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Avalon said:
WTF... I just got 27 emails from papal acknowledging my cancelation. It looks like I was on some type of auto payment thing with every vendor I had bought from. I thought PMbug was the only one on auto. I need to pay better attention.
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Mercifully, I avoided using PayPest except where nothing else would do. I opened the account because, seven years ago, I was trifling with Fleabay as a vendor. That didn't last. I'd used it a handful of times, and then two times this year...so I wasn't heavily into accounts.

But I got the notice of cancellation also.

Too bad. You can close the barn door; even nail it shut; but if the nag is already running down the road, it's too late.
 
Casey Jones said:
Mercifully, I avoided using PayPest except where nothing else would do. I opened the account because, seven years ago, I was trifling with Fleabay as a vendor. That didn't last. I'd used it a handful of times, and then two times this year...so I wasn't heavily into accounts.

But I got the notice of cancellation also.

Too bad. You can close the barn door; even nail it shut; but if the nag is already running down the road, it's too late.
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I still don't quite understand what just happened. I knew I had pmbug on monthly auto pay but I had no idea some consent for auto pay was attached to other vendors. I don't think money was ever taken but I must have clicked something that gave them permission to charge my account. I stopped using PayPal about 6 months ago when I became aware of their politics. I was going to keep it for rare use. After this recent ridiculousness I'm done with them.
 
good-news-everyone-gif-9.gif


Stripe is now working. I've removed PayPal as a payment option and replaced it with Stripe for processing credit cards.

Tomorrow I'm going to go through my PayPal account and cancel all existing subscriptions. Folks who have a subscription can create a new one with Stripe whenever your current account upgrade expires.
 
pmbug said:
good-news-everyone-gif-9.gif


Stripe is now working. I've removed PayPal as a payment option and replaced it with Stripe for processing credit cards.

Tomorrow I'm going to go through my PayPal account and cancel all existing subscriptions. Folks who have a subscription can create a new one with Stripe whenever your current account upgrade expires.
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YES!!!!!
 
pmbug said:
If you order an account upgrade, they just process the credit card payment.
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Good to know. Stripe works in the background.

Donate to PMBug using your CC and Stripe will process the transaction.
 
#48Fan said:
Any way to pay in crypto?
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It is now possible to pay with crypto, but I have to manually apply the account upgrades, so anyone wanting to pay with crypto will need to send me a PM with the transaction details so I can credit their account. I've listed a wallet address for Bitcoin, but I can add other coins, so if you want to send something else, just let me know.

Bitcoin address:

bc1qpzrcacpx5t4jsdwfna4unzv00vx6jdl09ue8kr
 
* bump *

I just paid the annual web hosting bill this morning. This July bill is the biggest expense item in the bugland budget. This year, for the first time in many years, I didn't have to cover the vast majority of the bill out of pocket. Thank you to everyone who has chosen to help support the site. In addition to covering the costs of keeping the lights on, your support has facilitated the addition of numerous improvements (added features) over the last several months. I appreciate your support.
 
Got this alert a little while ago:

"One of your account upgrades has expired."

Took care of that on Monday. Need to update stuff.
 
Your account upgrade was processed/applied on Monday. It's expiration will be October 2024. I'm not sure why you got an alert. From what I can see in the control panel, everything is correct with your account/upgrade.

That said, there are a lot of members who came over from GIM2 around this time that very generously paid for account upgrades with PayPal before the PayPal issue developed. Back in October last year, I removed the PayPal payment profile and manually went through my PayPal account cancelling all the active PayPal subscriptions.

Anyone wanting to renew their account upgrades may do so by using a credit card with the Stripe payment processor (does not require you to create a Stripe account - it's just a CC processor) or sending a physical check in the mail:


I appreciate everyone that helps support this site. Thank you.
 
* bump *

As we approach the end of 2023, the pmbug bank account has a tiny balance left (like ~$40). GIM2 refugees were generous when they migrated late last year and we were able to pay the hosting bill for our dedicated server and install a few upgrades/mods. That was really awesome and I thank everyone that has helped (and especially the ones that still are helping) support the site.

The folks that develop the software that powers this forum (Xenforo) are currently beta testing a major update for the software that contains a lot of "backend" improvements. These improvements should make the forum more efficient/faster. There are also a few enhancements that should be readily apparent once it goes live (I'll talk about them more at that time). The software update is expected to be released for us to use some time early next year (no exact date has been set).

In anticipation of the update, the folks at Xenforo are currently offering license renewals at 33% off. It is possible to extend the license renewals multiple years and take advantage of the discount. This would be great for us if we had more funds available.

It looks like the Google ads that are shown to guests (anyone that does not register an account and log in when they visit) is slowly starting to show some signs of life. If the ad revenue maintains the average of the last couple of weeks, it might end up covering about 20% of the web hosting bill in July.

So, if you are enjoying pmbug, please consider upgrading your account and supporting the site:


Doing so before the end of the year would allow us to take advantage of Xenforo's year end sale and stretch the budget just a bit more.
 
I encourage those that use sites like this one support the sites they use....I have got into the habit of doing donations/renewals on all the sites I use the first two weeks of each year, that way I don't have to wonder when they are due etc.
 
chieftain said:
What about us 'strayans that don't use BTC or have Paypal?
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Is PayPal a option this year?......last year I think it was mail a check or cc....I used a visa gift card to maintain my privacy and it worked well

Edit....didn't see the above posts sorry for redundancy
 
Thanks folks. Your support is very much appreciated.

One of the improvements coming in the new software update is compliance with a markup schema that Google is recommending. Reading between the lines from a few different sources - I think it is going to end up boosting the public pmbug threads in Google's search results.
 
pmbug said:
Thanks folks. Your support is very much appreciated.

One of the improvements coming in the new software update is compliance with a markup schema that Google is recommending. Reading between the lines from a few different sources - I think it is going to end up boosting the public pmbug threads in Google's search results.
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This might be contrary to your thinking but I reckon you would want to present to Google only a small subset of the forum content and move more of the sub forums to members only access.
 
I will haveta mail a check. Dunno how to do the other stuff. No prob.

(pause)

Sumbitchin' check is inna mail (inna fargin driving rain!) as of 7:30AM this moanin. <-- That way I won't forget.
 
chieftain said:
This might be contrary to your thinking but I reckon you would want to present to Google only a small subset of the forum content and move more of the sub forums to members only access.
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Some of the now public forum nodes (like politics) used to be private (member only). Folks complained that I was censoring them.

I think the current set up provides a good balance, but if y'all disagree, let me know what you think/prefer (maybe start a new thread though so we don't hijack this one) and we can discuss it.

Unca Walt said:
...
Sumbitchin' check is inna mail (inna fargin driving rain!) as of 7:30AM this moanin. <-- That way I won't forget.
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not-the.gif
 
* bump *

July is approaching and that is when the bill for the server hosting is due. pmbug runs on a dedicated, hosted server (so it runs fast and has no issues with bad actors ruining the server/IP reputation with DNSBL blacklists) and that is not cheap.

pmbug is running ads for guests/visitors (anyone that isn't a logged in member), but those ads do not generate very much revenue. It's not like the old days when ad revenue covered all the bills.

The pmbug bank account has slightly under a third of the $1,000/year hosting bill that will be coming due in a few weeks. So once again, I'm asking folks who are finding some value from the site to please consider pitching in a few bucks to help pay the bills. Logged in members can contribute via this page:


Guests/lurkers can contribute via this page:

www.pmbug.com

Support pmbug

www.pmbug.com www.pmbug.com

Your support is appreciated.
 
Thank you CJ. Your support is appreciated.

Also... you should be able to submit longer posts now (with the membership upgrade)...
 
Back in my day a man didn't accept services for free. Everyone knew there was always a catch. No free lunches! No sir. We paid for things of value with an honest transaction and that's the way we liked it!
 
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