Save the Whales…and LISNews
May 12th, 2004LISnews, has been a staple in the library weblog community since 1999. It has been the driving force behind many library weblogs (mine included) which, without the support and continuous work of Blake, probably would have ceased by now. My point: Blake Carver is one of the driving forces behind the library weblog movement. He was one of the the first library bloggers, is very creative (ie LIShost and LISfeeds), and very knowledgeable. And, I think he needs our thanks.
Besides a pat on the back, which is always appreciated, Blake mentions that he is in a bit of a bind with the hosting of LISNews, which does not sit on the new server at LIShost:
“LISNews is still running on the old server. It turns out Slashcode does not play nice with Apache2, and RHEL, which means even if I can figure out how to get Slashcode to run on the new server (which I am very unsure of at this point), I’d still be paying for 2 servers ($360/month) for at least another month, which really puts me in the hole. I love LISNews, but I need to draw the line now, and start begging for money, or I’m going to need to sell a kidney to pay for this soon.”
So, he needs our help.
“What I’m currently thinking is see if I can raise enough money (by just asking for donations from the LISNews readership) to pay for the second server for the remainder of this year (9 months counting April @$180 a month) and just leave LISNews sit on it’s own server, which is where Slashcode really likes to be anyways (does not play well with others). Maybe by the end of the year there’ll be some updates to Slashcode and I can easily move it over to LISHost, or maybe I can just leave it be, and try to raise enough money to again pay for the server next year.”
“So, here’s my question… can I possibly raise $1620.00? Would you kick in a buck or two? That seems like a heck of alotta money to ask for, but I think I’ve reached the point where I can no longer afford to pay for this all on my own. So, anyone think there’s enough good will amongst the LISNewsterz to get the server paid for through the rest of the year?”
Think about how long you have been reading LISNews. Think about how the stories, editorials, and comments have helped you in your work. In my own experience, I owe most of my current work to Blake because I started writing on LISNews. Let’s give Blake a hand here. I know that more than 1,620 read LISnews every day, so would a dollar from each reader help? I’m not sure how this can work (Pay Pal is terrible), but let’s try to give Blake some help. It’s the least we can do for the service that he has provided to us over the past 5 years.
So, I encourage all library bloggers to mention this on their weblogs, maybe someone can come up with a blog that will help spread the word. How about a logo to place on our blogs? Does anyone have any other ideas as to how we can send him the funds he needs? Library bloggers, to the rescue.
Update: Blake has set up a Pay Pal account to be used for donations. Hey, you may even be able to get a tax write-off (I’ll ask my dad, the accountant). I’ll be making my donation tonight. Now, anyone want to make a logo to place on our weblogs?