When I first joined the forum I donated 30 dollars, thinking it might buy me some good will to have assistance with some basic optical questions, nope! Zero, rather rudely told to search the forum instead. Well I had! Later I figured out most members don't track, or care to track who donates. So, no bribing for answers, doesn't work, use google! Then, I saw the bar never moved forward when I donated, sometimes taking days to see an update but usually no update.. I will continue to donate, extremely cheap entertainment for me as well as a good resource to learn about lasers, but if that bar doesn't move right away, I have little trust it is accurate and that it tells the true status of how well the forum expenses are being met, so I don't care to push it forward now.
Edit: If members want to donate, they should do it without regard to that bar, to me it would be better not to have it, disappoints me when I don't see it move and I know I am not alone in that, have seen posts every now and then from others disappointed not to see a change too. I am not saying it isn't periodically updated, I just don't know that it is, because I don't see a change when I donate. Due to that I don't trust I am given the real status which may be no fault of the admins, they have lives and to be constantly updating that bar has got to be a pain.
My suggestion is to put a date on the bar when it was last updated. As it is, the paranoid untrusting half of me thinks it isn't updated on purpose which could be entirely wrong. So, I said it, better the admins know the issues some members have, might change the bottom line on expenses being met. Maybe the admins know from experience if they keep that bar updated then donations are less and the expenses are not met, I don't know, they probably aren't being met as it is, word I received is donations are not covering expenses. Maybe this forum does make money some months, maybe it is cheaper to run than I've been told, I just don't know because I don't pay the bills.
on top of my monthly donation. Edit: my PPal didn't get locked and my IP came in from Iraq. If anyone would get locked, it should have been me. I've been locked on PPal before, I think they periodically screw with us (umm, implement security measures) when something seems a bit off to them, I don't know why they did that to you.
