You know folks, I'm sorry some people are upset that they "just found out" about the Supporters Forum. We announced it when we created it (yup, the Announcement is still there in the Announcements forum), as one small way of saying "Thank you" to anyone and everyone who really goes the extra mile in this community and helps out in some quantifiable way. It started with the poetry book, and has blossomed to include both monetary donations to other members and to people who reach a certain posting level (ostensibly because they've been so "supportive" of others, hence the name). We don't have a whole of lot of ways we can give members something special for helping out, and that was one of the most obvious (and is used in a similar fashion in many online communities).

Now, I agree, we don't do a very good job of letting new members know about this forum, since it is private, and donation fund drives don't come up too often (we try and not do more than 6 or 7 a year).

The donation fund drives came up because members sometimes find themselves in dire straights out-of-the-blue. We screen members who ask for financial assistance, and try to make sure their story checks out as much as we can, but ultimately we are trusting of others. Why do we get involved in this manner? Because members came to us and asked us to, because of another member's need and wanting to get money to them quickly, but not wanting to get directly involved for privacy or other reasons.

So while I do honestly appreciate the difference of opinion, I'm not sure how this affects any member not interested in donating to another member (simply don't, it's not required and only a tiny, tiny percentage of members actually do). Just ignore the occasional fund raising drives and use the forums for what you came here to use them for -- support.

We're a living, breathing, whole community here, and in my mind, that always means helping one another out when they're down. Yes, we do that everyday emotionally. But since we have the means (e.g., the many can help out the few), it also means helping out as much as we can with additional needs when we can, such as financial. I agree, it may not make much sense if you just found us and think we're just like any other self-help support forum online. But if stay here long enough, you'll see we try hard to be more than just another forum...

Best,
DocJohn