Count me in for $50 - it will have to be PayPal.
What does this give us so far?
Watchtower Observer site goes down
by Norm 149 Replies latest jw friends
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Euphemism
I have no money right now, but I'm a professional developer (primarily .NET at the moment, but I've done PHP/mySQL in the past) and would be happy to provide tech help. My e-mail is dan at danielglick dot com.
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pepheuga
that's $375, only $125 to go.....
pepheuga
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seattleniceguy
You've got $50 from Seattle.
I could aid in several other facets of the re-development effort, as well, such as design and development of the new site.
SNG
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anuva
.. US$ 50 from my side ....i live in INDIA....i have got an INTERNATIONAL DEBIT CARD ...never used it For funds transfer !! if anybody can help to suggest
anuva
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pepheuga
.....just a measly $25 needed now!
pepheuga
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dh
I'll pay $50 (more if we come up short) just so the data is not lost. No problem. Where to send paypal payments to?
Edited: Wouldn't it make sense to sell the domain and the content together as a package? Selling the domain at it's market value.
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seattleniceguy
Sweet! Looks like the brotherhood of true apostates pulls through again! How's going to be responsible for this? Can we get a paypal address (hopefully from someone we know and trust well )?
SNG
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IT Support
Elsewhere,
Is there any way at all that the site can come back up for awhile so that I can clone the content?
It doesn't yet seem to be down: only the index page is changed.
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IT Support
Thanks, everyone, for 'chipping in.' So far, so good!
I guess as I started this, I ought to see it through, unless anyone else wishes to offer, in which case they're welcome!
So, how do we progress this?
To summarise who's pledged what, so far:
- IT Support: $50
- Winston Smith :>D: $50
- AlanF : $50
- Elsewhere : $50
- Kenneson : $25
- pepheuga : $50
- johnny cip : $50
- confusedjw : $50
- seattleniceguy : $50
- anuva : $50
- dh : $50
Total so far: $525
(I hope I haven't missed anyone.)
As a number of you have already suggested, I agree that using Paypal would be simplest to collect these initial pledges. If you have a credit or debit card, it's quick and easy to open an account.
Kent, do you also have a Paypal account, and we can each forward our pledge directly to you? O r would you prefer if someone else collects the funds then sends it all to you in one go? I'm happy to do this if nobody objects. (I promise not to abscond with the funds. ) Whichever, everyone who has pledged money can pm Kent or me with your Paypal account name, and either one of us will then send you a Paypal invoice to pay.
However, Kent, if you don't mind, as you already know the guys and they know you, it would probably be easier if you dealt with obtaining the data from Saxotech.
I assume the data from Saxotech will be compiled on a number of CDs or possibly DVDs. Perhaps, Kent, you could check? I suggest Kent then forwards them to one person who, in turn, will make copies and send them to each contributor. Any volunteers for this?
However, I think one thing should be said before we get too carried away with what we've accomplished so far. The way I see it, there are two sides to this project:
1. Obtaining the data from Saxotech: everyone who has contributed towards the cost should be entitled, if they wish, to a copy of the data. We could just leave it at that and do nothing more. The money pledged so far ought to cover this cost.
2. Set up an 'alternative' Watchtower Observer web site: there have been very generous offers of technical assistance to do this (see below), but there will still be ongoing costs.
Are we prepared to meet these costs, rather than have them all fall on perhaps one or two individuals? If we're not prepared to meet them, we should perhaps just stop here and be grateful that we've been able to rescue all the data Kent has so tireless compiled over the years. (Kent, speaking personally, words cannot adequately describe the debt I owe you for setting up your site.)
If we're prepared to meet these ongoing costs, I would suggest we should have a reasonable idea in advance of what they will be and among whom they will be shared. Does this sound reasonable so far?
So, please keep the pledges rolling in, we'll definitely need more money:
- Kent said the cost would be "about $500" so it may be more. Of course, it may be less, but then, this is an IT company we're dealing with!
- Hosting fees and bandwidth charges,
- We may need a 'fighting fund' if we need to pay for legal advice.
Offers of technical help:
- nicolaou: "I'd be more than happy to host all those B.O.E letters and other documentation at a new portal site I'm working on"
- Pole: "I can then convert it to SQL or plain HTML for free."
- Euphemism : "I'm a professional developer (primarily .NET at the moment, but I've done PHP/mySQL in the past) and would be happy to provide tech help."
- seattleniceguy : "I could aid in several other facets of the re-development effort, as well, such as design and development of the new site."
What we need to do:
- Find a host willing to host our 'controversial' site and with the backbone to resist WT's legal rotweilers. For a reasonable price! Anyone willing to investigate?
- Decide what web standards and tools should be used and in what format the data should be held, bearing in mind it should simple to maintain. (Future maintainers may not have the technical expertise of the developers!) Can two or three of us who have experience in this get together to hammer out the practicalities?
- Decide what to call the site. Perhaps Kent will be willing to sell the 'Watchtower Observer' domain name, perhaps he might want to keep it for sentimental reasons. Or rather than simply 'clone' Kent's site, perhaps a new site ought to have a new 'look and feel,' including a new name. Any suggestions?
- Carry out the data conversion. Any volunteers?
- Build the site. Any volunteers?
Have I forgotten anything?
Watchtower has declared war on the truth. They are desperate to deny access to the information that proves their dishonesty. They are a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation against a few private individuals. Can we give them a bloody nose? Will we?