Donation to keep our Bootle website online

[Mack]

Amazing looking at that from the past Dan.

Look at the style, fonts, colours from way back then

It's defo Retro...

Mack

[Invicta]

Us longer term members will recall Mack, until recently, never asked for contributions, he funded it all himself. Only at the suggestion of a few members did he , recently and reluctantly accept donations. We even had overseas members supporting the running costs.
Keep the donations coming " every little helps" as Mr Tesco says.
Contact Mack for payment details.
Cheers
Ken

[Mack]

Cheers Ken,

Very quiet with the donations this year.

I think a lot of people have gone over to the social media sites which is to be expected.

I must say though a big thanks to everyone has donated so far for towards the 2023 costs to keep us online.

It's really appreciated.

I'll keep things open regarding donations until December 31, 2023.

If anyone would like to make a donation to help with paying the bills towards hosting and maintenance costs just send me a PM, and I'll give you the details.

Thanks again everyone for your support, and a huge thanks to everyone who has already donated this year.

Mack

[Mack]

Hiya!!!

Just a quick update on how to donate to keep us online - I've added it to the main intro message too...

If you are not yet a member of our Bootle Forum you can get in touch by using the link below which has our email address details.

https://www.bootlehistory.co.uk/bootle-contact.htm

Fingers crossed we will still be here 2024.

Mack

[bjones]

Very quiet with the donations this year.
Mack

Maybe their "INTERNET IS DISCONNECTED" Mack

More seriously; I'm reflecting on the facts that not only do we pay no membership fee but you don't allow so have no income from cookies or advertising.
Feel free to tell me to mind my own B. business but can I ask how many people have donated so far this year? I wonder if you might receive more donations if members realised how few others chip in to the great expense of running this site. Just a thought

[Glenys]

Bee,

[Mack]

Hi Bee,

We've had 14 donations so far.

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped.

Cheers gang.

Mack

[bjones]

FOURTEEN!
That's appalling Mack. Stats at the page bottom show that there are rarely less than 50 people on line at any time. Even if some of this number are "bot thingies" I'm sure there are considerably more than 14 real live human beings who look in and enjoy the Forum!
Hopefully some people are waiting until closer to Christmas to chip in.

Come on folk, the cost of living crisis is affecting everyone including Mack. He shouldn't be expected to shoulder the cost of our entertainment as well as provide his time and expertise free of charge!

[Invicta]

Well said Bee.
Any overseas members who want to chip in can send me cash in USD$ or Euros .I will convert it to GBP£ and transfer it to Mack.
If of interest contact me by PM for address info.
Regards
Ken

[Silver-Haired-Hippy]

Sad to hear how few have donated, as Bee has said, many people look in daily, so they have a interest in the forum, surely there must be members who keep looking in could donate even a minor amount? every penny helps.

Loretta

[Mack]

Hi gang,

I've been cleaning up some old posts so if you see your post count go down here this is the reason why.

Always takes me ages doing this, however it's needed to optimize and reduce the size of the database and also reduce the loading time of our web forums pages.

Dan asked to remove old posts from the 'Assorted photos from t'internet' section which is in our Chat About Anything section.

This is due to the Twitter 'X' posts there. Elon Musk has been breaking Twitter since he took it over.

I'd advise against using Twitter links in future due to it looking like he may end up putting content from there behind a paywall.

Post Images still appears to be working correctly for free (link below).

https://postimages.org

And any of your Youtube video links you wish to share here should also work.

Thanks for your support everyone and get in touch if you would like to make a donation to keep us online.

Cheers,

Mack

[Tommy L]

Sad to hear how few have donated, as Bee has said, many people look in daily, so they have a interest in the forum, surely there must be members who keep looking in could donate even a minor amount? every penny helps.

Loretta

You got me thinking , Loretta....................

If my maths are correct.............???

177 new members joined this year to date 2023
176 posted less than ten times or NOT AT ALL
1 posted more than 10 times.

Maybe its time to introduce an annual nominal charge FOR POSTERS,
Free to look..............but PAY to POST.
Just a thought as it looks like the long timers are reducing in numbers [ and their contributions ]

Tommy

[bjones]

Good thinking Tommy but I think Mack could end up worse off; I have an idea that some of the most generous donors rarely post nowadays although they still look in regularly.
Also some members make posts simply to acknowledge the efforts and encourage others or simply to keep the Forum alive.

More importantly though, I understand that Mack has always refused to allow cookies and adverts or make a membership fee. As far as I'm aware this is because the site could be considered a business and there could be legal implications as well as income tax liability etc I think Mack likes to keep it simple; any donations towards the running costs can be deemed as gifts.
Please correct me if I'm misguided Mack.

[Mack]

Hiya Bee and Tommy,

Yes, it originally started as a Lottery funded project 'Young Roots' in 2005 at the Bootle YMCA, Park Street. However, this was only for 1 year and was never intended to continue any further after 2006.

This is why the main site still has content on it from 2005 to 2006 on it. There has never been any funding since to pay me to upgrade it, so I just continued to maintain the web forum til now.

Up until a few years ago I just continued to pay all the bills myself to keep the forum online and then started taking donations to help towards the hosting and running costs which has helped to keep us online.

The intention was never to run it as a business, it's just a community resource for everyone.

Cheers,

Mack

[Mack]

Thanks to Paul and Glenys for the recent donations

I picked them up earlier today.

Thanks so much for supporting our Bootle Forum.

Mack

[Mack]

Big thanks to J FLAN (partial name) for the donation. Not sure of your username here.

Thanks so much for helping us to stay online.

Bezzies,

Mack

[Dan]

Link to the February 6 2007 forum font page from the wayback machine.

If you scroll down a little, you can see the Lottery Fund logo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070206045 ... story.com/

Clicking on the Click Here prompt is a bit of pot luck. You could end up anywhere from 2006 to 2009.

The topics show up, and some of the threads open.

[Bonesy]

16 years ago, wowzerbowzer that's so a tad weird.
But understandable from you.


Keith

[Mack]

It's amazing looking at the forum back then too. Looks like none of the links work there though. It is an archive though from 16 years ago as Keith mentioned so that's to be expected.

232 members back then.

Mack