Old threads removed....

Yes, sometimes the site runs out of space and the owner has to delete threads. Donating money could help offset this.

Sue

that happened to me too! so many years and years of great, excellent, helpful posts all gone! waste and sadness.

Could Bill J comment on how much money the site needs? How much money for how much bandwidth? is there another platform that could accommodate more bandwidth? i have seen other sites that never run out of space, and just archive the posts somewhere else, but they can still be accessed!!!

Fq,
You can send Bill a PM and ask him how much money would be needed and then try to get members to donate. It would be great if we all chipped in to help him offset the money he puts into this site.

Sue

At one point in the past, we could donate via Paypal. It was very convenient.

You can still donate through Paypal. There's a link at the top of the page under the advertiser's banners that says 'donate'. It allows one to make a Paypal donation. Here is the estimate of what it takes to run this site:

J-Pouch Group expenditures (about $5000 estimated per year):

-Web Hosting - $720
-Internet - $948
-Discussion board - $720
-Chat room - $450
-Computer equipment - $500-$1000
-Software - $500
-Stationary supplies (brochures, business cards, thank you notes, promotional material for doctors to give to patients) - $250
-Education (To attend several educational seminars on the latest medical and surgical information - $400

kathy

kathy....interesting breakdown, thanks. i wonder what percentage of sponsorship dollars are received annually, on average. i assume the $5K annual fee is only for the current site and bandwidth capacity? while this is ok to keep the site running, it would be much better if there could be additional functionality, and most importantly, archiving / bandwidth.

i will ask Bill what is the cost to expand the current bandwidth so that archiving is possible. retaining valuable information is the most critical aspect of this site, and i am surprised that there are zero archiving capabilities. I would think he would at least back up the old posts that can be uploaded later, if ever the site did have larger capacity. but to lose them in cyberspace forever, is really unfortunate.

I went through the same thing recently. I looked up what to me was the most comprehensive procedure for doing an ostomy change as I may be having a j-pouch reconstruction with temp ileostomy in the near future...and it was GONE!!! I was so sad. It has been so long ,I don't know if I can remember what I used to do...

It would be nice to know what is needed to keep archives. I would gladly contribute.

i PM'ed Bill and haven't heard anything back. maybe he is on vacation. It would be nice if he, himself, commented on this thread and explained to the forum users the financials of the site (since we will be donating), what the bandwidth, archiving methods currently are, and what the options are to increase/improve.

it is a shame that the past posts were probably not backed up either, saved onto a hard drive.

makes me want to just stop posting altogether since it will all be lost soon and people in the future won't be able to benefit from these posts. i don't know of any other forum that has such limited capacity (posts only stick around for like 1 year here). it's wonderful that this site was created and is helping so many people, but since it has grown/is growing, there should be more functionality/space.

I wonder how many people donate to this site. It appears that many people derive benefits here and it would be nice if people donated. I don't know how many people know Bill's story. He doesn't even have a j-pouch - he has a k-pouch. He volunteers his time here and on Facebook. He spends his own money to keep this site going. He also volunteers his time at CCFA camps and he has a fulltime job. I suppose I'm a bit defensive about some of the attitudes on this thread.

If you see something that you think might be of some benefit to you, please copy and paste it and keep it in a personal file. Neither this site or any other, can satisfy all people all the time. If you've gotten helpful information or support here, then please donate.

You can also PM specific people who seem to be knowledgeable about various subjects and most would be more than happy to provide information. The list of monies required to run this site are based on the amount of monies donated by individuals and sponsors. If you'd like to see much more bandwidth and posts saved for a longer period of time then please donate regularly and generously. This isn't about Bill's lack of providing for us - it's about us failing to provide for this site.

kathy

Wow. WOW. Kathy I am shocked by your response. No one NO ONE is saying anything negative about this site or about Bill. We all want to help. We at some level understand the time and effort it takes to run a site. As donators and forum users, we have every right to ask, request, and wonder about archiving possibilities. There is nothing wrong with that and Bill can comment himself since he owns/runs the site. These things will only HELP the site and its users. We could donate tens of thousands of dollars and if Bill does not intend to invest in things like site space/archiving, then we should be aware of that. We are asking what it would take and what the options are. I do not understand why you feel so territorial about this site unless you are responsible for 51%+ of donated dollars.

Nothing shocking at all in Kathy's post. She's just laying out the facts.....It's a costly site and most of the cost is probably financed by one very caring guy named Bill. Donations have the potential to make the site better.

But it's already a pretty darn great place!
CJ

Hi Kathy, I wasn't trying to upset you or anyone by my post... I was saying that i was sad about not having that instruction list I created and sadly didn't save to my own hard drive.

This site saved my life and the generosity of the people on here not only have shown compassion to me, but I will NEVER forget the outpouring of support for my son Robby when he was going through brain surgery, radiation and a life of hormone therapy. I would NEVER say anything negative or even remotely want you to think i was complaining.

I would gladly contribute to the site, I just not sure how.

Alex

It says there are now over 12,000 registered members. If we can find out how much it would cost annually for the site to be maintained and the posts to be archived (say $6,000 per year), then the site can require every registered member to pay a membership fee of $0.50 per year.

I am willing to pay 50 cents a year to use this great resource and to ensure that the valuable information here is preserved. Not to mention helping Bill out with the costs!

I agree I love this site and it has been a saving device for me I would totally be willing to pay a membership fee even 10-20 dollars a year. It is money going to a great cause and informative site.

Well put, Shannah. I would be willing to pay more as well. Not to mention that instituting a fee would cut down on the spammers and the unseemly who like to troll.

Out of the 12,000 members, only a few hundred are active so it will take more than pocket change to help Bill with his expenses. We had a great thread years ago on surgeon recommendations. It would be nice if we could donate enough money to keep create a permanent thread for new people who are looking for surgeons in their area.

Sue

thanks, Kathy.... i think i misunderstood a little the tone of your post. i truly want to help like others and am so grateful for this site. i like the membership idea too. there are many great posts like the 'Best Surgeons in America' one that suebear said i can't find anymore, and some other posts that are now gone. i think if we can have all or as many posts available to future users, and if that is something Bill thinks is feasible with appropriate donation, that would be great. i hope it is possible.

Hello friends.
I realize other sites seem to have unlimited posts but I'm not sure if they get as many as we do.
With our plan we get so much bandwidth per month and so much disk space.
It's the disk space that's the problem. We have so many members and so many posts that it occasionally goes over our limit and we are charged extra.
So, I have to 'prune' the topics. It's almost impossible for me to know which specific topics not to prune since the pruning is done according to time (last year, month ,a date range, etc.)

Here is an idea.
Send me links to the topics you think are worth saving and I can make a new forum called frequent concerns or something and put a copy there and exclude that from the pruning.

In the meantime I will find out how much it will cost to enlarge our database so we can keep more topics on board.

Thanks!

Bill

Thanks for your input Bill. Appreciated.

I think your idea about a 'frequent concerns section' has a lot of merit for a workaround, though it's probably going to make life harder for you in terms of keeping it maintained etc.

Once again, cheers for the update.

Ad

I can move things too, so once the topic is there, if you contact me, I could move it there.

I suppose we could trim some of the forums, although I am not sure which would be best to go. I know that there are several forums that are seldom used. They were added due to a need at one time, but maybe time to reevaluate?

Jan