As some of you may have noticed, over the past year or so the site itself has been running into much more server slowdown, busy messages and downtime. While all minor annoyances and nothing threatening long term downtime for any of our affiliate projects, in order for us to grow any further it needs to be addressed. We've already mentioned the new version of the site, which has been in development for several months and is getting closer to launch every day. This new site is going to feature much more in the way of user interaction, greater information databases, and some other features we're not ready to disclose as we're not sure how they're going to pan out just yet. Part of the reason for that is due to the amount of stress these features stand to put on the server itself once they go live. Unfortunately bemanistyle has always largely acted as a not-for-profit website. Our other projects don't bring us much in the way of profit and may as well also be considered "labor of love" type situations.
This is where you all come in. In the past we have taken donations to fix little bits and pieces of the server we run on. Now you all stand to make the largest contributions towards the purchase of our new server, and help usher in a new period of growth in the North American rhythm game scene. This new server is just the first step in our plans to bring great new things to the community not only in the US, but also worldwide. We've made many beneficial friends as a website and company since 2007 when we first worked with GUHROOVY at ACen, and all of these new friends and contacts want to help us help you progress further as a fanbase and community of enthusiasts.
Since we're really not too good at asking people to give us something for nothing, donations won't just be a one sided thing this time around. For several months we've been coming up with things we can let you do on the forums and amassing all sorts of random merchandise from flyers to marquees to e-amusement cards. Every donation over $5 will recieve something in return for their support. Here are your options:
- Add a smilie to the website ($5): Exactly as it states. Do you have a smilie that you really like but we don't have? For $5 we'll add it along with assigning it the command of your choice on our forums. No vulgar or obscene photos please, anything cartoony and fun is welcome!
- Select a new user rank image (coming soon): We've put together several new custom rank images covering everything from IIDX to DDR to even past versions of bemanistyle. For a small fee we'll allow you to select which user rank image series you use on the forums.
- Change the name of f136 ($15): Otherwise lovingly known as "forum boredom", for a $15 donation you can change the name of this particular forum for two weeks. Nothing too obscene or vulgar will be accepted.
- Change f136's description ($5): Same deal as above, only cheaper!
- Stick a topic in f136 or the marketplace for 2 weeks ($5): Have an item you're really trying to sell or draw attention to? Get it stickied for 2 weeks for $5. We're only allowing 5 topics in the marketplace stuck at a time, and there will be an active queue that will be rotated out as other stickies expire. Same deal with forum boredom, any topic in f136 no matter how stupid can be stuck for 2 weeks for a $5 donation.
- Random bit of music game merch in the mail (all donations over $5): We've been collecting flyers, e-amusement cards, CDs, games, marquees, speaker pops and more for quite some time. Now these collectible (and in some cases rare) bits of merchandise will be passed back to you guys in return for your donations. If you choose to donate outright and not recieve a forum option we will send you something in the mail. The amount you donate doesn't dictate what you'll recieve and obviously we have more of some things than others. We will continue to pick up random bits of merchandise as well so as time goes on we might even have some even cooler stuff going back to you guys.
The donation drive starts immediately. If any of you has a donation reward suggestion, feel free to shoot it our way. We want to be able to properly show you guys our appreciation for your continued support and general enthusiasm for the site and everything we put into it. Trust us when we say that if we're successful in reaching our goal, the benefits will reach more than just bemanistyle's immediate community. As for our donation goal, rather than break it down completely we're just going to say that we're extremely optimistically hoping to raise in the vicinity of $10,000 total. Close to $6000 of that will be going into the new server and better hosting for the site as a whole. The rest of that total will be put into events we're planning to sponsor, expanded a/v equipment for some new features we're hoping to roll out and future bemanistyle/rhythm gaming promotional pushes we're tossing around. We don't by any means expect to raise that much immediately, but the drive will be ongoing until we feel that all of the equipment and funds needed for what we have planned have been collected. This means that everything WILL carry over to the new site as well. We'll be frequently updating the site with the amount of money we've collected so far. Paypal is the preferred method of donating, if you need to donate via cash, check or money order, contact eddie [at] bemanistyle.com for instructions on how to get your donation in.
When submitting your donation please include YOUR ADDRESS, YOUR USERNAME, WHAT YOU'RE DONATING FOR. If you're donating for one of the forum related options, include what you want changed. If it's a smilie, include a link to the smilie itself or e-mail it to eddie and denote your e-mail address so we can retrieve the file properly. Once the rank images are available we will let you know and provide instructions for picking them.
Thank you all for your continued support! We hope you will help us make this a resounding success!
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