
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