Nobody Wants FreeStuff Drawings?

[Denny Rice]

People PLEASE take this warning seriously! He is not kidding, the same thing happened to me this year. Some jerk in Japan somewhere hacked my account and took me for over $500! Thats right, $500. It took me and my bank over a month to fix this, and in the meantime every thing that I had connected to that card and account went unpaid, got screwed up in some way and was an overall mess. I also had to cancel the ENTIRE account with my bank, not just the CC. Here is what you do to be safe and STILL use Paypal. Simply add your CC, make the donation and wait for the transaction to clear your account. Then go right back in and remove the card when done. It only takes a minute and saves you headaches. If you dont think this can happen to you YOU ARE WRONG!!

Jim

Jim I just removed all my CC #'s off my Paypal account. Thanks for the info.

[Jack Camillo]

Thanks for the reply, Jim.

[Keith Outten]

There are 9 FreeStuff Drawings already scheduled for November and 12 more that I haven't scheduled yet. We have several other FreeStuff offers pending with various vendors.

Clearly November is a FreeStuff Extravaganza with 21 Drawings, and lets not forget a 6 set router bit Bulk Buy from Centurion Tools that runs the entire month.

We will continue to coordinate as many Bulk Buys and FreeStuff Drawings as we can throughout the coming year based on the number of Contributors who support The Creek. As you can see I don't mind working for you if you will support me in return.

I can't imagine anyone would prefer advertising over FreeStuff Drawings that provides someone in our Community the opportunity to win a nice prize. Remember, the odds of winning are so much better this year since only Contributors are eligible to win prizes. For vendors this is the best means of advertising new tools, services and supplies and for the most part it is the most cost effective marketing I know of these days.

Who else would work so hard for you for 6 dollars a year?

Thanks to all of you who have made donations that will keep SawMill Creek flowing for another year. To those who have not made their decision to make a contribution we would appreciate your support this year.

.

[Sean Troy]

I cannot believe all of us are in a hobby where it cost 1000's of dollars in tools and machines and some people who enter this site would complain about 50 cents an month, a little more than 1.7 cents a day. Come on guys,1.7 cents a day! Isn't 50 cents a month worth keeping all the pop-ups and spam off this website? I know I would not like this site as much as I do if I had to keep closing pop-ups or had to wait for my screen to refresh because I had to wait for 10 ads to download onto the page. SMC is a great place lets keep it the way it is.

It can't be said any better than that !

[Randal Stevenson]

I cannot believe all of us are in a hobby where it cost 1000's of dollars in tools and machines and some people who enter this site would complain about 50 cents an month, a little more than 1.7 cents a day. Come on guys,1.7 cents a day! Isn't 50 cents a month worth keeping all the pop-ups and spam off this website? I know I would not like this site as much as I do if I had to keep closing pop-ups or had to wait for my screen to refresh because I had to wait for 10 ads to download onto the page. SMC is a great place lets keep it the way it is.

It can't be said any better than that !

In my best commercial voice............

For Only 1.7 cents a day, you too can support a woodworker. He and his wife, or the forum admin, will send messages to you and others, that you can watch them grow. That is less then a cup of coffee. Wouldn't you help a starving woodworker?

I am sure you recognize that commercial, check mailed off yesterday.
Thanks to all here, for making this forum what it is, now lets get more members.

[Gary Keedwell]

Hard to believe, but untill I read this thread, I wasn't even aware you needed donations to keep the water running. When I get on the Creek, I always go directly to the general woodworking section, and look at what's interesting. I rarely look at the title of sticky's, much less open them. Not being a computer person, I really only noticed that they were something I had to go past to get to what I wanted to see.

I did open one the other day, about router sets, and glanced at it, but the part about donations did not register on me. Today I found on the tool bar (?) the spot for donations....Yes I am that dense (I prefer focused).

So...........may I make a suggestion? Perhaps a direct appeal for money in the body of each forum, perhaps quarterly. It might wake up a few others like me.

SURE, I'll donate, all ya gotta do is ask. This site is a keeper.

Rick Potter

This has got to be my favorite post. Hope you don't mind me re-posting it Rick, but I was in the same boat as you. I am that dense (focused) as you, almost.
Gary

[Todd Burch]

However, as cheap as I am I just cannot imagine the comments people are making about preferring advertisements over paying 6 bucks. I mean COME ON its 6 bucks. I do not care what horrible turn your life may have taken if you can afford the electric to power your computer, monitor, cable modem / router (if applicable) and the lights to see your keyboard by then you can afford 6 bucks. Lets not forget that you are, in some fashion, logging on to the internet to even look at this site. You are paying to look at it why not chip in 6 bucks. I GUARANTEE you spend
more than 6 bucks in electricity all year long by powering your computer. If you no longer have a computer then I completely understand you not donating to the Creek, but then again I doubt you would have been able to post and suggest advertisements.
...
Shane

I cannot believe all of us are in a hobby where it cost 1000's of dollars in tools and machines and some people who enter this site would complain about 50 cents an month, a little more than 1.7 cents a day. Come on guys,1.7 cents a day! Isn't 50 cents a month worth keeping all the pop-ups and spam off this website? I know I would not like this site as much as I do if I had to keep closing pop-ups or had to wait for my screen to refresh because I had to wait for 10 ads to download onto the page. SMC is a great place lets keep it the way it is.

Call me dense, but where are these posts of people complaining about sending in $6 that you both are referring to?

Todd

[Matt Meiser]

The complaints are in a thread that has been locked, and I think moved to the moderators forum.

[Cody Colston]

Todd,

It's not so much folks complaining as it is simply refusing to donate...for whatever reason. It's similar to a Baptist church (at least the ones I've belonged to) where 10% of the congregation donate 90% of the money.

There's some things I occassionally disagree with here at SMC but after thinking about it, I realized that the woodworking benefit derived from this forum far outweighs any objections I might have regarding how things are done.

Speaking for myself, I need all the help I can get when it comes to woodworking. I'll never be as talented as you but I am improving, thanks in part to knowledge I've gleaned here at SMC.

[Ron Hedrick]

After the money that I saved on the Craftsman Drill Press, I figured that I better contribute. That deal alone was worth the price of admission!!

[Todd Burch]

OK, phew. I was thinking my original comments might have sparked some idea that I was unwilling or incapable of contributing. Glad that's cleared up.

I do have a couple more comments to make.

Keith and crew are not working for free anymore. That's fantastic. I wouldn't have lasted as long as you all have. Life is too short.

Keith and crew want to make a profit. No problem. More power to you!

If having paid advertisers, like Minwax, (as a totally random example), meant I could not reply to a post where someone wasn't getting good finishing results with Minwax oil based stains, and I told them why Minwax oil based stains suck, and what products to use to get better results, then I would not be part of that forum.

So, in that vein, IF that's how SMC would be operated, and from my understanding of the preceding posts, that IS how SMC would be operated, THEN I am totally against having Minwax as an advertiser - I mean having direct paid advertisers.

What am I saying? If this is a for-profit venture, and it is, then my advice to SMC, for your sanity's sake, would be to get on with it and quit passing the hat. I mean, it's a business, right? If SMC could surely do the advertising thing based on stats, then SMC stockholders ought to be pretty upset with the SMC board of directors for not doing it. Don't want advertisers? No problem. Make it a subscription, everybody pays, and there aren't second class citizen titles, and everybody is eligible for the freeadvertisingstuff giveaways.

If 90% of membership don't want advertising while only 30% (or whatever) donate (those who are willing to put their money where their mouth is), seems like the tail might be wagging the dog.

Todd

[Gary Keedwell]

Todd,
Like your fellow Texan said about the church, you just can't kick out the 90% that doesn't pay, can you? Hmmmmmm Maybe somebody better bail me out before I put my foot in my mouth again
Gary

[Jack Diemer]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

[Glen Blanchard]

I'm doing my utmost best to understand why someone would expend the time and energy playing devil's advocate in a thread from a forum in which he apparently has an interest, when the topic at hand is a $6.00 annual donation.

Perhaps **I** am the one who is dense.

[Gary Keedwell]

I don't know...I quit trying to figure people out a long time ago. My ex- father-in-law is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. But he had it in his head that he had to give the church 10% of everything he made.

Seems to me that he was such a good person that he would have gotten in to heaven alot cheaper.
Gary