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Send David on a trip?

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Bleeds Orange and Brown

Bleeds Orange and Brown

Paranormal Novice
I'm a new listener, and I'm sure this has been proposed previously, but I heard David talking about a fact finding trip IF he had the resources... personally I would LOVE to see him do that, so I thought

If...

David were to propose a budget along with project milestones (expected levels of progress at certain intervals), established a third party for oversight, and just set up a paypal type account, would people on the forums throw a few bucks at this trip?

It looks like there are almost 2,000 on this board, I would think $20 a head would more than pay for it, and I'm sure some could afford to give more, while obviously some could not or would not give any.

I'm probably very naive for thinking something so obvious would ever work, but just thought I'd throw it out for feedback.
 
Hmmm, an idea!

And Welcome to The Paracast, BOAB (what a strange username). ;)

David?! What do YOU think about this! :D
 
I missed something huge, or the culmination of tons of little things apparently. I rarely ever post anywhere....so....What happened? Is David done with just the forums, or The Paracast as a whole? :(
 
ghoul said:
I missed something huge, or the culmination of tons of little things apparently. I rarely ever post anywhere....so....What happened? Is David done with just the forums, or The Paracast as a whole? :(
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David is frustrated with some of the sniping that goes on in forums, so he decided to bow out -- for now.

He is still doing the show.
 
WHEW!

That's good news, wrapped in the ugly bad news of frustrating sniping.

Sniping, griping, grunting and bunting are why I almost never post on forums and simply read, read, read until something goes the way of the ugly. ::)

EDIT: I'd hate to see you guys not podcast together, your interaction is key to The Paracast being such an enjoyable show. :)
 
Bleeds Orange and Brown said:
I'm probably very naive for thinking something so obvious would ever work, but just thought I'd throw it out for feedback.
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Not at all! I just finished listening to latest episode and I had exact same thought. Absolutely! I hereby say that I will donate money without any doubt.

David and Gene can certainly make it attractive to us. For instance, extensive blog/journal coverage with pictures, so we all could follow David and his trail (on the map). Maybe David will create twitter after all? :)

Every single episode of paracast up to date is absolute 100% quality. This could be a way to pay these guys for what they deliver to us.

I now see 1,772 members on this forum. If 1,000 of them donates $20. That will be $20,000. If 1,000 donates $5 even, it will be $5,000. Some of us are surely capable of donating more than that (/me raises hand)
 
I'm sorry David won't read this, I would like to see his opinion, hopefully Gene can pass it on to him... and I agree, I would give money in a minute to see him make this fact finding mission.

Thanks for welcoming me to the Forum... and the screen name is because I'm a Huge Cleveland Browns fan! lol... let the thrashing begin! lol
 
Bleeds Orange and Brown said:
I'm a new listener, and I'm sure this has been proposed previously, but I heard David talking about a fact finding trip IF he had the resources... personally I would LOVE to see him do that, so I thought

If...

David were to propose a budget along with project milestones (expected levels of progress at certain intervals), established a third party for oversight, and just set up a paypal type account, would people on the forums throw a few bucks at this trip?
...
Click to expand...

I don't have lots, but I would subscribe to that solicitation!

Although I wonder how a person could estimate any progress - how do you mean? a running blog of the investigation?

Oversight, IMHO, would only tend to make things messy, either the forum trusts David to do it fairly, or not at all. If anything was left over, I would not want to try to divide it and return it to the contributors, but would suggest putting it towards the podcast's regular expenses.

PLUS - although our host works at a University ( I think? ) that does not mean his summers are work-free. sending someone off on an expense-paid trip to investigate things we want to know is great, but is that person giving up guaranteed employment income to do it? so expenses can be more than transportation, meals and lodging.

Once all that gets thought out, I go back to my statement - we trust it be done fairly - and add this caveat: or don't bother contributing.

my 50 cents worth.
 
All good points, I guess by milestones I simply think a good gauge of whether to continue such a trip would be markers of progress along the way. Without some idea of what your looking for why even begin? Just an idea of what you would hope to accomplish in what time frame, to avoid an open ended project. Obviously, no one could be held to these time lines, but would give a general "agenda" to the trip.

And i certainly was not implying that David could not be trusted with the funds, I simply am of the opinion that oversight is usually a good idea, not to mention relieving David of the accounting headache.

that's my $.50 .. or maybe I'm up to a dollar now? :shy:
 
okay, that makes sense. I am all for the advil when necessary. but it has been my experience that once some folks throw in a dollar, they expect to dictate how the entire budget is spent. and that would be completely asinine, so a third party would get that headache.

and I should have been more clear, I did not think you were implying any lack of trust towards db, but more along the lines of my thoughts above: $1 does not buy you the authority to approve the budget, so that would need to be made plain at the outset.

now, that is my addition, so add to the running balance, and it is now my $1.50 worth :D
 
I think it is a great idea. However, as opposed to the forum funding it, I think they should just double up on ads or throw a convention to gather funds. I'd put up with a couple of months of extended ads in order to promote a road trip, I'm less willing to send money via the internet, that's just my style.
 
I would think a convention at best would draw a few hundred people, and after paying the overhead my guess is they dont make too much money. And I am not sure they could just "double" the ads at will? I imagine if they could sell double the ads they would already be doing it.
On the other hand, I think a Paracast convention would be much fun :)
 
methshin said:
I think it is a great idea. However, as opposed to the forum funding it, I think they should just double up on ads or throw a convention to gather funds. I'd put up with a couple of months of extended ads in order to promote a road trip, I'm less willing to send money via the internet, that's just my style.
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When it comes to selling more ads, right now we're not getting enough to pay a living wage. Then again, if one of our members wants to help out on the sales end of the picture, and we could get some survival money, maybe we could afford to travel from time to time. :)

Seriously, people with experience at online sales and marketing should send me a PM with their qualifications! We haven't done so well getting the extra help we need.

Right now, just eating and paying health insurance would be nice. :D
 
I just got your facebook message. Though my expertise is not online sales and marketing, maybe having more products might be an idea. My girlfriends dad works for a book publishing company and I got the idea of a book of "credible" images and blurbs about the image and whatnot. Like a best of evidence book from the last 60 years.

I dunno, just a thought, I like pictures.:D
 
Gene Steinberg said:
When it comes to selling more ads, right now we're not getting enough to pay a living wage. Then again, if one of our members wants to help out on the sales end of the picture, and we could get some survival money, maybe we could afford to travel from time to time. :)

Seriously, people with experience at online sales and marketing should send me a PM with their qualifications! We haven't done so well getting the extra help we need.

Right now, just eating and paying health insurance would be nice. :D
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Nothing would make me happier Gene, knowing that you can do this show as your 'day job' and fund field trips etc.

Fingers crossed it all works out one day. What was Bigelows number again?
 
Gareth said:
Nothing would make me happier Gene, knowing that you can do this show as your 'day job' and fund field trips etc.

Fingers crossed it all works out one day. What was Bigelows number again?
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I don't think any well-heeled person will want to get involved.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
I don't think any well-heeled person will want to get involved.
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It's a sad reflection on the human race, that the things we're often so keen to fling our money at, are rarely the things that truly matter. It's the reason why top movie and sports stars are stinking rich, whilst cancer doctors have to beg for research funds.

Gene, perhaps the fact that the well-heeled aren't chucking their money at you, may be the greatest endorsement of your work yet. At least you and David have autonomy in what you do, something a rich backer might try to usurp as a condition of their support. You guys may not be profiting financially from The Paracast, but you certainly have integrity, unlike so many others in this field.
 
I agree that some well-heeled people might want control, and that would be a serious impediment with our little operation. Not that we'd refuse their money if they did it without preconditions. :)
 
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