Hi all,
My apologies for begging money, and my most sincere appreciation to those of you who have kicked in cash for the Cause. (You know who you are!)
I am no longer working, and funds are very, very tight. We basically used all our savings to get to where we can live without me bringing in a regular income, because it was that or give it all up.
So, in order to keep the site rolling, and to fund all the new things that are (and have been) stacked up in the virtual 'to do' file for the site, I've resorted to the public radio model of pitching and begging for support.
Some of the new things are:
- a complete site re-write with better, more intuitive navigation
- posting the old AMA journals
- putting a robust recipe manager and database up (currently in process)
- putting the Worldwide Meadery list in a database and making it much more detailed, including lists of offerings
- putting a store online to provide you with online mead purchasing
- writing a mead recipe book, with as many mead recipes as I can find, including extraction from all the mead mailing lists (*major* time investment!)
- continuing to improve and expand the forums
- offering a Gotmead-only custom Mazer (the potter is working on it now)
- using Gotmead to help the IMA push our wine shipping wishes at the federal government level
- putting together and keeping current interstate shipping info as it becomes available
- building or purchasing a better news program, so I can keep updating often, but without having to program so much, and being able to give others the ability to help expand the site news (I have one in mind, just need to buy it)
- getting the MeadHQ files online (hey Talon, any progress on your end?)
The list goes on, and folks are always coming up with new things. Plus, there is the ever expanding disk space and bandwidth we're using, which is a monthly cost.
Also, as the IMA gets off the ground, and for those of us who wish to, Gotmead has a very significant voice in the direction of that organization as well. We'll be taking your input and poll responses and feeding them back to the various people running it, and making sure that the mead hobbyists get heard. I'm already committed as a committee member there, and plan to spend a good deal of time giving my input as needs arise.
So, at the end of this long-winded post, let me just say this: If it weren't for *all of YOU*, this would be just a backwater site. I'll keep providing info, and keep appreciating all the help y'all are giving, monetarily, technically, and with your mead (thanks Joe!).
Thanks so *very, very* much.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled brewing....
Vicky - digging through the endless pile of updates
My apologies for begging money, and my most sincere appreciation to those of you who have kicked in cash for the Cause. (You know who you are!)
I am no longer working, and funds are very, very tight. We basically used all our savings to get to where we can live without me bringing in a regular income, because it was that or give it all up.
So, in order to keep the site rolling, and to fund all the new things that are (and have been) stacked up in the virtual 'to do' file for the site, I've resorted to the public radio model of pitching and begging for support.
Some of the new things are:
- a complete site re-write with better, more intuitive navigation
- posting the old AMA journals
- putting a robust recipe manager and database up (currently in process)
- putting the Worldwide Meadery list in a database and making it much more detailed, including lists of offerings
- putting a store online to provide you with online mead purchasing
- writing a mead recipe book, with as many mead recipes as I can find, including extraction from all the mead mailing lists (*major* time investment!)
- continuing to improve and expand the forums
- offering a Gotmead-only custom Mazer (the potter is working on it now)
- using Gotmead to help the IMA push our wine shipping wishes at the federal government level
- putting together and keeping current interstate shipping info as it becomes available
- building or purchasing a better news program, so I can keep updating often, but without having to program so much, and being able to give others the ability to help expand the site news (I have one in mind, just need to buy it)
- getting the MeadHQ files online (hey Talon, any progress on your end?)
The list goes on, and folks are always coming up with new things. Plus, there is the ever expanding disk space and bandwidth we're using, which is a monthly cost.
Also, as the IMA gets off the ground, and for those of us who wish to, Gotmead has a very significant voice in the direction of that organization as well. We'll be taking your input and poll responses and feeding them back to the various people running it, and making sure that the mead hobbyists get heard. I'm already committed as a committee member there, and plan to spend a good deal of time giving my input as needs arise.
So, at the end of this long-winded post, let me just say this: If it weren't for *all of YOU*, this would be just a backwater site. I'll keep providing info, and keep appreciating all the help y'all are giving, monetarily, technically, and with your mead (thanks Joe!).
Thanks so *very, very* much.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled brewing....
Vicky - digging through the endless pile of updates
