Keeping people's attention: Charity?

[uninventive]

We all pay $15 for VIP access, right?  The money would go to NCSoft who would collect it on a monthly basis.

Now the next couple of months, we have nothing to pay for.  How about at the end of every calendar month, do a 1-week charity drive (pay your subscription fee from October 1-7, November 1-7, and December 1-7).  Someone would need to vet three charities that Titan would approve of, naturally, and we ask that VIP players (keyword: ASK... it's not mandatory, if you need that $15, keep it) put in $15 each month. 

We can cover the same charities as Real World Hero did, or different ones.  I'll leave that to people who can vet those out better than I can.

You can donate more if you like, but try to keep it an amount you wouldn't mind spending on a VIP fee or Paragon Points on at least the first drive.  Let's find out (indirectly) just how much NCSoft was getting from us each month, and help somebody else out at the same time.

TL;DR Edition: Titan Network is considering this already as an idea.  Stay tuned.

[DrakeGrimm]

/Signed.


I have no money to contribute as I'm working for the first time in over eight months, but you have my full moral support!

[Vulpy]

This very idea has been coming up with dogged persistence lately. My response remains the same as it has the other times it's been mentioned: I suspect (and this is pure speculation on my part) that a Call to Action of this sort is on the near horizon. Sock away funds for when that finally comes through, then we can make an even bigger impact!

[Ampithere]

I'd be willing to put money in.

[Teege]

A good start would be to Go. Hunt. Find Charities.

Compose a list of reputable charities that would allow us to donate as a group (to represent the City of Heroes community) and go from there. We can make a huge impact on multiple fronts this way.

[uninventive]

My last payday is Sept. 28th, then I'm laid off myself.

I'll be able to give throughout them, of course.  My piggy bank is hammer-proof.

This very idea has been coming up with dogged persistence lately. My response remains the same as it has the other times it's been mentioned: I suspect (and this is pure speculation on my part) that a Call to Action of this sort is on the near horizon. Sock away funds for when that finally comes through, then we can make an even bigger impact!

If it is, no problem.  Call this thread "gauging interest" into people's willingness to do something like that before the official announcement. Plus, if this is true, the mods will know and reply accordingly (i.e.: "Stay tuned..." or something like that.)

A good start would be to Go. Hunt. Find Charities.

Compose a list of reputable charities that would allow us to donate as a group (to represent the City of Heroes community) and go from there. We can make a huge impact on multiple fronts this way.

My next two weeks are hectic (when people get wind that an IT Employee is getting laid off, the reaction isn't sympathy, it's dumping hundreds of requests per day into the inbox before they're gone)... I've got the willpower, and the money, but not the time.

Off to college... wheeeee!

[castorcorvus]

Not a bad idea. But we should choose groups that few can argue how just their cause is. We choose the wrong ones and suddenly we have a political split in Titan. Not everyone values the same things. We should tread carefuly if we choose to follow this line of thought.

castorcorvus, out

[Teege]

I'd encourage staying away from anything Religious or Politically based for that reason. I think it's a safe bet to go after more Humanitarian causes... homelessness, food shelves, natural disaster relief, etc.

Ed.: Fixed back to original comment.  I can edit other people's posts?!!  --uninventive

[uninventive]

I'd encourage staying away from anything Religious or Politically based for that reason. I think it's a safe bet to go after more Humanitarian causes... homelessness, food shelves, natural disaster relief, etc.

An oldie, but goodie: http://www.childsplaycharity.org/assets/downloads/childsplay_fundraising_guide.pdf
Quick, simple, won't have to work through a middle-man-- using ChipIn we can gauge the total run without owing the IRS.

I'll look up others later.  Now I'm late for school.

Final Thought: I want to flip this script... We're not losing an NCSoft game; NCSoft is losing us as a community.  THIS is what they're shutting out.

[Teege]

Yeah how -did- you edit my post? I call hax!

[uninventive]

Yeah how -did- you edit my post? I call hax!

I guess the OP can edit replies or something.  I have no idea.

[DrakeGrimm]

Thread starter can do that, yes.

[castorcorvus]

I'd encourage staying away from anything Religious or Politically based for that reason. I think it's a safe bet to go after more Humanitarian causes... homelessness, food shelves, natural disaster relief, etc.

This is what I'm talking about, but I'd say that something that a person has absolutly no control over would be the best way to avoid stepping on toes. Cancer is a very good one and it is something that every human on Earth risks a run in with. You could say that it is our Nemisis! lol

[Soundtrack]

Are we considering making donations to (as the thread title suggests) "keep people's attention" or are we going to give to charity for charity's sake?

I just don't feel I could support a cause of "Hey...let's give our usual $15/month to some homeless people and if/when we get our game back up... we can get that $15 and put back into the game!"

Don't get me wrong... I think giving to a worthy cause is well, worthy.

I guess I just hope that people would find a cause and give to the cause without ulterior motives (and yes, I feel that "Let's give money for the publicity" is an ulterior motive.)

I certainly don't mean to come across as "holier than thou" (trust me when I say I am flawed in so many ways I lost count! )... I just mean that people should give for giving's sake.

(And I don't mean to judge others (and I apologize if this came across that way)... heck, the fact that people want to give to a cause is great! I guess I just wish it would "stick" even after the game is purchased/created/whatever.   )

[castorcorvus]

Are we considering making donations to (as the thread title suggests) "keep people's attention" or are we going to give to charity for charity's sake?

I just don't feel I could support a cause of "Hey...let's give our usual $15/month to some homeless people and if/when we get our game back up... we can get that $15 and put back into the game!"

Don't get me wrong... I think giving to a worthy cause is well, worthy.

I guess I just hope that people would find a cause and give to the cause without ulterior motives (and yes, I feel that "Let's give money for the publicity" is an ulterior motive.)

I certainly don't mean to come across as "holier than thou" (trust me when I say I am flawed in so many ways I lost count! )... I just mean that people should give for giving's sake.

(And I don't mean to judge others (and I apologize if this came across that way)... heck, the fact that people want to give to a cause is great! I guess I just wish it would "stick" even after the game is purchased/created/whatever.   )

I understand your mindset, but we are just looking at this objectively. We all have tight funds, CoH offered an escape. Now NCsoft, in an act of selfishness is trying to kill the game, not even trying to sell it and make some happy customers. We are fighting selfishness with selflessness.

castorcorvus, out.

[Soundtrack]

I completely understand and I was just thinking I'll most likely dedicate the $60 that NCSoft owes me to some cause to further our cause.

[Cococabana]

There's another opportunity that provides visibility to our efforts, requires little effort or cost to participate in, and produces real results.

The World Community Grid (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org) is a multinational grid computing project sponsored by IBM. The WCG hosts research projects for clean water initiatives, clean energy development, children's cancer, diseases and more. Here's how it works:

• To start, you register, then download and install a small program or "agent" onto your computer.
• When idle, your computer will request data on a specific project from World Community Grid's server. It will then perform computations on this data, send the results back to the server, and ask the server for a new piece of work. Each computation that your computer performs provides scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of research.

The WCG launched in 2004 (The same year as City of Heroes... Coincidence?) . According to Wikipedia, as of this month it has over 600,000 registered users.

Here's how it works for us:

Visibility: Participants can form teams to compete in events, trying to rack up research points within a time limit. We could create our own "Paragon City Heroes" team. This could make a great story on for CNN's iStories, or as an online press release.

Little Effort & Low-Low-LOW Cost: You can set up an account and install the client in 10 minutes. Cost wise, your only expense is the electricity your computer is using.

Results: Charities are great, but the problem with them is they cost money to run. Unfortunately, a portion (and sometimes it's a large portion) of the money they collect goes to simply keeping the lights on, paying for administrative and marketing costs.

But with WCG, 100% of what you're contributing in power and processor time is being used as intended - it's all going to crunch numbers and develop meaningful, actionable research.

One final thought-

We all should be aware that our efforts to save CoH may be for naught. We may not succeed. But the spirit of the game, and its community, could continue on the World Community Grid, in the form of a giant team of real-life heroes, on a long-term Task Force to fight real problems and truly make the world a better place.

What better tribute could there be to the game, its developers and its community?

[Teege]

Now that is awesome. Count me in!

[dwturducken]

Even heroes need help

DJ Amethyst and DJ Nexus are close to being homeless.  Please help your fellow CoXers if you are able.

You want to do something like that, here is a good cause.  And it's for people in the community we're fighting for.

[DrakeGrimm]

You want to do something like that, here is a good cause.  And it's for people in the community we're fighting for.

Please do!

*laments being too po' to help* u.u

[dwturducken]

Please do!

*laments being too po' to help* u.u

I'm giving my wife until the end of the week to "let" me before I go into her purse and get her card.  I have money coming that is taking longer than it should, or I would have given, already.

If I'm not mistaken, one could theoretically order foodstuffs thru Amazon?

[Cococabana]

OK - I did it.  Meet the newest team on the World Community Grid, the Paragon City Heroes!

So now - JOIN THE TEAM! Visit http://www.worldcommunitygrid.com, set up an account (use your hero or villains name!) and download the agent. That'll take just a few minutes to set up. When you're good to go, open your profile, in the left-hand navigator, you should see a Teams option. Click that, there should be a Join or Find Team option, then look up Paragon City Heroes. I'll be there, using the name of my first CoH character, von Stroheim.

Our first challenge kicks off on September 25th and runs through September 27th.  It's an "All Projects" challenge, so we'll be contributing to all the research projects on the World Community Grid, which includes study initiatives for Sustainable Water, Malaria, AIDs, Children's Cancer, Muscular Dystrophy and more.

We're going to need a lot of members to properly compete with other teams - but a lot of people love CoH. These research projects will contribute to making the world a much better place, and our actions will send a message to NCSoft about just what a great game CoH is, the dedication of its players, and the positive impact it can generate.

I'll set up a web page for the team in the near future (maybe this weekend, if I get the chance). I think it would be cool if we had a member page with a name and headshot of all the team members' CoH characters. If we can get a full page of members, that would be a hell of a screenshot to send to Massively, along with a great story.

Any thoughts or suggestions - I'd love to hear them.

Following is a list of all the research projects running on the World Community Grid

• Computing for Sustainable Water
• Say No to Schistosoma
• GO Fight Against Malaria
• Drug Search for Leishmaniasis
• Computing for Clean Water
• The Clean Energy Project - Phase 2
• Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together - Phase 2
• Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy - Phase 2
• Help Fight Childhood Cancer
• Help Conquer Cancer
• Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2
• FightAIDS@Home

[Maressa]

I had hoped to keep this secret until the end of the week but with the recent news and the attention here I suppose I will start the rumor mill a bit early. TonyV and I are going be announcing a charity event this weekend at the second Positron's Ally event. I really don't want to share any more than that right now as we're still working out details.

[eabrace]

Thread starter can do that, yes.

I had no idea that was possible.

[Vulpy]

OK - I did it.  Meet the newest team on the World Community Grid, the Paragon City Heroes!

I already run folding@home on my PS3--and on my computer when I remember that it's there--so I'm familiar with the concept. Count me in.

I mean...

You have my unused processor cycles!

[Ultraviolets]

Hi all, I'm not sure if anyone setting up a charity already has done this, but for drives organized by a cause, it's important to talk about this with the charity first. When the Retake Mass Effect movement raised money for charity, after tens of thousands of dollars were raised, Penny Arcade closed their doors for any new donations for two reasons. One was that certain individuals thought the donations were paying for a new ending, not to bring awareness to the Retake Mass Effect cause. A couple of people demanded a refund from Child's Play when they realized they weren't directly buying a new ending with their donation. This was probably one of the biggest pieces of ammunition the people against Retake Mass Effect had against the charity drive and it did tarnish the cause. The other reason Penny Arcade gave was that they did not want to have their named attached to a cause as if they officially endorsed it by collaboration.

I love the idea of a charity drive, with the SaveCoH name on it or for no other reason than to just give! If this is done with the intention to draw attention to SaveCoH, however, well...I was involved with some of the Retake Mass Effect activities (charity drive yes, cupcakes unfortunately no) and this was one of the lessons learned from the event. Discussing possibilities with the charity should make the process of setting up the drive run that much smoothly [I'll edit that statement to be more coherent later], if this hasn't already been thought of and done.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/retake-mass-effect-childs-play-fundraiser-stopped-6367778

[uninventive]

I had hoped to keep this secret until the end of the week but with the recent news and the attention here I suppose I will start the rumor mill a bit early. TonyV and I are going be announcing a charity event this weekend at the second Positron's Ally event. I really don't want to share any more than that right now as we're still working out details.

Consider me on board... well, to contribute funds, not to interfere with whatever plans are present.

I had no idea that was possible.

I know, right?

[Teege]

I had hoped to keep this secret until the end of the week but with the recent news and the attention here I suppose I will start the rumor mill a bit early. TonyV and I are going be announcing a charity event this weekend at the second Positron's Ally event. I really don't want to share any more than that right now as we're still working out details.

I didn't see anything regarding this. Did I miss the announcement or is it still in the works?

[uninventive]

I didn't see anything regarding this. Did I miss the announcement or is it still in the works?

Guessing when it's ready, it'll be stickied to this board with a "Call to action:" prefix on it.

[Knightward]

You have my wallet!