erin's blog

Hatbox Funds Needed Near the End of the Month

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Thanks to everyone who has contributed, seriously, we could not do this without you.

We still have close to $1200 in bills to pay in the next week or so and about $400 in the bank. We had an unexpected bill for close to $700 show up and caught us short.

As usual the links to the Hatbox page and the Janglewood page can also be found in the right hand column under the picture of the kitty.

Hugs,
Erin

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Rules

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I just want to say that I'm encouraged and discouraged both by recent discussions of unpubbing stories, kudos, criticism and the like.

I've demoted two blogs concerned with those subjects off the front page, not because they were unimportant but because I felt that they were both beginning to attract comments that some people could feel were unfriendly.

In general, people are trying to say things they think are encouraging or helpful but I've been doing this for fifteen years and I have a sense of when something is being said that can too easily be misinterpreted. So....

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Hatbox Funds Needed Soon

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We have about $3000 in bills due before the end of the month and the HatBox has only about $600 in it, including the $300 or so received so far this month. So anything that anyone can send will help us pay our bills on time.

Next month, Amazon changes the way things work with their Payments interface and we hope to have our new version of the Hatbox up and running well before that. We think you are going to like it and it should make helping us pay our bills more pleasant and maybe even more fun. :)

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Hatbox Funds Needed

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About a week left in the month and we are at about 70% for our goal for April.

Please, if you can contribute, use one of these links to send us a gift thru Amazon or thru P**P** on the Janglewood page.

We're going to have some great things happening in the next few months. :)

Thanks and hugs,
Erin, Piper, Cat, Katie and Sephrena

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Contributions needed, still short of our Hatbox goal for April

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A number of people stepped up in the last week and contributed almost $1000. Thank you all, thank you very much.

Because of gifts from our readers we are able to continue to maintain this site and support other sites in the community. It costs money. This last week, we have paid out in excess of $2000 in co-location fees, software license fees, purchase of hardware for upgrades, payments on loans and miscellaneous little charges. Almost half of that comes from our advertisers and sales of books but the other half came from readers and contributors to the site.

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New database server online

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The new database server is up and running and will help BC keep up with our ever-increasing traffic and expanding archive of stories.

There should not be anymore outages today, though the risk is higher than ordinary until a shakedown period with the database is done. If the new server fails, it should just drop out of the local net and not cause an outage and changes have been made to the config to allow future three-wheeled and two-wheeled operation of the local net when necessary without outages.

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Short outage expected, some time today or in the morning

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We're installing a third database server and during configuration, we will have to take the site down for a short time to synchronize the new machine with the other two. This should be no more than 15 minutes or so but might have to happen more than once if anything goes wrong. Just wanted to warn everybody.

Hugs,
Erin and Piper

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Yes, we do have the nerve to ask for gifts

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We still need the money to keep providing a friendly place to read, write and discuss TG Fiction.

I've updated the numbers in the The Hatbox heads up, again. Thanks to those who have donated. We're still a bit short and we've spent something close to $2400 bucks in the last few days so we will still be needing some soon to pay more bills and keep our internet connection and stuff like that. April is here and we are still working on March.

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Story Posting Database Problems: Attn Paul Cousins

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We had a serious database problem this morning involving four stories that got corrupted. We rescued the text of the four stories, though we had to repost Badasses of the Multiverse 14 which got lost somewhere between here and Miraz (which is a star in the Big Dipper).

Anyway, the problem may have been caused by a DOS attack, we're not sure.

But Paul Cousins, Shauna, Louise Anne, and Taralyn should check their stories to be sure they have been restored properly. I'm sorry but if anyone had made comments on those four stories or left kudos, those are gone.

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Moving problems and the Hatbox

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There's been a snag in Piper's plans to move this weekend. The deal has been hung up by a glitch in the space being ready to rent and she can't move in as planned. The move had been pretty much financed but the snag is going to cost a few days in a motel, and boarding for Penny, the Labrador, an unexpected expense. I can loan her the money but it would be a lot less stress on me if I know that we have met our contribution goals in the Hatbox for the month.

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BigCloset Bills Coming Due

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We just paid about $2000 in bills and we have another $600 due next week. To top it up, Piper is moving this weekend and will need an advance to help with paying deposits and such. We're down to the last $300 in our company bank accounts right now.

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Database problem

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We had a small database problem this morning which has been cleared up. We will be working on a permanent solution to this later this month with adding two more database servers. If you had problems posting this morning it was likely due to the database timing out while trying to update tables.

Let us know via email, PM, or status message if you are still having problems.

Hugs,
Erin

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Donations for February

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We're asking for more this month, $3000, because we are just not quite making all our payments on the debts owed by the site and the extra money is coming from me.

We're also developing at least one other site for the BCTS community and we have someone helping us with the expenses for that. More news on that development later in the month.

Many thanks to everyone who makes a gift to keep BC working.

Hugs to all,
Erin, Piper, Cat, Katie, Sephrena and all the volunteers

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Still short of our goal for January...

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Please, if you can, help us keep BC alive and kicking. All the bills this week added up to about $1400, including internet connectivity, hosting and various software licenses we had to renew. It doesn't have to be a big check or a big gift, every little bit helps.

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Bills coming due - Gifts needed

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It's that time of month again. The server bills are due, payments on the debts we owe, and some money to keep Piper from having to look for other work.

Anything you can spare will be appreciated, and if you can't give, well, we know that that happens.

Electronic giving can be done through the Hatbox or through Janglewood or send me a PM for a snail mail address.

Thank you all and Happy New Year!

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End of the year and a little short

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It's the beginning of a new year and we are still a bit short on our goals. It's always a bit difficult at this time of year since there are so many other things to put money into.

If you can give some though, the links are in the right hand side bar and here: Give through Amazon and Give through P**P**.

Or you can PM me for other ways to donate.

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Bills due, donations needed

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We've added some more stories to the Hatbox, so if you have the passwords, you can check them out. If you've donated in the past year and DON'T have the passwords, let me know in a PM. :)

If you haven't donated, now would be a good time. :)

If you donate through Amazon, the thank you screen will show you the passwords. If you donate some other way, you can PM me and I will send them.

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Happy TGDay

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Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans and our friends everywhere.

And many thanks,
Erin, Piper, Cat and the gang

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I'm back safely

Blog About: 

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I'm back home after most of a week spent with Piper and Cat (and Becky and Amy and Liam) in the wilds of South Jersey. I had a lot of fun and we had our BC meeting in a Chinese restaurant in Glassboro. It was pouring down rain so that may have affected our turnout but we did have two more people show up for the meeting.

More later it is late in the early morning and I'm pooped. :)

Hugs to all,
Erin

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Hatbox Gifts Still Short of Goal to Keep BC Running

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We've gotten a lot of contributions so far this month and thanks to everyone who has chipped in. After paying hundreds in bills this month, we are current on all but one of them. We've got some more bills coming at the end of the week and early next month, and we're a bit short of our goal with less than a week to go, so whatever any one can do will be greatly appreciated.

Someone wanted a breakdown of expenses. I've done this before but it gets complicated and lately I haven't been doing it. But here it is in round numbers.

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Gifts Are What Keep BC running...

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It's that time of month again. We've already paid several hundred in bills this month and we will be paying about more hosting fees and software fees later in the month, plus the amount we pay Piper for being available for all the work she does.

As always, these gifts are greatly appreciated and go for more than just keeping BC online since we host several other community sites and are getting involved with several more.

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Not Ignoring "Ignore User"

Since the recent upgrade, the module "Ignore User" has been throwing errors in the logs for the site. It appears that the module was not properly updated for the newest version of the coding language used in the rest of the software; it's out of step. Accordingly, we have turned it off temporarily.

We hope that the maintainer of the IU module will release a new version soon, but if he doesn't, we will step up and hack the code to fix the problem. IU is part of what helps keep the peace around here and gets a lot of use. We will restore it to use as quickly as practicable.

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Donations still needed

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This month is a particularly heavy one for bills. We have over $1000 in bills for hosting due before the end of the month, this is because several annual payment contracts are expiring. Others will expire next month and in November.

Donations are our major way to fund BCTS, not to slight our advertisers who help us out enormously but advertising is less than 25% of our revenue. We've only received about 1/3 of the amount we need for the month, so far.

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BigCloset Picnic - November 1

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In memory of Holly Hart, today is a good day to announce the upcoming BigCloset picnic. I will be in New Jersey the weekend of November 1, this year. Piper lives there and Cat will be visiting from Old Blighty. November 1 is a Saturday.

Holly organized the meetings in Northern California two and three years ago and they went very well. I hope we can do as well.

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$1500 in bills coming due before end of the month

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We're a bit over $1000 short of our goal for this month and the bills are coming due. The big one, $528 for hosting is due at the end of the week. We've already paid bills for cloud connectivity, ISP, renewal of domain names and bought a switch to replace one our network has outgrown.

Income from Janglewood/QnEZ/Cyberbrats so far just goes to expenses directly related to services offered to our clients and to expanding our access to new services, donations at BigCloset are more than 80% of what we bring in to keep all our TG websites operating.

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Still a bit short in the Hatbox Donations

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We have several bills coming due at the end of the month, ISP service, domain renewals, paying off the loans we took out for equipment and personal bills like rent. If you can help, it will be appreciated.

Donations to make sure these sites keep operating can be made via the Amazon Hatbox Page or via the links on the Janglewood Page.

Thank you and hugs from all of us,
Erin, Piper, Cat and all the volunteers

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