Well, Johnny:
"I was ready to gamble on the people here, and committed my own resources for another three years: After that, KickAS would be on its own and if it goes out of business--so what?,"
Yes, the people here are still worth trusting to step up to the plate--it was a gamble that I thought I had lost.
But if KA goes out of business, it will not be because we have not tried, but only because there was not enough CARING from the members. If that were the case, why should I also CARE?
Well, we once stated the purpose of KA was to go out of business eventually. Hopefully we can put ourselves out of business someday even if we have to do it by ourselves.
I was a member of Brian's "ASweb," and visited Brian several times when he lived in Las Vegas, the first time with a group, as we had a meeting there. At that time we asked Brian if he minded whether we took over the site and he said "GO FOR IT--I hope there can be hundreds of sites about AS!"
Regret that Brian was unable to continue in any capacity, but it is his legacy to bring us together to start KA.
Pete came up with "KickAS" and the logo, which is now tattooed permanently upon his shoulder. He worked myriad hours to get content into and format KA, along with Tony Browneller, and a few others. Eventually, Pete did not want to be involved anymore, and I volunteered to become owner and to keep KA going.
Although I have some bias on behalf of what has been successful for me, I do recognize that NSD is a very small portion of KA and it was not nor never will be my intention to change the basic nature of KA--but that also means that KA will keep the Ebringer material and NSD, and I'm not ready to be shy about this or disguise the facts.
To be yet again mis-characterized by You only adds to the level of angst here.
I do not own KA for profit, ego, or for any reason other than with the goal of helping people who have AS:
And this includes people who either will not or cannot approach this disease as I have. If people come here for comfort and friendship, that is wonderful, but that is not my contribution--I'm not here to make friends, although I have, and I'm not here to coddle people and tell them what they want to hear, although apparently we need more pabulum--how about just installing a gumball machine: Put a nickel in and get exactly what you expect! No chance of ever getting a pearl of great price, just gumballs or a lump of coal. Maybe we should only have doctors comment on treatments--just tell people to go to the doctor and get what you expect.
Although I want KA to continue as it has, we have to have an involved membership, willing to provide the means necessary for our survival.
To Owner: If I need to donate, tell me how much the site needs to operate for the next three years, and I will give. After three years, if you want someone else to take over, because you have "run out of caring," I'm sure you will be able to find someone else who will be glad to take the keys.
Ok, You called me into Your posting and I will try and help dispel some of the problems You have highlighted, if "run out of caring" was a poor choice of words or You have misunderstood this within the context offered. Again it is tedious to do this and again, if NOBODY ELSE cares, I will also run out of caring.
But people DO care, and we have already had enough donations to keep KA going for well beyond 3 years, even with some proposed upgrades. I just never wanted to come out and ask for donations directly--the gamble was that our members might NOTICE the changed-into red, white, and blue
DONATE TO KICKAS.ORG button and actually use it; perhaps I have lost that gamble, or cashed in too early. mig spent her time redesigning the button after we got our PayPal back up and bank accounts linked. Some people come here EVERYDAY and even more often--they did not notice that change?
No, it does not take very much money to run the KA site, but along with filing fees and annual State corporation fees, it can (depending upon revenue) get prohibitively expensive to begin or continue a non-profit organization.
Again, our revenue was ZERO until we made an issue of it.
As a member of KA, I have my own views about AS and I post these for people who are interested.
As the owner of KA, I am aware that there are people here who are not interested in my views. The only way I can keep this conflict in check is to have others make decisions about how the site is run, generally--these are the Administrators and the Moderators and they get their input from our members, who also have a say in this site.
I do not want to lose the focus of KA and I do not want KA to lose any member of the admin/mod team. There will certainly be a time when I will no longer own KA, and become an ordinary member once again.
But OWNERSHIP is now and will be then irrelevant with regards to the management of KA. If we need more transparency for our members we will become more open about every aspect: Although KA is a private site, basic decisions will always be made by our members--not just PAYING members because there are plenty of people here who do not have the resources, and not just admin/mods, but we share the common goal of creating and maintaining a caring place for interaction and discussion.
THANK YOU, each member who has donated, and THANKS to all the dedicated mods, admins, and webmaster(s) who donate their inestimable skills and sometimes lose too much sleep or are taken away from their families too much,
John
