Donation Drive '06 - Year of the Console
Ah, tis that time of the year again where, for two weeks, I put some seed-change in my empty Campbells soup can, wear my most pitiful expression, and beg you all to support our site-running habits for another year. We, like most webmasters out there, know that eventually running a gaming site won't give us the same high it once did, will ruin our lives, drive away our friends and family, and leave us penniless talking about that one time we totally hung out with Peter Moore at E3. Kids nearby will ask, "What's E3?". I will weep fat tears.
But, for now, put that sad image out of your mind, and support GamersWithJobs.com by sending your donation through PayPal to elysium@gamerswithjobs.com (snail mail option available below).
As always, we try not to come to the party without our own gifts for you in return, and we are offering a brand new icon for our amazing four-year donors, and several prize packages, topped by our grand prize this year:
A Complete XBox 360 Prize Package including:
XBox 360 Premium Console
Extra Wireless Controller
Wifi Adapter
12 Months of Xbox Live Gold
Remote Control
Dead Rising
Xbox Live Unplugged
Oblivion
Test Drive Unlimited
Saints Row
Oh, but wait, there's more. Read on for details on elligibility requirements, how to enter and win, more great prize packages, and how to double, triple, and quadruple your entries into the prize drawings!
How To Donate
We offer two ways to donate, snail mail and PayPal.
Paypal Email: elysium@gamerswithjobs.com
Also note the handy dandy donate button to the left.
If your forum name is not obviously recognizable from either your buyer name or email address you used with paypal (so that I know immediately from the transaction info who sent the donation), then please send a separate email to me at elysium@gamerswithjobs.com with the subject GWJ DONATION including the dollar amount, your real name, site name and email from which you sent the donation. If you don't, you may not be eligible for the prizes or your donation icon!
Snail Mail – Please note, all snail mail donations must arrive before September 20th to be eligible for the grand prize drawing. Send early! –
Gamers With Jobs
Attn: Sean Sands
PO Box 177
Savage, MN 55378
The donation drive will run through 11:59pm September 20, 2006, at that time the link to the paypal donation links will be taken down, and no more donations will be accepted until the next drive.
As always donors get a special forum icon added to their name. Readers who have donated once get a golden key, twice gets a gold watch, three donations gets the iconic weiner bomb, and our new fourth year icon ... well, watch for it over the coming days.
The Prizes:
Only residents of North America are eligible to win prizes (we're sorry). Staff of GWJ and their families are not eligible to win (staff of GWJ being defined as anyone who has had posting privileges to the front page).
Grand Prize – A Complete XBox 360 Prize Package courtesy of Gameguru including:
XBox 360 Premium Console
Extra Wireless Controller
Wifi Adapter
12 Months of Xbox Live Gold
Remote Control
Plus these games!
Other Prizes (Watch this space as more prizes are usually added as the drive goes on):
Nintendo DS Lite Special Black Edition System and games (Games included TBA)
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Customized Soapy Hollow Gift Box including: 4 soaps of your choice, Soapy Sock, Aromatherapy Spritz and Aromatherapy Salts designed to your specifications, 1 bottle of aromatherapy designed cocoa butter lotion or Monoi body butter and five vials of theraputic essential oil blends. Soapy Hollow: We want you naked and wet. (Thanks to Duckideva, nice logo!)
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1 Copy of the PC Game that every Demiurge I know who went to PAX has been raving about in the cafeteria, Eets
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Thanks to Propagandalf!
How to Win :
As always we offer multiple entries for those of you who donate a little more.
The scale for this year is the same.
Donations/Entries into the drawing (U.S. funds)
$10 - $24 = 1 entry
$25 - $49 = 2 entries
$50 - $74 = 3 entries
$75 and up = 4 entries
Only one prize per person! Date and time of the live grand prize drawing to be announced.
One more big thank you goes out to Gameguru for putting together a great grand prize! We can't wait to see who the big winner is this year.
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Thanks in advance for supporting the site! I wanted to take a quick minute and talk about what we're looking to using the money for now that E3 is of questionable relevance.
We hit record traffic for the month of August and I'm sure you've all noticed the site going up and down as a result. Part of this is site scaling, but most of it is due to the fact that we're getting too big for our host ... again. We'll be focusing on reworking the back-end of the site and upgrading Drupal to start with; it's going to be quite a lot of work with all the custom stuff we run so that's going to take a while and cost a bit. It may be that we'll still need to move to a dedicated server after all that, which would effectively more than double our current hosting costs.
Convention coverage will happen this year, it's just going to depend on which one we settle on and how much we have left after paying for site upgrades and the year's hosting. Maybe GDC, maybe Gencon, maybe we'll sprinkle it around, I just don't know yet. E3 may even be on the table if they put together a worthwhile event.
Slush fund and sundry costs are what's left. This may include things like better podcast equipment (quit drooling, Rob), some special gifts for our longstanding writers, or all the juice boxes we can get our hands on.
That's the plan as it stands, folks. We love the site dearly and we're going to keep getting better as we go, thanks for sticking with us!
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
What about the booze and whores?
"Thanks, KrazyTaco, thanks. I'd put it in your pooper too." -Mex
"Krazy, I love the fact that you exist." -Vector
They come with the recording studio of course!
Donation sent. Now show me that new bling!
"Can I have a job? I donut have much experiences, butt I always use an spellchecker spellchecker on my articles." - Sway
Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria since 2005!
Spoiler Fanatic!
I'm sorry but how can I contribute without direct access to the hookers and booze and gambling... ok forget the hookers... and booz... hey wait! A drawing that is sort of gambling, I'm in!
-Griffon
"White is the new black"
Done and done!
How's the sponsoring going?
edit: and out of pure greed, can Europeons participate in the contest?
Roo: "Just to cheer you up if any of the above made you sad: Boobies."
IDGaf, on online dating: "One woman even said she wanted a man to be 'her friend, her brother, her father'. I was tempted to suggest she move to Alabama."
Donation sent. New gold watch here I come!
A Mind Without Purpose Will Walk In Dark Places
"I may be out of ammo but I ain't out of chainsaw B*TCHES!" - Sinister's warcry for Gears of War
I've no means to donate, so must pledge my undying love instead.
You and Certis can fight over who gets it.
Rhymes with 'yidcaff'. I don't use smilies. Imagine a wink and a wry grin at the end of most of my sentences. I don't like using exclamation marks either. I'm more friendly than you imagine.
I look forward to this time each year. Thanks for running a great site folks.
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
Any hints as to what the new donator logo will be? (Not that that will affect my donation, just curious.)
Don't you understand, Cliff? We put a chainsaw on a machine gun! That's it! It doesn't get more awesome than that! We've peaked, man! We've peaked! - ctrl-alt-del on Gears of War 2
Man, I need a 360 too. I guess I need to make a choice between this and writing for the site.
Ummm...
OK, I guess I'll write (duh).
Don't worry, I'll send in my donation too.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
You know that commercial where it says that just pennies a day will keep a young child fed ... you see where I'm going with this.
- Elysium
Done.
Xbox Live: Nei HD | Playstation ID: Nei_GWJ | Too Human
Gold Key ftw !
XBox Live: MaxShrek .... Steam ID: MaxShrek
Blogging Pencil ...
Need the gold watch, want the prizes - if I get the soap or DS it'll go towards the little lady (she has a DS, had one before me, but I don't want to risk my life by having the new hotness while she's stuck with old and busted).
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Ding! Another year, another GWJ Donation Level! I hope I get my mount soon! I'm going to name him Mex...since his name will be Mex
Ikariam.org Iota Server Info Sheet
How much is for the working Search function?
Just wondering.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
One Hojillion dollars. It'll be part of the back-end fixing.
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
Donation sent. You guys are lucky. Since my car is down for a couple of weeks for repair (thank many things I get one of those Geek Squad bugs for work), the money that would normally be spent on gas is free from reserve.
You guys run a great site and deserve every cent. Keep up the great work!
P.S. The PayPal e-mail address I sent it from isn't the same as the one attached to my profile. Does that matter?
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
Net Neutrality Rally in Ottawa on May 27th![/url]
Sent. I love this site. $10 is well worth it even without prizes... with well why not!
WOW: Bounce
Donation sent, always wondered what the levels were on the donation items. Knowledge is power!
Certis wrote:
XBL: elliottxW
Hot dog! Looking forward to sending in some monies on Friday when The Man delivers my pittance. Also, the Deva's wares look awesome. I think they are the best prize short of the 360 goodness. I love me some hand-crafted soaps.
EDIT: Ooh, it even comes with a loofah!
"I like to hear people talking when they're not talking to me," I said. "It's soothing to know that I don't have to listen." -- Bill Harris describing a truism.
I gots me a wiener bomb!
Xbox Live: MrGreen
PSN: MrGreenPSN
Wii: 4859 2... oh f*ck it.
If you're not sure, drop Elysium an email with your donation info.
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
Done.
Steam Community ID
Mythos Player ID: cejansen
On it's way! Thanks for the good times GWJ!
Hey that rhymed!
Xbox Live: jakelegg
Server info
I'm very happy to support this site. I couldn't count how many times the people on this site have made my day a bit better.
Contribution sent. Weiner bomb, you are mine!
Gamer Tag -- Edgar Newt
Done.
Rogue
Mage
On the way! Always glad to support you guys and the community we have here. Even if the booze and whores are a la carte.
Despite popular belief, if there is a fool in the woods, and nobody is around to hear his jibba jabba, Mr. T is still able to pity him.
Enjoy the donation and thanks for all of the hard work you guys do.
PS. Please, oh please will someone re-post the Money/Wiener/Airplane pic?
Xbox Live: Chumtastic