Please Support WaccoBB! Thank you!

[Valley Oak]

I just sent in a check for $50 to Barry Chertov, the founder of the Wacco Community and I feel great!

Please help Barry provide us with this wonderful service. It requires his personal resources and he has to be able to make this list financially viable or close it down.

So please show the love and the appreciation for what he gives us (or it may not be around indefinitely).


Please click on the link below to sign up as Supporting Members for just $24 a year! (cheap):
www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php)


OR, you can also just send a check to:

WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 1112
Sebastopol, CA 95473</pre>
Thank you,

Edward

[Willie Lumplump]

I just sent in a check for $50 to Barry Chertov, the founder of the Wacco Community and I feel great!

Please help Barry provide us with this wonderful service. It requires his personal resources and he has to be able to make this list financially viable or close it down.

So please show the love and the appreciation for what he gives us (or it may not be around indefinitely).

Thank you,

Edward


Edward:

And where would we send this donation?

--"Willie"

[nurturetruth]

Thanks Edward for posting this and it DOES feel good to "give back"

As some in this community are aware, I went through a rather challenging time last year with my health...after being diagnosed with a potentially cancerous tumor.

It was through THIS online community, in which I was gifted the information , support and referrals needed in order to empower myself to not only shrink and dissolve my tumor but to also avoid surgery !

I found it delightful to gift this community an "appreciation" donation of 100.00 and wish i could give more to keep it up and running! This community has definitely been interesting, fun, informative and very helpful!

It feels very sad to imagine this website not being around indefinitely due to not having the funds to keep it running.

I realize that this little on line community depends on those IN the community to help offset the costs of : web site hosting and bandwidth usage along with other expenses.

So I too ...thank everyone who HAS already contributed "gratitude donations" to keep Wacco up and running... and will continue to hold the vision that this online community will receive enough donations to keep existing!

Thank you Wacco! :heart:

[Barry]

Thanks for your kind words and support, Edward, Willie and Kali! :thanks:

While it's true that WaccoBB.net has not reached financial self-sufficiency yet, let me assure you that this service is not going to go away. I love tending this space and I look forward to supporting this community as it continues to grow. WaccoBB.net helps create many wonderful and magical connections that makes a difference in people's lives. It's an honor to make it available. :waccosmile:

I want once again sincerely thank our current Supporting Members and advertisers for helping make this service possible!

And, it is my hope that more of you who use this service, especially those of you who are not using it for your business, chip in and become a Supporting Member (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php) for just $24/year (that's just $2/month!).

It really would make a big difference! Out of almost 5,000 members(!) only 110 folks are non-commercial supporting members so far. I'd really like to see that number hit 1,000 by this time next year! And as Edward says, it feels great to know that you are doing your share to make this all possible!

You can use your credit card via PayPal (without creating a PayPal account) from our Membership page (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php). It saves a stamp and is safe, fast and easy! Or you can send a check to:


WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 1112
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(please include your username)

Automatic monthly payment plans are available starting at just $2.50/month!

So please click here and become a Supporting Member today (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php)!

Thank You!!!
Barry

[Dixon]

Hi, Folks;

I understand that some folks are only very occasional users of Wacco, and thus could reasonably be excused from financially supporting it. And others are just too poverty stricken to be able to afford the $. This message is for the rest of you:

If you have some $ and you're not a freeloader, you're happy to pay a reasonable amount for services rendered. I make less money than almost everybody on Wacco, but I scraped up $24 to give to Barry the last time I ran into him. If I can do it, so can you.

Those of you who can afford it but haven't paid, which is apparently lots of you, understand this: if you keep using the service without paying Barry for keeping it available, you're a parasite. Uncomfortable with being called that? Here's a simple solution: pay your fair share and you can stand proud knowing you're not a parasite anymore. Works for me. It feels good!

Dixon



Thanks for your kind words and support, Edward, Willie and Kali! :thanks:

While it's true that WaccoBB.net has not reached financial self-sufficiency yet, let me assure you that this service is not going to go away. I love tending this space and I look forward to supporting this community as it continues to grow. WaccoBB.net helps create many wonderful and magical connections that makes a difference in people's lives. It's an honor to make it available. :waccosmile:

I want once again sincerely thank our current Supporting Members and advertisers for helping make this service possible!

And, it is my hope that more of you who use this service, especially those of you who are not using it for your business, chip in and become a Supporting Member (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php) for just $24/year (that's just $2/month!).

It really would make a big difference! Out of almost 5,000 members(!) only 110 folks are non-commercial supporting members so far. I'd really like to see that number hit 1,000 by this time next year! And as Edward says, it feels great to know that you are doing your share to make this all possible!

You can use your credit card via PayPal (without creating a PayPal account) from our Membership page (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php). It saves a stamp and is safe, fast and easy! Or you can send a check to:


WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 1112
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(please include your username)

Automatic monthly payment plans are available starting at just $2.50/month!

So please click here and become a Supporting Member today (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/membership.php)!

Thank You!!!
Barry

[Braggi]

I feel this way: If you're getting something of value from Waccobb, than it's worthwhile donating to help keep it going. Someone who just drops in once a week to keep up on social events could pay or not in my opinion. The fact that Waccobb is "free" to those who can't pay or don't wish to pay is one of its great benefits.

Someone from out of town or out of state who just wants to see what's going on in Sebastopol and northern Ca. should be able to use Wacco as a source of information without feeling the pressure to pay.

Local people who benefit from announcements of special sales, events and gatherings, seminars and workshops or who occasionally post items for sale should feel the obligation to pay at the lowest levels. Most people who get the daily digest are in this camp.

Those who pick up work leads on a regular basis, regularly sell items, or who announce events they will earn money from should pay at one of the commercial rates which begin at generously low levels.

If Barry has a weak point in his business plan it's that he really does want to give away a great many services to a great many people. He's hoping to get the support of enough people to pay the expenses in the short term and one day earn a modest living. Nobody's going to get rich with a mindset and a business plan like his. His enrichment is coming by way of community support which is hard to put a dollar figure on. What is easier to put figures on are his expenses.

Waccobb members should be able to kick in enough money to meet Barry's expenses. There are a lot of us and we all benefit from this site. Barry is a very generous guy and Waccobb is his full time work. He's earned our support and continually upgrades the site and offers more and better services.

So send a check or use PayPal. Every donation supports the Waccobb community and that's all of us.

Thanks,

-Jeff

[Willie Lumplump]

Jeff,

Well said!

--"Willie"

[AquaGyrl]

I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has REFUSED to act on what was provided. I also know that Barry didn’t show up at many of the “so called” Wacco finance meetings. While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more than a disinterested and unwilling founder! As for those people who truly used their professional know-how to help Barry? They’re tired of trying to help. After all, who wants to help when no one is willing to listen? Instead, Barry still insists on comparing the site’s worth to that of several organic avocados per month or begging for money. Oh, and let’s not forget that if you DO donate money? You’re REAL NAME and ONLINE NAME are published on Wacco.

Barry.... there are many means to monetize your site that won't impact the majority of your community. Sure, you'll have to give up ALOT of control, but isn't it worth it?
Folks who support this thread. Stop and think before begging for money on Barry’s behalf. He’s been given tools and plans to make money from his site and he has rejected them.

[ThePhiant]

I recuse myself, I have found my self a Queen!


I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has REFUSED to act on what was provided. I also know that Barry didn’t show up at many of the “so called” Wacco finance meetings. While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more than a disinterested and unwilling founder! As for those people who truly used their professional know-how to help Barry? They’re tired of trying to help. After all, who wants to help when no one is willing to listen? Instead, Barry still insists on comparing the site’s worth to that of several organic avocados per month or begging for money. Oh, and let’s not forget that if you DO donate money? You’re REAL NAME and ONLINE NAME are published on Wacco.

Barry.... there are many means to monetize your site that won't impact the majority of your community. Sure, you'll have to give up ALOT of control, but isn't it worth it?
Folks who support this thread. Stop and think before begging for money on Barry’s behalf. He’s been given tools and plans to make money from his site and he has rejected them.

[Braggi]

I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has REFUSED to act on what was provided. I also know that Barry didn’t show up at many of the “so called” Wacco finance meetings. While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more than a disinterested and unwilling founder! .... Stop and think before begging for money on Barry’s behalf. He’s been given tools and plans to make money from his site and he has rejected them.

Dear Lady,

I don't feel like this thread is about begging for money. I agree Barry has chosen mostly passive methods of bringing in the cash and has eschewed such suggestions as loading up every page with a ton of advertising or charging everyone for membership, but that's not all bad. The whole money thing is less important to him than providing a public service. Yes? Or is it that he has faith that the community over time will come to value Waccobb enough to support it with enough money to keep it afloat financially? Perhaps both.

Barry has a lot of patience and a great community spirit. I'm happy to support Waccobb and its community with a small cash investment. As time goes on and I get more personal value from Wacco, I'll most likely up my donation amount. For now I'm glad that Waccobb doesn't look like every other pay site out there or like the "free" sites that bury the bandwidth in advertising.

I understand your frustration, AquaGyrl, but I understand Barry's position as well.

-Jeff

[AquaGyrl]

Barry and I just discussed this post, and I'm revising it with corrected facts:

I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has been unable to expend the time or thought towards acting on what was provided. I also know that Barry had good reason to not show up at only ONE of the Wacco finance meetings.

While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more money from you than what you'd normally spend on however many organic avocado you might buy over the course of one year.

Barry explained to me that the money you donate goes towards site maintainance. If you donate enough money you might see some improvements to Wacco, still TBD and pending your generous support.

[ThePhiant]

what happened to my Queen?
did he slip you a mickey or a few bills?


Barry and I just discussed this post, and I'm revising it with corrected facts:

I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has been unable to expend the time or thought towards acting on what was provided. I also know that Barry had good reason to not show up at only ONE of the Wacco finance meetings.

While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more money from you than what you'd normally spend on however many organic avocado you might buy over the course of one year.

Barry explained to me that the money you donate goes towards site maintainance. If you donate enough money you might see some improvements to Wacco, still TBD and pending your generous support.

[ThePhiant]

not having time to improve your life is not really a good enough excuse.
life is made of choices and priorities.
if Barry has time to mess around with my posts, edit, delete, move and create whole new threads with my posts, I am sure he can find an hour or so to listen to some financial advice. the Q is does he want to change his life or is he happy doing what he is doing.
if Barry was indispensable, he wouldn't be able to take off for a holiday, but he has, so he can
I am sure somebody can come up with a clinical term for this kind of behavior, But I won't



Barry and I just discussed this post, and I'm revising it with corrected facts:

I object to that. First, I know, for a FACT that Barry has been given several credible financial models by savvy business people in Sonoma County for monetizing his site and he has been unable to expend the time or thought towards acting on what was provided. I also know that Barry had good reason to not show up at only ONE of the Wacco finance meetings.

While Wacco is only a BBS, it’s a great community resource that deserves more money from you than what you'd normally spend on however many organic avocado you might buy over the course of one year.

Barry explained to me that the money you donate goes towards site maintainance. If you donate enough money you might see some improvements to Wacco, still TBD and pending your generous support.

[Willie Lumplump]

not having time to improve your life is not really a good enough excuse.
life is made of choices and priorities.
if Barry has time to mess around with my posts, edit, delete, move and create whole new threads with my posts, I am sure he can find an hour or so to listen to some financial advice. the Q is does he want to change his life or is he happy doing what he is doing.
if Barry was indispensable, he wouldn't be able to take off for a holiday, but he has, so he can
I am sure somebody can come up with a clinical term for this kind of behavior, But I won't

Response:

I certainly understand being upset over the editing issue, but why would anybody be upset over how the creater of a bulletin board chooses to finance it? If Barry wants to stand on the corner of a street dressed in a clown uniform and holding a tin cup in his hand, why would anybody have a problem with that? If anybody wants a community bulletin board to be financed in a certain way, aren't they free to create their own bulletin board and finance it just as they wish?

[AquaGyrl]

I think you're right on several counts here, *willie*. Even if Wacco is a community BBS it IS a sole-proprietorship. That also means Wacco isn't a truly organic community site. An organic community site or BBS is one where the community weighs in to make site-specific decisions on issues that relate to the site's well-being. Decisions are then acted upon and the site reflects these actions. But, again, Wacco is a proprietary sites and the decisive weight of the community can have little or no impact at all since all decisions are really made by the site’s proprietor.

But you're right - if Barry wants to use a donation model to keep Wacco afloat, then he should. After all, even if it’s a community-oriented site, it’s actually Barry’s site. He owns it. He runs it. He edits/deletes/moves other peoples posts - all common behaviors in proprietary sites. On the other hand, if Barry can't keep Wacco afloat on the donation model then the entire community is at risk. If I understand correctly, the Finance Committee was put together to help ensure that Wacco would remain online and its members wouldn't be at risk of losing their valuable community resource.

It really doesn’t matter whether or not Barry stands on a street corner dressed as a panhandling clown (to paraphrase you) or uses the organic avocado donation model, right? All that matters is the site is still running and the community can continue to participate.



Response:

I certainly understand being upset over the editing issue, but why would anybody be upset over how the creater of a bulletin board chooses to finance it? If Barry wants to stand on the corner of a street dressed in a clown uniform and holding a tin cup in his hand, why would anybody have a problem with that? If anybody wants a community bulletin board to be financed in a certain way, aren't they free to create their own bulletin board and finance it just as they wish?

[Valley Oak]

AquaGyrl and all,

I would like to address a statement made by AquaGyrl:

"On the other hand, if Barry can't keep Wacco afloat on the donation model then the entire community is at risk."

This reminds me of a poignant experience I had many years ago. There was once a famous restaurant that everybody loved, including myself. The food was delicious and the price was more than competitive for many years. One fine day I go to the restaurant for another affordable, yummy meal and learn to my grave disappointment that its doors are closed for good. What happened was that the owners retired. They soled the property and a new business owner used the old restaurant for something completely different; it wasn't even in the food industry at all.

The point I'm trying to make here is that however civilized we see ourselves today we nonetheless still live in a primitive culture that is based on private property. Someday that will change, maybe in 100 or 1000 years but some day the system will change but not in this day and age.

The community clearly suffered because of the closure of the restaurant, which everyone benefited from and demanded highly and made wealthy with money from their pockets. But this did not translate into any concept of "loyalty" on the part of the owners because that's not the way our culture works. You paid for a meal and you got a meal and that was the end of the "contract." What the OWNERS did with THEIR property was their private affair ALONE.

I would like to see "economic democracy" but if I and others want to do this then we would have to get together and put together a restaurant, an online bulletin board, etc, etc. But we should not try to tell Barry what he has to do with his BB. We can give him input, which he likes and encourages, but he is the owner and he will always have the last say.

If someday, at the national level, all corporations and large pieces of private property are nationalized, to give an example (certainly not the best one), I would support this kind of interference because it would be a monumental step forward but I would leave little people like Barry alone.

Until that day comes we have to limit ourselves to working with what we have and not expect for some unknown reason that Barry should throw out the window all of the basic principles of ownership of his personal private property, hand it over to a bunch of people in this community, and obligate himself to keep working it as if it was still his. That would be absurd.

If you want to form a collective and a democratically run business operation then go right ahead and do it. (Just remember how unlikely that's going to be with the people we already know here who we argue with all the time and all of the character deficiencies present, and that's not considering that in reality we don't want this and also we won't have the time or the interest in dedicating the work required to carry it out).

In other words, do you have enough interest in starting a community run operation (of any kind) to put all of the work into it that is necessary for its success? If so, then please get to work right now and get the people together to launch it!

Edward

[AquaGyrl]

Roble... you're sounding a little defensive, threatening and challenging on the "go ahead and build a site - see how well you can handle it" front. Or are you just trying to suffocate a non-existent idea in its fictional infancy?

Is anyone privy to information about a group (Waccovian or otherwise) who's planning to build a site that's an alternative to Wacco? I'm certainly not.


AquaGyrl and all,

I would like to address a statement made by AquaGyrl:

"On the other hand, if Barry can't keep Wacco afloat on the donation model then the entire community is at risk."

This reminds me of a poignant experience I had many years ago. There was once a famous restaurant that everybody loved, including myself. The food was delicious and the price was more than competitive for many years. One fine day I go to the restaurant for another affordable, yummy meal and learn to my grave disappointment that its doors are closed for good. What happened was that the owners retired. They soled the property and a new business owner used the old restaurant for something completely different; it wasn't even in the food industry at all.

The point I'm trying to make here is that however civilized we see ourselves today we nonetheless still live in a primitive culture that is based on private property. Someday that will change, maybe in 100 or 1000 years but some day the system will change but not in this day and age.

The community clearly suffered because of the closure of the restaurant, which everyone benefited from and demanded highly and made wealthy with money from their pockets. But this did not translate into any concept of "loyalty" on the part of the owners because that's not the way our culture works. You paid for a meal and you got a meal and that was the end of the "contract." What the OWNERS did with THEIR property was their private affair ALONE.

I would like to see "economic democracy" but if I and others want to do this then we would have to get together and put together a restaurant, an online bulletin board, etc, etc. But we should not try to tell Barry what he has to do with his BB. We can give him input, which he likes and encourages, but he is the owner and he will always have the last say.

If someday, at the national level, all corporations and large pieces of private property are nationalized, to give an example (certainly not the best one), I would support this kind of interference because it would be a monumental step forward but I would leave little people like Barry alone.

Until that day comes we have to limit ourselves to working with what we have and not expect for some unknown reason that Barry should throw out the window all of the basic principles of ownership of his personal private property, hand it over to a bunch of people in this community, and obligate himself to keep working it as if it was still his. That would be absurd.

If you want to form a collective and a democratically run business operation then go right ahead and do it. (Just remember how unlikely that's going to be with the people we already know here who we argue with all the time and all of the character deficiencies present, and that's not considering that in reality we don't want this and also we won't have the time or the interest in dedicating the work required to carry it out).

In other words, do you have enough interest in starting a community run operation (of any kind) to put all of the work into it that is necessary for its success? If so, then please get to work right now and get the people together to launch it!

Edward

[Valley Oak]

Sorry if I was defensive. My real intention was to take advantage of what I saw as an opportunity to express an experience I had thought about for many years. I saw a relationship between the thread in this forum and that old experience I had.

I always found fascinating the fundamental contradiction between a free market capitalist system, on the one hand, and the idea that this is the best formula, on the other hand. In the example I gave about the restaurant owners selling their property, this story served as a clear example of how the system hurt the community.

How did I relate this to the thread? Well, again, with the restaurant: what is the community to do? Nothing. Why? Because that's the way the system is. There is nothing that can be done. Maybe someday our society will change fundamentally but that day is not near. More specifically with Barry, I was trying to explain that essentially the rules apply to him and Wacco as much as it did to the restaurant owners.

I think part of what happened with my post was that I got carried away and I ended up digressing more than I thought I had.

Thanks for the heads up,

Edward


Roble... you're sounding a little defensive, threatening and challenging on the "go ahead and build a site - see how well you can handle it" front. Or are you just trying to suffocate a non-existent idea in its fictional infancy?

Is anyone privy to information about a group (Waccovian or otherwise) who's planning to build a site that's an alternative to Wacco? I'm certainly not.