I think Social media is the way of the future ( this has been shown through all the tweets and message boards and facebook during the EarthQuake in haiti. this is how information got out). We would be doing ourselves and the church as huge disservice if we give it up.

Good to see you back, dave.

I thought it was the other way around - Wondercafe was supported but Emerging Spirit workshops & budget are cut.

I think this website idea (and indeed the whole program ) is just getting going... shortsighted to cut it after just a couple of years, when clearly, things are happening online the way they do. (think Facebook Anti-Prorogue group)

Hi dave!  nice to see you back here.  Life definitely can take us away to other priorities for a while - that's just healthy & normal  I think.   So far, we're still here!   I think it's as Birthstone recalls above ...

That is my understanding,as well, Carolla.

I do wonder if a paypal button could be provided to submit offerings to offset the cost of wondercafe.

Does anyone know the approx. cost of running a website forum such as this one per month or per year? I know it would depend on the cost of repairs and how often they are needed. It probably also depends a great deal on volume or the number of participants and salary for the webmaster, admin. etc. ? I've been googling but there are too many variables.

I'm only aware of people who have set up their own free no cost  forums  and I don't know the restrictions imposed. No frills I should say. I know there are no ads  allowed on them.

I agree. I think we should be given the chance to show our support. paypal, Interac, pre-authorised monthly deductions etc. Quietly done, through small buttons on the home page and email. Or even just an annual campaign something like they had on PBS, where wonder cafe sends a series of emails, posts some ads, for a few weeks, but then for the rest of the year they do no promotion.

Or we could putt together a cookbook

I still think we should sell t-shirts.

oops, sorry, davehenderson -- off topic.

Though at times, wondercafe drives me crazy, I do appreciate the possibility of dialogue, and the resources and depth of community / conversation available.

Simply allow advertising .......

Well it's not as expensive as a site that has streaming video and other media

Although limiting the size of some posts could go a long way to saving bandwith some people really over do it ...

I would be glad to support any system of donations to the Cafe.  I wouldn't like to see a fixed membership charge - just an opportunity for those of us who really appreciate it to contribute according to our financial situation.

jesouhaite: your quote:

Although limiting the size of some posts could go a long way to saving bandwith some people really over do it ...

I'm an offender. I'll get with it and cease and desist . I just never really thought about it . I think pics. use a lot of bandwidth too? 

I wish Admin. would come along and give us some idea of the cost of the WC. Nobody seems to know anything about it?  Is it calculated on a monthly basis I wonder according to bandwidth used or is it a set rate?

P.S. Pinga! I think  you might have an idea of the cost?

The graphics too ..... but again none of this seems to be a concern for the admin .... hate to say it but they havent done much in the way of clean up or cropping graphics so that you can only submit a certain size ... im not sure if cost is even a real concern this is after all a non profit organization they probably get their site for free ... or at very minimal cost ...

Data storage is cheap these days, folks.

The amunt of information you put on a post is not goign to impact the cost.

Sheer volume of threads can, if it causes the admins to have to tune the way the documents are retrieved managed.

So, in fact, a huge volume of small posts, will have more impact than one long post to the system....but a big picture (not physically big, but storage big) will have more impact to the user downloading)

Photos do impact the download speed, but not cost.

I thought Wondercafe was the part of EmergingSpirit that we were keeping and funding.

Costs are incurred based on the following:

a) architecture costs

-- how robust does the system need to be....is it 7x24, 5x24 hrs of support. Does it require a failover and/or disaster recovery capabiiity.

--  what is the rate of change ot the underlying app, and how complex is that -- do you require development, qa & prod

-- what is the licensing cost for the software running, such as database, server & server management

-- why kind of operational items are reqired - backups, etc

-- are you hosting these yourself, or using outsourced, and if so, what are the costs

b)  management costs

c)  oversight costs

who is responding to reqeusts for assistance

who is responding to abuses

what is the rate of those abuses

who is responding to emergencies -- ie, the threats to self threads, and how good are their tools for doing so.

d) engagement

who is designing polls, and finding speakers, etc

what wraps around wondercafe

what enhancements are being considered to keep it new

Enough for now, but hopefully, you can see cost is variable

So, longstory short...cost is driven by the communities needs, which drive achitecture & application needs, which in term drive hardware/operations costs & human resource costs))

That's a bit over the top for this site i think .... LOL cmon this is as no frills as sites go .....

T shirts are available on the EmergingSpirit.ca website

http://emergingspirit.ca/upapi/download/4

I got mine when the campaign started a few years ago.

Birthstone is right... it's the other way around. Emerging Spirit was cut, Wondercafe was supported.

No post. Sorry, I was  posting  prior to reading the OP properly and the comments following. I wasn't making sense. I edited.

Thanks to Pinga for the info.

I don't know but I think that Wondercafe is easy to get around on and easy to post and use. What more would you want?

Thanks for the info & input everyone...and thanks Birthstone and Efficient_Cause for the update on funding, although arguably if Wonder Cafe' continues, so does a form of  Emerging Spirit - or at least a very public and popular avenue of it. 

PS    I went to change my photo and can't upload the new one.  I was getting sick of that ugly turtleneck anyway!

 (slight Tangent)  Are people aware of Canada Helps?  Organized by the banking industry, it's a simple way for Canadian charities (including churches) to securely accept on-line donations. Register for free & put the button on your website.   Donations are then forwarded automatically to the charity's bank account & Canada Helps issues a tax receipt by e-mail to the donor.  Donors can opt for one-time or repeated (eg monthly) donations. Canada Helps retain a small percent, 3% I think, for admin services.   Our church uses it - and we've been surprised by the 'anonymous' donations that have flowed in from time to time.

yes, the part that isn't great about Canada Helps, is that you don't get the donor list.

How is it not great pinga, not getting the donor list?  For future follow-up requests? 

Well, even for thank-you's or confirmations.

I always give via the United Way, and decided to try their program to give to two other organizations -- figured that I could save my hassle and co-ordinate the givings.

The United Way did not disclose who was sending the money to the org, just gave it in a lump sum.   In addition, due to the timing of their own fund distributions, they held onto the funds much longer than I would have anticipated.  This made it difficult for me to advise the destination orgs when they would see the money & how much.

I was grossly disappointed, even after working with them and said, won't do that again .

In the case of the people who received the funds, they also didn't know who gave it.  Made it very difficult to send thank-you's, or predict probability of a repeat gift.

They're having a closing sale: souvenir mugs at half price.

That's too bad about the United Way donation thing pinga.  I've specified an agency for my united way donations in some years, but didn't think to check up on it ... just assumed all went well ... perhaps an error on my part.

Sometimes tho - back to Canada Helps - people like to make a completely anonymous donation to the church (or elsewhere), for their own reasons - and this permits that to happen.  I think that it IS possible to indicate one's name on the donation form too, so the agency may know if you wish it to. 

Yes, I was there when this was announced at the GC in Kelowna.