Jeff

Oh, I forgot, someone asked for a pic like this Will admin/code for donations

you can use the donation link to generate an email for a snail mail address. We have had money orders and even cash come to us through the mail service

Thanks everyone They are the same really, I just call it a "subscription" since we do offer benefits that expire after one year. We do not have a set donation amount, so "subscription" might also refer to the estimated cost of a magazine for those who have no idea what they would like to donate. Some have donated once per year, some all throughout the year, and some choose not to donate. It all depends on the person, and what your current situation may be. I try to make it easy, keep Greytalk going, and not make anyone feel out of place if they can only make a small donation, or none at all.

This is also a good time to renew your GT Supporter status if you were one of the first takers last year. Today April 16th is the first day that many of the original donation “Subscriptions” start to expire. Check your account today You can check the status of your “subscriptions” You can see when they were made, what denomination, and also when they expire. Click “My Controls” then “Support Greytalk” To see a sample of what it will look like, click HERE

Now, well into its fourth year of operation, Greytalk has an established web presence. During the first two years I had taken the sole burden of all operating costs. In April of 2003 Greytalk began accepting donations after turning them down in the past. Our donation drive went very well. In the last year due to donations, we have been able to cover all monthly reoccurring operating expenses and introduce new features and options. Just some of the benefits we have seen already are: New more powerful server Reviewpost Software Visit Photopost Software (GT Support Gallery) Visit RealChat Software (our chat room) Registered version of our Forum Many server side additions to keep things running smoothly and securely. New Support Ticketing System (not ready to debut yet) Total operating expenses from April 2003 through April 2004 were $3205.10 We still have a few dollars left in our piggy bank, but it is thinning out. Just in time for our annual donation drive to kick off again. If you feel Greytalk has ever given you something to think about, saved you a trip to the vet, saved you money on food, toys, or helped you sell your own product, I'd like to ask that you please think about making a donation. I try to think of Greytalk as a magazine or an online digest. If you feel the same, please think about making a “subscription” donation. Last year we went into this blind and did not officially offer any bonus for those who made donations. I wanted to test the waters and see how the community did. You all did great, and I really appreciate it. Those who did donate know that we did in fact offer benefits even if they were not advertised. GT Support Members who make a donation are put into the GT Supporter group. In addition to taking an active role in the development of Greytalk, here are some of the additional benefits which will remain part of your profile for one year from the date of your last donation. Logo Personal Photo Gallery with full control and remote linking to the forum. A Photo Album link will also appear in your profile so members can easily find your pictures if you choose to make them public. See the Gallery HERE Edit your posts anytime, not just within 30 minutes of posting PM more than one (5) people at the same time, no more copy/paste to different users Store 100 PMs rather than 50 Avoid flood control (Posting too fast) Attach images into every forum, not just the Cute and Funny... forum. Access to a Special "GT Support" forum, for any other needs I have made 2 new links on the forum. In the upper right of the blue banner, you will see a “Make Donation” link, and also a new button at the bottom of the main page. They will take you to another information page, after which, you can make a decision whether you would like to make a donation. This year you can also check the status of your “subscriptions” You can see when they were made, what denomination, and also when they expire. Click “My Controls” then “Support Greytalk” Thank You, Jeff Rosenberg Greytalk.com

where is the "They never shut up" option?

Yes, and most I have dealt with are quacks! (non specialists)

Even though my mailing address is public because of the domain name, I don't post it here in the forum. I have sent a few reply e-mails out today for those who requested my address, yours may have been one of those. If not, please e-mail me and I'll get you that address.

great #6 Thank you!

Thank you, Today has been a busy day. 5 donations

Thanks everyone

Apollo and Demi do NOT have their dew claws. Lexie still has hers.

I voted only when they need it, and I’d say quarterly is about when they do.

The server is housed in Texas at EV1.net

thank you

I never really thought about that. I guess so. It would reflect in your account, or someone elses if you wanted.

Grey Dad, what are Trolls? Take a look AT THIS

The moderators here are a HUGE help to Greytalk. When we first started out, I was able to read and reply to just about every post. I felt like I was talking to myself most of the time, but it helped get the forum underway. Kim ( BarkBack.com ) and I started our forums about the same time. I saw she had a real cool way to change pages. I didn’t know anything about web page speed then So I contacted her, and we helped each other build our comminutes to our liking. Kim and I look after the administration issues of each others forums, in the absence of the other. She is a big help to Greytalk in that she uses the same software on her forum. She knows the ins and outs of administration and is a non-bias moderator as well. Since she is owned not by greyhounds, but a Boxer and German Shepard. She knows how devious we Greyhound parents are and can see thorough our façade. About six months into it, I began to get a little overwhelmed with the speed at which Greytalk began to grow, I could no longer read and reply to every thread personally. We also had our first “trolls” come by and I could not be around all day to deal with them. This is when Virginia (Greytdawg) was asked to be a moderator. She is a big help, especially since she is in the west coast time zone, so while the rest of us are sleeping, she can watch over the forums. I remember the first time I had to close a thread, I felt so bad about it, that is why Kim (the executioner) is here now Another six months went by and Greytdawg and I were again getting flooded with moderation issues. Sandy (GHLady) was asked if she would like to help moderate. Sandy was a big help because like Kim, she was able to easily close topics that needed to be. Due to personal commitments Sandy didn’t feel she could continue to devote the time needed of Greytalk moderators, so she turned in her wings a few months later, but continues to visit and is an active member in the community. Virginia and I kept going for a few months, and were just getting over run. We needed more help as Greytalk continued to grow. Jan was next to fit the bill. Not only is she a great moderator, but she possesses some technical ability that is a huge help to me. I have lots of work to do maintaining the forums as you have been able to see this past week. Having Jan here really helps alleviate all the tedious things like maintaining the avatars, photo album, signature help, etc. She is also a fast learner, so while I am deployed, she can now make sure we have current backups on hand in case of a disaster. (like this week) Paula (Jan’s sister) jumped on the bandwagon a few months after that. Paula is the word master, she has a way of taking what I want to say (just shut up and deal with it) and cleaning it up to sound better If it is more than 3 lines and coming from me, you can almost be assured it was ran through Paula first. (Not really, but it seems like that sometimes) Paula and Jan both are responsible for fixing many of my spelling typo errors too Trudy is our late comer, and our newest moderator. She strikes a good balance between good and evil and in the past has had the time and will to read most of the posts. She also has a good sense of humor and great common sense. Some of the things I read and want to respond too with “duh!” she does for me in a much more polite way So to answer your question, what do the moderators do?? Well they do a lot. They ensure that this 1000+ community stays flowing in a smooth and orderly fashion, they attend to most problems members have with their profiles (avatars, signatures, lost passwords, etc.) they also handle and steer threads back on course or close them. They can delete, edit, merge, or split threads to help the flow of the forums. They can restrict trolls access in many ways, and they can lend a hand to anyone who needs it. We all routinely get bombarded with e-mails or PMs from people requesting this or that. You would be surprised at the things that go along with running a forum this size. I know I was, and continue to be. Thanks for all you girls do!

Since starting in April we are doing very well. We are paying the monthly lease on the server, and for server upgrades like we did last week. We held off for two and a half years before we accepted donations, and the Greytalk grew into a generous and caring community. Thanks everyone

I think the new GT Supporter image will help quite a bit. It certainly has generated a lot of interest in the last 5 hours I may "reset" the GT Supporter member group once a year though, I have not yet decided that. Since donations come in all year long, I don't have a good system in place to do that for me.

Any time is OK, that is probably why you never noticed this thread. I am not going to badger people about donations I want to be subtle. I figure I'll "ask" once a year, I started last April, so I won't make a new thread about it until next April. I won't want people to think they need to make donations.

Last months logs show visitors from the following: Canada Australia United Kingdom United States Poland Spain Switzerland Netherlands New Zealand Greece Belize Japan Italy Singapore Germany Belgium Brazil Sweden France Norway Mexico Argentina Greytalk was started in August 20th of 2000. I was a member on the old FASTDOGS.com forum and was frustrated that the text based forum did not allow me to post a picture. Bob (fastdogs.com) was having a bit of trouble with the forum at that time as well. I set up a trial forum on ezboard just to play around. I needed to use a different username, and that is how “Grey Dad” came to be. Usually I use Coastie, or Jeff as a username in forums. Anyway, we did a quick 2 week test over on ezboard, and it went over well with the small user base that we had. Greytalk was born, and grew consistently, but at a moderate pace over the year. I remember hitting 100 users and how happy I was. Ezboard while easy had it’s problems. They started charging outrageous fees to use their product, had ever increasing and more annoying pop-up ads and such. In October or 2001 I decided it was time to move away from EZBoard and onto a dedicated server using software that I had control over. Greytalk entered the iKonboard stage. iKonboard was a great software solution, and I still think it was the best looking version we have had to date, although next week that may change. At that time we had just a little Cobalt RAQ4 server. That server was not very high tech, and the structure of iKonboard brought the server to it’s knees pretty quickly with 40+ users online at the same time. Another year later we moved to the current software which is Invision Power Board (IPB) IPB is a free forum script, you can follow the link at the very bottom of the page to their website. I have made quite a few changes from the stock script to make it easier on the members, and make to keep the same basic look as the previous versions of Greytalk. IPB allowed Greytalk to grow and extend the life of our little RAQ server for about another year. We recently upgraded our server last May, so we have much more growing room. In the future I’ll try to keep Greytalk ever expanding, offering new features and keeping the community growing. I do what I can to have the search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) come by and index the site. If you do a search for Greyhound Poop, we are bound to show up

thanks everyone I got a lot of donations the last 3 months while I was at sea. I'll get caught up here in a week or so.

I just caught up on all the e-mails. Those who's donation I have received either via paypal or snail mail, you should have received an e-mail from me, if not please let me know. Thanks again!!

those who donated, should have gotten 2 e-mails from me. One the day you donated, and another today. They were sent to the e-mail address listed with paypal Thank You!