Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum In support of PW...

Aside from haunting the forum/s daily, I make good use of PMs (which is on "the other guy's" server, that he pays for).

To be fair about it, is buying something from their store, the best or easiest way to financially help out PW?

Pat / a budding, old(er), R&R keyboardist---

Back in the good old days there was a way to donate to PW, and if you wanted to you could display a bronze, silver, or gold bar beneath your username to show at what level you had paid. And I thought for awhile there was still a way to donate, but the bars aren't available any more. But now I can't find a way to donate.

So maybe buying something is the best way. Maybe someone else can find a donate button.

Cathy

Ah! I found it! In the upper left of the screen there's a Piano World Home link. On that page, in the center section, down towards the end, there's a bunch of little words that are links, and one of them is "donate". Frank has a Paypal account set up there.

But I don't know if there are medals any more.

Cathy

Cathy,

Not concerned in getting a "gold star" on my homework, to put on fridge at home, in this case. LOL!

But, have thought about this recently; if someone pays for our home here, the least we can do, is "show some love" for the guy running the ol' homestead.

We're here gabbing about piano, & not practicing; but it keeps us off the streets, and from becoming shady characters. You know how musicians are, if left with too much free time on their hands. We come here, to loiter. ;-)

Thanks,
--Pat

Yeah, this is an area where I think Frank has really hurt himself in the transition to the new software. Having the "badge" on the avatars (which was optional; people who donated could choose not to display the badge) served a useful psychological function of establishing donating as normative; the more people who donated, the more others were subtly reminded of the option of donating.

It also helped to remind the regular donors to keep donating. I like to donate every year, but without the badge (which let you see when you donated last by scrolling over it), I forget when the last time I donated was. hmmm... must go check.

Frank really ought to set up an automated system that sends out reminders to donors after a year has passed.

What a wonderfully refreshing attitude:
There's something here of value to me... it comes free... I should support it.

Three cheers, Pat.

In the upper left of the screen there's a Piano World Home link. On that page, in the center section, down towards the end, there's a bunch of little words that are links, and one of them is "donate". Frank has a Paypal account set up there.

Thanks Cathy I found it and made a donation.

I'm new to piano and have found lots of good information and also some new perspectives.

Lyn

The donation link was easy to find, and easy yo use. So I will continue with one time donations. I find useful info here almost every day, so it is nice to give something back. Thanks to PW I know everything I need to know about buying a piano, so my next donation will be when I get my next piano. Hopefully in a couple of months.

6070's:

What is PM. Another forum?

Neal

hmmm...my badge seems to have made the transition.

Thanks for the reminder... I need to check as well, I am sure it has been at least a year.

Thanks everyone, your support is genuinely appreciated.

The link to our Donate & Support Options is in the links at the bottom of every page of the forums (apparently where nobody looks :-)

It's been an off year for us so every little bit helps.

It may not look it with the ads on either side of the forums, but I can tell you if it weren't for them we might be out of business.
Our regular yearly classified ads are down, as are sales in our store.

I've considered putting out an appeal for donations, but it didn't seem like the right thing to do with all the more worthy causes out there looking for funds.

It used to be (years ago) that Piano World was just a hobby and I could underwrite it when necessary. Now that it's my full time job it's more of a challenge to attract enough business to keep everything going.

Monica K., I might be able to bring the badges back, even though it would be a manual process.

So if you want to help folks, please see our Support Page.

You can also help by suggesting to your local dealer, tuner, teacher, that they advertise in our classified ads sections.

Thanks again everyone.

I hope you all have a Happy - Healthy - Musical New Years!

Frank,
I am not sure why I still have my original badge, but another good feature of the badge- is when you click on it, it will take you right to the donate Subscribing Member page. Now, if we could just get one click shopping!

Also, I agree with Monica on the yearly reminders.

PS,
I just clicked the "Support" link, and see it is a much more streamlined process than the link connected to my badge.

Managing a website most be a bit like untangling fishing line!

Hi everyone. If it had not been for this thread, I would not been made aware of the donation needs of PW. Thanks for letting me know. BTW, making a donation online was pretty easy with this set up!

Thanks for your help everyone.

By the way, if you'd like one of the bronze, silver, or gold bars displayed under your name, you can either donate via our store, filling in all the details ...
http://www.pianosupplies.com/pianos/Forums_Subscriber.html

Or if you've already donated (or prefer to use the support page) , just let me know webmaster@pianoworld.com and I'll try to add the bar as soon as I can.

Thanks for the reminder, everyone! I'm glad to help out one of my favorite places to be.

Thanks, Frank. I renewed my donation through the subscriptions page; please add a badge when it's convenient for you.

Thanks Monica K.,
Badge added.

I'll try to get to the other kind folks who stepped up to help soon.

If you "subscribed" to the forums but didn't get your badge yet, please send me an email including your forums name, real name, and the email address you use to access the forums.

webmaster@pianoworld.com


Thanks Everyone.

Best,

Frank B.

This forum and membership levels could be really overhauled.

A super forum, great domain name.. but the overall experience and design could do with lots of work. Much more $$$ could be derived from the (in general) financially and intellectual superior members of this forum and subsections.

Anyone teaching or offering services like this, or spamming their "learn piano" services should be required to pay.

Perhaps I should turn the business brain off, and get back to the music.

but, to the guy who owns this domain.. you could be making bucketloads, but probably don't have the energy, time or coding skills to make this website a retirement nest egg

Look at the niche site (BASENOTES.NET) for an idea of how an overhaul can change the fortunes of the admin team.

My 2 euros ...

Hmm, I can't see a 'Forum Member Number' anywhere.... though the donations form says - several times - it's essential. Does anyone have info on this?

Click on "view profile", Eglantine, and it will be right there at the top of the page.