Mini Donation Drive

[Rias]

I pondered a good while before deciding to post this. I'm attempting a little donation drive for two purposes.

1) It's my daughter BriAnna's birthday next Friday (she's turning 7, yay!). It's been a heck of a year for me and my family personally so far (a heck of two years, as a matter of fact), and we're cutting things so close we can't really afford to get her a present above K-mart quality. I know: sad. I'm trying any methods I can to pick up a little quickly-available cash so we can get her a modest gift or two (we leave the expensive stuff to my mom, who insists on big presents). She mostly wants a book about Minecraft and some art/craft supplies.

2) As people may or may not know, CLOK is generously hosted on Jirato's server free of charge. However, I believe Jirato does pay out of pocket for his server, which is in a fancy data center and all that. Half of any donations over the next week will go to him to help cover those costs as a way of thanking him for his generosity - if my daughter's presents are fully paid for via donations (around $20 should cover it), anything beyond that will go to Jirato's server costs.

I hope this isn't in awful taste or anything. If you do donate, feel free to add a little note or specify your character name or real name so I can add them to a birthday card for BriAnna. I'd like to give credit where it's due.

[Skah]

I don't think it's in poor taste at all. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of time and effort that you and the other GMs dedicate to Clok. I've certainly got a lot more hours of enjoyment out of it than the average game I buy. So, count me in.

[Noctere]

If you don't feel like searching for the donate button on the CLOK wiki you can also...

CLICK HERE!

[Rias]

Wow. Sincerest thanks to those who donated! BriAnna's presents are paid for and Jirato has had his server expenses lightened.

Bri thought it was really cool to have people from CLOK helping out for her birthday gifts (she's played a time or two), and she wants to do something to show her thanks, so I'll take a picture of and post whatever it is she ends up doing.

You guys are awesome. Thanks for saving Christmas- er, BriAnna's birthday. I'll try my darndest to keep CLOK worth spending your time playing!

[Jirato]

A good sized chunk of this month's server lease payments have been covered by everyone's generous donations, and I'd like just to offer my sincere thanks. I always feel kinda bad accepting money from others, and when Rias said he'd send the overflow my way for help with the server payments, I really had mixed feelings. But it really has been a huge help and I am very grateful to everyone who helped.

[criticalfault]

I still have to kick some your way friends. once the pay check arrives, donation will be on its way!

[merin]

I hope BriAnna has an awesome birthday! :)

[Evelyn]

Happy Birthday BriAnna! I wanted to donate but I don't use paypal, is there another way?

[Rias]

Paypal's the only easy way I know of, unfortunately.

By the way, I know I made a thread somewhere about some IG rewards (item/mount alterations, etc.) for those who donate - I'll need to look it up and add some new ideas to it, so I can show my thanks to the generous donators.

[Skah]

I'm glad Brianna had a good birthday!

This is a little thing, but personally I hope any rewards are entirely cosmetic (item reskins and the like) for RP purposes, rather than granting mechanical advantages. I was happy to donate, but am really wary of "freemium" reward models in MUDs, that can make things unbalanced. (I'm talking about you, Iron Realms, Aardwolf, and Ateraan!)

[Rias]

Yeah, in that thread it states that any rewards from donations are purely cosmetic and don't impart any mechanical benefits. I don't want CLOK to be pay-to-excel.

Another thing I was considering is some kind of custom channel prep messaging for channelers.