Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rosebud on August 13, 2009 at 4:52

I've been in what I suspect is Keith's position with a public website - it's hard to accept and deal with the anxiety when you become aware that success may actually be the downfall of everything you've worked so hard to design and implement. It's really tough. We live in a day and age when everything we do seems to move at the speed of light, nothing ever stays the same, new interests come along, family demands change, what you want to do with all your heart and soul has to be weighed against what's financially possible and practical as far as time constraints. You've worked hard, you've done your best, but things are changing, what are the options?

When it comes to financing any website, there are really only three options that I'm aware of - sell advertising, take donations from the members or pay the bills yourself. When news first broke about the Haynesville Shale, my guess is all kinds of businesses came looking to advertise at GHS.com. Search engines keep every imaginable statistic on every public site on the Internet, they keep track of membership numbers, daily traffic to sites, number of daily posts, etc.

Then what happened? Those of us who were here a year ago remember when GHS.com was a literal hotbed of activity, all the parish and interest-specific groups were absolutely alive with so many questions, shared experiences and professional advice and information. Please pardon my French but I remember thinking day after day, week after week, that GHS.com was the damnest thing I'd ever seen! It was so busy, it was impossible to keep up! Most public websites wouldn't attract almost 12,000 members in twelve years, much less a little more than twelve months.

As leasing activity settled down, as landowners (like myself) learned at least enough basic information to understand what the Haynesville Shale was and how important being informed was, many left to wait and hope their day would come. With fewer questions to answer and less information being requested, many of the industry members left. Is the Haynesville Shale still out there, are landowners still going to need serious information from time to time, are the industry members through networking and thru GHS.com trying to stay abreast of the latest developments?

Keith has tried to be a friend to each and everyone of us and I think that's obvious - what's not so evident, because I'm sure he doesn't want to alarm nor upset anyone, is that he now needs help; he's helped hundreds of members by managing to keep GHS.com free to all members but now that situation is threatened. The little message about donating is so small you'd almost have to be looking to find it but I do think we all need to seriously consider what GHS.com means to us?

http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/page/donate-to-ghs

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on August 13, 2009 at 7:50

My suggestions:

Make the donate page a little more obvious. I never noticed it before over on the right side. Maybe put it up on the main menu line next to Supporters and Contacts. I guess my mind has gotten so used to skipping over the "peripheral" information on so many web sites that I filtered it out subconsciously.

Keith could make a post a little more often about donations, costs, etc. It doesn't have to be obnoxious, begging, etc. Having some simple posts at the top of the queue of new posts would help members notice it.

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Permalink Reply by Big Daddy, bcnr on August 14, 2009 at 16:06

Very good comments Rosebud and Mac. Rosebud, your commens are valid. back last summer, this place was hoppin'. Things have slowed a bit, but I have probably learned more on this site in the past 9 months than I have since I signed my first division order a few years ago. That knowledge and info has been invaluable to me so it was so easy to flip a little monetary love to the person(s)(I know Anna is the real brains behind this ;-) ) responsible for it. To be honest with you, I found the "Supporters" tab today and was suprised and (disappointed) at how few private donors there are thus far. I do put value on what I have learned here plus the friendships I've made. Perhaps some have not seen the donate box as Mac has said, but I found it from an email from Keith, so I didn't have to look for it. Here's to hoping more shalers find it.

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Permalink Reply by Bobi Carr ("parker") on August 16, 2009 at 9:50

I can't understand why more haven't donated. It was simple for me. I asked Keith a long time ago to set up a means to donated to the site. It was just plain simple to me. I got a lot out of the site and I wanted to give something back.
Financially it didn't come at a good time at the present, but when is it ever a good time to give instead of receive.
I've seen all of the written thanks that people have given Keith over the year. I just looked at it as a way to put my money where my mouth is.
If Keith kicks me off tomorrow that is fine, I'm thankful for what I have gotten from the site. And if Keith makes a million dollars, I'm happy for that too.

I grabbed by Debit card as soon as I saw the e-mail. It wasn't something that I had to think about. If Keith charged a nickle for every hour of time some spent on this site imagine how much money he would make from some of the members.

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Permalink Reply by J.Shaler on August 16, 2009 at 11:41

So what is a good tithe for the most appreciated GHS. I can't sent 1/10 of a royalty I do not have but I do appreciate anyone who foots the bill to help me out.

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Permalink Reply by Zydeco on August 17, 2009 at 16:48

well think of this way .... any amount is a good amount... let's see this ONE OF A KIND web-site of great contributors has 12,000 members .... well at $5.00 x 12,000 people = $60,000. so if there is some way for most of the people to just send what they can it is a huge amount !!!!!! HUGE....Example : that is much less than a meal at a fast food drive through ONCE....(less salt intake and fat ) It is just about trying..... to keep this going. Isn't it like anything that one has a passion for to learn .... you find a way to buy that book , this is a library of incredible of information. I gave what I could.. the answer to your question is not biblical... it is just what you can.... ANY AMOUNT IS PAYING IT FORWARD...... ANY AMOUNT is acceptable...and oh so HELPFUL....

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Permalink Reply by sesport on August 17, 2009 at 17:26

Zydeco - I couldn't have said it better myself. lol :0)

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