...without your help. (sorry about that {sheepish-shrug} but I needed to get your attention.)

While we are planning a more organized/sophisticated/less-poorly-timed fund raiser in January 2013, we could use some funds now to keep the fires of progress stoked thru December.

You see, mudcat.org is in the process of a major overhaul, which again I will explain in more depth in the very near future. The short version is that we are currently at the mercy of some rather oppressive keepers, namely Microsoft and Adobe, who's software keeps mudcat.org clicking and humming. Keeping that software up to date (something we are WAAAYYY overdue for) is not something we can currently afford (SQL Server - $4,500, Adobe ColdFusion $4,300, Windows Datacenter $4,800). We are essentially redirecting those software license funds to...

So the upgrade is the complete rewriting of mudcat.org, not a single line of code remains of this version which I type into now, to an entirely opensource mudcat. We're going to switch from Microsoft Server to Linux, SQL Server to MySQL, and ColdFusion to primarily PHP and other scripting/ODBC-connectivity/application languages. All of which are free to use and keep up to date.

We've been testing technologies all year and actually have a few different versions of the new mudcat running on varying platforms now. We are ready, at this juncture, to make the database switch. For this I need to employ a database specialist for the data transfer and server setup (who happens to be available for December) as well as hopefully procure some hardware.

I really would like to get started on this now, so I am asking for your help. I know the holiday season is not the best time to ask you to check your fancy-party-clothes pockets and under the couch cushions, I haven't in years' past and certainly wouldn't bother if I didn't think it was important.

Please know that every little bit helps, whenever you can muster. I have some very good people willing to help and they are working as affordable as they can for us here, really generous deals to be sure, we can really get a lot done for very little.

Keeping this short, the best way to contribute in via Paypal. They have been very good to us over the years, cut us a break on their cut cuz we're awesome and allow us to accept any sort of currencies without conversion/transfer/banking fees. The account is max@mudcat.org which you can enter manually or by clicking the following links and buttons:

USD:

GBP:

EUR:

AUD:

CAD:

If you need to, you can also mail checks or money orders in US currency, ***made out to Max Spiegel*** to:

Max Spiegel
The Mudcat Cafe
PO Box 274
State College, PA 16804

In the UK, the kind kind folks knows as The (UK) Friends of Mudcat can help, hopefully posting below the information you will need to see that the funds are directed such that we can avoid the banking fees usually associated with international bank transfers.

And as always but especially during this holiday season, you can help mudcat by shopping at Amazon using the following links (though our cut won't show up till January and February):
amazon.mudcat.org or amazonUK.mudcat.org or amazonFR.mudcat.org or amazonCA.mudcat.org

The big upside is that once the upgrade is complete, mudcat.org will be completely sustainable on non-member ad clicks. Huuurrrrraaaaayyy! No more ads for members, and God willing, no more of my pesky contribution requests (read: begging). Also, until then, please take this as a reminder that clicking our ads is an extremely important/effective source of revenue for mudcat.org.

Thanks for your time and considerations, and happy holidays.