Don Rosa fund

[Tom Tanida]

>Don Rosa:
>
>> Well, this can't go on much longer! Each time I glance at and answer
>> even these digests, it's costing me about $4-$5 since I'm not using
>> TAPCIS or anything (never needed it till now).
>
>         "
>Per Starback:
>
>> What is TAPCIS?  I really hope you won't leave us.  What do you all
>> say?  Should we create a D.O.N. fund (= Don On the Net) to keep him
>> here if we D.O.N.-ate enough?
>
> Yes, let's give it the motto "Donate U.s. Currency for Keno" (Keno being
> Don's first name). Don could even advertise this himself by putting 
> "D.U.C.K." in the first panels of his stories...
>
> But how could we get the money to Don?
> 
> Isn't there a way to do things cheaper, e.g. downloading messages, off-line
> editing, uploading the answers?

Some comments here:

1. Compuserve charges on a per-message basis for mail sent TO the Internet
and mail sent FROM the Internet.  So if you subscribe to an Internet
mailing list, it adds up at the rate of $0.30 or so per message, even
if you don't mail out.  (Personally, I think Compuserve (CIS) is extortionate
in this regard.)  In this sense, TAPCIS or any other program doesn't
help much.

2. There are two primary methods of billing on CIS (in the US at least).
One method is "basic services" which is $8.95/month, and includes a $9.00
credit for e-mail messages and free connect time in the e-mail section,
but another $8/hr in the forums.  The other method is to just pay $12.80/hr
all the time everywhere, but no monthly fee.  For the
latter, TAPCIS would help if one normally reads and replies online.
For the former, TAPCIS/etc. does not matter, but can help you DL all
your messages as a group for convenience.  If you use CIS a decent amount, 
there's no reason not to have basic services.  Again, these are the
fees in the US; I don't know about elsewhere.

3. If America Online, which is another network service, is available
overseas (I don't think it is- maybe someone else knows; I'll
try to find out), it has no charge for mail to and from the Internet.

4. I don't know how Mr. Rosa is handling this list, but if he's getting
all messages one by one from the Internet to CIS, perhaps he should
unsubscribe, have the list maintainer (or some willing soul) send all
the messages that come through here in a single file or two
each day or every other day.  I think there's a 100K limit on the
size of a message to CIS, but the traffic on this list doesn't surpass that.
cutting down on the per message cost, then reply in a single message
as a group.

If he's getting a lot of personal Internet messages as
a consequence of being "discovered" on this list, I guess that's up to him
to decide what to do (e.g. hide his CIS address from any replies by
having someone else post his replies to the group, etc.).

-Tom